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The Intel transition removed the single highest barrier to running Mac software on regular PCs: That has all changed now. At this point I should mention this article is in no way intended to be an install guide or an endorsement of Hackintoshing. That said, Apple has done surprisingly little to shut down the Hackintosh community. These OSx86 enthusiast communities have existed for years without so much as a cease-and-desist.
Poor-to-nonexistent driver support and power management mean that laptops make terrible Hackintoshes, and laptops account for 80 percent of all Mac shipments. Listing image by Dan Counsell. You must login or create an account to comment. Skip to main content. Hackintoshes are PCs that run macOS, which means you can do whatever you want with the design. Designer Sebastiaan de With's triple-monitor setup uses actual Apple monitors. The hardware compatibility list is very narrow; wireless and sound drivers will give you many joyous hours of research on Hackintosh forums.
This is because Apple uses customized hardware that is not available to end-users for purchase at stores like Newegg and Amazon. Depending on the purpose of your Hackintosh, you will have to choose a CPU, motherboard, graphics card and so on. The Hackintosh community is not centralized by any means, which means there are numerous wikis, guides, and hardware compatibility lists.
I recommend you visit each one of these sites, and pick from the lists given, the hardware that is closest to your needs. You need to familiarize yourself with the technical specifications of the listed hardware in order to make an educated decision.
You still have to buy and assemble the computer, but they have already chosen compatible components for three types of Hacintoshes: Lite for web-browsing, text and spreadsheet editing, YouTube , Moderate a solid configuration for hobby music, video, design and Pro a true workstation for professional creative work, and will do just fine at rendering HD videos. They also provide a piece of software free of charge that will automatically install Mac OS X Lion or Snow Leopard as well as all the drivers only for these specific configurations.
MakeUseOf has a complete guide on how to build a new PC, which is available for free. Written by Karl L.
From there, we'll put the whole thing together, install OS X, and configure everything for maximum performance. Thanks to the efforts of an increasingly active online community of developers, building a Hackintosh--a PC built from components that runs OS X like a charm--has never been easier. In the past, setting up a Hackintosh potentially involved an illegally pirated and tweaked OS X install disc, which was even less savory. Of course provide a warning and legal disclaimer, but this is a bit too much and too complicated. Click on Install and wait while the files are being copied. Once you begin to pick up the language spoken within, you'll find the forums surrounding the various Hackintosh communities to be incredibly valuable tools for learning and troubleshooting.
Gechlik, it takes you step by step through the building process and is a great companion for this guide. Do you have the hardware you need? Then lets get started with installation. Here is your preparation checklist:.
Do not connect multiple displays. Install just one hard drive, the one you want to use to install OS X. Follow the instructions written in the motherboard manual in order to enter the BIOS configuration utility. Finally, select and enable the High-Performance or Optimized Defaults. Save the changes and reboot. The latest version is posted on the tonymacx86 forum. When the installation screen appears, choose Disk Utility from Utilities in the menu at the top of the screen.
Click on Install and wait while the files are being copied. Dual-boot instructions are provided further into the guide. Before partitioning the disk, please consult that section. When the installation completes, restart your computer and insert the iBoot CD. Choose the Leopard disk we created earlier. Do not install updates from Apple, under any circumstances. We need to patch the updates before installing them. Download MultiBeast and the MultiBeast is a tool that enables you to boot directly from the hard drive without using iBoot and installs drivers for commonly used motherboard chipsets, graphics and sound cards, in the Hackintosh community.
There are two installation options available:.
Think Different: How to Build Your Own Hackintosh - Kindle edition by Stefan Neagu. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Check out “Think Different: How to Build Your Own Hackintosh”, the latest guide from MakeUseOf. By author Stefan Neagu, this how to.
If not, choose EasyBeast. Select System Utilities and install more drivers from Advanced Options. It is not necessary to check the bootloader option, it is automatically installed. There is another installation method that implies downloading an already patched version of Mac OS X from a peer to peer file sharing network. The OS X Installation wizard is the same only that it will offer you a choice of drivers before starting to copy files to the hard drive.
For legal reasons we cannot offer direct links to this software. When it is finished, it should boot into Mac OS X. Boot from it and choose Repair your computer.
This will allow you to uncheck components before installation. You need to deselect everything except the Bootloader, and then proceed with the install wizard.
Make sure Chameleon 2. At each boot-up the bootloader will allow you to choose which operating system you want to start. Mac OS X is based on the Unix core which makes it one of the most stable, reliable and fast operating systems available to consumers. The user interface is in my opinion the best: Your Mac OS X installation comes with a suite of applications: You can drag and drop any folder or application you want for quick access.
At the top right of the screen is the status bar, containing icons which tell you the time, WiFi connection strength, volume, etc.