My first hackintosh... Need help

[brunombardi]

Hello everyone. Sorry about my bad english.

I'm a brazilian graphic designer and I'm starting my home office. Some months ago I discovered the Hackintosh watching a brazilian television show, that "teach" how to transform a PC into a Mac. Now, I want to build a Hackintosh to work with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Audition and other Adobe softwares... My budget is short: ~US$ 1,5k. I already own a Snow Leopard Retail DVD (I bought it last week).

I read a lot of the Forum posts searching a solution to my questions, but I am totally confused, so I hope you can help me...

[1] I really need a graphic card to make a Hackintosh? At the July Buyer's Guide there's a configuration called "CustoMac Budget mATX". The post says: "A powerful desktop build with budget-minded parts and no graphics card...". Is it really possible? All the tutorials about Hackintosh, including the tonymacx86 method, has mentions of a graphic card...

[2] Assuming that the CustoMac Budget mATX work without the graphic card, will I need update my Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion?

The configuration I was thinking to buy is:
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 http://ow.ly/nYs6w
MOTHERBOARD: GA-B75M-D3P (Gigabyte) http://ow.ly/nYs5x
RAM: 8GB (2x 4Gb) 1600Mhz DDR3 (Corsair) http://ow.ly/nYs4d
POWER SUPPLY: CX500M (Corsair) http://ow.ly/nYs3p
STORAGE: SanDisk Extreme 240Gb SSD http://ow.ly/nYs1T
WIFI CARD: TL-WDN4800 http://ow.ly/nYs0q
CASE: H2 Black (NZXT) http://ow.ly/nYs9q

Thanks a lot for help!
Greetings from Brazil

PS: I don't understand nothing about hardware... =(

 

[Adrian B]

Hello everyone. Sorry about my bad english.

I'm a brazilian graphic designer and I'm starting my home office. Some months ago I discovered the Hackintosh watching a brazilian television show, that "teach" how to transform a PC into a Mac. Now, I want to build a Hackintosh to work with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Audition and other Adobe softwares... My budget is short: ~US$ 1,5k. I already own a Snow Leopard Retail DVD (I bought it last week).

I read a lot of the Forum posts searching a solution to my questions, but I totally confused, so I hope you can help me...

I will try to make a start here. Firstly welcome to the site.

[1] I really need a graphic card to make a Hackintosh? At the July Buyer's Guide there's a configuration called "CustoMac Budget mATX". The post says: "A powerful desktop build with budget-minded parts and no graphics card...". Is it really possible? All the tutorials about Hackintosh, including the tonymacx86 method, has mentions of a graphic card...

At the bottom you will see a link for graphics cards (August buyers guide now) http://www.tonymacx86.com/375-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-august-2013.html#budget, here is the direct link to the graphics cards : http://www.tonymacx86.com/375-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-august-2013.html#gfx_cards

[2] Assuming that the CustoMac Budget mATX work without the graphic card, will I need update my Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion?

You can only use Snow Leopard to access the Apple App Store to purchase Mountain Lion - this video explains it quite well : http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...bridge-unibeast-installation-video-guide.html
Ivy Bridge hardware will not run properly unless it is on Mountain lion as a minimum.

If you are doing graphics work the you will certainly need to use a graphics card for your work. You might find some helpful links/threads in this link: http://www.tonymacx86.com/video/

Good Luck
Adrian B

 

[brunombardi]

Hi Adrian!

Thank you so much for the help. I'll read the links you sent me.

Greetings from Brazil!

 

[Adrian B]

Hi Adrian!

Thank you so much for the help. I'll read the links you sent me.

Greetings from Brazil!

Thank you Bruno, Greetings from Scotland

Some more links for you : http://www.tonymacx86.com/basics/104542-im-new-everything-where-do-i-start.html


Adrian B

 

[zaptoons]

.
[1] I really need a graphic card to make a Hackintosh? At the July Buyer's Guide there's a configuration called "CustoMac Budget mATX". The post says: "A powerful desktop build with budget-minded parts and no graphics card...". Is it really possible? All the tutorials about Hackintosh, including the tonymacx86 method, has mentions of a graphic card...

Not sure this was completely addressed:
Understand that in place of a dedicated graphics card, there's also onboard graphics; in modern Intel-based systems that we're using for Hackintoshes, these graphics are actually a part of the CPU, with graphic ports located on the motherboard.

In order for this to work properly with OSX, you *must* use only CPU graphics that are supported in OSX. (Intel HD 3000 and HD 4000). If a CPU has graphics not supported by OSX, it won't work for a Hackintosh.

For example, you can run OSX on the build you list without a separate dedicated graphics card, because the i7 3770 CPU listed has Intel HD 4000 graphics.

If you view the image of the ports on the GA-B75M-D3P motherboard, you'll note it has DVI, VGA, HDMI and Display ports. None of these would output a signal on their own- they're driven by the CPU's built in graphics.

Of course, because the motherboard also has a PCIe 16x slot, you can also use a dedicated graphics card. (The bottom 16x slot on that board only runs at 4x, not suitable for graphics.)

So if you wanted to budget so that you don't have to spend on a dedicated graphics card right away, you can just run the onboard graphics, so long as they are OSX compatible. As was said, because you want to use Photoshop, Illustrator and other graphics-intensive applications, you'd certainly be better off with a dedicated graphics card, but just know that it's not mandatory- you could always upgrade to that later as needed while starting with the onboard graphics.

The applications you list of course won't run their best using onboard graphics, but they will function and work well enough for light and basic graphic tasks. I equate the experience of using onboard to being nearly identical to getting laptop graphics performance on a desktop- it generally works fine, but isn't the fastest/best.

 

[brunombardi]

Thank you so much for the help and tips Zaptoons.

I'll include one graphic card to my budget. Do you think the EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked will work with the other parts from my project?

Thanks.

Greetings from Brazil!