My experience with Hackintosh

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: yoyomac
First post here!

Ok, I'm building a Hackintosh with my tax refund. Thank you Uncle Sam.


So, my question is this. I want to have a dual boot machine: OSX/Vista. I know that shouldn't be a problem.
The wrench I'm going to throw into the works is this, I want to build an SLi rig for gaming on the vista side. Is this possible? I've been searching the internet for some glimmer of hope that I can build an SLi Hackintosh.

I totally understand that OSX does not support SLi, and I don't need it to, it's only for my windows/gaming side.

Would I be better off just getting the new ATI 3870 X2? IT's almost as fast as an SLI setup.

Thanks.

I'd say post that question over at Insanely, I'm not sure if it will just recognize 1 GPU or if it will give you an error.

You can dual boot with Vista no problem. I think it's only XP that has issues since it doesn't support GUID.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: yoyomac
First post here!

Ok, I'm building a Hackintosh with my tax refund. Thank you Uncle Sam.


So, my question is this. I want to have a dual boot machine: OSX/Vista. I know that shouldn't be a problem.
The wrench I'm going to throw into the works is this, I want to build an SLi rig for gaming on the vista side. Is this possible? I've been searching the internet for some glimmer of hope that I can build an SLi Hackintosh.

I totally understand that OSX does not support SLi, and I don't need it to, it's only for my windows/gaming side.

Would I be better off just getting the new ATI 3870 X2? IT's almost as fast as an SLI setup.

Thanks.

I'd say post that question over at Insanely, I'm not sure if it will just recognize 1 GPU or if it will give you an error.

You can dual boot with Vista no problem. I think it's only XP that has issues since it doesn't support GUID.

AFAIK Vista doesn't support GUID booting either. It's actually something that's new to SP1, but SP1 hasn't been released yet.

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: fyleow

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: yoyomac
First post here!

Ok, I'm building a Hackintosh with my tax refund. Thank you Uncle Sam.


So, my question is this. I want to have a dual boot machine: OSX/Vista. I know that shouldn't be a problem.
The wrench I'm going to throw into the works is this, I want to build an SLi rig for gaming on the vista side. Is this possible? I've been searching the internet for some glimmer of hope that I can build an SLi Hackintosh.

I totally understand that OSX does not support SLi, and I don't need it to, it's only for my windows/gaming side.

Would I be better off just getting the new ATI 3870 X2? IT's almost as fast as an SLI setup.

Thanks.

I'd say post that question over at Insanely, I'm not sure if it will just recognize 1 GPU or if it will give you an error.

You can dual boot with Vista no problem. I think it's only XP that has issues since it doesn't support GUID.

AFAIK Vista doesn't support GUID booting either. It's actually something that's new to SP1, but SP1 hasn't been released it.

Vista supports GUID booting even without SP1

Okay, I guess your right. Microsoft's notes on the matter are a bit confusing: "Adds support for new UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) industry standard PC firmware for 64-bit systems with functional parity with legacy BIOS firmware, which allows Windows Vista SP1 to install to GPT format disks..."

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: fyleow

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: yoyomac
First post here!

Ok, I'm building a Hackintosh with my tax refund. Thank you Uncle Sam.


So, my question is this. I want to have a dual boot machine: OSX/Vista. I know that shouldn't be a problem.
The wrench I'm going to throw into the works is this, I want to build an SLi rig for gaming on the vista side. Is this possible? I've been searching the internet for some glimmer of hope that I can build an SLi Hackintosh.

I totally understand that OSX does not support SLi, and I don't need it to, it's only for my windows/gaming side.

Would I be better off just getting the new ATI 3870 X2? IT's almost as fast as an SLI setup.

Thanks.

I'd say post that question over at Insanely, I'm not sure if it will just recognize 1 GPU or if it will give you an error.

You can dual boot with Vista no problem. I think it's only XP that has issues since it doesn't support GUID.

AFAIK Vista doesn't support GUID booting either. It's actually something that's new to SP1, but SP1 hasn't been released it.

