Building a Budget Hackintosh

Full Disclosure: The product samples used in this article have been provided by the vendors listed.

Why would you want to build a Hackintosh, when Apple's various Macintosh computers are masterpieces of industrial design? Well, for one thing, those sleek aluminum sculptures are kinda pricey. But even if cost isn't a factor, Apple's aggressive move towards non-upgradeable, non-serviceable hardware annoys the geek in all of us. A 21" iMac looks like a prop in a science fiction movie, but it's glued together like an iPad, and if you want to add more memory or replace a failed hard disk, that's just too bad. While such construction techniques are arguably defensible for laptops and tablets, where the fractional millimeters saved result in lighter, smaller devices, it's disheartening to see Apple apply them to desktop machines.

Of all the machines Apple builds, only the Mac Pro is completely serviceable and as expandable as any desktop PC, but it's a very expensive computer whose current decade-old design is becoming dated. We'll see a new Pro this year, but it's unlikely to be any cheaper.

For readers of this web site, the appeal of a Hackintosh is that you can design a Mac work-alike machine exactly as you want it, and can easily upgrade it to boot, since it's just a PC hardware-wise. I've written three previous Hackintosh articles, covering the original X58-based machine in October, 2010, and the updated Sandy Bridge version in August, 2011. In between these two articles I covered the Hackintosh Experience in November, 2010.

Today, I'll show you how to build and configure a modern Intel Ivy Bridge based machine using a mini-ITX setup. But first, let me make a couple of things clear:

1. This article is aimed at people with some experience in building their own systems. You should know your way around a BIOS, or at least have ready access to someone who does.
2. Most of the settings and configurations in this article are for the specific motherboard and video card used in this build. They cannot be generalized to systems with different hardware.

Onwards...

But first, our sponsors

This article was made possible thanks to generous support from the following sponsors:

• Intel Corporation: Ivy Bridge Core i3-3220 CPU
• Cooler Master: GEMIN II M4 CPU cooler, Elite 120 mini-ITX case
• Silverstone: ST45SF-G SFX power supply
• Crucial: 8GB low-profile Ballistix Sport RAM kit
• Seagate: 500GB SSHD 7mm disk drive ST500LM000
• ASUS: P8H77-i motherboard and BC-12B1ST Blu Ray combo DVD drive

Let's take a closer look at these components in the next section, before diving into the build.

Hackintosh Components

Since you can't use SLI or CrossFireX on a Mac, there's little need for multiple video cards, and there are no OS X drivers for third party sound cards and the like. So a single-slot mini-ITX solution works well for most applications and it's the way I went with this design. The best bang for the buck I've seen in m-ITX cases is the Cooler Master Elite 120. I've previously reviewed this case,but as a quick recap it offers both USB 2.0 and 3.0 front ports (which will be important as we see later), room for a standard ATX power supply, and a full-sized 5.25" drive bay in addition to the internal 3.5" bays. With an MSRP of only $49.95, it's a great deal.

It's almost impossible to build an AMD Hacktinosh, so we're stuck with Intel CPUs. Of course, that's hardly a bad thing, since the current Ivy Bridge lineup offers a tempting mix of power efficiency and performance. For this build we'll be using a Core i3-3220 dual-core CPU, but it supports Hyper-Threading, so the OS will see four cores. At 3.2gHz and with 3MB of cache, its performance should be all we need.

Although Intel shipped us a "white box" processor, it did come with the standard push-pin Intel cooler. And since we're building a mini-ITX rig and using a non-"K" code CPU, we're not going to be overclocking anything, so the standard cooler should work just fine. But its tiny fan can get a little whiny, and besides, I just don't like using that cooler if I can help it. Cooler Master's GEMIN II M4 low-profile cooler will keep this CPU a lot chillier than the stock cooler, and is whisper quiet, too.

The Cooler Master Elite 120 case supports standard ATX power supplies, but its tiny interior means that you'll fill most of it with the extra length of the cables that were designed for ATX-sized cases. Silverstone offers the PP-05 short cable kit for many of their power supplies, but it's easier to start with a power supply designed for small spaces to begin with. The ST45SF-G SFX power supply is small (and comes with an ATX adapter mounting plate). It's 80 Plus Gold certified, and will provide more than enough power for this build.

