[Yonzie]

As some may know, I've been using this here Hackintosh for about a month now. It works pretty well, but I originally Switched because a Mac Just Works™. This doesn't:
* CS3 crashes upon trying to register.
* EyeTV crashes upon startup.
* Two kernel panics today. (First time, but still...)
* Bought a DVD-RW, and it works, but periodically, it will refuse to eject the CD. After I manually eject them, Finder complains of me inserting a blank CD... Also it can't rip music CDs for some lame reason.
* My NIC will only run at 100Mbit speed.
* For some bizarre reason, I can't connect to my AppleTV. The MBP works fine though...

Applying a fix to the CS3 problem didn't fix the problem, and only produced further troubles...
This is starting to smell like Windows and I don't like it.
At least I've spent almost no money since it was my old gaming computer (ill-used though).

Now, there's just the small matter of the ridiculousness of the 3 rear-mounted USB ports on the Mac Pro. Currently, I use 6...
Oh, and to get the Radeon now or wait 2-3 weeks for the 8800? Hmm... Tough decision...

[Dave]

If you don't mind paying full price for it, you can order the 8800 separately. Personally, I do mind, so my Mac Pro won't get here until the end of Feb.

[Xaqtly]

18 days to go on my Mac Pro/8800GT. There's also two USB ports on the front if that helps, but I just use a hub for most of my USB thingies. I am going to do some gaming on it, so I had to get the 8800.

[kieran]

Yonzie: I keep meaning to ask you how that Hackentosh was working out for you.

I just never thought it would be worth all of the trouble to get it going and keep it updated and all.

I guess it just got to be too much of a PITA for you to deal with.

[Yonzie]

Originally Posted by Xaqtly There's also two USB ports on the front if that helps

Naw. I got the following:
* Hub in monitor (iPod/iPhone docks, card reader)
* Mouse
* Keyboard
* Scanner
* EyeTV
* Dongle for windows-stuff (I guess this can be subtracted)

Originally Posted by kieran23kk I just never thought it would be worth all of the trouble to get it going and keep it updated and all.

The getting it going part actually wasn't too bad. I won't make this into a build-an-xMac thread, but I had apparently chosen an extremely good motherboard to make a hackintosh out of.

Originally Posted by kieran23kk I guess it just got to be too much of a PITA for you to deal with.

Well, it works, mostly. In my (somewhat tainted) opinion, it works better than a windows computer, but unfortunately not by too much. I've just outgrown the whole "making it work is part of the enjoyment"-thing in regards to PCs. It should just be there for me to use, working, always.

I guess I may have to reconsider that 30" upgrade now, but I guess you cant get everything always ^_^


Edit: Mac Pro No Can Haz Bluetoof?

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Yonzie Naw. I got the following: * Hub in monitor (iPod/iPhone docks, card reader) * Mouse * Keyboard * Scanner * EyeTV * Dongle for windows-stuff (I guess this can be subtracted)

So can the mouse, if you plug it into the keyboard. Now you're down to 4, with three on the back and one in the front for the keyboard. Profit!

Better yet, go wireless on those. Now you're down to three, and all in the back. (Yes, u can haz bwootoof too.)

From http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html :

Communications

Two independent 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet (RJ-45) interfaces with support for jumbo frames
Bluetooth 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) up to 3Mb/s
Optional 802.11n AirPort Extreme wireless networking2
Optional external Apple USB Modem (RJ-11)

[Koodari]

That doesn't sound entirely horrible, actually, from drivers that don't officially support the hardware.

I have managed a kernel panic, a graphic lockup and lots of strange Finder behavior on Macbook. It's not bulletproof either.

[kieran]

Originally Posted by Yonzie Edit: Mac Pro No Can Haz Bluetoof?

Originally Posted by Apple.com Mac Pro Tech Specs Bluetooth 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) up to 3Mb/s

802.11n Wireless is optional.

[Yonzie]

Originally Posted by Kickaha So can the mouse, if you plug it into the keyboard. Now you're down to 4, with three on the back and one in the front for the keyboard. Profit!

