How to Build a Hackintosh Mini for a Less Expensive, Faster Mac

Adam Dachis — We've shown you how to build a Hackintosh with enough power to rival a Mac Pro, but for those of you who want a still powerful Mac on a budget you can build a Hack Mini. We'll show you what you need to build it and walk you through the entire OS X installation.

Hackintoshing used to be a complicated process, but since Hackintosh expert tonymacx86 came around it's gotten a lot easier. While I've been hackintoshing netbooks for awhile, I always shied away from building a machine because I was concerned about stability issues. After seeing how well Pash's and Whitson's Hackintoshes ran, and seeing how slow my less-than-a-year-old iMac had become, I decided it was time to do it. I've had one week with the Hack Mini and so far it's actually more stable than my iMac. It's also twice as fast (according to benchmarks) and cost half as much (if you already have an extra monitor). The whole process was very easy and produced a better machine. While I had Whitson around to help me out, if you have some knowledge of how to build a computer this is likely something you can do. I am still surprised that the process was so easy and that the machine is so fast for so little money. Now it seems silly to ever buy a Mac desktop again.

What You'll Need

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At the time of this writing, the parts necessary for this build came to a total of $599.65. There are certainly other, potentially cheaper components you could use to make your Hack Mini but we know this build works. It's heavily based upon TonyMac's CustoMac Mini build, using only a few parts that are a little different (but work all the same). We built this one ourselves, adding a few extras like an SSD (which is optional, to keep the build under $600), and it runs beautifully. Here's what you'll need:

• Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Motherboard $104.99
• Intel Core i3 Processor i3-540 3.06GHz 4MB LGA1156 CPU $110.00
• ZOTAC nVidia GeForce GT240 512 MB DDR3 DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card $84.99
• 2x2GB Corsair PC3-10666 1333Mhz Dual Chanel 240-pin DDR3 Desktop RAM $43.99
• Western Digital 1TB SATA III 7200 RPM 32MB Cache Desktop Hard Drive $59.99
• SilverStone SG05BB-450 ALL Black Plastic/SECC Mini-ITX Computer Case with SFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified/Single +12V rail Power Supply $119.99
• Sony Optiarc 8X SATA DVD+/-RW Slim Drive $34.99
• StarTech.com MCSATAADAP Micro SATA to SATA Adapter Cable with Power $11.71
• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard $29.00
• OPTIONAL: OCZ Agility 120GB SSD $199.99 (note: this is optional and not included in the total cost of the machine)

Note: If you're like me and don't need an optical drive, don't try to build this machine without one. You need an internal optical drive or you will not be able to complete the entire process.

Another note: The VGA port on your video card isn't going to work. DVI and HDMI will work just fine, but don't plug anything in to the VGA port or you will be disappointed.

Total cost: $599.65

Once you've got all the hardware in hand, you'll need to assemble your computer. Building a Hackintosh isn't any different than building a regular PC. You'll need to mount the motherboard to your case, install all the components listed above, and plug in all the necessary cables. If you're not sure of anything, read the manual for the motherboard. It's worth noting that the GA-H55N (the motherboard used in this build) uses some less-than-usual names when labeling everything, but you won't have any trouble figuring out what's what. If you're new(-ish) to the computer building process, have a look at our guide to building a computer from scratch.

Once you've finished putting it all together, turn on the machine and make sure you see your BIOS screen, which will include its firmware version (3, 4, or 5). Write down the firmware version now. You will need it later. If everything looks good, it's time to start hackintoshing.

Installing Mac OS X 10.6

Now we need to install OS X, which is where things get a little trickier and much more specific. Read these instructions carefully and follow them in the exact order they are written. If you do something out of order you may have to start again from scratch. With that in mind, here's what you're going to need for a successful installation:

• A Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Install DVD (the same one you'd buy from Apple for a real Mac)
• iBoot (which you get from tonymacx86, but you'll need to register for the forums in order to download it)
• MultiBeast 3.1.0 or later (also from tonymacx86, and also requires forum registration for download)
• Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update (direct download from Apple)
• Lnx2Mac's Realtek 81XX Installer (so your Ethernet card will work)
• The relevant DSDT file for the GA-H55N motherboard

To get the DSDT file you need, go here and choose the following from the "Choose your Motherboard" drop-down menu:

• Gigabyte
• Socket 1156
• H55
• GA-H55N-USB3

From there you'll see options for F3, F4, and F5. These numbers correspond to the firmware versions on your motherboard. Assuming you did, indeed, write down the firmware version in your BIOS when you test-booted the machine earlier, you'll know which one of these options to pick. If not, test boot again and look for the firmware version on the BIOS boot screen. It's most likely F5, but don't guess. Guessing wrong means your Hackintosh will not work properly.