Vista supports GUID booting even without SP1

Okay, I guess your right. Microsoft's notes on the matter are a bit confusing: "Adds support for new UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) industry standard PC firmware for 64-bit systems with functional parity with legacy BIOS firmware, which allows Windows Vista SP1 to install to GPT format disks..."

GPT = GUID

As far as Hackintosh is concerned, it's easy to dual boot Vista, but XP requires a separate bootloader system or just install it on a separate hard drive and select the drive from the BIOS to boot from.

 

[Kaido]

Got RAID 0 (striping) working with the SI3132 card. Xbench on 2 x 500gb 7200rpm SATA drives:

Results 125.06
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.1 (9B18)
Physical RAM 8192 MB
Model
Drive Type SiImage
Disk Test 125.06
Sequential 150.02
Uncached Write 184.12 113.04 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 218.52 123.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 80.38 23.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 237.24 119.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 107.22
Uncached Write 52.49 5.56 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 315.81 101.10 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 110.48 0.78 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 165.56 30.72 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

[alfa147x]

Ok people i got my Hackintosh working! w00t!

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Intel E8400 OC'ed @ 3.7
SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2004C 200GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail
SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner

GIGABYTE GV-NX72G512P2 GeForce 7200GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

 

[aphex]

Once my exam is over, I am DEFINATELY going to be doing this!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: aphex
Once my exam is over, I am DEFINATELY going to be doing this!

I'll know more next week about the new DFI boards...the Bloodiron definitely works and the Lanparty (similar with a few more modder-friendly features) will be tested next week. If everything goes smoothly, it will be my new recommendation for the standard Hackintosh board - fairly cheap at $140-$150 (compared to the Bad Axe 2 at $180+) plus 100% working onboard features - Penryn support, 8 gigs of ram support, 6 SATA ports, Ethernet, onboard Audio. So here's a system checklist:

[ ] Case (ATX case, Power Supply, Fans)
[ ] DFI motherboard
[ ] Processor
---[ ] Dual-core (recommendation: E8400 @ 3.0ghz)
---[ ] Quad-core (recommendation: Q6600 @ 2.4ghz)
[ ] Memory
---[ ] 4GB RAM (I've heard 4GB is better for extreme overclocking, not 100% sure of truth)
---[ ] 8GB RAM (~$160 for budget RAM)
[ ] Video Card (7300GT to an 8800GTX modded into a Quadro 5600)
[ ] DVD drive(s) [or Blu-ray/HD-DVD]
[ ] Hard Drive(s) [optional RAID for boot or secondary drives]

And that's it! You can build a monster system for under $1,000 nowadays. By monster I mean Quad-core with 8-gigs of RAM plus a large hard drive (500gb+). Or if you're into overclocking you can snag a 45nm Penryn for some super overclocks (the E8400 seems to get to 4ghz on air pretty easily).

Also the latest 10.5.2 developer build is working 100% on Hackintosh, so unless Apple slips something in between now and the official release, we're looking at another working update

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
Ok people i got my Hackintosh working! w00t!

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Intel E8400 OC'ed @ 3.7
SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2004C 200GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail
SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner

GIGABYTE GV-NX72G512P2 GeForce 7200GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Nice, congrats! Welcome to the club

 

[Kaido]

Super Awesome Backup System:

I am going to document my crazy-cool backup system in this post. Enjoy!

Features:
1. 100% automatic - set-and-forget
2. No optical discs required (no CDs or DVDs)
3. The most data you will ever lose is the last hour that the system was on

Requirements:
1. Boot drive
2. Backup drive (recommended at least 1:1, ex. 500gb boot + 500gb backup)
3. Leopard with Time Machine
4. SuperDuper ($28 cloning program)

The Idea:
The basic idea is to have your boot drive plus a backup drive. The backup drive is split into two partitions - a small 10-gig partition with a clean install of Leopard to act as an emergency boot drive (which allows you to run SuperDuper to restore your backup image), then the rest of the partition to store backups from SuperDuper and Time Machine.

If you ever need to do a full system restore (say your boot drive dies or you want to upgrade your boot drive to a larger or faster hard drive), then you simply boot to the 10gb partition, use SuperDuper to clone the image file from the image clone on the larger backup partition to the new boot drive, and then boot from it and use Time Machine to restore your files up to the last hour's worth of changes. That's it!

