$295 "PovoMac" — The Cheapest "Hackintosh" Ever!

[heretolearn]

Domokun Thanks!!!
I've been reading about making a Mac for weeks and when I found this site I knew I was home, but the prices were a little high.
Your build is just the ticket to get the job done with out making the better half mad
So thanks for the help and keep up the good work for us CASH challenged builders.
Bruce

 

[alex_tzardea]

People here going wayyy OFF-TOPIC

 

[Stork]

alex_tzardea,
Done! Thanks for bring it to my attention. While I try to read all the build description posts, I usually let the owner of the build description PM me with help in splitting out post that are hijacking his build description thread. But, this thread need it now as you pointed out.

 

[alex_tzardea]

alex_tzardea,
Done! Thanks for bring it to my attention. While I try to read all the build description posts, I usually let the owner of the build description PM me with help in splitting out post that are hijacking his build description thread. But, this thread need it now as you pointed out.

 

[longhitter]

Hey,

thanks for sharing your build withe the world. I am looking for the cheapest build possible ... so my question... is it somehow possible to use the internal grafics of the GA-H61M-D2-B3? i don't need it to be fast just cheap...

thanks

 

[celeron333]

Can I use Celeron G540 ?

 

[Domokun]

is it somehow possible to use the internal grafics of the GA-H61M-D2-B3?

Well, the motherboard itself doesn't have an IGP anymore, as it is integrated on the processor. Therefore, to use the IGP you will need to purchase a processor that contains the Intel HD 3000/4000 chip (and these are typically more expensive than an Intel Celeron G530 processor combined with a cheap dedicated GPU).

Can I use Celeron G540 ?

Of course, the only difference between the Intel Celeron G530 and Intel Celeron G540 is a minor increase (100MHz) in its operating frequency.

 

[purafael2]

Will it load without the gfx? because I plan to buy it later...
or can I use Nvidia GeForce GT 520 2GB DDR3 - DVI/HDMI - PCI-E ?? Will it be 100% compatible with PovoMac?

thank you,

 

[Domokun]

Will it load without the gfx?

It can work without acceleration, but typically the answer would be "no".

or can I use Nvidia GeForce GT 520... Will it be 100% compatible with PovoMac?

Yes. It's basically the same price as the GeForce 210 but will perform better. If I was to revise "PovoMac", the GeForce 520 would be a good candidate.

 

[Domokun]

So I'm not the only one here who's had problems with OCZ SSDs!

Nope. I won't use anything from OCZ anymore, their quality assurance is quite poor. You're basically paying to be their product tester, it's just not worth the cost, stress, and time. My first purchase from OCZ was a DDR3 RAM kit (back when OCZ were still in the RAM industry) and it was faulty. It caused many Windows 7 crashes before I finally decided to run MemTest86 and — unsurprisingly — numerous errors were returned. Moving on, I purchased an OCZ Vertex II after much hype regarding the speed. It worked well for a while, but eventually decided that it no longer wanted to detect using AHCI, but still detected fine using IDE (albeit, with reduced performance). Moving on (and at this point, I should have known better), I purchased an OCZ Agility III. It worked OK within my desktop computer, but would BSOD after resuming from sleep in my notebook. OCZ are fantastic at trying to pin the blame on the customer, but this was a common issue with the OCZ Agility III (and the OCZ Vertex III) and OCZ's support staff were basically useless (currently, I'm unsure if OCZ ever released a firmware revision to resolve this issue). Enter the Crucial M4 and all issues were resolved!

To be fair to OCZ, Corsair also had dramas with their Sandforce based SSDs. Clearly, it's not a straight forward task. However, Intel really set the bar high after they released their 520 series SSDs, which are fantastic. Currently, I'm using a SanDisk Extreme series SSD and it seems to be quite good.

Good work on the PovoMac - I think it should at least be a Golden Build, if not included in the CustoMac listings. I think there are a lot of folks who would love to put together the least expensive hackintosh they can.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I've addressed the "golden build" issue previously, so it's probably best for me to not get into it again...