On Mar 6, 2009, at 7:13 AM, George R. Hozendorf wrote:
> Of all the various OSX86 installers, what's the group's consensus as > to which is best? > This is controversial, but has a happy ending. First, there are motherboard considerations. Only two main classes of which are absolutely, positively MacOSX friendly: 1) most, if not all of the 945-type mobos, which provides 100-percent Mac-compatible video through the on-mobo controller (the reason this works is several Mac Intel models had a 945-type video), and 2) most, if not all of the P35-type mobos, which provides NO video at all, but when combined with any of the many MacOS-compatible video cards from nVidia (it doesn't have to be an nVidia-branded video card, either, just an nVidia chip set of any of those which Apple has also used), say, a 7200GS on the low end, or an 8400GS, etcetera. Stay away from video cards with more than 256 MB, although the 512 MB cards will work if you say they have only 256 MB. Then, there are the installation method considerations. I'll not discuss so-called "Torrent" downloads of MacOS. Those may appear to be easier, but they are full of compatibility holes. Illegal, too. Rather, use the various "kits" which are mobo specific. There is one for the Intel Atom, and it makes for a very economical OSX86 'puter, one which can be had for about $139, including everything except drives and RAM. The MSI Wind "barebone" works perfectly with Leo 10.5.6, "vanilla". There is one for the P35, and this makes for a very good MacPro work- alike. It is optimized for the Intel P35 MCH chip and the Intel ICH9 ICH chip, although it will also work on the G31 ICH (just don't use the on-mobo video as it is incompatible) and the ICH7 ICH. Get a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (discontinued, but still available brand- new from stock at a few ePay dealers) or the GA-EP35-xxxx (there are several options here, hence the xxxx), add a fast Core 2 processor (a 3.0 GHz E8400 Core 2 Duo run at 3.6 GHz is a screamer, as is a 2.66 GHz Q9400 Core 2 Quad run at 3.2 GHz). Water cooling of the processor is not required, but I do it anyway, using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. These Gigabyte mobos work perfectly with Leo 10.5.6, "vanilla". It may take some doing to find the "Atom Kit" or the "P35 Kit". Using these kits, you actually boot the Apple "retail" install DVD. After the second reboot (normal for an initial install of Leo, BTW) you will be booting directly into MacOS with an unmodified kernel. Full support of "Software Update ..." and the "usual suspect" MacOS applications. Any more info than that probably should be discussed off-List. Hack #1 - Psystar Open Computer, since disassembled for parts Hack #2 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Q9400 Core 2 Quad @ 3.2 GHz) Hack #3 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (E8400 Core 2 Duo @ 3.6 GHz) Hack #4 - Shuttle SP35V2 (Q6600 Core 2 Quad @ 3.0 GHz) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