Setup:
1. Install Leopard onto your boot drive
2. Split your backup drive into 2 partitions (10gb + rest)
3. Use SuperDuper to clone Leopard onto the 10gb partition
4. Setup SuperDuper to clone to a sparse image file on the large backup partition on a daily schedule
4. Setup Time Machine to backup to the large backup partition

Notes:
Time Machine is a great program for backing up your files. It not only creates a backup of your current files, but it also keeps an archive of your files (how long back the archive goes is simply a matter of how much hard drive space you have!). It backs up hourly and is completely invisible once you set it up. So if your hard drive were to die, at most you would only lose one hour's worth of work (from the time of the last backup). You can also go "back in time" to retrieve a file you might have changed or deleted. So say you deleted your resume or changed something but wanted the original copy - just pop open Time Machine and go back a day or a week or a month and grab it!

SuperDuper is an awesome program for making system clones. You can either clone from drive-to-drive or from drive-to-file. Drive-to-drive is useful for creating an emergency boot partition or just adding a new boot drive. Drive-to-file is useful for backup purposes because you can store it alongside your Time Machine backup (which backs up to a folder). So on your backup drive you would have a Time Machine folder plus a SuperDuper image file. Both do incremental updates, so after the first backup it goes very quickly each time it backs up.

So why would you run both SuperDuper and Time Machine? SuperDuper's schedule allows you to back up your system once a day, while Time Machine backs up hourly. In addition, Time Machine creates an archive of older files, which is useful if you change or delete something that you want back. Using both programs ensures that you not only have a daily full systems backup (including all of your settings, programs, and files), but you also have the most current files (up to the last hour) as well as an archive of older files. This presents you with a very powerful and completely invisible, automated backup system that is easy to restore.

So when you combine this with a small 10gb partition that has Leopard installed on it on your backup drive, you can quickly boot up, restore your backup using SuperDuper, and then dump back on your latest file with Time Machine. The emergency boot partition isn't a necessity because you can restore a SuperDuper image from Disk Utility right off the Leopard disc, but it's a very nice convenience feature because you don't need to dig up your Leopard disc and you can boot up at normal speed rather than waiting for the DVD to boot up.

The end result is that you set it up and then forget about it until such time you need it. Then it's cake to boot up to Leopard on the backup drive and transfer over your entire system! In my opinion, this is the ultimate local backup system. For additional security, you can get an off-site backup system such as Mozy to store your data somewhere else in the event that your computer blows up or your hour burns down. But for a local backup system such as this, all you need is a simple backup hard drive (internal or external) and a $28 copy of SuperDuper.

This system is also an extremely good idea if you choose to boot off a striped RAID 0 drive set. You are at higher risk if you are using RAID 0 to boot (2 drives acting as 1 drive), but if you lose a drive you've got a full backup at your fingertips, so you can take advantage of the extra speed RAID 0 has to offer without worrying about losing your system completely in the event your RAID set has a problem. If your data is really, really important to you, you can even boot off a mirrored RAID 1 drive set. This way if you lose a drive in your RAID set, your system keeps on working as normal. So you have the safety of two mirrored boot drives plus the security of a full system & file backup. Combine this with an off-site backup system mentioned above like Mozy and you'll be hard-pressed to lose any data ever again!

 

[roastin nugs]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs
hello everyone - great thread kaido.

i'm thinkin about building a new pc for gaming (windows side) and playing around with the Hackintosh idea.

i was planning to used a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 with an e8400 cpu. in your opinion would that be a good setup? also, i might just wait till 10.5.2 to even mess with all of this as I want to use probably a 8800gts or gtx. (was reading over at insanelymac forums that better support for that card will be availible with 10.5.2? correct me if im wrong there).