Seagate responded to our request with one of their new "SSHD" hybrid hard drives. This razor-thin drive is only 7mm thick and is really aimed at the ultrabook market, but it will work just fine here. The 500GB capacity of the ST500LM000 drive is supplemented with 8GB of onboard flash memory, which acts as a cache to speed frequent operations.

Let's proceed to the next section where I'll finish up the component list.

Hackintosh Components Continued

If you're building a Hackintosh, there are really only two motherboard vendors to consider: Gigabyte and ASUS. This is not to say that others won't work, but in general people have had the most luck with these two. I have previously built a mini-ITX Hackintosh with ASUS' P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard, and while that worked well, it was really overkill since the case I used didn't permit a cooler large enough for overclocking. Since we're not going to overclock this build (indeed, we can't with the Core i3-3220 CPU), it makes more sense to use ASUS' P8H77-I motherboard, which is much less expensive.

Since the Cooler Master Elite 120 case has a full-sized 5.25" bay, ASUS provided a full-size Blu Ray combo drive, model number BC-12B1ST:

If your CPU has Intel HD4000 integrated graphics, you can always elect to use that. But if you have any gaming aspirations at all, you should have a discrete video card. That said, gaming on the Macintosh platform lags far behind PC gaming, and we're aiming for a budget build, so we don't need a high end card. A generic NVIDIA GTX650 fits the bill here:

Last, Crucial supplied 8GB of memory in the form of their low-profile Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP BLS2K4G3D1609ES2LX0:

Here's a table of the parts I used in this build, with prices (current as of the time of this article) and links:

Sharp-eyed readers might notice that the GEMIN-II M4 CPU cooler isn't on the list above. Read on for the reason why.

The Build

Since mini-ITX cases don't have cutouts behind the CPU area of the motherboard, any third party coolers requiring backplates must be mounted before you install the motherboard. And this is where I ran into a problem I never anticipated: ASUS has components on the back of the P8H77-I motherboard that preclude any type of cooler backplate:

Whoops. So much for the GEMIN-II M4 cooler I'd hoped to use. (I have used this cooler on other mini-ITX builds and really like it: it offers an excellent performance boost over the Intel cooler and is virtually silent as well.) On an enthusiast level motherboard this would be a fatal flaw, but remember that the H77 chipset doesn't permit overclocking, even if you're using a "K"-series CPU. If you know you're not going to be overclocking, then the standard Intel push-pin cooler is all you'll ever need, so you don't need to worry about this. Oh, well. Installing the CPU, Intel cooler, and Crucial Ballistix memory is the work of moments.

The Cooler Master Elite 120 case is not only inexpensive, it looks good and its design allows the use of ATX power supplies and full size graphics cards. It also has one significant advantage for Hackintosh work: it's the only mini-ITX case I know of that has both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports on the front panel. Why is this a big deal? Because Hackintoshes still aren't perfect...and one way this imperfection makes itself known is the fact that USB 2.0 mass storage devices (like, say, USB keys) won't work in USB 3.0 ports. With any other mini-ITX case, you'd have only USB 2.0 front ports (in which case you couldn't use USB 3.0 devices conveniently) or only USB 3.0 ports (in which case you couldn't use USB 2.0 devices conveniently). This problem is what keeps me from recommending a case like the Bitfenix Prodigy, since its two front (well, side) USB ports are USB 3.0.

As you can see from the image above, the tiny SFX power supply is a real win in terms of working inside this small case. A full size ATX power supply pretty much covers the entire motherboard, which makes getting to things like the EPS-12V and SATA connectors a real pain. With the Silverstone ST45SF-G, it's easy. In this image you can see the Elite 120's small side fan on the right side of the case. I removed this fan for this build since it wasn't needed, and plugged the front fan into the motherboard's chassis fan connector.

Snap off the front panel, slide in the optical drive, and flip the locking lever to secure it. Another option here is to use a slim optical drive and a 3.5" device like a card reader with a special bracket to fit both items in the 5.25" bay.

