As a person who writes about Macs, I often compare the Mac
experience to the PC experience. I can do this because I use a PC all
day at work, so I experience both sides of the issues.
The one area I had never experienced was owning - and especially
building - my own PC. I decided to do a little research and build my
own PC with the hope of turning it into a Hackintosh. That way I could
get the best of both worlds.
Now that I've finished building my PC, I can say from experience
that building a computer for the first time is a pain. The worst part
was when things didn't work, I worried that either the parts were bad
or I did something wrong. Either way, it's not obvious what the problem
was.
The most worrisome aspect was that I might spend hundreds of dollars
on parts and end up with something that wouldn't work. There are no
guarantees, and if something didn't work as expected, I was alone with
the Internet to find answers.
The Internet gave me plenty of websites, each with three different
reasons to explain what caused my weird problem. It was still up to me
to troubleshoot the cause.
As a loyal Mac customer, why did I buy a PC? I currently own five
Mac computers, an iPhone, and an iPad. I believe that, with a few
exceptions, Macs are well made, and for what you get, the price is high
but not outrageous.
Apple Doesn't Sell What I Want
The problem is that Apple doesn't sell what I want.
The Apple desktop line up consists of the Mac mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro.
The Mac mini is an incredible machine; it is just the smallest
desktop you could want. Unfortunately, the size means that it is built
more like a headless laptop than a traditional desktop. The $699 base
price is slightly higher than it needs to be, and the components are
less powerful to fit with the cooling limits of a compact device.
The iMac is much more powerful and is configured more like the
computer I wanted to buy. The problem is a new iMac, starting at
$1,199, is too much. I don't need or want a new monitor, keyboard, or
mouse. I don't even really need WiFi, Bluetooth, or Thunderbolt. As
beautiful and simple as the iMac is, I would be happy with a black box
under the desk.
The Mac Pro is a workstation class computer that is overkill for my
kids to use for watching YouTube videos. I actually own an older Mac
Pro. It has aged well. It is still plenty powerful, and I don't need to
replace it.
Basically I wanted an iMac class computer without the monitor. Apple
simply doesn't sell anything in this category. It was a choice of
paying for extras I didn't need or settling for something different
than I wanted.
Building a PC Comparable to the iMac
All the new iMacs have the latest Intel CPU with the Sandy Bridge
architecture. Any PC I built would have the same processor type. I
preferred to get the Core i5, but I was prepared to settle for the Core
i3 if needed. The processor meant that the motherboard had to have an
LGA 1155 processor socket.
Last year's Core processors used the LGA 1156 socket. I probably
could have saved a few dollars by buying a motherboard with the older
style, but I wanted to buy new. Also, if I ever wanted to upgrade, the
processor socket would have been a limitation.
While I wanted to match the iMac on specifications, my limited
budget meant I had to beat the Mac mini on price. I figured I could get
budget desktop parts for less than the premium laptop rated parts that
go into the Mac mini.
First, I looked at buying all the parts separately. I could pick out
the perfect case, motherboard, power supply, and video card. It is a
nice way to tweak the specs for the optimal design. Also, many articles
on the Internet that talk about building a Hackintosh mention very
specific motherboards. It would have been another way to insure
compatibility.
I found that if I got too picky on which parts to buy, the price
quickly crept up. For everything there was a budget model and a
pro/gamer model, with a dozen options in between. As a person who'd
never done this before, I just didn't know enough to see the benefit of
a $250 case over a budget case for $50. It's not like I planned to brag
to my friends about the look of the computer. I just wanted parts that
would work without a lot of hassle.
I finally made the decision to buy a bare bones kit. This got me all
the parts I needed for a low price. Later I could upgrade something
after I got it all working. This meant that the deciding factors were
the big ticket parts, motherboard and CPU.
I picked out a kit from Tiger Direct with a Core i3 and a MSI
motherboard. This may not have been a perfect fit for a Hackintosh, but
once I got it up and working as a PC, I could decide to add a separate
video card or other parts for better compatibility with Mac OS X.
At the last minute, I decided to look for a better kit with a Core
i5 chip instead. With the better kit, I got a different case, power
supply, etc. The one detail I missed was that the motherboard didn't
have integrated video. I was going to need a video card, but I didn't
find that out until later.
I placed the order, and a few days later, two boxes showed up.
Everything looked great, even the low budget case was nice and
simple.
Assembling the PC
I'd ordered a few extra items, an antistatic wrist strap, a computer
repair tool kit, a power supply tester, and a box of spare screws. Of
these, I rate the antistatic wrist strap as a must have, the power
supply tester and tool kit are nice to have, and the spare screws were
a total waste. I never needed anything more than a Philips
screwdriver.
