If you are interested in building yourself a PC that run Apple’s OS X Snow Leopard operating system, (i.e. a computer commonly known as a hackintosh), then you will no doubt have heard of the many challenges that people experience as well as some very encouraging success stories.

Building a hackintosh is an interesting and unique project that can, when done correctly, leave you with a powerful OS X workstation computer, at a fraction of the cost of one of Apple’s Mac Pros. It’s not uncommon for a Hackintosh to cost around half that of an equivalent performance Mac Pro.

But building a hackintosh is not a straightforward process. There are many traps for inexperienced users that can cause some serious headaches. In this article, I would like to share a few key points about hackintosh building to help you successfully build yourself a hackintosh.

Building a Hackintosh: The Process and Considerations
Here’s a basic outline of the process you will need to go through:

* Decide on the requirements of your workstation
* Research successful hardware configurations
* Choose hardware configuration from successful hardware configurations that best matches your requirements
* Find a good guide for the hardware you have chosen!
* Download, or generate, bootloaders, DSDT, KEXTs and other files for the hardware you have chosen
* Purchase computer hardware
* Assemble your hardware (or have it assembled for you)
* Purchase a copy of OS X ‘Snow Leopard’
* Prepare for the installation
* Install OS X
* Install bootloader and drivers (KEXTs etc)
* Download and install operating system updates

Each step is covered below.

Step 1: Clearly decide what functionality you require from your OSX workstation.

First, you’ll need to decide what you want your hackintosh workstation to do. Here’s some questions and considerations:

Performance
What work, or play, do you do and what level of performance does this require?
I find the Core i7 920 is a great CPU for most hackintoshs and the ATI 4870 graphics card performs really well in OS X.
What hardware you purchase (and hence how much you spend) is really a function of the performance you require.

Reliability
Is the workstation for critical work? Do you need enterprise class reliability or will consumer grade components be sufficient? One way to determine the quality and reliability of computer hardware components is through MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) figures. For example, Western Digital’s RAID Edition (RE) hard drives are good in this regard.

Hard Drive Storage Capacity
This may influence case and power supply choices. A large number of hard drives means a bigger case, and potentially a bigger power supply.

Noise Output Level
This influences CPU cooler options, video card options, power supply options, case options, system fan option and more.
It is quite possible to build a very quiet hackintosh workstation – but you’ll need to invest in things such as a passive-cooling graphics card, and low-speed fans. You may also want a third-party CPU cooler.

Space and size requirements
This influences the size of motherboard you get, the model of graphics card and number of hard drives. Most well build hackintoshs are competing directly with a Mac Pro in performance and size – so a large case is fine. But if you want a small desktop hackintosh (instead of buying one of Apples smaller computers) then your hardware choices will be different.

Electrical Efficiency
There are many “ok” power supplies out there but many Apple users have learned to expect high efficiency and quiet operation from their computers. If this is important to you, then you would do well to look at websites like 80Plus.org and silentPCreview.com in order to make your choice.
I like power supplies such as Enermax’s Modu82+ 625w.

Aesthetic and Good Industrial Design
If the aestetic and good industrial design of the workstation are important for you, then you would do well to look at case companies like Lian-Li, Antec and Silverstone. I use Antec’s P183 for most of my hackintoshs. It’s definitely not the cheapest caseout there, but it’s a really nice case.

Step 2: Research what hardware other people have successfully built hackintoshs with.

Many people make the mistake of buying hardware and then trying to run OS X on that hardware. Depending on the hardware, this approach has mixed results. I strongly recommend that you do some research before purchasing your hardware. You want to try to purchase hardware components that have been used successfully in a hackintosh system by other people. You should also find a guide that shows in detail how to install OS X on that particular hardware, and seek download the driver files used by the person who wrote the guide.

When researching you hardware, keep in mind the fact that you will need a bootloader CD disk image/ISO, a DSDT, some KEXTs and a bootloader to install on your hard drive. Once you have found a few hardware options that you know works, you will then need to decide which hardware best suites your requirements. This can be a bit of a back and forth process – you’ll need to find a hardware configuration that meets your needs, and find a decent guide for that hardware.

Step 3: Downloading or generating the required files

If you have found a good guide for the hardware you have chosen, it should also have the required files with it! However I will quickly outline the required files and give you a basic idea of what each are for and how you might make them yourself if needed.

Firstly, you will need a Bootloader CD disk image/ISO to burn a CD from. This CD must be configured to “trick” the OS X install DVD to start and install on the hardware you have. It will allow you to start a completed OS X installation as well, but it may not give full functionality to OS X – this is because it may have a limited or generic set of drivers. Often the bootloader CD drivers are aimed only to allow the installation process to complete, and not to enable fully featured operation. Also it is not desirable to have to use this CD every time you wish to boot your computer.

