It’s obvious that OS X looks infinitely better than Windows (Vista included, even freaking Windows 7 included — I’ve seen those screenshots, and they’re not pretty). But my problem with Macs is that they cost an arm and a leg — for the price I’m paying, I could be receiving a ton more in hardware. Which might not seem like that big a problem — but I, much like many of yourselves, am on a budget. Meaning I can’t afford the Macbook Pro, which would’ve been fine had I been willing to sacrifice performance. I’m not. I want performance. I’m telling you straight up that my Dell Inspiron 6400 can perform just as well as a current Macbook (graphics not taken into account, because the nVidia Go! 7300 is a bit weak). Nonetheless, my point is my machine from two years ago for less than the price of a Macbook today, can perform just as well, or even outperform, one of today’s Macbooks (fancy wordplay).

My Dell Inspiron 6400 has:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 (Merom/1.83 GHz/2MB L2)
• Nanya Technology 2x1GB PC2-4200 @ 4-4-4-12
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 128MB
• Seagate 320GB 5400RPM SATA
• 15.4-inch, 1280×800 pixel display

A current $1,399 Macbook has:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
• 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM – 2x1GB
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
• 160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
• 13.3-inch, 1280×800 pixel display

I know that most speeds are different, but I hope I got my point across — with similar processors and RAM, a larger hard drive, and a physically larger display, it wouldn’t be worth it for me to spend another $1,399 (before tax) on a Macbook juuuust yet. I’m a full-time student, so I have to keep my spending as tight as possible, for my own good (haha).

Point made — so, I want OS X on my Dell Inspiron 6400. Ordinarily, I would have stopped there, because it used to be technically impossible. Thankfully, Project OSx86 was created and we can now install a copy of OS X onto our ‘ordinary’ PC’s. I’m now going to warn you about some of the moral things wrong with this:

1. Users can’t install OS X on non-Apple hardware. Last time I checked, it was in the OS X EULA (I’m 92% sure it still is and always will be — how else would Apple make any money?).
2. Users also should have a licensed version of Leopard before they install Leopard on their PC’s. I just feel that this step is necessary to ensure that we are doing it for the right, honourable reason. I’m picking my copy up soon. I’ll post pictures when I do. And if I don’t pick a copy of Leopard up, it’s because…
3. Users should be intending to purchase a Mac, and using this version only as something like a ‘trial’ version to get them accustomed to Mac OS X. I intend to purchase a Macbook this summer (well, I kind of have to — the guilt of doing something like this isn’t right — see reason #1).

As long as we admit that we aren’t going to use this as a permanent solution, I think it’s justifiable even to Apple. For the reason that we are going to buy your product soon and need time to adapt to it (for example, finding software for it).

The Installation

Alright, moving on from guilt to the actual process. There are typically 3 stages of installing OS X onto your PC.

1. Preparation and Downloading — downloading and burning the actual disc. Also, partitioning would be a good idea.
2. Installing — booting up on the disc and then arranging your drive types.
3. Troubleshooting…because there will be trouble. Drivers, software, whatever.

1. Preparation and Downloading

Typically, this is the easy stage. Download an image (I found Kalyway 10.5.2 very friendly, but I can’t provide links — find it yourself). Try to download it all in one session, because I found that my success with Kalyway was mainly owed to the constant downloading. I’m paranoid of Torrents missing some data when I pause it accidentally or shut down the computer. So leave your computer on overnight, and/or while you’re at work/school, and don’t touch anything until the .iso image gets fully downloaded.

Burn it using CDBurnerXP. Typically, I’ve read stories about installations being more successful when burned onto a DVD-R, but I used a DVD-RW without a problem (I like their re-usability).

If you plan to use strictly OS X on your PC, then you don’t need to partition.

If you want to dual-boot Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X, then you’ll want to partition your drives accordingly. Meaning one drive for Windows, and one drive for Mac. I have one for Windows, one for Documents, and one for Mac. The hard drive partition for Mac should be empty right now, so don’t worry about it. If you’re using Windows Vista, instructions for partitioning are here. XP users I can’t say for sure, but I found a post on how to partition here. Comments in the post are interesting too, read them.

