Hackintosh

CustoMac Pro Guide

• Corsair Obsidian 650D ~$170
• Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz ~$225
• Gigabyte ATX Motherboard GA-Z77X-UP5-TH ~$250
• 16GB RAM ~$100
• Corsair 750 Watt Modular ~$150
• SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD ~$110
• WD Caviar Black 2TB ~$180

Log

April 2, 2013

Powered up the machine. No problems! Relatively quiet! Booted it off the UniBeast Mountain Lion USB drive I had created. Again, no issues.

Installed Mountain Lion. When rebooted, got the endless startup wheel. Rebooted in safe mode using "-x" boot parameter. Started up Mountain Lion just fine.

Went through Apple post-installation steps, then installed MultiBeast. Selected:

• Audio > RealTek ALC8xx > RealTek ALC898
• Network > hnak's' AppleIntelE1000e Ethernet

CPU

The CPU instructions said to apply thermal grease to the CPU before installing the cooler, but it looks like there was already thermal grease there. In any case, here's a guide.

Cases

I chose the Corsair Obsidian 650D. It's largely self-explanatory, but there are things that took me a while to figure out:

• This is the best guide I found to all of the internal wiring.
• Mounting an SSD. Remove the back side bolt (just give it a pull), and screw it in from the bottom.
  • How do I mount an SSD in a Corsair 650d?
• Making it quieter. Haven't done anything about this yet. Just researching in preparation.
  • Corsair: 650D
  • Foam silencing kit
  • Silencing the Corsair Obsidian 650 D case with GTX 570
  • Proper Positive Pressure Project

Other

Top candidates:

• Corsair Graphite 600T
• Corsair Carbide 500R
• Corsair Obsidian 550D

Other possibilities:

• Cooler Master RC-692-KKN2
• Lian Li PC-V1020
• Antec 900
• Corsair CC600TWM-WHT Special Edition Graphite Series 600T Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case
• Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Video Card

I have a Nvidia GEFORCE 9400GT in my Dell Inspiron 531 that I'll need to swap out anyway (in order to turn that old computer into a media center PC), so I'm hoping it will work in a Hackintosh. More information at:

• http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/158685-the-easiest-way-to-install-nvidia-9400-gt/
• http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/280837-mountain-lion-boot-on-in-safemode/

Other

• DVD-RW drive (may be able to use the one in my Dell Inspiron 531) ~$30

See Also

• My First Hackintosh
• Build Your Own i7 Hackintosh
• Project iBox - Lian-Li PC-V353A Mod