To allow the computer to boot by itself, you will need a bootloader that lives on the hard drive. Popular bootloaders are “Chameleon” and “PC EFI”.

The bootloader needs files to help it to operate your specific hardware.

The first of these files is the DSDT (Dedicated System Description Table). In short, the DSDT tells the operating system what hardware the computers has and where.

Editing a DSDT for your system or having one that was built for exactly your hardware is critical! Many people find editing their own DSDT quite a challenge.

You may also need a few KEXTs (Kernel Extension files) which are like drivers really. We aim to use as few KEXTs as possible, as they are a possible source of future conflicts with Apple’s operating system updates. In the past year, huge leaps forward have been made that have allowed operation with fewer and fewer extra KEXTs. OS X ships with a whole lot of KEXTs already, and our aim is to build hackintoshs that don’t require any extra KEXTs.

Depending on the guide you choose and the hardware, there may also be other files needed/ supplied.

Step 4: Buying your hardware (the easy bit but the expensive part)
One common mistake people make when building a hacktintosh is to purchase their computer hardware before doing sufficient research. When people do this, they often find that some or all of their hardware is not particularly compatible with OS X. By considering the aspects I have listed above – before buying your hardware – you can save yourself a lot of time and money when it comes to getting compatible hardware for your hackintosh computer. You will also save yourself heaps of time as you won’t be spending hours deliberating over all the PC hardware options our there as you will have a clear idea of what works and what does not. These limitations on your options may seem a problem initially but I can say that there are plenty of possible hardware options that do work with OSX to cover most people’s requirements.

Step 5: Buying a copy of OS X Snow Leopard.

You can get a copy of OS X at a number of online stores, including Amazon and Apple.com. Fortunately, OS X is not that expensive, so just go ahead and buy a new copy that you know will work!

Step 6: Hardware Assembly

If you are experienced at building PC’s then you’ll be pleased to know that hardware assembly for a hackintosh is exactly the same as for a PC. If you’ve built a PC before, then just go for it as you normally would.

If not, maybe it’s a new skill you would like to learn, or perhaps you would prefer to have your computer hardware assembled for you. Either way will work – so what you choose to do is ultimately up for you. You can have a computer shop or PC technician put your hardware together, often for quite a reasonable price.

Step 7: Preparing for the installation

Depending on your guide, you will have to do a few things to prepare for installation of OS X.

You’ll need to burn a bootloader CD from the ISO/disk image you downloaded. Make sure you use a known method of burning the bootloader CDs as some burning programs don’t put the data on the disc in the right way to allow it to boot. The method for burning your bootloader CD is not specific to your hardware. Any method for burning a hackintosh bootloader CD that has worked for other people should also work for you.

You’ll also need to adjust your computer’s BIOS settings to those specified in your guide to allow OS X to boot. These setting are able to be compatible with Windows 7 so dual booting OS X and Windows 7 is possible.

You will need to set boot priority to the CD drive to boot from the Bootloader CD.

You should have your OS X hard drive plugged into the first SATA port on your motherboard (i.e. Port0).

Step 8: Installation of OS X

If the guide and bootloader CD you are using has been written and tested for your hardware, you should be able to easily install OS X using the bootloader CD and your copy of OS X.

If you’ve done all the proceeding steps correctly, by this stage you should be good to go. Check your guide to make sure you have followed all preparation steps and start to install OS X.

If you are trying to install OS X on to hardware that has not been tested before, you could run into problems at this stage. Again, it’s important to do your research before spending any money on hardware.

Step 9: Installation of Drivers

Once the OS X installation has successfully completed, you’ll need to install a bootloader, the DSDT and KEXTs for the system to the hard drive. There may also be some other files depending on the guide and hardware.

You’ll need to install the bootloader so that OS X can start off your hard drive. The DSDTs and KEXT files are hardware specific driver files – much like the drivers for windows.

The person who build the bootloader CD and wrote the guide may have streamlined the process by adding the required bootloader, DSDT, KEXTs and other files to the CD for your convenience. If not, then you may have to find the required bootloader, DSDTs and KEXT files for your hardware.

Once your bootloader and drivers are installed, you will no longer need to use the bootloader CD to start OS X. You should now be able to boot the workstation directly from your hard drive, and use it normally.

I would recommend take the opportunity to do all appropriate system updates via “Apple Software Update”. Once done’ you will have an up-to-date and ready to use workstation.

I hope this article has helped you to more easily build yourself a powerful, reliable and cheap OS X workstation. All the best in your hackintosh building.

Learn more about building an OS X workstation at OSx86guide.com.