Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472
Well, I'm just exploring my options really. It is unlikely that I'll go with a Hackintosh for a server here since I don't think I'll really be able to trust it. It might be fun to tinker with though. 
Thanks for answering my post though. Anyone else? tensdanny38, Eugene? |
Well, that is an excellent question you are posing. I believe the answer can range anywhere from horrendous support and grey screen of death constantly to having a rock solid set-up.
I figured out that my system kept crashing because it had 4gb of ram. When I edited the boot plist and set my maxram to 3.25 gb, it hasn't crashed since.
I haven't looked into other chipsets too much, but it seems that the P35 from Intel does pretty well with 10.5.2.
I have read of people having issues with IDE components, but I think members of the Insanely Mac community have taken care of those with custom kexts.
Personally, I would go the linux route if I'm going to do a server for the stability aspect of it, but I suppose a hackintosh could work as well. My advice would be to read up on the Kalyway disks and find out what boards/chipsets are best suported and go from their.
In terms of the other hardware, I recommend going with the cheapest allendale version of the core 2 that you can find. They're cheap, extremely overclockable (I have a 70% OC right now at 33 celcius on an e2180). I'd go with an nvidia card, as the nvinject drivers have served me well. I'd limit my ram to 3gb. I'd go with a sata drive and sata optical drive.
So far I have the latest everything on 10.5.2 and haven't had any problems beyond the semi-regular crashing from the 4gb of ram. It's WAY faster than my first gen MacBook ever was. My advice is one you find a board, just go some google searches on "board_name kalyway tutorial" or something to that effect. Most times there are threads about how to get the stuff that doesn't work by default working.
The big thing is just taking some time to do your homework. It really isn't that difficult to do despite how complicated it initially sounds. Kext helper, a custom app on the kalyway disk, makes hacking the kernel a piece of cake.