1. The 10.5.2 beta kexts have already been ripped and people are using GT cards like crazy
2. GTS/GTX cards are already supported anyway (I've had a GTS card in mine for awhile, great setup!)
3. The last release of the 10.5.2 to developers works on Hackintoshes, so unless they add something before the final release we're good

As far as motherboards go, keep an eye on the DFI Bloodiron/Lanparty. It looks like it's going to be the poster child for single-processor Hackintosh systems since it has 6 SATA ports, working onboard audio, support for Penryn processors (including quads), 8 gigs of ram cap, and everything else works 100%. I will most likely be using one in my next build for my wife's system.

thanks for your reply kaido. i'm having a hard time finding anything about the motherboards you mentioned over at the insanelymac forums. maybe i am not looking in the right place? i have been searching through the leo 10.5 installation area.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: roastin nugs

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs
hello everyone - great thread kaido.

i'm thinkin about building a new pc for gaming (windows side) and playing around with the Hackintosh idea.

i was planning to used a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 with an e8400 cpu. in your opinion would that be a good setup? also, i might just wait till 10.5.2 to even mess with all of this as I want to use probably a 8800gts or gtx. (was reading over at insanelymac forums that better support for that card will be availible with 10.5.2? correct me if im wrong there).

1. The 10.5.2 beta kexts have already been ripped and people are using GT cards like crazy
2. GTS/GTX cards are already supported anyway (I've had a GTS card in mine for awhile, great setup!)
3. The last release of the 10.5.2 to developers works on Hackintoshes, so unless they add something before the final release we're good

As far as motherboards go, keep an eye on the DFI Bloodiron/Lanparty. It looks like it's going to be the poster child for single-processor Hackintosh systems since it has 6 SATA ports, working onboard audio, support for Penryn processors (including quads), 8 gigs of ram cap, and everything else works 100%. I will most likely be using one in my next build for my wife's system.

thanks for your reply kaido. i'm having a hard time finding anything about the motherboards you mentioned over at the insanelymac forums. maybe i am not looking in the right place? i have been searching through the leo 10.5 installation area.

Here it is:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/i...&p=554411&#entry554411

InsanelyMac doesn't have a very good search feature, unfortunately. The easiest way to do a search is to use Google's site-search feature. For example, type this into google:

dfi blood iron site:insanelymac.com

The other board is the DFI Lanparty. My friend ordered one and will give me the details later this week. It's a better board than the Bloodiron yet has the same features and price, so I'm crossing my fingers that it works. I'm using one for my next build (e8400 Penryn-based), so I'll post back when I get news on it. Should be this weekend.

 

[roastin nugs]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs
hello everyone - great thread kaido.

i'm thinkin about building a new pc for gaming (windows side) and playing around with the Hackintosh idea.

i was planning to used a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 with an e8400 cpu. in your opinion would that be a good setup? also, i might just wait till 10.5.2 to even mess with all of this as I want to use probably a 8800gts or gtx. (was reading over at insanelymac forums that better support for that card will be availible with 10.5.2? correct me if im wrong there).

1. The 10.5.2 beta kexts have already been ripped and people are using GT cards like crazy
2. GTS/GTX cards are already supported anyway (I've had a GTS card in mine for awhile, great setup!)
3. The last release of the 10.5.2 to developers works on Hackintoshes, so unless they add something before the final release we're good

As far as motherboards go, keep an eye on the DFI Bloodiron/Lanparty. It looks like it's going to be the poster child for single-processor Hackintosh systems since it has 6 SATA ports, working onboard audio, support for Penryn processors (including quads), 8 gigs of ram cap, and everything else works 100%. I will most likely be using one in my next build for my wife's system.

thanks for your reply kaido. i'm having a hard time finding anything about the motherboards you mentioned over at the insanelymac forums. maybe i am not looking in the right place? i have been searching through the leo 10.5 installation area.

