Dell Optiplex 755/760 are easily convertible.

[rfolden]

Just a suggestion for building a low budget Hackintosh that will work without a whole lot of wailing and gnashing of the teeth.

There are a bazillion of these boxes out there, often available on skids by the pound. Businesses bought these machines by the droves, and have since replaced them in their latest "PC Refresh." The 755/760 came in several different form factors from mini-tower to "ultra-small form factor." I am a fan of small and quiet, so my choice is the small form factor desktop. These machines generally came equipped with a Core 2 Duo processor in the 2.4-2.8 GHz range, which will run Mountain Lion (and prior Intel) quite nicely. Occasionally you may find one with a Core 2 Quad. Yippee!

Tip: If possible, choose the 760 over the 755, for the simple reason that it is likely newer and there's a couple of capacitors that will get in your way in the 755 if the video card you choose has any sort of sizeable heat sink. Yes, the Optiplex 745 will work, too...but it is likely equipped with a slower "Pentium D" or "Pentium Dual Core" processor in the 1.8GHz range.


What you will need:
(It is likely everything you need but the graphics card is included with your "junk" system...)
Dell Optiplex 755/760 in the form factor of your choosing
4 GB DDR2 PC2-6400 RAM (2 will work, 8 is great)(there are 4 slots)(max per stick is 2GB)
40 GB or larger SATA HDD
USB Mouse and Keyboard,
Monitor and other accessories as necessary.
Purchased copy of OS/X 10.8.x
Just about any cheap NVIDIA late-model PCIe video card. Make sure it is "low profile convertible" if you plan on using it in the smaller form factor cases.
Nice-to-have: USB sound card, preferably one with Co-Axial or Toslink SPDIF output.

What to do?
Follow the great guides available here on tonymacx86.com for 10.6, 7, 8... to install the OS to your assembled machine.
Use "easybeast" setup in the "Multibeast" section of the guides. The only other options to check are
Audio / Universal / VooDooHDA 0.2.1 (not necessary if you have/use USB sound card)
Network / hnak's AppleIntelE1000e Ethernet

Reboot and you're pretty much done.

I have built more than two dozen of these machines for my friends and enemies. If you scavenge parts and shop wisely, one can be build for WELL under $100 USD.

Have fun!

 

[bolmen]

Hi,

I had the same experience with a Dell T1500 desktop that I shot for 75$. Works out of the box with 10.8.3. Only exception is the onboard sound that I disabled and replaced by a USB soundcard.

Tim

 

[ebrunson]

I agree. I have two Dell 755. My wife's job gave them to her for free. For the Minitower, I recommend the galaxy GT640 1G DDR3. It fits well in the case.
See my install/ test notes below:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-h...-gt640-mountain-lion-10-8-4-a.html#post648803

 

[deathjester]

Hello,

im new in this forum and also completly new on Hackintosh

I just bought a Dell Optiplex 755 normal Tower with 2x 2.33 Ghz and 2GB Ram, because i read about it and it should be quiet simple to Hackintosh this computer.
So i am a newbee in Hackintosh, so i start with a simple one.

Could you please tell me wich graphic-card i should buy to get good support?
it should be just cheap. if 5 bugs make it easier to include in hackintosh, i will pay just a few bugs more, but it should not be too expensive.

i hoope you can help me.

Thanks in advance!

Jack

The OP is right. These do make a really good hackintosh on a budget. Last one I converted was a 2ghz core 2 duo with 2gb of ram. I just made it a snow leopard machine though. 4gb of ram and a quad or a higher clocked duo and past snow leopard would be ok. On snow leopard this machine will fly for the average internet/word processor person.

Got a ge force 210 (works natively in lion) for 16 bucks (512 ver) after rebate from microcenter. Nvenabler kext works for most of the 210's. Sometimes the 1 gig versions require a string. The 1 gig EVGA works with the newest nvenabler last I tried in SL.

Network depends on the model. The intel MM one worked with kextwizard for me post install (card was a DM-2). Did have to boot it with -x to install the network kext but other then that? Voodoosound works fantastic. All the jacks works. all the USB' work.

You can often get these for free, and with a 15-30 dollar geforce 210 and Snow Leopard 19.99 it will run circles around the duo/quad I-Mac's.

Very nice for a student or a kid's machine.

 

[aceofspadex]

Hey everyone I tried an EVGA 210 GT in this and blackscreened after the apple logo each time I tried this card on mavericks, snow leopard, and mountain lion. I did manage to get OSX mountain lion installed and tried all the NVenabler Ktext to no avail. I also tried a Asus en210 but it would not fit in my system both were low profile.

Does anybody have a recommendation for a card that work out of the box with an version of OSX other than lion trying to stay around the $30 price point.

 

[fade-x]

Hey everyone I tried an EVGA 210 GT in this and blackscreened after the apple logo each time I tried this card on mavericks, snow leopard, and mountain lion. I did manage to get OSX mountain lion installed and tried all the NVenabler Ktext to no avail. I also tried a Asus en210 but it would not fit in my system both were low profile.

Does anybody have a recommendation for a card that work out of the box with an version of OSX other than lion trying to stay around the $30 price point.

I've got the same card in two different computers, one with Snow Leopard and another one with Mountain Lion and both works properly with no kext modification, just adding GraphicsEnabler=Yes in boot.plist
In my other Hackintosh I've always used Geforce 8400GS and always worked fine

 

[pistooli]

Same here in Maverick.

NVIDIA 210 works with GraphicsEnabler=Yes and PCIRootUID=1 boot flags.

 

[brummymax]

The GT610 is more powerful than the GT210 and still very cheap. It works out of the box on 10.8.3 or later including Mavericks. On the passive (fanless) cards such as the MSI 2GB one, I had to dremmel the heatsink slightly for it to fit in the 755 because of those 2 capacitors mentioned earlier. 5 minute job and quite fitting for a "HACKintosh". The slimmer cards such as the Zotac Synergy Edition 1GB GT610 slot straight in. Above 1GB on a card of this power is absolutely pointless, so do not be suckered by that cheap marketing ploy. Most GT610's can be modified to low profile by loosing the VGA output.

 

[aceofspadex]

Thanks everyone really appreciated the help. Unfortunately I couldn't get the 210 to max resolution for my monitor and it looked bad. I tried installing Mavericks and Snow Leopard all wth the same results on the 210. I sent the card back to amazon for a full refund. I picked up a Power Color ATI 1GB 5450 Fanless from newegg for 9.99 after rebate. With a kext editing I made it work. The link below is the process I used in case anyone needs this in the future if you go the ATI Route. If I see a 610 on sale I think I'll pick that up for mavericks.

http://www.computersnyou.com/49/201...graphics-kexts-for-hackintosh-mountaion-lion/

 

[conal5697]

Dell Optiplex 755 wont log into app store.

I have a Dell OptiPlex running a Core 2 Duo with 4gb ram. This is my first hackintosh so I'm still unsure. The mackine is Running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I cannot log into the app store as it comes up the error "Your computer or device could not be verified. Contact support for assistance.