Each part comes with its own install booklet. For the most part
these instructions suck. You get a small diagram with the total written
instructions of "install part". For me, the motherboard and power
supply were a little better. The motherboard had dozens of connections,
so it had both a diagram and a list of what each connection goes
to.
Overall the parts themselves could either only fit one way, or they
were labeled clearly. The big exception was the jumbled bag of screws
that came with the motherboard. It was pure guesswork to decide what
screws to use.
One more confusion issue had to do with the wires to the case for
power, lights, and reset. The instructions for the motherboard said
what voltages were at each pin, but the cables didn't have voltage
listed. The wires were all different colors with no mention of which
color was 5V and which was for ground. The best solution I found
on-line was to treat red as positive and black or white as ground.
Maybe it doesn't matter, but I've never done this before - a simple
rule in one of the many manuals would have been helpful.
Eventually assembly was complete. That's when I realized that this
motherboard didn't come with integrated video. Again, I'm going to
plead being a novice as the reason I didn't check this detail. I knew
that I might eventually have to buy a separate video card. I was just
hoping to get the thing working first and then fork out the cash for a
video card later.
Instead, I was once again overwhelmed by what choice to make. There
are dozens of video cards for prices ranging from $50 to $500. I
checked the compatibility of many video cards for use in a Hackintosh.
I couldn't find a single definitive list for the newest video cards. In
the end I decided to get as close as possible to what Apple had used in
the past. I targeted $128 for a Radeon HD 5770.
(Note: This is the same model video card used in the 2010 Mac Pro.
The card is made by ATI, which was bought out by AMD. The card is being
replaced by the
Radeon HD 6770, the same video used in the 2011 iMac. This "new
card" has the same specifications, except it has the AMD name on
it.
Near the end, I thought that everything had gone pretty smoothly.
Everything had fit where it was supposed to go, and almost everything
was keyed to fit the right way. All that remained was to turn on the
power.
Troubleshooting
This is where all the hard work started. The computer wouldn't stay
on. It would continually turn on for one second - and then turn off.
This is were I looked for help on the Internet and found dozens of
possible causes: bad power supply, need for a larger/better power
supply, short between the motherboard and the case, bad RAM, bad video
card, bad whatever.
I slowly disconnected everything one by one until only the
motherboard was left.
I was almost convinced that somehow I'd permanently shorted the
motherboard, or it was bad to begin with. This is when I finally used
my power supply tester and found that it was good. I reread the manuals
again and again. Finally, I noticed that the motherboard had two places
to plug power in. I thought this was to allow for different power
supplies, because there are lots of legacy connections possible on the
motherboard.
This was the wrong answer.
To me, this was totally counterintuitive. Nothing I own needs two
power cords plugged into it. No only that, but the listed voltages for
the 24-pin connector included 12V. If the 24-pin connector already has
12V, why would I need another plug to supply the same 12V? Bottom line
is I forgot something, and I was paying for it by having to reassemble
my computer again.
Worse for me is that once I'd discovered this fact, plugging it in
didn't fix my problem. I had to reinstall the RAM, processor fan, and
video card before it would stay powered up. That also doesn't make
sense, but I read to do it online at the MSI website. When I finally
got the power to stay on, I put everything back together.
This time when I powered it up, the thing stayed on. Soon I was in
the BIOS screen. I now had a working PC. No operating system, but
everything stayed on.
I'm still a long way from having a Hackintosh, but with luck I soon
will. 
Appendix: Component Costs
| Components |
Gaming PC |
Budget PC |
| CPU: 3.3 GHz Intel Core i5-2500K |
$225 |
$225 |
| Motherboard: ECS H67H2-M (after rebate) |
$120 |
|
| Motherboard: MSI P67A-C43 B3 Motherboard (after rebate) |
|
$100 |
| Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 |
$500 |
|
| Video Card: Radeon HD 5570 |
|
$128 |
| Memory: 4 GB Kingston HyperX Gray |
$50 |
|
| Memory: Patriot Viper II 4 GB RAM (after rebate) |
|
$30 |
| Hard Drive: 300 GB Western Digital Velociraptor |
$150 |
|
| Hard Drive: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda (after rebate) |
|
$35 |
| Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 |
$20 |
|
| Optical Drive: Samsung DVD Writer |
|
$23 |
| Power Supply: Thermaltake TPG-650M Toughpower Grand
Gold |
$160 |
|
| Power Supply: DiabloTek PHD550 550-Watt Power Supply |
|
$40 |
| Case: Thermaltake Armor A30 |
$120 |
|
| Case: Thermaltake V3 Mid Tower Case (after rebate) |
|
$35 |
| Total Cost |
$1,345 |
$616 |