Here it is:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/i...&p=554411&#entry554411

InsanelyMac doesn't have a very good search feature, unfortunately. The easiest way to do a search is to use Google's site-search feature. For example, type this into google:

dfi blood iron site:insanelymac.com

The other board is the DFI Lanparty. My friend ordered one and will give me the details later this week. It's a better board than the Bloodiron yet has the same features and price, so I'm crossing my fingers that it works. I'm using one for my next build (e8400 Penryn-based), so I'll post back when I get news on it. Should be this weekend.

oh i see. interesting thread i'm reading it now. i'm also going to do some reading up on this motherboard in general. once you find out model # or specs or whatever about the lanparty board please let us all know. thanks for the quick reply and tip about searching insanelymac!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: roastin nugs

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs
hello everyone - great thread kaido.

i'm thinkin about building a new pc for gaming (windows side) and playing around with the Hackintosh idea.

i was planning to used a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 with an e8400 cpu. in your opinion would that be a good setup? also, i might just wait till 10.5.2 to even mess with all of this as I want to use probably a 8800gts or gtx. (was reading over at insanelymac forums that better support for that card will be availible with 10.5.2? correct me if im wrong there).

1. The 10.5.2 beta kexts have already been ripped and people are using GT cards like crazy
2. GTS/GTX cards are already supported anyway (I've had a GTS card in mine for awhile, great setup!)
3. The last release of the 10.5.2 to developers works on Hackintoshes, so unless they add something before the final release we're good

As far as motherboards go, keep an eye on the DFI Bloodiron/Lanparty. It looks like it's going to be the poster child for single-processor Hackintosh systems since it has 6 SATA ports, working onboard audio, support for Penryn processors (including quads), 8 gigs of ram cap, and everything else works 100%. I will most likely be using one in my next build for my wife's system.

thanks for your reply kaido. i'm having a hard time finding anything about the motherboards you mentioned over at the insanelymac forums. maybe i am not looking in the right place? i have been searching through the leo 10.5 installation area.

Here it is:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/i...&p=554411&#entry554411

InsanelyMac doesn't have a very good search feature, unfortunately. The easiest way to do a search is to use Google's site-search feature. For example, type this into google:

dfi blood iron site:insanelymac.com

The other board is the DFI Lanparty. My friend ordered one and will give me the details later this week. It's a better board than the Bloodiron yet has the same features and price, so I'm crossing my fingers that it works. I'm using one for my next build (e8400 Penryn-based), so I'll post back when I get news on it. Should be this weekend.

oh i see. interesting thread i'm reading it now. i'm also going to do some reading up on this motherboard in general. once you find out model # or specs or whatever about the lanparty board please let us all know. thanks for the quick reply and tip about searching insanelymac!

Here is the DFI Lanparty board, $150 from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813136043

Features:
-Penryn support
-Dual and Quad-core support
-Max 8 gigs of ram
-6 SATA ports
-Onboard Ethernet (working)
-Onboard Audio (working)

Just add CPU, RAM, GPU plus DVD and HDD. Choose whatever case suits your fancy and pick out an appropriate power supply. This has NOT been tested as working yet, but it will be tested this weekend. It has all the same stuff as the DFI Bloodiron, so chances are good it will be 100% compatible as well.

 

[roastin nugs]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: roastin nugs
hello everyone - great thread kaido.

i'm thinkin about building a new pc for gaming (windows side) and playing around with the Hackintosh idea.

i was planning to used a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 with an e8400 cpu. in your opinion would that be a good setup? also, i might just wait till 10.5.2 to even mess with all of this as I want to use probably a 8800gts or gtx. (was reading over at insanelymac forums that better support for that card will be availible with 10.5.2? correct me if im wrong there).

1. The 10.5.2 beta kexts have already been ripped and people are using GT cards like crazy
2. GTS/GTX cards are already supported anyway (I've had a GTS card in mine for awhile, great setup!)
3. The last release of the 10.5.2 to developers works on Hackintoshes, so unless they add something before the final release we're good

As far as motherboards go, keep an eye on the DFI Bloodiron/Lanparty. It looks like it's going to be the poster child for single-processor Hackintosh systems since it has 6 SATA ports, working onboard audio, support for Penryn processors (including quads), 8 gigs of ram cap, and everything else works 100%. I will most likely be using one in my next build for my wife's system.

thanks for your reply kaido. i'm having a hard time finding anything about the motherboards you mentioned over at the insanelymac forums. maybe i am not looking in the right place? i have been searching through the leo 10.5 installation area.

