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Hackintosh users: How stable is your system?


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Hackintosh users: How stable is your system?
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2008-04-21, 13:57

I'm thinking of building a hackintosh server to handle a bit of tasking here at my place. I'm not planning to run regular system updates or anything, but I would want it to be able to be left running and untouched for weeks and even months on end. Is your hack stable enough to do this? I know in general hackintosh systems are prone to kernel panics and such, but what about in a situation where it's managing HDDs and iTunes sharing for my network?

Beyond that, How stable is your system? When does it normally crash and burn on you? If you wouldn't mind, what's your basic configuration (MoBo, CPU, GPU, etc.)?

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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Yonzie
Mac Mini Maniac
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
 
2008-05-01, 18:50

My hackintosh consisted of the following:
Gigabyte P35-DS4 (rev. 1)
Intel C2D E6400 (2.13Ghz overclocked to 2.85Ghz)
4x1GB PC-8500 RAM
GeForce 8800GTX
SATA harddrive+DVD drive (I believe IDE won't work, although I didn't check it out myself)

It worked pretty much flawlessly.
On bootup I got an error about some kext not working. Tried fixing it, but failed.
Photoshop would crash when trying to activate.
iTunes wouldn't recognize the AppleTV (MBP could connect just fine)

After a month and a half I got two Kernel Panics in rapid succession which pushed me over the edge (These were the first since I set it up though, so it's not like it was a regular occurrence). There may have been some external-ish reason for it, it's been a few months and I can't quite remember.
I use a Mac because I don't want to waste my time fixing the computer. While the Hackintosh I made was nearly perfect, "nearly" isn't good enough for me

Converted 07/2005.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2008-05-01, 21:02

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?

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
Yonzie
Mac Mini Maniac
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
 
2008-05-02, 04:45

Oh, I forgot, in the end I upgraded to... 10.5.2 I think, and it died. At this point the Mac Pro was on the way and I couldn't be bothered to look for a solution.

Converted 07/2005.
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Eugene
careful with axes
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
 
2008-05-02, 04:59

I run an unconventional Athlon X2 3800+ (nForce4) based Hackintosh so my experiences would be largely irrelevant. I'm 100% sure its stability issues are due to the vast architectural differences in my hardware from standard Apple fare.

Off the shelf Intel based components should work much better however. The Photoshop issue is fixed by installing a custom AppleSMBIOS.kext file. The kernel panics, I'm not sure about. The one thing I'll mention though is that the AMD-based "Zephyroth" Install DVD is a lot tidier and better maintained than the popular "Kalyway" Intel DVD.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2008-05-02, 08:18

How long did you run it on your Q6600 machine?
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2008-05-02, 12:39

From what I've read around the net, boards with the Intel P35 (especially ones with a Realtech audio chipset) chipset are best for Hackintoshs. Also of note, I've seen a lot of good reports from those who are using the DFI blood Iron board for their hackintoshes. The CPU doesn't seem to matter as much as the chipset used on the board.
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Eugene
careful with axes
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
 
2008-05-02, 15:55

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
How long did you run it on your Q6600 machine?
Only for a couple of days after I initially built it.
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Yonzie
Mac Mini Maniac
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
 
2008-05-02, 16:33

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eugene View Post
The Photoshop issue is fixed by installing a custom AppleSMBIOS.kext file.
Tried it, several times, didn't work. Should have RTFM more, but I guess that's what I pay Apple to do for me.
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scratt
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: M-F: Thailand Weekends : F1 2010 - Various Tracks!
Send a message via Skype™ to scratt 
2008-05-03, 08:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yonzie View Post
I use a Mac because I don't want to waste my time fixing the computer.
Bingo.. I love the fact that people have hacked things to make Hackintoshs, and I love playing with my machines to see what you can do.. RIght now, for example I am online sharing my hacked iPhone's internet connection sat on the beach in Jomtien, Thailand..

But when I retired from full time programming I switched full time to Macs from any other flavour of machine because I was so sick and tired of actually having to spend time getting PCs to "do stuff". This is not a dig at PCs per se, but the beauty of Macs is two fold.. You can do cool geeky technical 'unixy' stuff if you wish, but you can also choose a path of just using them as 'The Steve' intended..

Because I still program I obviously have dev machines that I pull apart and frak about with and I would consequently not use day to day for Mail and other mundane stuff for fear of losing that data. However, my primary Macs are completely vanilla because that way I have a machine that works and is near as dammit 100% stable.

I'd love to have time to play with a Hackintosh, but I'd only do it as an academic exercise, not as a conscious choice as my main machine *if* I wanted to use Apple Computers, which seems to be the reason that most are considering these machines.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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Partial
Stallion
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Milwaukee
 
2008-05-05, 15:57

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
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.

...and calling/e-mailing/texting ex-girlfriends on the off-chance they'll invite you over for some "old time's sake" no-strings couch gymnastics...
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Zack
New Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Los Angeles, CA
 
2008-06-28, 07:16

Anyone curious about Hackintoshes should go ahead and build one and see for yourself. Don't start with a $1,000 system if you're afraid of the concept due to a lot of FUD from people that didn't really try all that hard- these days you can build a MHack for $300 and be amazed at how well the machine performs even at that price range.

The machines I've built are amazingly stable. I've never even seen a kernel panic on any of 3 machines I've built, and frankly, for those of you who've had that experience this late in the game, I truly believe you weren't following a decent setup guide, and didn't pay attention to use 100% compatible hardware.

It doesn't take all that much work- at this point the majority of the work has been figured out by others- if you can follow a few instructions, and take 5 minutes worth of time after the basic install to patch a few things, you can have a stable system for a fraction of the cost of say, a Mac Pro. And it will perform about 90% as good, and much better than anything else from Apple.

Yonzie, you simply didn't give the Gigabyte DS4 it's due- that's a 100% OSX compatible system, and is CHILD'S PLAY to set up so it runs correctly. There's no more to figure out to running OSX flawlessly on that setup, than there is to running it on a real Mac, because others have already figured it out, and tons of 'just connect the freakin' dots' guides for that very machine abound.

My system of very similar specs runs flawlessly, and I've been using it for Final Cut work for over a month now, no issues at all. Do any search of the web, that model board, (now the EP35-DS4 rev. 2) + Hackintosh and you'll find hundreds of satisfied MHack users.

Ditto dozens of other compatible boards.

I also built a very nice sub-$400 system based around the Intel BOXDG31 motherboard and a cheap Core2 Duo. Again, the system is flawless. Runs Final Cut, Photoshop, and everything else better than anything from Apple other than a MacPro, for so little money it's almost foolish not to build something similar if you have a need for a decent mid-range desktop Mac.

If you never see the tower, you'd never know you weren't using a 'real' Mac with either of my systems.

For anyone curious to build a hacked Mac,- check out forums like insanelymac, and read up on all the successful installs.

If you do take the plunge, don't just go by the naysayers who just want to say only Apple can get it right- not true. You can build an extremely capable Hackintosh very easily- just you have to actually commit to it, cherry pick hardware that works perfectly, and follow guides from others who have the same hardware, and GUARANTEED have already made and worked out any mistakes that it's silly to quit because of without merely taking 2 MINUTES (!!) to read up and figure things out.

With my systems, I merely *ahem* installed the OS correctly to begin with, had to patch my 8600GT video card to enable QE/CI, (literally took a minute or two), and applied a few fixes to make sure sleep worked properly. Beyond that, I've had to do nothing else involving the Mac OS specifically- it took a little bit of effort to set up quad booting with OSX, Windows XP, Linux and Vista- but that's the case no matter the OS.
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