Prep Your Tools

First, take the iBoot.iso image you downloaded and burn it to a CD. It has to run on a CD. It will not work from a thumb drive. You can also burn a CD with MultiBeast, Lnx2Mac's Realtek driver installer, and the DSDT file you just downloaded, but I prefer to just toss all of these files on a Mac-friendly thumb drive.

Once all of that's ready, insert your iBoot CD and plug in your USB thumb drive (or external optical drive with the Snow Leopard install DVD inside). Also plug a USB keyboard into one of the frontside USB ports on your Hack Mini. (While the ports in the back should work during boot time they didn't for me, but there were no issues with the ones up front.) Next, turn on your Hack Mini and hold the delete key while it boots. This will let you edit your BIOS settings and select a boot order. Once the edit screen loads, follow these steps:

1. Choose "Advanced BIOS Settings."
2. If "Quick Boot" is enabled, disable it.
3. Set the "First Boot Device" to CDROM.
4. Set the "Second Boot Device" to Hard Disk. (The third can be set to whatever you want.)
5. If you have more than one hard drive installed, go up to "Hard Disk Boot Priority" and hit enter. Make certain that the hard disk you're going to use for Mac OS X is up at the top. If not, move it to the top by selecting it with the arrow keys and pressing the Page Up key until it gets there. Note: this is just for hard disks—your optical drive is still first on the list from the change you made earlier.
6. Press the escape key until you get to the main BIOS settings page (where you started).
7. Press F10 to save your changes. You'll be asked if you're sure you want to do this. Type Y if there isn't already a Y typed for you and press enter.

If you haven't already inserted your iBoot disc into your optical drive, now's that time to do it. Your Hack Mini should now (slowly) boot using iBoot and provide you with any startup discs it sees. What you'll need to do now is eject the iBoot disc, insert your Snow Leopard DVD, and boot from it (by selecting it, if necessary, and pressing enter). You should now see the grey Apple boot screen and, soon, the OS X installer.

Run the OS X installation just like you would on any other Mac. In order to do this, you may need to format your internal hard drive first. If you do, just open the Utilities menu and choose Disk Utility. You'll be able to format your hard drive (or SSD) from there.

Once the installer finishes it may say it failed to install OS X. This did not happen with me but it's a common quirk with Hackintosh installations. If it happens to you, don't panic—everything is just fine. Go ahead and restart your machine and leave your iBoot CD in the optical drive. When you boot this time, you'll have a new option: your hard drive. Boot from it and you'll be on your new OS X desktop in minutes.

Configure Your New Hack Mini

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You've installed OS X just fine, but your machine still needs drivers to work properly and a bootloader to boot without the aid of a CD. To do that, you're going to need to install a few things and it needs to be done in a very specific order. If you stray from this order there's a good chance you'll run into problems, so follow these instructions carefully.

Note: It may look like things are missing here, as we're not checking any boxes to install bootloaders or graphics drives, but don't worry—MultiBeast will take care of it all for you.

1. Copy the DSDT file you downloaded to the desktop.
2. Open up MultiBeast and Lnx2Mac's Realtek driver installer but do not install anything
3. Open the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Installer and run it. When it finishes, do not restart.
4. With MultiBeast open, choose check the following boxes:
   • UserDSDT Install
   • System Utilities
   • Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Audio -> Realtek ALC8xx -> ALC8xxHDA
   • Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Audio -> Realtek ALC8xx -> AppleHDA Rollback
   • Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Disk -> JMicron36x (AKA GSATA) -> JMicron36x SATA
   • Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Miscellaneous -> FakeSMC Plugins
   • Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Miscellaneous -> USB 3.0 - NEC/Renesas
   • Anything in the OSx86 Software category you want to install (but none of it is required)
5. Click the Install button on MultiBeast and wait for the installer to finish.
6. Install Lnx2Mac's Realtek 81XX driver (make sure you check the release version and not the debug version during installation).
7. Eject the iBoot CD and click the Restart button on your Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update's installer window.
8. Make sure your sound and Ethernet are working. If not, you may have done something wrong and will need to run MultiBeast again to install those drivers. Once you've got all of that working, there's one last thing to do.
9. Re-run MultiBeast and select just one option: Customization -> Boot Options -> 64-Bit Apple Boot Screen. This will make your graphic's card run at full capacity, utilize OS X's 64-bit capabilities, and a bunch of other little nice enhancements as well. Once you've installed this option, reboot and you're done.