Here it is:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/i...&p=554411&#entry554411

InsanelyMac doesn't have a very good search feature, unfortunately. The easiest way to do a search is to use Google's site-search feature. For example, type this into google:

dfi blood iron site:insanelymac.com

The other board is the DFI Lanparty. My friend ordered one and will give me the details later this week. It's a better board than the Bloodiron yet has the same features and price, so I'm crossing my fingers that it works. I'm using one for my next build (e8400 Penryn-based), so I'll post back when I get news on it. Should be this weekend.

oh i see. interesting thread i'm reading it now. i'm also going to do some reading up on this motherboard in general. once you find out model # or specs or whatever about the lanparty board please let us all know. thanks for the quick reply and tip about searching insanelymac!

Here is the DFI Lanparty board, $150 from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813136043

Features:
-Penryn support
-Dual and Quad-core support
-Max 8 gigs of ram
-6 SATA ports
-Onboard Ethernet (working)
-Onboard Audio (working)

Just add CPU, RAM, GPU plus DVD and HDD. Choose whatever case suits your fancy and pick out an appropriate power supply. This has NOT been tested as working yet, but it will be tested this weekend. It has all the same stuff as the DFI Bloodiron, so chances are good it will be 100% compatible as well.

wow that looks like an awesome motherboard for the price. ill be staying tuned for your results this weekend.

 

[Kaido]

Netkas has some instructions for updating to 10.5.2:

http://netkas.org/?p=50

Don't download it from Software Update - you need to install it manually with some tweaks because it eats some extensions. Fairly simple though

 

[roastin nugs]

hmm that lanparty board that was on the egg has been deactivated! thats no good. im still looking forward to your results tho.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: roastin nugs
hmm that lanparty board that was on the egg has been deactivated! thats no good. im still looking forward to your results tho.

If you can find a Lanparty, it's a little bit of a nicer board than the Bloodiron, but they're essentially the same.

DFI Blood Iron - 100% working (Blood Iron P35-T2RL version tested)
DFI Lanparty - 100% working (LANPARTY DK P35-T2RS)

Also, the Quadro FX 5600 mod works! Just saved myself $2,400 thanks to aquamac

http://forum.insanelymac.com/i...view=findpost&p=622940

 

[iampliny]

OK I was about to put together my new OC Hackintosh system based on the Abit IP35 Pro when a nice gent on another board said "check out the Blood Iron" and a little searching landed me here.

Kaido, et al -- do you have any thoughts on the "red" vs "black" P35 Blood Iron? Newegg has both versions of the black (including the one with pipes). Here and here. More expensive than the red board, I'd guess because of the extra PCI x16 slots.

I'm planning on putting a q6600 G0 in there and OC'ing to 3.2 at least. Not going too crazy on the clock, since I'm going for a nice stable Pro Apps rig ... not a screaming 200fps at COD4 or anything.

So, do I want the bad boy black board with the pipes? How far did you OC your red board rig, if at all?

Any insight here much appreciated...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: iampliny
OK I was about to put together my new OC Hackintosh system based on the Abit IP35 Pro when a nice gent on another board said "check out the Blood Iron" and a little searching landed me here.

Kaido, et al -- do you have any thoughts on the "red" vs "black" P35 Blood Iron? Newegg has both versions of the black (including the one with pipes). Here and here. More expensive than the red board, I'd guess because of the extra PCI x16 slots.

I'm planning on putting a q6600 G0 in there and OC'ing to 3.2 at least. Not going too crazy on the clock, since I'm going for a nice stable Pro Apps rig ... not a screaming 200fps at COD4 or anything.

So, do I want the bad boy black board with the pipes? How far did you OC your red board rig, if at all?

Any insight here much appreciated...

The red board has been confirmed working by 2 users. This is the board, although it has been deactivated on Newegg so you'll have to buy elsewhere:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813136038

 

[Kaido]

Lanparty:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813136043

Blood Iron:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813136038

Those two have been confirmed working 100%. They are sold out on Newegg though (well, deactivated).

Also I got dual RAID cards working today. 700mb RAID 0 to RAID 0 set transfer took a whopping 5 seconds :Q $21.99 per card on Newegg too!

