Below you will find a zip folder containing everything you need to build your own Hackintosh and install Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7 on it. Feel free to email me at any time if you have any questions. I will reply as soon as possible. My email is cwfinger14@gmail.com.

Hackintosh.zip Updated: December 5, 2010
Video of building the computer and booting 10.6.2
Speed test (opening all applications) on my machine

Install Mac OS X 10.6.7 Snow Leopard on a Hackintosh PC

STEP 1: BUY THE HARDWARE
The hardware needed can be found at these links:

1. Antec Sonata III Computer Case with 500W Power Supply

2. Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz Processor

3. ASUS Black SATA CD/DVD Burner

4. Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB SATA Hard Drive

5. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

6. All motherboards for this build have been discontinued. If you can find a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P or Gigabyte EP45T-USB3P then you can still follow this guide.

7. EP45-UD3P: Team Elite 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM Desktop Memory EP45T-USB3P: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM Desktop Memory.

8. HP 8GB Flash Drive

9. Zotac GeForce 9800 GT 1GB Video Card

10. TP-LINK TL-WN651G Wireless PCI Adapter

STEP 2: BUILD THE COMPUTER
The order I assembled:

1. Insert CPU in motherboard.

2. Secure heatsink over CPU (you may have trouble with this and if you can only get 3 of the four pins in place, it will work) and connect fan cord to motherboard.

3. Screw motherboard in place using brass standoffs that come with the case.

4. Connect all cords from the front panel of the case to motherboard (front USB, PWR_LED, SATA cord, HDAUDIO, etc.).

5. Connect 120mm fan cord to motherboard (SYS_FAN1)

6. Install hard drive.

7. Install DVD drive.

8. Using SATA connectors, connect the hard drive and DVD drive to the motherboard.

9. Connect SATA power connectors from the power supply to the hard drive and DVD drive.

10.Connect 20+4 pin connector to motherboard.

11. Connect 6 pin connector to motherboard.

12.Connect 120mm fan to power supply.

13. Install RAM.

14. Install video card.

15. Install wireless network card.

STEP 3: CONVERT INSTALL DVD TO .DMG FILE
***MUST USE SNOW LEOPARD***
Use another Mac. Watch the video here or following these steps:

1. Insert install DVD into a borrowed Mac

2. Open Disk Utility

3. Click on “Mac OS X Install DVD”

4. Click “New Image”

5. Name it whatever you want and select “Desktop” as the point to create the file.

6. Once the .dmg is created, click “Images” on the top bar while still in Disk Utility and click “Scan Image for Restore.”

STEP 4: PREPARE THUMB DRIVE
Watch the video here or follow these steps:

1. Insert your thumb drive.

2. Open Disk Utility and select your thumb drive.

3. Click “Partition”

4. Choose “1 Partition” from the dropdown menu.

5. Click “Options” be sure that “GUID Partition Table” is selected.

6. Name the Partition whatever you would like, I chose “MacOSXInstall.”

7. Make sure that “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is selected.

8. Once the thumb drive is partitioned, click “Restore.”

9. Drag and drop the .dmg file you created into the “Source” box.

10.Drag and drop the partition (NOT THE ENTIRE DEVICE) into the “Destination” box.

11.Make sure “Erase destination” is checked.

12.Click “Restore.”

13.Once the thumb drive has been restored, run the “EP45UD3P OSx86 v3” package.

STEP 5: SET YOUR BIOS
***If you are using the on-board Ethernet instead of wireless, you must turn LAN on in the BIOS***
Insert your thumb drive and go to the BIOS. Look at the pictures included and be sure that your BIOS match. The only differences should be in “1.jpg,” the “CPU Clock Ratio” is “9x.” Yours will say “8x,” and in “6.jpg” the “USB-HDD0” says “Corsair Flash Voyager.” Yours will say “HP v100w.”

STEP 6: INSTALL SNOW LEOPARD
***If the EP45UD3P OSx86 v3 that is in Hackintosh.zip does not work, download the pkg directly here***
Watch the video here or follow these instructions:

1.Be sure the thumb drive is plugged in.

2.The computer should boot into the Mac OS X Installer.

3.Select English as the default language.

4.Click “Utilities” from the top bar and select “Disk Utility.”

5.Select your hard drive and click “Partition.”

6.Select “1 Partition.”

7.Be sure “GUID Partition Table” is selected by clicking “Options.”

8.Make sure “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is selected. The video shows “Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitive, Journaled)” but this will mess you up later when installing applications.

9.Name the partition whatever you would like, I went with plain old “Macintosh HD.”

10.Click “Partition.”

11.Once the drive is partitioned, you can exit Disk Utility.

12.Proceed with the installation, selecting the new partition when it asks, until it asks for reboot.

13.Reboot the computer, when you see a gray loading bar loading backwards (from right to left), press any key.

14.Select the drive you installed Mac OS X on and press “Enter” or “Return” (depending on what type of keyboard you are using).

15.You will now see the Snow Leopard Intro Video.

16.Install the “EP45UD3P OSx86 v3” package again, but to your hard drive this time instead of your thumb drive (this allows Snow Leopard to boot with the thumb drive plugged in).

17.You may now remove your thumb drive and reboot.

