Any advice for new 1st time hackintosh builder?

[winkintosh8]

I just wanted to know if there are any tips or basic snafoos that I should now about that will help my install of Mac OS X ML go smoothly?
I put together the following hardware for my 1st hackintosh build from the sugggested hardware from CustoMac page.

Motherboard:

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

SSD:

SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SDSSDX-120G-G25

CPU:

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core BX80637I73770K

CPU Cooler:

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler

Memory:

CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 CMX8GX3M2B1600C9

Power Supply:

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular High Performance Power Supply

Video Card:

PNY VCGGT640XPB GeForce GT 640 1GB 128-bit DDR3 Video Card

DVD Burner:

Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner AD-7280S-0B - OEM

Case:

LIAN LI Lancool PC-K59 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Monitor:

ASUS PA248Q Black 24" LED Monitor

 

[victorraymond]

It look like you going for some nice "power build"

It would better if you get a 240 gig SSD....it's cheap only 170$...

and good for future proof.. because Mac application is heavy.. like Final Cut which alone require 100 gig lol...


That's all i see because it make no sense to go cheap on SSD when you already spend too much on motherboard and processor..

 

[Asus-Freak]

Your build is fine. You may get better response by posting in the "Buying Advice" forum...

 

[winkintosh8]

I didnt really want any buying advice but thanks. I basically just was fishing for problems in installing ML that I might be unaware of.
Stupid Noob is I.

 

[postclk]

I do not Know everything , But I have made a couple of successful builds and I have also messed them up more than once. It can be very addicting and also very frustrating at the same time. Here are a few tips I have experienced in my builds.

1. Make sure you follow the directions on tonymac exactly.
2. Use a Windows keyboard in you set up sometimes mac keyboards dont respond as well in the commmands.
3. Make sure you follow the directions on how to set up your bios any little mistake can prevent you from booting up.
4. Dont be afraid to ask questions on this site, most of the time you will get a solution very fast by people who know way more than I do.
5. Be prepared with patience you will have to do something more than once but it will all work out.
6. Make sure you have all your components hooked up and connected to the right connection.

I would also get the 240 ssd I just purchased the 240 sandisk for about 165. I have two 120 ssd on two other builds and there is not too much room left on them with the latest programs. Wish you the best

 

[bmoag]

I have this Gigabyte motherboard and have Mountain Lion dual booting with Windows (actually triple booting now with Win 8).
If you plan to dual boot on the same hard drive the MacOS has to be in the first partition or the OSes should be on different hard drives. Install the Mac OS first and the bootloader. If you install Windows you will have to boot back into the Mac using your Unibeast USB key or a rescue CD and reinstall the bootloader--it should automatically recognize the other OS.
My subjective impression is that Mountain Lion is worth the effort because the video drivers seem improved with a sharper on-screen image, but that may be my imagination. Snow Leopard and Lion seemed to me to yield a softer, more granular monitor image similar to WinXP.
Mountain Lion is more difficult to install than Snow Leopard and so far I can find no way to install the Mountain Lion upgrade, which as far as I can see adds nothing other than tighter integration into the Apple/Facebook world (I have a "real" Mac that runs the10.8.x Mountain Lion upgrade albeit slower than my Hackintosh).
It was actually easier to upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion, rather than a fresh install of Mountain Lion, following advice posted on this site about manually deleting/installing the ATI 6x kext. You may find that path easier as well.
Research problems others may have had with the particular video card you have, which seems to be the main issue with ML. Although many advise installing using the graphics built into the CPU this may not work and is probably not necessary. I do not know if Nvidia cards have less issues than ATI video cards.
You will avoid aggravation if you use a wired USB keyboard for the install. I recommend the Apple Keyboard which has, for me, very good tactile feedback for touch typing. Wireless keyboards may or may not work even after you get Mountain Lion running (this seems to be an issue for the UEFI on this motherboard--you may not be able to access it with a wireless keyboard). I use a wireless mouse with the USB radio plugged into the Apple wired keyboard with no problems.
USB 2 and 3 peripherals may or may not work correctly in my experience using the USB 3 ports on the motherboard. If you have only/mostly USB 2 peripherals save aggravation and get a cheap USB 2 add-in board for the motherboard. I solved most of my peripheral problems that way.
Multibeast works quite well to easily get the boot loader and other drivers, particularly sound and network, running. Once you get those running almost any webcam, at least those made by Logitech in the last couple of years, should work. You may also need to install a separate trim enabler than the one supplied with Multibeast.
Once you get a basic OS install working back it up with time machine or clone it before you do anything else. If something later goes wrong it is easier to restore than reinstall.
After all the effort is it worth it?
My opinion:
I use both the Mac OS and Win 7 all day several days a week.
I don't hate the MacOS but its graphic interface has not changed through several generations of what I would consider service packs sold as operating systems. The Mac GUI is frozen in time with seemingly no development effort on the part of Apple.
If you have to multi-task I find it difficult (actually impossible) to rapidly scan what programs/documents are open without having to manually click through them compared to Win 7 where mousing over the taskbar gives you a thumbnail image. The Mac GUI is fundamentally inefficient for me.
While I do not edit video I can find no advantage to high end, color managed image processing and printing on the Mac (using the same computer/monitor/calibration device/printer/Photoshop). In fact my impetus to build a hackintosh initially was to compare color managed image processing between Windows and OSx using the same hardware. Clunky as it is I kind of like Aperture.
Sadly Apple seems to have given up on desktop GUI development or feels its core base refuses to see the rust on the GUI undercarriage.

 

[winkintosh8]

Thanks, I was wanting to add Windows 8 to an older OCZ 120 GB Agility 3 SSD as a second OS on the PC as soon as it is released. I am tired right now, but will read over your post again soon.