After the laptop guide here is the guide for a desktop config that works wonders. First the hardware that is used for the hackingtosh :
- conroexfire-esata2 Motherboard, cheap and very stable
- Intel E6600, any other core2duo will do
- 2gb ddr2-667, more is better of course
- 320gb wd harddisk, any sata harddisk will do too
- 8800gt, other cards will work also but this one is great for both osx86 and vista/games
- An realtek rtl8139 network card, the internal one works also but has problems with torrents
- Any monitor of course and usb keyboard + mouse
- Dvd burner, i have an LG but again most will do
Special settings in the bios : I have the ide mode set to Raid, the disks itself (i have 3 in the pc, 1 for Leopard, 2 for vista) are not in a raid array. Ahci will probably also work. I have the internal lan card switched off, in favor of the rtl8139 lan pci card.
Installing is simpler than with the laptop, you will need the following software mostly from the bay of pirates as usual :
- Kalyway 10.5.1, burn this to a dvd
- Kalyway 10.5.2 update
- Kalyway Kernel update
Dual booting is an option of course, i have vista running and leopard. During the pc startup i choose with the "choose startup drive press f11" option which drive i boot up with. In this way you do not have to install any boot managers and that keeps things clean and simple.
dual....
If you already have vista installed, just buy/get another harddisk and plug that in. Disconnect all other harddisks until you have installed leopard. Then just select whatever drive you want to boot up from the start screen of your bios.
The install instructions :
Boot up with the kalyway 10.5.1wait for it to load, takes a few minutes- Select your language
- When the dvd is finished with loading, select diskutil from the menu bar
- Create a 1 partition efi layout, also select efi in the options of the diskutil !
- Select customize from the kalyway menu and select "efi + vanilla kernel"
- Start the install and skip the dvd check, that check is not needed and takes a long time
Here comes the coffee break, it will take about 10-20 minutes for leopard to finish installing itself. When you come back from your coffee, the desktop should be there !
Install the kalyway combo update 10.5.2 and select vanilla- Download the apple graphics update from the apple website
- For the 8800gt install this > click <
- Install azalia audio to get sound
- Select to update all software from apple
Done ! That is all there is to it. Everything works, lan / sound / usb / 8800gt / and so on. You will get an xbench score close to 160 with this setup.
Good luck with your setup, questions/comments are welcome !