STEP 7: USE KEXT HELPER B7 TO CONFIGURE NETWORK CARD
Watch the video here or follow these instructions:

1.Right click the “AtherosFix.kext” included in this .zip and select “Show Package Contents.”

2.Go into “Contents” and open the “Info.plist”.

3. Change the device ID from “168c,23” to “168c,13” (there is 2 spots do make this change).

4. Go to System Preferences.

5. Click “Accounts.”

6. Unlock the menu clicking the lock in the bottom left corner.

7. Click “Login Options.”

8. Click “Join...”

9. Click the "Open Directory Utility..." button.

10. If the Directory Utility is locked, unlock it.

11. Click “Edit” from the top bar.

12. Click “Enable Root User.”

13.Set the password to the same as your administrator password (if you don't have an administrator password, you need one for this step)

14.Run the “Kext Helper b7” app.

15.Drag and drop the edited “AtherosFix.kext” and the "IO80211Family.kext" into the box. (Install "IO80211Family.kext" first!)

16.Enter the password you just set.

17.Click “EASY INSTALL.”

18.Reboot then go to Network Preferences.

19. Select your network from the drop down list and click apply.

20. Update to 10.6.7 using the combo update from Apple. Download it here.

OPTIONAL: CHANGE TO DEFAULT APPLE BOOT LOGO
Follow these steps:

1.In Spotlight, search “boot”.

2.Click “show all.”

3.Right click the file that is just called “boot” and click “Open Containing Folder.”

4.Drag and drop the “boot.png” included in this folder to the Desktop.

5.Rename the picture so it is just “boot”.

6.Drag and drop this picture into the folder containing the old “boot”.

7.You may have to type your password.

8.Reboot to see the changes.

OPTIONAL 2: IF USING A 16:10 WIDESCREEN MONITOR
The bootloader may look stretched if you are using a 16:10 monitor.

1. Go to "/Extra/Themes"

2. Replace the "Default" folder with the one found in "Hackintosh.zip."

My Hackintosh Specs:
CPU: Intel Quad Core Xeon 2.66GHz
RAM: 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA hard drive
DVD Drive: 22x SATA DVD drive
Video Card: 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT
Wireless Networking: 802.11b/g 54MB/s
PRICE: $750

BASIC Mac Pro Specs:
CPU: Intel Quad Core Xeon 2.8GHz
RAM: 3GB (3 x 1GB) DDR3
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA hard drive
DVD Drive: 18x SuperDrive
Video Card: 1GB AMD Radeon 5770
Wireless Networking: none
PRICE: $2,499

EP45T-USB3P Hackintosh Specs:
CPU: Intel Quad Core Xeon 2.66GHz
RAM: 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3
Hard Drive: 500GB SATA hard drive
DVD Drive: 22x SATA DVD drive
Video Card: 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT
Wireless Networking: 802.11b/g 54MB/s
PRICE: ~$710

You can update to 10.6.3 safely. No hacking was required for me.

nice to see that people can avoid the apple tax with similar hardware

Guides that might help others who want other hardware:
Netbooks Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart (Just get a Dell Mini 10v) | Boing Boing Gadgets

Other Hardware http://www.hackint0sh.org/f133/64334.htm

How much did this cost you?

lol nvm i misread that part

Thanks, good tutorial. Will test it out sometime soon, hopefully before the parts become unavailable. :-D

Thanks for the write up.

Is the upgrade version of Snow Leopard enough to install the full version on the hackintosh? Is the copying of the DVD to the thumb drive on the Leopard/SL borrowed mac what facilitates the use of the upgrade disk?

Also, is it easy to set this up as a dual boot,with Windows? Can the remaining HDD space be accessed under both OSes?

Thanks

Originally Posted by adamant628

Is the upgrade version of Snow Leopard enough to install the full version on the hackintosh?

Yes, it is.

Originally Posted by adamant628

Is the copying of the DVD to the thumb drive on the Leopard/SL borrowed mac what facilitates the use of the upgrade disk?

The use of another Mac is needed so the computer will be able to boot up. If you put a Mac OS X Install DVD in a PC, you won't get the "Boot from CD or DVD..." message on startup. It is more than just a copy, you are actually writing the CD to the thumb drive. Then you use the EP45UD3P v3.pkg to make the PC parts recognize the thumb drive as bootable. If there were a way to install this package to the DVD, it would make the thumb drive process irrelevant.

Originally Posted by adamant628

Also, is it easy to set this up as a dual boot,with Windows? Can the remaining HDD space be accessed under both OSes?Thanks

Yes, it is quite easy. After you install Windows, you will need to download "EasyBCD" and create a boot entry for Mac OS X. Otherwise you will never be able to boot into OS X again... I am currently dual booting Mac OS X Snow Leopard (250GB partition), Windows 7 (200GB partition), and a 50GB FAT32 partition so I can easily access certain files from both machines.

Thanks for the response. So to be clear, the $29 copy of snow leopard that you have linked in your OP, is the full version?

Also, am I to assume from your last comment that the correct order would be: install windows, download EasyBCD and create the boot entry, then install OSX?

Thanks a lot!

P.S. the MB you linked to is no longer available on newegg, but it is here on amazon.