 

[Kaido]

Well the hardware on my beast is done:

Guts:
Coolermaster 690 case
Corsair 520w modular PSU
Nexus 120mm Real Quiet case fans x 2 (front & rear)

Core:
Intel Q6600 2.4ghz Quad-core processor
Scythe Infinity 120mm HSF
8gb DDR2-800 RAM

Drives:
20x Lite-on DVD burner with Lightscribe
3.5" internal USB 62-in-1 card reader with USB port
2 x 500gb boot drives (in RAID 0)
2 x 250gb spare drives (in RAID 1)
500gb backup drive

Cards:
BFG 600mhz/768mb 8800GTX (ROM-modded into a Quadro FX 5600)
2-port Rosewill RAID 0/1 PCIe card x 2
Griffin iMic USB sound card

Everything works great! If I were to do it over again, I would get a DFI Lanparty motherboard instead of an Intel Bad Axe 2 because the Lanparty has working onboard Audio, 6 SATA ports (BA2 only has 4 working), and support for Penryn processors. Not that big of a deal though since I got a USB sound card and a couple RAID cards anyway. My system overclocks to 3ghz with hardly any heat increase, so I'm pretty happy overall. The total price for all components is a little over $1,000 less than the entry-level $2,800 Mac Pro (if you add in a keyboard and mouse, plus shipping), so I came away with huge savings, plus huge performance gains for very little money.

For comparison:

Apple Mac Pro
Single 2.8GHz Intel Xeon (quad-core)
8GB (4x2GB) 800mhz DDR2 FB-DIMMs
3 x 500GB SATA drives
Nvidia 1.5gb Quadro FX 5600

Total $7249

To be fair, my Quadro 5600 only has 1/2 the ram of the Apple model (768mb vs 1.5gb), but my CPU at 3ghz outperforms even the quad 3ghz Xeon and I didn't include the $800 Mac Pro RAID card, so there's some give and take there. So I saved at least $5,000 with my configuration, plus I can replace any part without having to go to the Apple store. It requires a little bit more maintainance as far as installing Apple Updates goes, but that's a small price to pay for what I got.

 

[iampliny]

No worries, the red board is in enough other places. Just trying to decide whether to get it or the black one still on NewEgg.

Red:
- about $50 cheaper
- single 16x PCI-E
- 6 SATA
- audio on board

Black
- Trhee 16x PCI-E
- 8 SATA
- audio on separate panel

Hmmmm.

I'll be curious to see whether the Blood Iron onboard RAID works under Leopard.

Does the BA2 not feature onboard RAID, or does it just not work on your Hackintosh? Wanna post a link to the RAID controllers you got?

I'll be sure to post more as I build my system ... mwahahaha.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: iampliny
No worries, the red board is in enough other places. Just trying to decide whether to get it or the black one still on NewEgg.

Red:
- about $50 cheaper
- single 16x PCI-E
- 6 SATA
- audio on board

Black
- Trhee 16x PCI-E
- 8 SATA
- audio on separate panel

Hmmmm.

I'll be curious to see whether the Blood Iron onboard RAID works under Leopard.

Does the BA2 not feature onboard RAID, or does it just not work on your Hackintosh? Wanna post a link to the RAID controllers you got?

I'll be sure to post more as I build my system ... mwahahaha.

Onboard RAID doesn't work on pretty much ALL motherboards. On the BA2, the Marvell controller isn't supported under Leopard so you only get 4 SATA ports instead of 8 SATA ports. Here's a link to the RAID card I got:

http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16816132008

I don't believe the Blood Iron's onboard RAID works under Leopard. Again very few if any onboard RAID chips are supported under Leopard.

Remember that the red color is only for the Blood Iron and the black color is only for the Lanparty. Any other board names/colors have not been tested (i.e. black Blood Iron or red Lanparty = unknown). The links I posted are to the exact boards that have been tested as working, just FYI before you purchase. Both are $140-$150. If you buy any other board than what I linked to, there is no gaurantee it will work. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, maybe some things will work and not others. My advice is to get one of the exact models I linked to if you want 100% compatibility. Check sites like NCIX USA to get good prices.