As you can see, there's plenty of room for the GTX250 video card and its power cables. The left side of the Cooler Master Elite 120 case is covered with ventilation holes, so the card's cooling fan will be drawing air in directly from outside the system.

Below the 5.25" bay are three 3.5" bays for hard drives; Cooler Master supplies 2.5" adapter sleds for two of these bays. The 3.5" drive you see here is a spare I had and will be used for Time Machine backups. The Seagate SSHD is in the top bay, just below the optical drive, and isn't visible in this image.

This is one of the easiest builds I've ever done. But at this point it's just a generic PC. Let's turn it into a Hackintosh in the next section.

OS X and UniBeast

To get this Hackintosh running, we'll be using the UniBeast and MultiBeast utilities from tonymacx86.com. This is one of the premier Hackintosh sites on the web, and these two utilities, which are constantly refined and updated, are the reason building a Hackintosh has become so much easier than it used to be. Download both of these tools (at the time of this writing the latest versions were "UniBeast Mountain Lion 1.7.0" and "MultiBeast Mountain Lion 1.5.2". We'll use UniBeast to create a specially formatted USB key from which we can boot to install OS X Mountain Lion, and we'll use MultiBeast to install the drivers and tweaks to get things like Ethernet and audio working after the initial OS X installation.

Obtaining OS X

Until the release of OS X 10.7 "Lion", you could easily buy a copy of the OS X installation DVD for $29, either in person at your local Apple store, or online from Apple or another vendor. But starting with Lion, Apple only offers OS X as a download from the App Store, and the only way to download it is with the App Store on an existing Macintosh or Hackintosh. Still, it's only $19.99, so find a friend with a running system and buy a copy.

Note: When you buy Mountain Lion from the App Store, it will start running as soon as the download is finished, and, if allowed to run to completion (updating OS X on the machine it was downloaded on), will delete itself when the update is complete. So if you're buying a new copy of Mountain Lion, be sure to quit the program when it begins to run. UniBeast expects the Mountain Lion installer to be in the Applications folder of the host Mac, and to have the default name of "Install OS X Mountain Lion".

For this step you'll need:

• A running Macintosh or Hackintosh
• The "Install OS X Mountain Lion" file in the Applications folder of the host Mac or Hackintosh
• UniBeast 1.7.0 Mountain Lion from tonymacx86.com. UniBeast (and MultiBeast) are free but you must register with the site to download them.
• An 8GB or larger USB key

The first thing to do is to run Disk Utility (located in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder at the root level of the hard drive) on the host Macintosh and format the USB key. Click the Partition tab and select "1 Partition" from the Partition Layout menu. Next, select your USB key from the list at the left, and under Partition Information, give it whatever name you choose and select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format menu as shown below:

Next, click the "Options" button in the lower middle of the display. Select "Master Boot Record" from the options and then click the OK button:

Now click the Apply button, and then, in the warning dialog that appears, the Partition button. After the partitioning and formatting operations are complete, quit Disk Utility and run UniBeast:

Click the Continue button and proceed through the Read Me and License screens. Select the USB stick as the destination:

Once you click Continue, you'll be offered the options to install Legacy USB Support and Laptop Support. Don't select either of these options, and enter the Mac's system password when prompted.

Installation will take some time. UniBeast might initially estimate that it will only take a few minutes, then bump the estimate to an hour or more as shown below. Your time will vary dramatically depending on the speed of the Mac you're using as well as the speed of the USB key. Note: I've never been able to bring up a Hackintosh with a USB 3.0 key plugged into a USB 3.0 port, for what that's worth, so you might as well stick with a USB 2.0 key.

Once this process is complete, drag a copy of MultiBeast to the USB key. It's not needed for the installation of OS X but it will be handy to have it here.

It's time to install OS X!

Installing OS X

Note: Before you start installing OS X, drop into the UEFI BIOS on the P8H77-I motherboard and make sure your SATA mode is set to AHCI rather than IDE.

Plug your newly-configured USB key into a front USB 2.0 port, then turn on your Hackintosh and press the F8 key as soon as you see the first BIOS screen. This will bring up ASUS' boot device selection menu. Select your USB key here using the arrow keys, and press ENTER to start booting from the key.

