As I just recently mentioned my friend Mike has built his very own Hackintosh. Having written a guest post here on toonice4TV before, I asked if he would kindly put together his thoughts on his experience from purchase through a couple weeks of testing. Enjoy the post as it takes you through his entire process. Here is what Mike has to say about his very own Hackintosh.

Ive read various posts about users installing OS X on a pc for some time, I remember all the buzz when Apple first decided to start using Intel chips a few years back. Always curious if it was possible for an everyday guy to complete the set up I waited and waited till a simplified way finally came out.

Back in November I read How To Build a Hackintosh for under $800 and was struck at how simply it was for users to order and build a solid Hacked Mac. After saving up some money I was finally ready to order the parts myself and try it. Then just a few days later a new entry on Lifehacker dubbed Install OS X on your Hackintosh with No Hacking Required came out and explained how to install OS with having to patch any of the files that you would have had to do in the past. Since im not too savy when it comes to installing patches and playing with BIOS settings this article finally made me feel at ease with building and setting up my hackintosh from scratch.

So I was ready to go and then Apple came out with its 10.5.2 update and I wanted to wait a few more days to make sure that everything was running smoothly and all the parts I wanted to order were compatible. When everything looked money I was ready to hit up new egg with my credit card. Here is a list of all the parts I ordered, I followed a similar approach to the set up in lifehacker except I decided to upgrade a few key parts (attached is jpg with more details and the prices I got them for)

-ANUS P5W Deluxe motherboard

-WD Raptor, 74GB, 10k RPM

-GeForce 8800GT Video Card

-Intel Core2 Quad 2.4ghz

-Antec P182 Gun Metal Black Case

-Antec Earthwatts 500W power Supply

-Lite-On 20x DVD-R Burner

-G.Skill 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM 800.

These were the essential parts I ordered to start my Hackintosh. I upgraded a few parts for the following reasons. The P5W motherboard seemed to be most popular among other hackintosh builders and it seemed compatible with all the parts I was ordering. I defiantly wanted a Raptor in Mac because its fast as hell, after having a 5400 in my mac book pro, the speed difference is insane. I decided on an upgrade on the video card as well because I often use dual display as well as play lots of HD material.

So the set up was very easy. If you have ever assembled a computer before this should be a problem. One thing that you will need to do is search insanelymac for directions and parts compatibility before you start. Click Here.

After downloading and installing the OS everything seemed good, except I had no audio and my wireless wasn’t working. After searching the forums of insanelymac I quickly found a solution to fix my audio (had to change a setting in my bios). I still have not found a way to fix my wireless but I haven’t really tried since I have it hard lined.

After 2 weeks everything is still running smoothly and I have no problems, I recently ran Xbench and received a score of 167, which is great compared to the 110 of my MBP.

I have to say that some applications really get to shine with my new setup, I use Adobe Bridge and Photoshop everyday and this machine really screams through files and rendering.

The closest configuration I could get on the Apple store was $3,049.00 . Total coast for my set up, $1,194.00. Yeah I know pretty sick! Pictures are up next.

Thanks for the post, Mike. Very in depth on your experience. I’ve had the chance to play with this machine myself and it is amazing. He will be providing pictures from inside the box itself once he gets through his move. Amazingly, it actually outperforms my MacPro at this point which is a beast itself. If you feel confident in following the steps to build your own Hackintosh or know someone that could do it for you, go for it! The price difference makes it worth it in my opinion.

Will you be building your own Hackintosh?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Apple, How-To, Technology, Workflow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.