$920 Super Hack Mini advice

[notlykthis]

Hello all! Have spent the last 2 days reading everything I can on this site and this is my first post. First off, thanks to Tony for creating such an awesome forum. So my early 2007 macbook has been treating me well for many years but just doesnt have the steam to run Lion. Thinking about buying a mac mini but want something more powerful and thinking that a hack mini might do the trick.

This is where I want to go with it:

SilverStone SG05BB Mini-ITX case with SFX 450 Watt PSU
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047CQ1C8?ie=UTF8

i5 2500K

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 - Amazon

RAM CORSAIR 8GB DDR3 Amazon

120GB Corsair Force Series 3 SATA 6Gb/s

1TB Seagate Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s

Optical Drive Sony Optiarc

AMD Radeon HD 6850

Build total: $920

So the big question is- will this stuff all work together? Should I go ahead and start ordering? I need to be able to drive (2) 23" monitors via DVI and I want to be able to do some gaming and just want the thing to be wicked fast. Is there enough space in the box? Will it run quite? Will there be enough airflow to keep it cool?

Should I be able to get lion up and running on this thing with out much trouble? Will it sleep properly? Will ethernet work right out of the box? I would like wifi but not crazy about a dongle solution. Will it function just like a mac with no issues? Can I use time machine to back it up and can I update it via software update as if it were a mac straight from the factory?

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. This is my first build and I am very excited about it.

If this can't be done I think I am going to hold out for the 15inch macbook air whenever it finally comes out. Was thinking about springing for the current 13inch macbook air but i am nervous about playing call of duty on intel HD 3000 graphics and I don't know how well it will drive 2 23in displays... Anyway thanks again for taking the time!

 

[powerpcg5]

Should I be able to get lion up and running on this thing with out much trouble?

Most probably you'll encounter troubles, either major or minor troubles. -- almost everyone does.

Will it sleep properly?

Most probably not. In rare cases, some systems built here have sleep working perfectly. Some can't get it to work at all. It all depends on the combination of hardware you've chosen.

Will ethernet work right out of the box?

Probably yes. But you may encounter some programs that may conflict with the default network driver. In that case, you'd need to use a different driver.

Will it function just like a mac with no issues?

Probably not. There is a stage of "getting to know you" when building a Hackintosh. Then you try to fix the problems inherent in your particular build. Then hopefully, you get to the point of no more unresolved issues.

Can I use time machine to back it up and can I update it via software update as if it were a mac straight from the factory?

TimeMachine? Usually Yes. Software Update? Most probably yes.

Bottomline, it sounds like you want GUARANTEES and ASSURANCES that your Hackintosh will work 100% perfectly. Then I'd suggest just saving up some more and getting a real Apple machine. It's not going to be 100% working perfectly the first time you start up your hackintosh. You may be 95% of the way up there... then it's going to take some work and research on your part to bring it up to 99.5% working perfectly.

 

[notlykthis]

Thanks for the quick reply, I appreciate you humoring me despite me being an obvious newbie. So basically it looks like the hardware I selected will fit in the box and I should be able to get this thing to work but it will take some tweaking.

For the record I am open to putting in the tweaking work as long as at the end of the day I have a Mac that works like a Mac. The not being able to sleep part does scare me a bit.

Is there anyone out there who has attempted a similar build with 100% success?

I tried to pick components that were recommended with good native support but I am certainly open to suggestions.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions, I am learning a lot in a short amount of time and really do appreciate the support.