The only thing that won't work after a successful installation is HDMI audio, but there is a way to get this working. Tonymacx86 has posted a process to get functional HDMI audio on most Hackintoshes, including this one. Since it isn't vital we're not going to cover it here, but if HDMI audio is important to you then you will want to read those instructions.

Congratulations, you now have your very own Hack Mini!

The Future

The nice thing about putting together this Hack Mini right now is that you'll end up with OS X 10.6.8—likely the final update to Snow Leopard. This means that so long as you stick with Snow Leopard your machine will run fine. If you want to update to Lion in the future, keep an eye on tonymacx86.com for updates. We'll also be building a Lion-based machine later this Summer, so stay tuned.

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter and Facebook. Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

via lifehacker.com

Posted via email from ://allthings-bare

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps [Video]

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps

Building a Hackintosh from scratch—that is, installing Mac OS X on non-Mac hardware—has never been easier, and the final product has never performed better. Here's how it works.

Note: This is our third and most recent Hackintosh build (here are the now-outdated first and second). This time, to make things really easy on you, we put together a video walkthrough of the entire process. You can watch the video in its entirety below, but we've also broken up the video next to the accompanying text in each step below.

The Full Step by Step in Video Form

NOTE: YouTube's being finicky about the privacy of these videos (they're public for some regions, still private for others), so our apologies if you can't see the video yet. You should be able to soon.

Background music by Pex "Mahoney" Tufvession.

What You'll Need

Before you get started building your Hackintosh, you will, of course, need a few supplies.

The Hardware

There's no such thing as a definitive Hackintosh build, and you can find plenty of hardware that will run OS X using this or a similar method, but we're not going to dive into every possible option here. Instead, I've put together a list of the hardware I'm using and that I can guarantee runs like a dream (or at least it does for me). Also, the installation process below is tailored to this hardware; you can still build a Hackintosh using other hardware, but this installation process may not work 100%.

Here's all the hardware I bought off Newegg for this Hackintosh build:

• Antec Sonata III Case with 500W Power Supply
• ASUS P7P55D-E Pro ATX Intel Motherboard
• EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 01G-P3-N959-TR Video Card
• Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB); the amount of RAM you choose is optional.
• OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX120G 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD): This SSD isn't necessary, but in our opinion, SSDs are one of the best upgrades you can make. Also note: You won't want to use any old SSD; OS X doesn't support TRIM, but this drive has TRIM built into the controller.
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• LITE-ON DVD Writer - Bulk - Black SATA Model iHAS224-06 LightScribe Support

In all, the subtotal on Newegg for all that hardware is $1,123.92; skip the SSD and the second set of RAM, and you've still got a solid machine for an even more reasonable $828.92.

Once you've got all your hardware, you'll need to assemble your computer. Putting together the hardware for your Hackintosh is just like building any other computer from scratch. You mount the motherboard to your case, install your CPU, RAM, graphics card, storage and optical drive, and plug in all the necessary cables. It's always a good idea to read over your motherboard's instruction manual, but if you want a little more help, hit up our first-timer's guide to building a computer from scratch.

The only thing you need to know is that you shouldn't plug your SATA drives into the off-white SATA ports at the bottom of the board. All the rest should work fine.

The Software

On the software end of the spectrum, you'll need a few things. Apart from the obvious (the Snow Leopard install DVD), you'll need to download somes files that'll contain the tools that let you install OS X on your machine. The method I'm using to install OS X on our Hackintosh this time around is a new one by a guy called tonymacx86, and it's really great. I've added direct links to the downloads below, but all credit goes to tonymac for the dead-simple tools.