The OS X Installer will start automatically. But we can't let it just run, yet, because we must first format the hard disk we'll be installing OS X on. After you get past the first OS X installer screen (the one where you're prompted to select your language), a menu bar will appear at the top of the screen. From the Utilities menu here, select Disk Utility. When the Disk Utility window appears, select the drive you want to install OS X on from the list at the left, click the Partition button at the area to the right, select 1 Partition from the Partition Layout menu, and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format menu. You can give the volume whatever name you want by typing it in the Name section; in this example, I've used "Hackintosh" as the volume name.

Don't click Apply yet, though! Instead, click the Options button below the partition diagram and choose GUID Partition Table. Now click OK, and then click Apply. If the disk was previously formatted (as opposed to being a brand new disk), you'll be asked if you're sure that you want to do this...you are. Formatting the disk should take just a few seconds. When it's done, quit Disk Utility and you'll automatically be returned to the OS X Installer.

You'll need to select the disk you want to install OS X on. For this build I used two disks: one for OS X and one as a backup disk for Time Machine, OS X's built-in incremental backup utility. Select your disk with the mouse and click Install to proceed.

When the OS X installation is complete, the system will restart. However, you still can't directly boot from the hard disk, so press the F8 key again and boot from the USB key. Since there are now two bootable devices (the USB key and the hard disk), you'll see this display:

Use the arrow keys to select the hard disk (named "Hackintosh" in this case) and press the Return key to continue booting. If all goes well, you'll be taken through the OS X setup process-- note that you can skip past most of the screens that want your contact information, Apple ID, and so forth, but you will need to create a user account, just as you would under Windows. In a minute or so you should be at the OS X desktop. But we're not done yet! In the next section I'll show how to use MultiBeast to put the final touches on everything.

Configuring OS X with MultiBeast

At this point we've successfully installed OS X on the hard disk, but the hard disk isn't bootable (remember that we initially booted off the USB key, then selected the hard disk to continue the boot process), and some features, such as sound, aren't working. We'll use MultiBeast to address these deficits.

The Finder is the program that controls the display of the Mac desktop-- it's the Mac equivalent of Windows Explorer. For some reason, its default configuration is not to show mounted devices on the desktop, so the first thing we'll do is fix that. Select Preferences from the Finder menu:

You'll see this new window:

Make sure the first three check boxes are checked as shown in this image. Click the red "gum drop" at the upper left of the window to close it. You should now see your hard disk(s) and the USB key on your desktop at the right edge of the screen. If you followed the instructions in the previous section, MultiBeast will be on your USB key. Double-click the USB key icon to open it, and double-click on MultiBeast to run it. Click Continue to get past the various copyright and information screens until you see this:

Click on the "disclosure triangles" by the Drivers and Bootloaders and Customization settings, which will reveal additional options. Make the selections shown in the image below:

We're using MultiBeast to do two things:

1. Install the patched boot loader code to the hard disk so that you can actually boot from it directly, and
2. Installing audio and Ethernet drivers.

Fortunately we don't have to worry about graphics since OS X Mountain Lion has native drivers for most NVIDIA Kepler and Fermi family video cards.

Note: If you're using an SSD as your boot disk, you'd also want to install the Trim Enabler patch under Disk.

Once you've made the selections shown, click the Continue button to apply them. The network support is via a third party Realtek driver, which will automatically launch its own installer:

Fortunately this sub-installer operates exactly as you'd expect: simply click the Continue button, select the "Release Version" (unless you're feeling adventurous), and click Continue again to install it.

Once this installer completes, you'll be back at the MultiBeast screen. Then click the Close button to quit MultiBeast. But don't reboot just yet...there's another touch of editing we have to do first.

org.chameleon.boot.plist

MultiBeast created a folder on the root level of your hard drive named Extra.

Inside this folder is an XML file named org.chameleon.boot.plist. This is a "parameter list" file of instructions that the Chameleon boot loader (which was installed as part of the EasyBeast option you chose in MultiBeast) processes at boot time. We need to make a minor change to this file. Double-click on this file to open it, and make the change indicated here in red:

We're specifically disabling the GraphicsEnabler function since Mountain Lion has native drivers for our NVIDIA card.

