Building my first mac

[Innxis]

Hello InfiniteMac community and thanks for coming in. :)

My computer just broke a few days ago and I really need to get another one. I planed long time ago to buy me a mac, just for the speed and stability of the Mac OS X OS, and, since I really need a "monster" to get my job done (web designing) and I don't really have about 2.500$ for a Mac Pro or 1.200$ for a iMac, I decided to build myself a great Hackintosh machine for about 700$ (or 500 Euros).

So, I will focus only on the main hardware in this acquisition (motherboard, cpu, ram and video card).

I already made a configuration, but I still have no idea what or which motherboard is best for this configuration:

CPU: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E7500 (3M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)
RAM: Kingmax FLGE8-DDR3-2G1600 or Kingston KVR1066D3N7K2/2G
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 - can be found on Mac Pro's machines

I would like a great motherboard with the option to upgrade various components (like the cpu, from core 2 duo to a core 2 quad, to add additional ram, to add a second video card, to support DDR3 and to have two PCI-express video slots, 5.1 or better audio sistem, etc.)

I also searched on internet for compatible hardware components and I found this list: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.5.7

I'm not a hackintosh pro, so I would like to learn more about how to make my configuration run native. If this helps, I used to make Mac OS X run once on my PC, but due to the AGP compatibility problem, I had to switch back to linux because I had to work.

All your opinions, ideas or posts are highly appreciated.

Thank you very much for reading :).

---

I've found this motherboard from gigabyte that might actually work pretty well:

GA-X48T-DQ6 - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2765

Check it out and tell me what you think :).

[OG-Phantom]

Hello InfiniteMac community and thanks for coming in. :)

My computer just broke a few days ago and I really need to get another one. I planed long time ago to buy me a mac, just for the speed and stability of the Mac OS X OS, and, since I really need a "monster" to get my job done (web designing) and I don't really have about 2.500$ for a Mac Pro or 1.200$ for a iMac, I decided to build myself a great Hackintosh machine for about 700$ (or 500 Euros).

So, I will focus only on the main hardware in this acquisition (motherboard, cpu, ram and video card).

I already made a configuration, but I still have no idea what or which motherboard is best for this configuration:

CPU: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E7500 (3M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)
RAM: Kingmax FLGE8-DDR3-2G1600 or Kingston KVR1066D3N7K2/2G
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 - can be found on Mac Pro's machines

I would like a great motherboard with the option to upgrade various components (like the cpu, from core 2 duo to a core 2 quad, to add additional ram, to add a second video card, to support DDR3 and to have two PCI-express video slots, 5.1 or better audio sistem, etc.)

I also searched on internet for compatible hardware components and I found this list: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.5.7

I'm not a hackintosh pro, so I would like to learn more about how to make my configuration run native. If this helps, I used to make Mac OS X run once on my PC, but due to the AGP compatibility problem, I had to switch back to linux because I had to work.

All your opinions, ideas or posts are highly appreciated.

Thank you very much for reading :).

---

I've found this motherboard from gigabyte that might actually work pretty well:

GA-X48T-DQ6 - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2765

Check it out and tell me what you think :).

I would say any p35 chipset is safe. I use an Asus board and have only minor issues (restart/shutdown are slow). Everyone will have their own favorite board for a hack, but I would say stick with a P35 Intel chipset board (and check the compatablity of the sound/lan ports). My board is 100% working (AD1988b sound and Marvel and Realtek LAN ports). Each board will use different sound chips and lan phys. YMWV with each board, so check here first once you zero in on a board you want.

EDIT: Remember crossfire and SLI are useless in the Mac world so, unless your going to be running Vista/7, I would say go with a board without those "features" and save a few bucks you can spend elsewhere (like getting a quad core).

[Innxis]

Thank you very much for your reply!

As stated above, I would like a easy upgradable PC over time. So if the X48 Chipset works with Mac OS X, I stay with this board.

Note: I also compared the components from this motherboard (lan and sound) with another compatible motherboard (GA-EX58-UD5) and the result was pretty much the same at audio and lan (results here: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_ComparisonSheet.aspx?ProductID=2765,2958) . And if Intel X58 Express Chipset worked, X48 will sure do it's job as well.