• A Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD (which you can buy from Apple)
• MacOSXUpdateCombo10.6.4 package (free from Apple)
• iBoot (from tonymacx86; find the iBoot NVIDIA download link on this post below step two)
• MultiBeast (also from tonymacx86; find the MultiBeast download link on this page below step three)
• Other post-installation files

To make things really easy, you can download the whole shebang (minus the OS X combo update) via BitTorrent here.

I'd suggest downloading everything you need now, and putting MultiBeast, the Mac OS X Combo update, and the post-installation files on a thumb drive.

Install OS X on Your Hackintosh

At this point you should have assembled your PC, and have all the software you'll need install OS X on your Hackintosh. Now it's time for the fun—and easy—part. The process this time around is surprisingly simple, but I'll still walk you through the process step by step.

Step One: Burn iBoot to a Disc

Above I told you to download iBoot from tonymacx86. If you haven't already, unzip iBoot.zip and extract iBoot.iso. Now it's time to burn the file to a CD or DVD. (It's a small bootloader, so a CD will work just fine.)

In Windows: Insert a blank disc, right-click iBoot.iso, and click Burn disc image. Select your disc burner in the next Windows prompt, and hit Burn.

On OS X: Insert a blank disc, right-click iBoot.iso, and click Burn "iBoot.iso" to Disc.

Burning the disc shouldn't take more than a minute or so, and iBoot should be ready to go.

Step Two: Adjust Your BIOS

Now that you've got the iBoot disc ready, it's time to turn on your soon-to-be-Hackintosh and adjust the BIOS so your computer's OS X-friendly. So make sure you've plugged in a keyboard, monitor, and power, and fire it up.

Note: At the time of this guide, I'm using the latest BIOS for this motherboard: P7P55D-E-PRO-ASUS-1002.ROM.

When you get to the first boot screen, press the Delete key to open up your BIOS. Once inside, you'll need to make a few adjustments.

1. On the first BIOS screen, arrow down to the entry labeled Storage Configuration, hit Enter, and change "Configure SATA as" to AHCI. Press Escape once.
2. Next, arrow over to the Advanced tab, then arrow down to the section labeled Onboard Devices Configuration. Hit Enter, find the Marvell 9123 SATA Controller entry, and set it to AHCI. Press Escape.
3. Now arrow over to the Power section and set Suspend Mode to S3 only.
4. Finally, arrow over to the Boot tab, hit Enter on Boot Device Priority, and set your first boot device to boot first from your DVD drive, then set your second boot device as your primary hard drive.

Hit F10 to save your changes and exit the BIOS.

Step Three: Boot from iBoot into the Snow Leopard Install DVD

When your system restarts, put the iBoot disc you burned above into the DVD drive. Assuming you set everything correctly in your BIOS, iBoot should boot into the screen below.

When you get to this screen, eject your iBoot disc, insert the Snow Leopard install DVD, and press F5 on your keyboard. In few seconds, the iBoot disc in the center should be replaced by a new disc labeled Mac OS X Install DVD. (If it doesn't right away, wait a few seconds and hit F5 again.) Once it does, hit Enter, and your computer will boot into the Snow Leopard installation wizard.

Step Four: Format Your Disk and Install OS X

After a minute or two of loading up, you should be looking at the Snow Leopard installation wizard. Select your language and continue. Before you get started with the installation, however, you'll need to format your hard drive so you can install OS X. So, from the file menu at the top of the screen, select Utilities -> Disk Utility.

Once Disk Utility loads, click on your hard drive in the sidebar and select the tab labeled Partition. Set the Volume Scheme drop-down to 1 Partition (unless you have a reason for wanting otherwise), name the volume whatever name you want, and set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Now click the Options button and ensure that GUID Partition Table is selected as the partition scheme.

Now that everything's set, hit Apply. When you're prompted for confirmation, click Partition.

In twenty seconds or so, your drive should be formatted and you'll be ready to install OS X. Quit Disk Utility, and continue with the installer.

The installation is completely straightforward, so just follow along with the default settings. When the installation finishes (the time will vary—it always claims it'll take 30+ minutes, but is normally done in 10 to 20), you'll most likely see the Install Failed screen pictured below.

