First Build - First Time in Mac World

[charly85551]

Hi guys, hope you will be patient with me. It's the first time I work on a Mac - not just on a self made one!
I followed your recommendations for a Mac/Hack Mini probably by more than 80%.

• Thermaltake case without the PSU
• Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H77N 1.0
• Intel i3 3220
• Kingston HyperX PC3-12800 8GB DDR3
• Samsung SH-224BB ODD
• Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB harddisk
• Samsung 830 WW128 GB SSD
• picoPSU 150W with an attached 60W AC Adapter

All tested in a LINUX-Environment working perfectly!
Then downloaded ML on a friend's Mac using Lion and created the USB stick with unibeast. Took a view more minutes then predicted but that's okay. When installing on my mac Mini I got stuck with multibeast when trying to install/activate hard-disk boot.
The only concern which downed on me: Is my mac mini sensitive to Windows keyboards? This is the only device I haven't changed!
Appreciate greatly any advice!
charly85551

 

[Red Chief]

HD2500 is not supported. You should have bought a CPU with HD3000 or HD4000.
Keyboard is not an issue. If OSX doesn't recognize it, you'll be asked to type the key right to Shift (usually <>), that's all.

 

[Going Bald]

Should have gotten the i3 3225. Don't suppose you can return the 3220, now.

Since you need a gfx card and you don't want a humongous PSU to power it, try the GTX 640 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130796&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=4902415&SID=

 

[charly85551]

Hi guys, didn't expect advice/answers within hours. Will try to return i3 3220 but already ordered i3 3225. The problem developed through a wrongly described i3225 in Amazon' website. Both CPU's were claimed to have the same HD 2500 graphics unit, so the i3 3220 was for me just a cheaper solution. But thanks to your expertise the root cause of my problems were quickly identified and hopefully soon fixed. Will report my next test here!

 

[charly85551]

In the mean time I received the i3 3225. Installation wasn't a big issue but the consequent software use wasn't successful. I did:

• Just restarting with already installed OS X didn't work - to be honest I didn't expect it to be that easy!
• Did use the USB-stick again with ML to install onto system SSD
• Got thru to Multibeast and just clicked onto Easybeast and Installation - procedure reported for the first time successful completion of mulitbeast
• Subsequent reboot did hang up

To be honest I am quite frustrated! My investments - especially compared to the costs of a new mac mini - are far away of any worthwhile investments.
Even the SSD seems to be manipulated in a way that I can't use it any more for other purposes.

 

[pwalth21]

Everything that you read on this website tells you that you need to be patient because you will likely run into issues building a hackintosh. Ask specific questions and the community will be happy to help. When you say hang up what do you mean? Did it get to the apple logo? Did it kernal panic? What happened? You said you ran easybeast. You probably should have run User DSDT/DSDT-Free Install. I don't know if that would have caused your problem though. Did you check anything else on Multibeast? Look at this guide: http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html . I know you already have Unibeast USB so skip down the the installation part. Note the boot flags.

As far as getting frustrated about price compared to Macs you really are comparing Apples to Oranges in my opinion. The great thing about hackintosh is the customization. You can add a graphics card to your build. You can add more hard drives. You can boot into multiple OSes. Mine boots into SL, Lion, ML, Linux, and Win8. Some I use, but some I have just because I can. You already have customization by having an SSD and HDD. Those are options on the Mac Mini, but you will pay more for them. I'm guessing you spent around $500 for your build. Granted for $100 more you can get a mac mini, but it would only have a 500 GB hard drive, no SSD, and no room for expansion.

 

[Supermulti]

I think most builds need 10+ installs of OS X until everything really works.
You have to be patient, but if you have compatible hardware it will run eventually.

A little tip for better installation/recovery: Enable Time Machine as soon as you got a working state, because you can restore any time machine image.

 

[Going Bald]

I think most builds need 10+ installs of OS X until everything really works.
You have to be patient, but if you have compatible hardware it will run eventually.

A little tip for better installation/recovery: Enable Time Machine as soon as you got a working state, because you can restore any time machine image.

Better to clone the first time desktop success to another drive before you run MultiBeast!! SuperDuper or CCC is your friend (or both!)