Looking for thoughts on this hardware

Given the ever-degrading condition of my MacBook and the fact that my "good" desktop is a G4 Cube, I figured it's time for a new computer. After seeing what the options are for buying a new Mac, I decided on building a Hackintosh.

I've got a list of what I intend to buy and I think most of it works but there's so much information to sift through that I can't keep most of it straight.

The biggest thing is that I intend to triple boot. I'll be running OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Windows 7, and most likely Debian. If it's possible I might throw FreeDOS on there just for Schlitz and giggles but only as a novelty so it's not a factor now.

Motherboard: Intel DZ68DB - I know there's no DSDT but I've searched and found people who are using it anyway. How does that work out? With what I've heard about Gigabyte and Asus' hit-or-miss quality (at least of late) and apparently indifferent customer service I'd prefer not to take the risk with them.

Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K, 3.3 GHz Sandy Bridge

Hard drive: Western Digital 500GB SATA

Wireless card: TP-Link TL-WDN4800

I haven't picked an optical drive yet but I don't imagine there would be a compatibility issue with OS X.

If it matters, I'm still deciding on a case; either repurposing an old IBM PC 350 case or buying an Antec 300. I think I'll be going with an Antec power supply, they seem to be highly regarded.

The big sticking point right now is the video card, I know absolutely nothing about them and haven't the faintest clue where to start. I've been advised to go with an AMD chipset but I haven't gotten any advice beyond that. I'm planning on getting a 20" Acer monitor, and having a card with both DVI and HDMI ports sounds like the best option but that's about as far as I've gotten.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Have you looked at Tony's CustoMac Builds? They have recommended builds for every budget! Here: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac Scroll down for current 2011 Builds, updated 2012 builds coming soon.

I have an Intel DZ68DB and it does work. Feel free to ask me any questions about it.

Albert, did you run into any unusual issues with installing OS X? Are there any features that don't work properly? Also, what wattage power supply do you run with it?

The issues I have with it is that shutdown doesn't work. The screen goes black but the fans and power button light stay on. Also sleep does work perfectly if i let it fall asleep by its self but if i press sleep from the apple menu it sleeps but I can't wake it up. I run on a 600W PSU But I used to use a 380W before I upgraded and got a GPU.

I would defiantly recommend you get a Gigabyte board or something with a DSDT. When I built my computer I didn't plan on running OS X on it otherwise I would of gotten a different board. At least I'm lucky it works at all though.

Hmm... thanks for the information, that's unfortunate. I suppose, in a nutshell, that means the operating system shuts down but the hardware doesn't?

The more expensive Asus boards seem a little less shaky on reliability (I just got a used 22" monitor for free so that cuts the cost of the system down a bit), but for some reason I almost want to see if I can find a way to make the Intel board work. Have to think about this some more I guess.

I've got a DZ68DB-Board too. Do you run Windows and Mac on your machine?
Thx

Church

I run both Windows and Mac on my DZ68DB but separate HDD.
Refer to this thread for my dsdt that managed to get a couple important features to work: http://www.tonymacx86.com/dsdt/68934-dsdt-intel-dz68db.html#post486987