Don't panic! This is all part of the process. Just click restart, put iBoot back in the drive, and this time, when your computer restarts, iBoot's Chameleon bootloader will give you the option to boot into your new installation. Select it and hit Enter.

Step Five: Update but Don't Restart

The first time OS X loads, you'll see Snow Leopard's fancy welcome video. Once that's done, OS X will walk you through the setup wizard, during which you'll enter in your username, location, etc. Just follow along.

Once you're finished with the setup, you're finally at your new Hackintosh desktop. Since you probably want to use the most up-to-date release, you'll want to update your Hackintosh before adding the finishing touches.

At the time of this writing, 10.6.4 is the most current release, so if you didn't already download the update package above (remember, we told you to put it on your thumb drive?), grab the MacOSXUpdateCombo10.6.4 package from Apple, double-click on the DMG, and run the installer.

When the combo update finishes, you'll be prompted to reboot. Don't reboot your computer—at least not yet. You've got one thing you need to do first.

Step Six: Run the MultiBeast Package

Remember the MultiBeast download from tonymacx86 that we grabbed earlier and stored on a thumb drive (along with other post installation files)? It's time to use it.

Make sure you've plugged your thumb drive into your Hackintosh (or just re-download the files if you forgot to save them to a thumb drive) and open MultiBeast. This tool will allow you to boot from your hard drive going forward, so you don't need to use iBoot every time you want to boot up OS X.

On the Install MultiBeast screen, tick the checkboxes next to EasyBeast and System Utilities, then click Continue. When the EasyBeast installation completes, eject the iBoot disc and restart your computer. Once you've rebooted, you've got one more step to go.

Step Seven: Copy Custom Kexts to Extra Folder, Manually Add Sound and Ethernet Kexts Using Kext Utility

Now it's time to use those other post-installation files you downloaded earlier. So dive into the folder named Post Install and open the folder named Extra/Extensions. In a separate Finder window, navigate to the /Extra/Extensions folder at the root of your drive (in Finder, you can just type Cmd+Shift+G, type /Extra/Extensions, and press Enter).

Now drag all the files from your thumb drive's Extra/Extensions folder into your hard drive's Extra/Extensions folder. Enter your password when prompted, and let Finder replace any files that already exist.

Finally, navigate back to the Post Install folder on your thumb drive. Inside you'll see three files: An app named Kext Utility and two kext files named VoodooHDA.kext and RealtekR1000SL.kext. Drag and drop VoodooHDA.kext onto Kext Utility (enter your password when prompted), and you'll see a window like the one above. Once it says Done, you can quit Kext Utility (click Cancel), and then this time drag and drop Realtek R1000SL.kext onto Kext Utility. (Basically this installs custom audio and ethernet extensions to your system so they work as you'd expect.)

Step Eight: Restart and Enjoy!

Now that you've updated and installed a few extensions customized to your hardware, you're ready to restart your computer, boot directly from your hard drive, and enjoy your new Hackintosh.

A Note on Performance and Other Loose Ends

I've been using this system for a couple weeks now, and in all my testing, everything's been working like a charm. If you're interested in benchmarking, here's how my build fared on Xbench (spoiler: the total score was 303.38).

As I mentioned above, you don't need to buy a pricey SSD (a regular hard drive will work fine), but the system with the SSD is fast, especially on startup. I've added a handful of startup applications to my login items, including apps like Chrome. When my system boots, all of my startup applications are running before my desktop fades in from blue—it feels more like resuming from sleep than rebooting.

Another thing to note: About this Mac identifies the processor as i5, but it's a superficial issue. You could manually edit the text file that populates those fields, but I won't go into that here.

Finally, keep your iBoot disc handy. In the event something does go flaky, especially if you end up having any problems booting directly from your hard drive, you'll likely want that iBoot disc on hand for troubleshooting.

Huge thanks go out to my Hackintosh-helping pals Onetrack, Stellarola, and Davide, to tonymacx86 for his great tools and work, to videographer extraordinaire Adam Dachis, and to the Hackintosh community.

Adam Pash is the editor of Lifehacker, loves to tinker, and can't bring himself to buy what he can build himself for less. You can find his work daily on Lifehacker, or follow @adampash on Twitter.

Send an email to Adam Pash, the author of this post, at tips+adam@lifehacker.com.

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