Project: Xenomorph 2.5
I received my new motherboard and hard drives, but I spent most of the last two days trying to figure out why Windows would not install to one of my older SATA hard drives with AHCI and SATA Native Mode enabled in BIOS. It finally came down to my two 250gb SATA/150 hard drives not being compatible. Both hard drives were OEM and came with a PowerMac G5, so it’s not suprising, but I now have 500gb less capacity because of it. For now I’ll be installing Mac OS X and Windows Vista: Home Premium on their own separate Samsung F1 (SATA2/300) 500gb hard drives. Vista is already installed because I was in immediate need of it for a visio project, and I’ll be installing Mac OS X and documenting settings as promised in one of my prior comments.
08.31.08Project: Frankintosh
My Dad and I got a wild hair to build a ‘Hackintosh’ this weekend. A Hackintosh is basically a standard PC running a patched up version of Mac OS X. Originally we had tried to accomplish this with my gaming rig, but unfortunately we were shot down due to my board having an incompatible nForce chipset. We went back to the drawing board and searched for a motherboard generally accepted as compatible. Our conclusion was Gigabyte’s GA-EP45-DS3R ATX motherboard.
The parts we selected are as follows:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R
- CPU: Intel E8400 3.0Ghz ‘Wolfdale’
- Memory: Corsair XMS (2×2) 4GB DDR2 800
- Video Card: EVGA e-GeForce 8800GT 512MB
- DVD Drive: Sony SATA DVD-R/RW Drive
- Hard Drive: 1x Hitachi 250GB SATA HDD
- PSU CoolerMaster 550w EPS12V
- Case: Thermaltake Armor+MX
We experimented with pretty much every pre-packaged OSx86 install DVD (Kalyway, iATKOS, JaS, Leo4All), and came to the conclusion that Kalyway was the most compatible with our hardware configuration. Using the Kalyway DVD, we chose to install the modified sleep kernel, REALTEKR100 for LAN, and unchecked everything else under LAN, Audio, and Video. Everything else was left pretty much as-is.
Upon setup and installation of Mac OS X, we had working LAN and basic video out of the box. Sound needed to be patched via the following kext files. These were obtained here: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=76404
HDAEnabler.kext.zip
Latest_889a_AppleHDA.kext.zip
Latest_11_JUN_AppleACPIPlatform.kext.zip
Lastly, we patched the graphics with NVinject 0.2.1 (NVInstaller v.52), which we found here: http://scottdangel.com/blog/?page_id=20.
Everything appears to be working, including 3D and video at 1920×1200, LAN, Sound, etc. Overall it seems more fluid than the Mac Pro (2.6Ghz Xeon) that it’s replacing.
08.22.08My Mac is Back!
After a dreadfully long week without my MacBook Pro, I finally have my Mac back. I’m still working on getting everything back to the way it was, but it’s great to be back on my primary machine. The only machine I could really retreat to was my Vista gaming box. Perhaps I should write a book: “Vista: A Survival Story.”
Anyways, the turn-around was really fast! I filed a case on Monday, received a box Tuesday and shipped it out, Apple received it Wednesday, shipped it Thursday, and I received it today (Friday). The service report mentioned that they replaced the motherboard, hard drive, and the flex assembly for my LCD, which basically makes it a whole new computer.
08.19.08MacBook Pro in for Service
Sent my MacBook Pro in for service today. Seems to be something wrong with the PMU. Basically the computer was unusable and I need it to do anything halfway productive. Living on my Vista gaming box for now. Wish me luck in keeping my sanity.
08.16.08G5 + G15 = G20?
I jumped aboard the Logitech G5 gaming mouse and G15 gaming keyboard bandwagon today, and I couldn’t be happier. I never thought that it would make such a difference, but now I can actually hold my own in games like Team Fortress 2, rather than being free frags for other players. Loved the MX3200 desktop set, and surely got my $10 worth I spent on it (got a deal on it before CompUSA closed), but this is the real deal right here.
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