Hackintosh Build

[fuzz092888]

So long story short, I needed a new project and wanted a desktop so I could stop moving my laptop around so much. Plus I may install Kodi and a bunch of 4TB HDD's later on and call it an HTPC as well. In any case, I wanted to stay with OSX, but didn't want the awful, overpriced hardware that is quickly becoming stock or nothing so I wandered over to lifehacker and voila. They pointed me right towards the Hackintosh. A build it yourself (supposedly) OSX compatible system with just enough wiggle room to allow parts to be replaced and upgraded later on.

I used tonymacx86 to gather a parts list and then pcpartpicker to figure out where I could get the best prices for what I needed. The upside is that I saved about $200 ordering from different places, but the downside is that everything is getting here on different days and in random order. Oh well. The rest of the parts should be here by Friday. The PS is the only thing I'm worried about since that's coming from NY, but it should get sorted out soon enough.

Today marked the first arrival of parts:

Arctic Silver thermal compound
Corsair Carbide 500R
MSI NVIDIA GTX760 2GB GDDR5

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Nice clean case. Me likely. I see that you didn't skipped the video card

 

[fuzz092888]

Nice clean case. Me likely. I see that you didn't skipped the video card

Yea, I asked over at the other site and a guy said it should work, but his uncertainty didn't leave me feeling very good about his answer so I just went ahead with the system as recommended.

The majority of the parts should be here tomorrow, the CPU and cooler on Friday, and the PS is a big unknown. If I don't hear anything by tomorrow morning, I may just order one from amazon to be sure it gets here by Friday and then just return whichever arrives last.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Yea, I asked over at the other site and a guy said it should work, but his uncertainty didn't leave me feeling very good about his answer so I just went ahead with the system as recommended.

The majority of the parts should be here tomorrow, the CPU and cooler on Friday, and the PS is a big unknown. If I don't hear anything by tomorrow morning, I may just order one from amazon to be sure it gets here by Friday and then just return whichever arrives last.

Which PSU did you ordered? Hopefully nothing over 500W

 

[fuzz092888]

Which PSU did you ordered? Hopefully nothing over 500W

Tonymac parts list had the Corsair RM650, but the 750 was the same price so I ended up ordering that. Sooo yea, I guess over 500w

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Well, with overcloak you might need extra oomph

 

[fuzz092888]

Well, with overcloak you might need extra oomph

We shall see. With the extra drives I plan on adding a little later on my power requirements with no overclocking are around 400w according to PCpartpicker. Without those extra drives I'm closer to 355, not including the peripherals drawing USB power.

 

[fuzz092888]

UPS tracking has the PS hung up in Philly so I ended up ordering one through Amazon. So I should have at least one of them by Friday.

 

[Adam]

Hey, Fuzz. I look forward to what you think of the build once your done! I'm more a fan of Apple hardware than software, as I like the smaller form factors and build quality.

 

[fuzz092888]

Hey, Fuzz. I look forward to what you think of the build once your done! I'm more a fan of Apple hardware than software, as I like the smaller form factors and build quality.

I've always been a fan of the apple styling as well along with the reliability. However, I'm quickly becoming disenchanted with the direction they're taking on the hardware side. The lack of user upgrade-able parts and the fact that newer models aren't really repairable whatsoever leaves me disappointed. Obviously consumers have voted with their wallets and told apple that these things aren't important to them, but I'd still like to have all that stuff. Plus it provides a measure of future proofing if you can swap parts out.

On top of that, with the welded parts, especially the display's fused to the glass, their products are no longer green and recyclable. All of these together led me to building a hackintosh rather than buying a mac mini or an older model mac pro. Too much money for something that's already almost outdated for the former and too much money for something that is definitely outdated for the latter.

 

[slipperybidness]

I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Are there some tricks / hoops that you have to deal with to get Apple OS going on a rig like this?

Man, I haven't heard the term "hackintosh" in many years!

 

[fuzz092888]

I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Are there some tricks / hoops that you have to deal with to get Apple OS going on a rig like this?

Man, I haven't heard the term "hackintosh" in many years!

There are indeed. You need two extra programs as well as someone who already has a mac so you can download yosemite.

So there aren't a ton of hoops, but there are enough small steps that if you've never done this before (ie me) there's potential to mess something up.

 

[fuzz092888]

A few more things showed up today. PS tomorrow. CPU and cooler should be here Friday.

 

[Adam]

250GB hard drive?! Cheapskate.

 

[fuzz092888]

250GB hard drive?! Cheapskate.

The SSD is for the OS and basic programs only ya Dingus.

Once I verify it all works there will be a few 4TB drives installed. Right now I'm only getting what I need to make it work. After it works I can start adding some bells and whistles.

 

[jcparks]

Crucial low profile ram, and a Gigabyte Mobo. I picked the same thing for my build and it has served me very well. Only 8 gigs though?? Is OSX less demanding on resources then Windows??
What CPU did you end up with? Socket 1150 tells me haswell. Your build seems very similar to mine, you will have to let me know how it turns out... I could possibly pull out my 60 gig SSD and use it as an OSX boot drive if you have a good experience. Would be fun to tinker with if nothing else...

 

[fuzz092888]

Crucial low profile ram, and a Gigabyte Mobo. I picked the same thing for my build and it has served me very well. Only 8 gigs though?? Is OSX less demanding on resources then Windows??
What CPU did you end up with? Socket 1150 tells me haswell. Your build seems very similar to mine, you will have to let me know how it turns out... I could possibly pull out my 60 gig SSD and use it as an OSX boot drive if you have a good experience. Would be fun to tinker with if nothing else...

My laptop has 16GB's and I don't ever seem to push it to the brink so I'm going to start with 8 and I have two more slots so I can easily go to 16GB. At this point I doubt I'll need more than 16 and may not need more than 8. I also don't want to invest more in this build than I have to until I get it working.

I ended up with an intel i5-4690k Devil's Canyon 3.5Ghz. I wasn't sure the extra $100 was worth it to go for the i7 for my uses. With overclocking I think the i5 will be fine. If not, I can always swap out later on, which is part of the whole reason for this build.

CPU and CPU cooler should be here tomorrow and I can finally start assembly.....or attempted assembly I should say.

 

[fuzz092888]

PS arrived today

 

[jcparks]

Physical assembly is easy and it all else fails you have a super capable windows or linux box...
How hard are updates and such once you get OSX running? Are you going to buy a snow leopard DVD and update to Yosemite? or are you installing from another mac?
I'm seriously eyeing a Snow Leopard DVD right now to put on my spare SSD... I'm going to wait to see your results first though.

 

[fuzz092888]

Supposedly if you can get the two programs and OSX functioning correctly, it'll update normally and automatically like any other mac. My laptop is a macbook pro so I have a download of OSX Yosemite 10.10.1 that I'll be using. I wouldn't get a snow leopard disc if you have to pay for it. Send someone, or me, a blank USB and just have them put yosemite on it for free.