No mouse in keyboard because then I'll have yet another wire on the table No wireless mouse because Razer only makes wired mice

Originally Posted by Kickaha Better yet, go wireless on those. Now you're down to three, and all in the back. (Yes, u can haz bwootoof too.)

As I've written in another thread, I'm not too happy with this new MacBook-ish keyboard. Unfortunately, I can't find the old Apple Keyboard anywhere (also needs Danish layout). All other keyboards are Made For Windows™ so their layout is screwed up in OS X (not to mention the damn Windows key).

Originally Posted by Kickaha Bluetooth 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) up to 3Mb/s

Right. I just looked at the Shop-page. Guess I should learn to look at the proper page

Originally Posted by Koodari That doesn't sound entirely horrible, actually, from drivers that don't officially support the hardware.

I'm actually quite impressed too, I just want better

[iThink therefore iMac]

I saw this today, which was posted over at engadget . It looks pretty cool and you get some extra USB ports.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by iThink therefore iMac I saw this today, which was posted over at engadget . It looks pretty cool and you get some extra USB ports.

Why would I want raised, front facing USB ports right over where my keyboard might be? That is an abominable design.

[Eugene]

Building on this thread though, I've decided to leave the new PC as exclusively a Windows machine and convert the AMD box to use as a Hackintosh/plaything. Not an easy task at all considering how drastically different my Athlon X2 on an NForce4 board is from anything Apple has ever made...

I somehow managed to install an EFI bootloader to it, so I'm sitting pretty with my HDD under a GUID partition table instead of MBR.

What doesn't work out of the box:
Networking...Someone made an NForce LAN driver, but it's terrible. It causes hard locks at random if there is network activity. Luckily my board also has a Marvell LAN, and the driver for that is stable.

Accelerated video...I bought a Radeon HD3450 recently because it is passively cooled (the heatsink still gets quite hot). CoreImage and Quartz Extreme do not work out of the box, but I've contacted the guy who hacked up some Radeon drivers for other unsupported cards, so I think this will be fully working soon.

Software updates...certain software updates need to be patched with an app called Marvin's AMD Utility, which will patch binaries with the necessary CPUIDs to run on AMD processors. System updates are difficult because various critical apps like Finder and other CoreServices will break too. I created two partitions, each with Leopard to get around this. When I patch my "sandbox" partition to test out an update, I can boot into the main partition and run the patcher.

Everything else works so far and I feel better having gone through the learning process rather than previously being oblivious to the Hackintosh phenomenon before.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Eugene Why would I want raised, front facing USB ports right over where my keyboard might be? That is an abominable design.

I don't think they mean for you to use those for things that are plugged in for an extended period of time, like a hard drive or printer, but rather things you just plug in for short periods of time, like iPods or flash drives. I think it's actually a pretty clever setup.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by fcgriz I don't think they mean for you to use those for things that are plugged in for an extended period of time, like a hard drive or printer, but rather things you just plug in for short periods of time, like iPods or flash drives. I think it's actually a pretty clever setup.

Why would there be four of them then? The problem with that reasoning is you can design something for temporary connections that works just as well for permanent ones...

[Yontsey]

I wonder if you can turn it around and the back is open so the USB ports are in the back...

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Yontsey I wonder if you can turn it around and the back is open so the USB ports are in the back...

There's likely at least one "B" style port on the back and a DC connector if the ports are powered. I think I've mentioned before that I dislike front facing ports in general, though the ones on the Mac Pro are acceptable since the tower itself will be out of the way in most cases...

[Brad]

Originally Posted by PB PM never mind. Delete.

FYI, when you click the edit button, you should see a "delete" button appear so you can do this yourself.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Eugene Why would there be four of them then?

Marketing. If it's only one port, it's just an elaborate extension cord. If there are only two, some people won't see any benefit. Most USB hubs are four ports, so they went with that.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by fcgriz Marketing. If it's only one port, it's just an elaborate extension cord. If there are only two, some people won't see any benefit. Most USB hubs are four ports, so they went with that.

The fix:

* Rotate the ports 90 degrees.
* Decrease the size of the bump.
* Add a small facility for routing iPod/iPhone dock connector cables...a little vertical divider will do.