My friend and business partner Dave has been in need of a new computer. At work, he uses a passable all-in-one system; at home he only has access to an underpowered laptop. As the CEO of a dynamic cutting-edge web startup, he should undoubtedly be running more becoming hardware. Haim and I endeavored to build him a worthy machine, but there was just one issue:
There was a solution to the conundrum: Hackintosh. A "Hackintosh" is a computer built with standard off-the-shelf "PC" parts that can run Mac OS X. It's a great DIY project for techies who want to make use of Apple's operating system but don't want to buy pricey proprietary hardware.
What does this mean? In concrete terms, I was able to build a machine roughly on par with a $3200 Mac Pro for less than a third of the price. Here's how!
The most crucial aspect of any build is part selection, and in this scenario it's even more important than usual. You can, in theory, install OS X on any Intel-based motherboard. Some boards make it easier than others; many boards make the process nothing short of hellish.
It helps to read up on specific hardware compatibility in places like OSx86 Project and tonymac86x. These communities brought a handy installation tool called Kakewalk to my attention, and it quickly became the focal point of my build. To install OS X, you must jump through a few hoops: first, you need to run a bootloader to fake the OS installer into thinking it's being run on a Mac; then you need to install "kexts" ( kernel extensions ) to provide the device drivers that allow OS X to operate your system's components; last you need to install a custom boot loader that will provide a more permanent method for starting up your machine. Kakewalk is nice because it attempts to take care of this whole process for you.
Gigabyte is the current community-favorite manufacturer of Hackintosh-friendly motherboards, and Kakewalk supports several of their boards directly. After consulting with multiple compatibility lists, I ended up with the following parts list:
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R LGA 1366
CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Quad-Core 3.06GHz LGA 1366
RAM: Corsair 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1GB
Case: Antec Three Hundred ATX
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W
Optical drive: Generic SATA DVD drive
That all adds up to a capable setup for both work and gaming. Later in this post you'll see which parts ended up being mis-selections!
After assembling the hardware, I used Kellbot's Macbook Air to prepare Kakewalk with an OS X installation disc ( a USB DVD burner was used due to the Air's drive scarcity ). The instructions provided with Kakewalk are detailed and provide almost all of the necessary steps, from BIOS adjustment to drive formatting specifics. You'll need a USB flash drive with a capacity of at least 8GB on which to load the bootable installer.
I hit a snag while attempting to boot to the OS installer: the system would crash and display an error message stating "You need to restart your computer". After consulting the wealth of information posted by the Hackintosh community, I realized that the issue was being caused by my video card: it wasn't fully supported by Kakewalk. Since I had another machine to vampire parts from, I swapped the 460 GTX out for an 8800 GTS and the boot proceded normally.
OS X was successfully installed, but it lacked audio, ethernet, and optical drive functionality. After lots of experimentation and research, I discovered that my second-revision X58A-UD3R motherboard worked better if I configured Kakewalk as if it was installing on a X58A-UD7. I started again from the beginning, and this time audio worked on boot and ethernet came with a handy kext.
The SATA optical drive still didn't want to play ball, so I tried swapping it out with an IDE drive and it worked immediately. At this point, I declared victory.
It's big, it's powerful, and it didn't come from anywhere remotely near Cupertino.
We can see that the processor and RAM are recognized and running at the correct speed.
Of course, you don't really know if it works until you play Starcraft on it.
One of the main reasons I've been historically uninterested in Macs is that they do their best to separate the human from the hardware. They're sold as fully complete self-contained systems, warding users away from making any attempt at understanding what makes them tick. After building one from the ground up, I now feel a greater sense of understanding and ownership towards the platform. This is the kind of Mac I'd be excited to use: one I've built myself.