After you close and save this file, unmount the USB key by dragging its icon on the desktop to the trash can on the dock (which will change to an Eject button as you drag), and then select Restart from the Apple menu at the upper left hand corner of the screen to reboot the system.

4K Sector Drives

If your Hackintosh build used the same model Seagate SSHD as I did, or you're using another recent hard drive or SSD, you may have a device with 4K sectors instead of the old 512 byte sectors. How will you know? Well, if you see this when you try to boot:

Then, yeah, you've a 4K sector drive. And the Chameleon boot loader doesn't know how to deal with those. Fortunately the fix, although arcane, is quite simple. (If your Hackintosh boots correctly without displaying this error message, you can skip this section.)

• Reboot using the USB key as you have previously, and select the USB key as the boot device.
• Once the OS X installer starts, click past the first screen (where you select English as the main language). From the Utilities menu at the top of the screen, select Disk Utility.
• When Disk Utility comes up, select the Hackintosh volume (not the physical disk, but the volume, which will be indented slightly to the right under the physical disk), then click the Info button at the top left of the Disk Utility window:

• We're looking for the disk identifier, which in this case is "disk1s2". Make a note of this.
• Quit Disk Utility and select Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type these two lines exactly as shown, substituting the disk identifier you noted in the previous step for the one I'm using here:

umount /dev/disk1s2
dd if=/usr/standalone/i386/boot1h of=/dev/rdisk1s2

Note that in the first line, the command is umount and not unmount, and in the last line, there's a lower case "r" before the disk identifier at the end of the line. After you type the last line and press Return, you should see something like this:

2+0 records in
2+0 records out
1024 bytes transferred in 0.001678 seconds

Now quit Terminal, select Restart from the Apple menu, remove the USB key, and your system should have its first successful boot from the hard drive. Let's see what we've got in the next section.

Using Your Hackintosh

Now that your Hackintosh is running, there are a few limitations to keep in mind:

• System software updates should be approached with caution. I've been using Hackintoshes for several years now. I have yet to run into compatibility problems with applications or drivers: all my programs work, and all the printers, scanners, mice, etc. I've used work as well. You can update applications like iTunes and Microsoft Office and install drivers with no problem, but updating the operating system will almost certainly replace some of the patched components with standard code that won't work, and the consequences range from loosing audio or network connectivity to an unbootable system. It is possible to install system software updates (although it generally requires some post-installation work with MultiBeast), but you should disable automatic updating as shown below and check on Hackintosh boards like tonymacx86.com or insanelymac.com to see what the real experts have to say about each one. By leaving Automatically Check for Updates enabled, you'll be notified when updates are available, and can decide whether or not to install them on an individual basis.

• USB 2.0 mass storage devices will not work in USB 3.0 ports. For day-to-day use, this means "plug your USB 2.0 key into a USB 2.0 port." Some USB 2.0 devices like printers may not work in USB 3.0 ports. In general try to keep USB 2.0 devices plugged into USB 2.0 ports and USB 3.0 devices plugged into USB 3.0 ports. Since the computer I built in this article has 3 USB 3.0 ports and 8 USB 2.0 ports, you should be able to find the right connection for everything.

Hackintosh Options

Of course, since you're building your own machine, you get to choose the components (although remember that the instructions provided in this article are for these specific components). Here are some options to consider:

CPU:Go with an Ivy Bridge CPU to get the best performance along with integrated USB 3.0 support that OS X can use with no configuration or patching. The CPU Intel sent was a much lower "spec" than the Core i5 I requested, but this turned out to be a win, since it showed me that for most work the much less expensive Core i3 CPU provides a good level of performance. Of course if you plan to overclock, you'll want a "K" series unlocked CPU and a Z77-based motherboard.

Motherboards: I really like the mini-ITX motherboards for Hackintoshes since you can build a nice, small system, and one PCI-E slot is all most Hackintosh users will ever need. Still, almost any Ivy Bridge motherboard will work. Do check on the audio chipset and Ethernet chipset used, though: MultiBeast provides support for Realtek and Intel Ethernet, and Realtek and Via audio chips. Unless you like blazing your own trails, it's a good idea to check with the Hackintosh community to see which motherboards they like.

