Converting my HP D530 SFF PC into a "homebrew" Mac Pro

Actually, this could be considered a "Part 2" to the VMware OS X story.

A few years ago, I had read about individuals that had successfully installed Mac OS X onto their PCs, creating what is (or isn't) referred to as an OSx86 or "Hackintosh".  What had seemed like an near-impossibility at the time, is now within the grasp of average computer users...if some time is spent studying the features of both the system and their own PC environment.

Consider the enterprise-class grade Hewlett-Packard D530 SFF (small form-factor) PC.  It is one of several typical desktops found in MILLIONS of American companies.  They are mass-produced (with good components) PCs with 2.5-3.0 GHz Pentium 4 CPUs, Intel i865 chipsets, Broadcom Gigabit NICs, decent graphics, 6 USB 2.0 ports, and the ability to expand up to 4 GB of RAM.  Generic, plentiful, and CHEAP (as of this writing, they can be found on AMAZON for $39).

It's also a hand-in-glove-fit to be converted into an OSx86 "Hackintosh" BECAUSE of its common components.

Where does one begin?

Firstly, you'll need to understand a bit of the OS X operating system.  Why?  Put in simple terms, OS X, while based upon BSD Unix, has additions to it that prevent it from running on garden-variety PCs...even though Apple utilizes the Pentium 4 as its main CPU.  OS X doesn't call upon a BIOS for tests, verification, etc.  These machines use the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) platform firmware instead.  An easy way to think of the EFI is to imagine a boot-loaded environment that is the pre-cursor to installing or starting the real operating system.

One of the first commonly available EFIs was made by a company called Psystar.  They created the Rebel EFI.  It was available on their website for download, and it gave many experimenters (or hackers...whichever you prefer) the chance to play with OS X on an x86 platform.  Apple took notice and defeated Psystar in a court battle.  It seemed, for that period of time, that the OSx86 movement had ended.

Today, Boot-132 is the standard.  The Boot-132 boot loader essentially preloads an environment on the system from which OS X can boot and operate.

So, how do you (easily) start?

A) You'll need a copy of one of the MANY ISOs available on sites such as piratebay.org, or any of the numerous torrent hosts.  Keep in mind that this activity is ILLEGAL, and that the instructions here are for educational purposes only. ;)  A good, solid ISO found on piratebay is the iDeneb OS X 10.5.6 v1.4 AMD/Intel SSE2 SSE3 DVD.

B) Next, you'll need a way to burn the ISO image to a DVD.  Forget Nero, Toast, or any of the other "pay-to-play" suites.  Get INFRARECORDER.  It's on Sourceforge...look it up...it's free and it's QUITE powerful.  With a 6-button interface, ANYONE can create high-quality, bootable ISOs.

C) Obviously, you need the PC.  Unsure about the viability of your computer?  Go to http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page and compare your machine to the machines that have been installed with X.

D) Insert the DVD, and boot from it.  (Of course, chnage your BIOS if you need to)

While on the OSx86 wiki, there are several forums to read if hardware or software problems occur.  And they WILL.  It's not as simple as installing Windows (even though many people can't do THAT, either).

It took about 48 hours to get everything just right on my HP D530 to where OS X10.5.6 runs with very few issues.  I'd say that 99% of the system is locked-down...the wired ethernet works, the Belkin F5D7050 v4 USB adaptor I bought in 2007 works, the sound works (on BOTH front and back jacks), all USB 2.0 ports work, COM1 and the parallel port work as well.

It DOES have an issue with Sleep Mode.  And occasionally, shutting down requires a hard shutdown.  This is no different than my SONY VAIO PCG-505f with Windows Me STILL has.

Overall, it has more than enough power and speed to make up for these minor shortcomings.

Once everything was installed and set up as correctly as possible, I added a few more steps to my conversion.  When the D530 PCs were produced, there was an optional floppy drive that was available.  Mine has one.  Never used it.  Since the floppy drive is a 3.5 inch unit, I removed the drive, and added in the hard drive that OS X was installed to.  Why?  The original hard drive with Windows 7 Ultimate is STILL in its factory location.  If I ever need to access it, it's as easy as opening the case, and moving the IDE cable to the OTHER drive.  (There are more elegant ways of accomplishing this...I prefer simple)

Before I closed the lid, I booted into Win 7 and started Google Chrome.  Once there, I used their fabulous Sync system to send my browser settings "to the cloud".  Next, I placed a blank DVD into the drive and burned an image of "My Documents" so that I could manually bring over my music, photos, spreadsheets, PDFs, and TXT file archives that I use daily.  2.3 GB was all that I needed out of 4.7.

After that was done, I closed the lid, and fired her up.

It booted.  And re-booted.  And re-re-booted.

Uh-oh.  A problem.

Then it happened to dawn on me: I didn't install the package on the iDeneb DVD for automatic booting.  So, at startup, I HAVE to type rd=disk0s2.  No big deal.  I like Unix...and besides, it takes me back to the MS-DOS 6.22/Windows 3.1 days. (If "win" wasn't added to the end of the autoexec.bat file, your 386 would hang at the command prompt)

That worked...and OS X started "normally".  Once up-and-running, I inserted the My Documents DVD, and copied to my HDD.  Next, I installed and ran Chrome for Mac...and once set, I started Sync.  Yep...all of my bookmarks, cookies, passwords, and history.

Any good Amateur Radio digital software for Mac?

In a word or two?  Not really.  There are 3 suites that Mac Hams will know: MultiMode, cocoamodem, and fldigi.  MultiMode is $90 and works MARGINALLY.  Not worth the investment.  fldigi, while I AM comfortable with it, does't like my soundcard.  It's a shame, too, since fldigi is SO GOOD on Windows and the various distros of Linux (inlcuding the oddly named Puppy Linux).  But cocoamodem 2.0 is a hit out of the park.  Works DAMN well, it's free, powerful, constantly updated, and has the modes that 95% of digital hams use.  (Made my first QSO with it 1/6/2011: N4ART)

Overall, I am thrilled that I have my OSx86 running.  While I am still a Windows user (I still use it for work and at home on the vairous OTHER PCs in the house), as a new Mac convert, it's nice to have the best OS on a strong PC.

UPDATE TO STORY:

2/25/2011:

There is a bechmarking application available known as "Xbench".  Xbench is literally like a physical for your Mac.  It examines several areas for their speediness...HDD read/writes, graphics capabilities, CPU throughput, etc.  According to Xbench, my homemade "Mac Pro" weighs in at a 70 rating.  Sure, it seems a bit sluggish compared to true Mac Pros that score EASILY in the triple digits, but keep in mind, that the Pro is a MULTI-CORE computer, whereas my version uses a SINGLE Pentium 4.  Even at what some would see as a disadvantage, it is still incredibly fast and quite capable.