mcbeen.com

So far this project has been a complete success. I have a very stable machine now. Here was my final parts list:

ASUS P7P55D EVO
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz (Overclocked to 3.9 Ghz Stable, ~50C)
Thermaltake Ultra Extreme Rev C
120mm noctua cooling fan
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870
LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS50
ASUS USB-BT21 USB 2.0 Mini Bluetooth Dongle
Intel X25-M 80gb SSD drive

I don’t use onboard audio for my machines. I instead use an USB audio adaptor for my headsets. I may work on getting the onboard system working in the future, but for now I don’t have a use for it.

The machine is wicked fast, just as I hoped, and the video card appears to be working very well. All my games are playing great. Video transcodes are wonderfully fast.

I was able to confirm this morning with netkas that 4770’s are still not working with the latest driver sets. For now it appears I’m stuck in slow with my old 8600. We’ll see how long I can take it.

Got the machine working well now. I had to give up for now on my 4770, although I plan to work on it more after i learn a bit more about what is going on. I swapped out my wife’s nvidia 8600 for my 4770. Its a bit slower, but it works great!! I’m sure she won’t mind XD.

A couple more things I have noticed:

1) make sure you are running in the mode you expect (64 bit vs 32 bit) Many of the drivers only work in one or the other. You can verify this under system profiler–>software
2) pfix doesn’t work right. Make sure you repair permissions with disk utility.

I’ve been experimenting off and on for some time now with OS X on alternative hardware. My experiences has been somewhat mixed, as I generally don’t pick middle of the road hardware for the systems I build.

But since I have extra time on my hands these days, I have pushed further into it than before. I have been met with moderate success, although I would never recommend this process to anyone. Its cheaper to buy a real mac.

Here’s my config:
ASUS P7P55D EVO motherboard running 915 firmware.
ATI 4770 Family Graphics

Noteworthy sites for reference:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=199411
http://osx86.sojugarden.com/installer/
http://netkas.org/?p=315

Tips so far: Watch your security settings. Repair permissions before every boot while building. PFix can help tons with this (found on the second site). Don’t burn media, its not worth the money or time.

I’m currently wrestling with my graphic card, as its not fully supported.