For your eyes I present my documented journey as I build a Hackintosh from scratch… that’s right, you can build your own computer and not buy one from Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc. Not only will I be building a computer for FNX’s own Cadence but one that will run Mac OS X… as we go on you will see why this is such a feat.
 

What is a Hackintosh?

The Hackintosh Project, more refered to as ‘OSx86’ (a portmanteau of OS X and x86) is a collaborative “hacking” project to run the Mac OS X computer operating system on non-Apple personal computers. A computer other than a Macintosh that has been configured to run the Macintosh operating system is known as a “Hackintosh” a portmanteau of the word “hack” and the name of Apple’s main brand of computers, Macintosh.
Basically, Apple has a terrific operating system known as Mac OS X… the unfortunate fact is you must buy an Apple computer (a MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini or a MacPro) and these are definitely not cheap… I present to you my build for Cadence who stipulated that “It must run The Sims 3, GarageBand and PhotoShop”.
 

The Hardware

• Case/Chassis – Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Full Tower
• PSU – Thermaltake TR2 Bronze 600W TR-600PCAU
• CPU – Intel Core i7, 3770 (# Ghz)
• Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
• Hard Drive #1 – Seagate Momentus 500Gb (For Mac)
• Hard Drive #2 – Seagate Momentus 500Gb (For Windows)
• Memory – Kingston ValueRAM DDR3 8GB (2x4GB)
• GPU – ATI Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 (Asus Branded)
• GPU – ATI Radeon HD 4890 DDR5 (XFX Branded)
• Optical Drive – Samsung SH-S223C DVD/CD Combo/Writer/Reader
• Monitor – Soniq 55″
• Keyboard – Shitaro Wireless Keyboard and Trackball Combo
• Mouse – See Above
• Bluetooth – Bluetooth Dongle
• WiFi – TP-Link 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCIe Adapter

The Budget

$15000 was allocated to this project with an estimation of $1100 for bottom line result (not taking shipping into consideration). The Sub-Total ended up at $999, with shipping/freight/insurance/hiden costs/etc the final tally came to $1060 which still didn’t break the budget.
 

The Current Status

Built! Running Mountain Lion!