Hey Y'all,

I'm completely new to this, and was previously advised by somebody here that those dual-core, refurbished, debranded, no-OS-included-HP desktops which Geeks.com was selling for about $200 looked like a safe bet as the basis for a Hackintosh.

I failed to strike while the iron was hot, but I keep noticing similar-sounding deals that pop up from time to time on various sites. I figure a lot of those refurbished or price-reduced desktops could be OK with enough RAM and a discrete graphics card, but this is all so bewildering, especially when I try to compare the specs on such machines with what info there is regarding what's compatible with OS X.

This is especially fun when the vendor offering the sweet deal doesn't bother to list things like, oh, I don't know, what kind of motherboard the thing has.

So I'm hoping to benefit from your experience and knowledge.

Share your opinions, please: Of the refurbished, debranded, Black Friday'd or just plain affordable desktops offered by various vendors for about $200 to $300, which ones are the least likely to give me any problems if I want to install OS X on them and have it be fully functional?

Thank you in advance for your patience and guidance. I DO try to answer my own questions as much as possible before asking them in a forum such as this, but -as I said- trying to figure this stuff out is a little bewildering.

Thankew....

Look for something like this

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2
Processor: Core 2 Duo E2200
Video: Nvidia 7300 GS
Memory: 2GB RAM DDR2
Hard Drive: 1x300GB 7200 rpm
Power Supply 350/450w
DVDRW Serial ATA

Thank you, Icchansan! I get the feeling it might be best for me to just buy the parts you've listed, rather than hold out for some fully assembled desktop to come along that just happens to match those specs, yes?

Yeah, its better to do it yourself, cuz maybe a prebuild one have crappy motherboard with no support, so... if you dont wanna waste your money and time, just try something like this, where the motherboard its the only thing you cant change, you can buy less HDD or Memory (not recommend it), or not to buy the video card for now.

Originally Posted by icchansan

Look for something like this

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2
Processor: Core 2 Duo E2200
Video: Nvidia 7300 GS
Memory: 2GB RAM DDR2
Hard Drive: 1x300GB 7200 rpm
Power Supply 350/450w
DVDRW Serial ATA

Hi Icchansan

I have two questions regarding this interesting recommendation.

First question, the most important for me: do you know how this machine would compare to a Mac Mini 2.0Ghz, in what relates performance? I think this Mac Mini has a T7200 Core 2 Duo...

Second question: as the motherboard already has video graphics and you are recommending Nvidia 7300GS, will we be able to use both boards to connect to 2 different screens?

Thanks in advance,

RS

Yeah, I recommend a Graphic card cuz usually onboard cards suks? yeah you will have dual screen support, about the processor you can always upgrade the this to T7200 or Quad Core if you Like, the processor doesnt matter, the mobo is the key XD