Video card: If you choose a CPU with the Intel HD4000 integrated graphics, you don't need a separate video card at all unless you want the enhanced performance for gaming or other uses. Sadly the Core i3-3220 Intel sent us uses the HD2500 iGPU, which is not supported under OS X. Still, for a mere $15 more, you can get the Core i3-3225, an otherwise identical CPU with HD4000 graphics. If you do decide on a discrete video card, NVIDIA Fermi and Kepler cards will generally work "out of the box" with minor if any configuration. AMD cards can be made to work although the support is less; AMD drivers are in OS X Mountain Lion but reports from the field have been mixed on their effectiveness.

Hard disk/SSD, optical drive, and power supply: The ST500LM000 500GB SSHD Seagate provided for this build returned snappy performance, and subsequent boots after the initial one were noticeably faster. It also has the advantage of being small, quiet, and low power, all considerations which would make it a good fit for an mITX case that only had mounting points for 2.5" drives. Look for a more complete review of this disk from Benchmark Reviews in the near future. Of course any SATA hard disk or SSD will work; the device you pick depends on you wants and your budget. As with Windows PCs, SATA 6G SSDs provide the best performance. ASUS' Blu Ray DVD worked perfectly (OS X does not provide a standard way to play Blu Ray content; you'll have to spring for a third party program to play Blu Ray DVDs).

Performance, Power, and Final Thoughts

Since I no longer have any "real" desktop Macintoshes, I can't compare the performance of this Hackintosh to an Apple product. Despite the relatively low-end CPU, the OS X interface is buttery-smooth and quick, and applications launch and run with dispatch. The computer doesn't feel slow or overworked until you're running CPU-intensive tasks in the background: for example, things get noticeably slower if you're trying to do something with an instance of Heaven running, which simply shows the limitations of the dual-core i3-3220 CPU. You'd run into the same problem with some models of the Mac Mini, which also ship with dual-core CPUs. Of course the big advantage of the Hackintosh is that you can use any Intel CPU you wish, depending on your needs and budget.

Unsurprisingly, Blu Ray DVDs played back smoothly at full resolution. Note that OS X doesn't include the ability to pay Blu Ray DVDs; you'll need a third party DVD player (of which there are many, most of which seem to be the same code base with a slightly different front end).

As I mentioned above, the Hackintosh can't sleep, so you might wonder what the power usage is. With the machine sitting idle at the desktop, my Kill A Watt P4400 power meter shows a power draw of 50 watts. Running Unigine Heaven at 1080P with all settings maxed out, along with Geekbench, raises the power draw to 143 watts, so while the 450 watt SFX power supply may seem middling by modern standards, it's obviously got plenty of spare capacity in this use case.

I've previously built three other Hackintoshes, starting with an X58-based system. This Ivy Bridge based machine is the easiest build I've had so far, in large part due to the increasing features and maturity of the UniBeast and MultiBeast applications from tonymacx86.com. Since CrossFireX and SLI aren't supported on OS X, I think the mini-ITX form factor makes an excellent Hackintosh platform, since a single video card is all most Macintosh users will ever need.

About the only thing you can't do with this particular system is overclock it. Like most mITX systems, internal space constraints preclude the use of the larger coolers required to support overclocking...and of course both this motherboard and CPU lock out overclocking anyway. Still, it would be easy to build a very overclockable system on an mITX platform using an ASUS P8Z77-i motherboard and a different case, perhaps the BitFenix Prodigy. For that matter you could go with a micro-ATX or ATX motherboard in a standard chassis as I did with my original Hackintosh systems. If your Microsoft Windows box is already based on an Intel Ivy Bridge chip set and running a recent NVIDIA video card, all you really need is a spare hard disk and some time.

Hackintoshes are moving from twitchy geek toys to actual usable machines. I'm confident enough now that I even built one for my father, who lives 1,500 miles away from me. If you've been thinking about building one yourself, now's the time.

COMMENT QUESTION: Have you or will you build a Hackintosh computer system?

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