Tuesday, December 15, 2009

My first attempt, not so great...

I started this whole project and minor obsession because my MacBook Pro has been a blessing, a curse and a cause for anxiety for over a year. It runs hotter than normal (just had a dream last night that the cpu overheated and when I pulled it out it was bubbling!) and I am scared that it is going to down soon. I need to send it off to Apple for warranty work but that means I am out of an Apple for at least two weeks maybe more. I have a few PCs but... well you know, not the same.

So, I started shopping around for used and new Macs and was frustrated at the $$$ I was going to have to spend for a "back-up" MacPro or iMac. So, I looked for alternatives.

I found Life Hacker !!! ah-hah.


I first tried to install Snow Leopard on an old Gateway Media Center PC I have but it doesn't seem up to the task. It has a Pentium D cpu with hyperthreading and a 104572 - Intel (Cortez) 945G Motherboard. I tried installing new memory (4 x 1g sticks) and a new (recommended by Gateway but it didn't work with my mobo) cpu to see if that would improve chances, no luck at all. The motherboard did not seem to be compatible with new cpu so I out the old one back in, sent back the "recommended" one to Gateway's retailer and decided to take the plunge!

I figured for my first foray into the world of Hackintoshes I should probably stick with what it tried, tested and approved. So I am building an Hackinotsh (hopefully) based on this 2 year old build parts list because I do not want to invest to heavy into this project (rememeber board and boots) and I would like to be able to follow LifeHacker's BIOS settings etc for the hardware they have already tested. I found all the parts on ebay and Amazon for a fraction of the cost listed because most of the parts are used.

This build, if all goes well, will allow me to upgrade for less $$$ without selling my soul to Steve Jobs every time I want more power/memory/updated video etc... I love OSX but hate Apple's ethos of "we price our products for snobby people". I feel a small rebellion building in my belly...



Parts total cost with shipping about $450:

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