Converting an Old PC to Hackintosh...

[NashX]

Hi, all!

First off, I'm no expert when it comes to Macs in general, but I am nonetheless very interested in having one around the house to muck about with. I am currently in the process of building a new PC, and as I have replaced virtually every component, I was thinking of keeping my current computer, formatting it, and installing Snow Leopard.

Naturally, I have several questions, but as I have no real need to keep this PC after the new one is ready, I am willing to experiment literally until it blows up. Or, you know, works.

So, specs:

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-P31-S3G
CPU: Intel Core 2 Q6600
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS2 1066Mhz
GPU: ATI Radeon HD4870
Etc. and so forth...

And my questions:

1 - Will Snow Leopard work with the above? My main concern is the motherboard, which isn't featured in the DSDT Database, along with any other P31 board :? .
2 - If so, were I to follow the instructions in the iBoot + Multibeast tutorial, would things go swimmingly?

So yeah, a general-purpose "what should I do, and how should I do it?" kind of thread.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[DoctorWho]

Well you could always try the EasyBeast option in MultiBeast for your GA-P31-S3G. However, you said that your currently in the process of building a new PC, have you bought the parts already? If not, they why don't you just build one that's compatible with OS X and MultiBeast? It's going to make things a lot easier.

 

[Am Yisrael Chai]

It looks to me like you are due for a hardware refresh anyway. Why not keep the parts you can still use and update the rest?

 

[NashX]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm keeping the new build as a Windows only PC, so I won't be needing to build it to match the recommended configs for OS X. I'm mainly Hackintoshing the old computer for experimentation's sake, as well as potentially giving myself a platform to muck around with Final Cut and Logic in future (I'm both a film student and a musician, so I've always been curious to see what "the other side" uses ). I don't wish to update any hardware on the old one, because I really don't have the money, nor the justification for upgrading this one and still replacing it with a new build.

I understand that EasyBeast is more of a generic install, yes? If I use it, what kind of drawbacks will I see compared to using a custom DSDT on one of the boards where one is available? Also, would it be possible to attain a custom DSDT if I were to provide an unedited one and request it on the forum?

 

[NashX]

Also, out of curiosity, can I use an IDE hard drive to install OSX, or does it have to be SATA?

 

[humph]

I think you'll need to install to SATA, but you can indeed use IDE later*. Means, if you don't have spare SATA, but can use one short term to install to & get it running, then you can clone the install to the IDE drive (remember to "separately" add the bootloader also) and free up the SATA drive.

*Probably need to add a kext (driver) to support the IDE chip/interface. Not sure what chip is used (JMicron?) on your board.

Everything like audio, LAN, graphics should be OK, but again you might need to hunt down some kexts for LAN and the ALC662 audio if does not work with the stuff in Multibeast.
Google/search at insanelymac; since is old board there'll be people who've worked it out in the past.