[SUCCESS] z68xp-ud3, i7 2600k, geforce gt 240, osx 10.6.8

Great thanks to all the online hack community!
Up and running as from today (21/10/2011).
Also thanks to this guy:
http://nofilmschool.com/build-a-hackintosh/

This build is mainly going to be used for video editing and some sound work as well.
Went for the Snow Leopard 10.6.8, which is stable with the adobe cs5 suite.

The hardware part:
Managed to fit everything into £1000 (UK)

Antec Three Hundred Gaming Tower Case
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003B36EX0

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 motherboard
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-Z68XP-UD3-SKT-1155-Z68XP-UD3-Motherboard/dp/B0055057HG/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1319235378&sr=1-1

Intel Sandybridge i7-2600K Unlocked Core i7 Quad-Core Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache, Socket 1155)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004FA8NOQ

Corsair CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B 16GB (4x4GB) 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Blu Memory Four Module Kit
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B-1600MHz-Vengeance-Memory/dp/B004RFBIUU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319234781&sr=8-1

SAMSUNG SPINPOINT F3 S-ATA/300 1TB INTERNAL HARD DRIVE 7200RPM 32MB BUFFER
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002SQXTI4

Corsair CWCH60 Water Cooler
+4x Phillips Pan Head UNC 6-32 x 1.25" screws for a push-pull set-up on the H60 with the Antec case stock fan
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004MYFOE2
http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/product ... ts_id=1791

Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2UK Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 High Performance 650W Power Supply
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004O0P9TO

LiteOn IHAS224-19 Lite-On 24x DVD-RW LightScribe SATA
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002CHRAS4

Gigabyte GV N240D3-1GI geForce GT 240 1 GB DDR3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002YGVONK
- wanted to go for the gtx 460 at first, but then the forums got me worried about it. Apparently 10.6.8 is not very friendly with the gtx 460, so went for the older and cheap gt 240. Cuda cores being the main reason for choosing nvidia:
http://www.studio1productions.com/Artic ... ereCS5.htm

Asus VH242H monitor
http://www.ebuyer.com/155987-asus-vh242 ... tor-vh242h

APC Back UPS ES 400VA 230V
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002EB7DZI

Snow Leopard retail DVD from apple store
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC573Z/A

A few litres of coffee and a truck-full of patience


The installation:
Updated the mob to F4. Had a little hang-up there - used the front panel USB port for flashing the bios which was a mistake.

Restored bios to optimized defaults and set everything up as in the iBoot+Multibeast guide, hard-drive and cd-rom in the blue sata ports, which on the mob are accordingly the 3rd and the 4th sata ports, single ram stick.
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/ ... -x-on.html

After installation the desktop looked pretty bad - only 1024x768.
What follows is more or less the step procedure that I went through to get it up and running:

1. ran the UpdateHelper
2. reboot
3. open the latest MultiBeast 3.9, don't run it just yet
4. mount and install 10.6.8 combo update, but don't reboot yet
5. back to MultiBeast which on pressing 'next' crashes, reopen
6. with the custom DSDT on the desktop, run the MultiBeast, select custom DSDT + system utilities + Fake SMC
the MultiBeast runs, and at the end of the installation reports a failure. a sip of coffee.
7. reboot
8. 10.6.8 boots up with the full resolution support, system profiler recognises the gt 240 without any problem. run multibeast again, with the same settings as in step 6 + the ticks for the realtek alc889 driver.
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/12/ ... audio.html
9. run the latest Lnx2Mac's Realtek RTL81xx Driver:
http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/realtekrt ... river.html
10. reboot.

At some point during running MultiBeast, after deleting the extras folder, the os x didn't want to boot up, it would hang-up on the grey apple logo. Running from the iBoot cd with -x flag allowed to boot into the safe mode, then run MultiBeast, as in the step 6 again. Reboot, and everything works fine. I must have run the MultiBeast quite a few times.

In the end, everything seems to be running nice and smooth, installed the rest of the ram + switched the hard-drive to the grey sata3 port 0. Not sure if I'm using it's full potential though. will have to read about it. UserDSDT is a blessing!

Comments so far:
The set-up is typically noisy with the constant buzz in the room. Will think about upgrading the case/fans at some point.
Again, a great thanks to all the guys allowing this to happen.

Since you got the XP model, are you planning to put a small SSD on the mobo?

Stork said:

Since you got the XP model, are you planning to put a small SSD on the mobo?

Click to expand...

Well to tell you the truth the defining factor for this mobo was it's low price here in UK.

I find the small factor ssds way too expensive at the moment, and I have a feeling that a 60gb ssd connected to the mobo through a sata3 connection would benefit it more than a equally priced 20gb sata2 small 'cache' ssd. And I'm not sure if hack would support it?

Unless they drop in price a good deal, a few extra spinning hdds are going to be of greater benefit to the constantly increasing amount of video.

I'm very excited to see this, as I plan to use this exact motherboard and processor in my installation. Do you have any commentaries to add to this date? And I was also wondering if there was a particular reason you didn't go with Lion. Thanks.

akspecs said:

I'm very excited to see this, as I plan to use this exact motherboard and processor in my installation. Do you have any commentaries to add to this date? And I was also wondering if there was a particular reason you didn't go with Lion. Thanks.

Click to expand...

All working nice and smooth, except the usb3 connection on the mobo. However, I think it's easily solvable, just didn't bother, no need for it now.
At the moment of building this set-up there was no unibeast, the xmove installation process seemed a bit complicated for a first timer, but the main reason was actually adobe cs5 suite issues with Lion.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/905/cpsid_90508.html
Also, talking about the adobe suite, I managed to enable the hardware accelerated mercury playback, doing the little hack, because gt 240 isn't on the supported list. However, when I turn it on in Premiere, it doesn't playback video files at all. Need to look more into this, for now the processor is doing all the rendering, and it is doing it amazingly well.
All in all, I'm really happy with the machine, even though in needs a bit more tweaking.