2. Installing

If everything went alright, then you should have a burnt disc. Take it out, inspect it, and then put it back in your drive. Reboot your computer. At the blue/black manufacturer screen (mine says Dell, yours might say HP or Sony or something), press the according button to boot via CD/DVD drive (I think for Dell users it’s F2 or F12). You should see a bunch of text on a black screen, then after a few moments, the OS X installer should pop up. Proceed through the installer, pause on the last step before installing. You’re going to want to customize it according to your computer, because OS X typically isn’t compatible with all sorts of hardware by default. This will be a problem later on.

The installation typically takes an hour including the disc check (I did it for my first couple of times), half an hour without. After rebooting, your computer should play the welcome video (if you have graphical stuttering, it’s because you have a dual core machine and OS X is being cooky. Reboot, type in ‘-v’ and press enter. Then type in ‘cpus=1′ and press enter. Everything should be fine. Type in the information (I didn’t use my real information because I’m really, really paranoid).

3. Troubleshooting

Drivers don’t work. It’s a normal thing. What’s not normal is if everything works fine with your OS X installation on your PC (which can now be dubbed a ‘hackintosh’). Proceed to InsanelyMac and search everything you can find about your specs. Even better — register and write about your problems, or thank them for their work.

Dell Inspiron 6400 users are in luck — user Devilhood has written up a comprehensive guide on how to get everything working on your Dell Inspiron 6400: from sound, to displays. Here’s the link to his guide.

The Secret

The secret is in two parts — the philosophy, and the methodology of installation. Your philosophy at all times should be that you have lived until now without OS X, and you can continue living without OS X. With this mentality, you will be able to sacrifice your stable installation to install some weird drivers to make everything work — which is your goal, to have a functional Hackintosh. Your methodology should be simple and easy — stick to Google and InsanelyMac for your problems. I can be of minor service if you are a Dell Inspiron 6400, but I will not go out of my way to help you find out whether your video card is compatible or something complex like that (sorry, but I’ve got my own things to work on too).

And always remember you can go back to Windows at any time. I know you don’t want to, and you know you don’t want to — but I’ve had to repeatedly agree to the concept of buying a Mac and actually overspending. Because of this though, I feel that I can actually move on and purchase a real Mac eventually. Haha.

I wish you luck. Feel free to comment or pose questions. If you need something silly, like the knowledge of how to get dual monitors to work on your Dell Inspiron 6400 or how to get sound to work, I think I can be of minor assistance.

And in the end, it took me a year and three months to figure out how to do this properly. So be persistent. Prior to 2009, I didn’t even get past the second stage of installation — so yeah, I didn’t get to see an actual working desktop until early March (during the break, when I swore to myself I’d get it working). If you want to see a result of my frustration (and a barrage of insults on my intelligence, haha), feel free to read this post where I wrote about my installing of OS X in third-person and referred to myself as ‘a friend’ because of my paranoia.

I’ve recently developed a philosophy of using things to their fullest potential: originally, I was forced to replace my older gadgets with new versions repeatedly. It wasn’t until a short while ago that I decided against my consumption for a variety of reasons:

• It wasn’t a healthy way of gaining happiness (an interesting topic on its own).
• It wasn’t a wise way to spend my money — I already had an iPod Video, why did I need an iPod Touch? I could be saving up for that Macbook I always wanted.
• It wasn’t satisfying me anymore. I think I’d exhausted all satisfaction that I might’ve gotten originally from buying gadgets. That’s the problem with consumerism.

Don’t get me wrong — I still buy new gadgets: but now, my new gadgets typically are used to replace something thats been lost/broken/malfunctioned, or for the sake of convenience (combining two gadgets into one). Or to introduce a whole new concept into my life (I’m looking into getting a PSP…we’ll see how that works out, haha).

But I’ve discovered an alternative to the constant consumption and re-consumption of gadgets — using basic computer knowledge, a keen eye, and a spirit of adventure to find out how to leverage your gadgets and use them to their fullest potential. I’ve done what I’d thought was previously unimaginable — my deeds (so far) include:

• Putting Leopard 10.5.2 on my Dell Inspiron 6400 (I don’t advise you do it if you are of the faint of heart — I should also mention that it’s against Apple’s agreement you have to click in order to use Leopard, because you’re installing Leopard on non-Apple hardware). Don’t get me wrong — it wasn’t easy, and I only recently figured out how to do it to near-perfection, with sound and dual-monitor support.
• Installing Android on my HTC Touch. That one turned out to be a fail (fail used as a noun — yep: an event where one fails miserably and hilariously at an attempt; http://failblog.org), as everytime I tried starting Android up (I installed it as a .cab file so it can be easily installed and removed) I was left with a white screen or my phone would turn off. Fail.
• Tweaking my iPod Video 5.5G so I could play Pokemon Red on it. I also installed other themes on my iPod 5.5G so I could make it look ‘fresher’ — like an iPod Touch, if I may. Both using custom firmware (which might void iPod warranty, so be careful with that — I figured since my iPod was so old anyway, I might as well give it a shot, haha).
• I’ve also managed to make my Wii play .mp3 files, .mp4 files, homebrew games (that should give the secret away), and even — DVD’s. That’s right — and I didn’t even have to touch the hardware.

photo credit: You Are The Conductor..

I’m no expert. I’m just an ordinary guy — probably a bit nerdier, but still pretty ordinary. And if I can do it, you most definitely can — so here are a few lessons that I learned along the way.

• Google will be your best friend. That’s right. You’ll get by just typing in ‘(insert gadget name here) modifications’ or ‘(insert gadget name here) hacks’.
• If you fail once, brush yourself off and try it again. And if you fail again, then change something. Or Google it again.
• Forums will be your second-best friend. Register if you have to (I registered anonymously on InsanelyMac). Use their search functions regularly, because you probably won’t have been the first person to experience a certain kind of problem.
• Don’t try modding new gadgets. Unless you can afford to replace it — because typically warranties don’t cover that kind of stuff.
• Don’t be afraid to push it! I remember when I was installing OS X, I installed a bunch of incorrect drivers that eventually required a format. It was discouraging, and I had to start over again, but I remembered that I used to live without it just fine, and so I can continue to live without just fine. If you can’t live without it, then you might want to pay for it (legitimately — not that leveraging is usually illegitimate).
• Not all gadgets can be leveraged — here’s the Herbert rule: if it has a screen/screen output, it can be leveraged.

I’m not sure if anyone’s ever associated the term ‘leveraging’ with ‘gadgets’, but I recently learned of the term in a business course and I wanted to use it. That and the word ‘synergy’ really jumped out at me. If the public demands it, I will begin posting general guides on how to leverage gadgets, so it can be a learned process (these won’t be step-by-step though, I don’t like writing comprehensive stuff — sorry). And even if the public doesn’t demand it, I think I just might.

In the beginning, there was the ordinary white Macbook.  Then, a couple of years ago, they introduced the black Macbook.  And now, in 2008, Apple has finally refreshed their Apple Macbook design.  And boy, what a design it is.

Source: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/14/technology/15apple1.600.jpg

Similar to the colour and design scheme of the iMacs, these new Macbooks look absolutely beautiful.  Stunning.  I’ve always been a huge fan of the aluminum Macbook Pro — so much so that I was actually thinking of getting the Macbook Pro just for the aluminum finish.

Not only have the Macbooks been updated in their looks (not to say they weren’t beautiful in their older form), their specs have been updated too.  Absolutely beautiful. Call me an Apple fanboy, but this baby is a Godsend.  I would think that the updated NVidia graphics and the multi-touch trackpad would be the dealmakers though.

Source: http://www.svirtech.com.au/images/Apple_MacBook_White.jpg

Just one problem — its 13″ screen.  At the moment, I’m using a Dell Inspiron 6400 with a 14.1″ screen, and it’s still tiny.  The only solution I can suggest is adding an external monitor, and it looks like Apple’s kicked up the graphics to allow for an external monitor to be added onto the Macbook — prior to the revision, this could only be applied to the Macbook Pro.

Source: http://images.pcworld.com/news/graphics/152257-0810macbook_fam.jpg

Apple’s never failed at consumer design, in this reviewer’s opinion — and this revision is no exception.  Apple’s Macbook has caught my heart, and my wallet.