Welcome to this tiny hackintosh guide/FAQ. You are most likely here because you want to install OS X on a computer that is not Apple branded or because you want to learn more about this phenomenon. I do hope I can help you in some way or another, if you do need further help feel free to post a reply and tell me about your headache.
Let us start with a small FAQ as you probably have many questions about the wonders of hackintoshing.
Q1: Is hackintoshing illegal? Will the police raid my house, beat my wife and shoot me in the face if I attempt to anger the Apple overlords?
A: Yes, no, maybe? Hackintoshing is certainly in the grey area as there are no specific law saying "you shalt not install a operative system of your choice", however you are breaking Apple's EULA/ToS where it says that you are not allowed to install OS X on non-Apple "branded" computers, which is pretty vague in general. You can add a Apple logo sticker on it and voila!
The problem is of course that you are purposely breaking an agreement between you and Apple. However they don't go around suing everyone who hackintoshes, only those who hackintoshes their entire business department to be able to make iOS apps or otherwise are making money on creating hackintoshing distros.
Q2: Aren't hackintoshes unstable like a coke bottle filled with mentos?
A: No. Back in the Snow Leopard era a long, long time ago (more like 4 years ago, but nevertheless) the hackintosh community did not have many tools to work with to get it working on "normal" computers. They needed to modify the OS X kernel in order to get the thing to boot which made the entire OS very unstable and it is there hackintoshes have got the reputation of being unstable.
Today we have tools like Chameleon and its forks like Chimera, which effectively emulates the EFI (basically the BIOS, Google it) of a Mac to make the OS think it is running on a normal Mac. This removes the need for modifying anything at all and makes hackintoshes today run OS X as vanilla as a normal macintosh would do.
Q3: Logan said in a episode of The Tek that you would need to flash your BIOS to be able to hackintosh and it was very dangerous! He also said he's built fifty hackintoshes in a inbox video, so he's gotta know what he's talking about!
A: He also didn't know what the "dock" in OS X was when asked during a episode of Tech Update about a year ago so I highly doubt he knows much about OS X at all. However he isn't totally wrong either.
Flashing the BIOS is unnecessary 99.9% of the time so unless you are extremely unlucky, this won't be required. Instead of flashing any BIOS you got something called DSDTs (Google that as well if you want to) which are totally harmless and not really required, although I won't be going into that in this guide. If you are one of the few who have a UEFI-only motherboard that doesn't have a BIOS at all you might (as in probably not) need to flash something on your motherboard, otherwise, nope.
Q4: Is hackintoshing hard? Will I need extensive brain surgery to be able to be able to install it?
A: Yes and no, it all depends on your system to be honest. It is far easier than installing Arch Linux, Gentoo and setting up a Linux server, but maybe not as easy as installing Ubuntu. Laptops are generally harder than desktops due to the components. Again it all depends on your system, it can be so hard you want to staple your balls to the ceiling or it can be as easy as pressing two buttons.
Q5: Will I need to wipe my HDD to install OS X on it?
A: No, but it is easier to install if you have a clean HDD and install Windows/Linux again after you've installed OS X if you have both operating systems on the same HDD. OS X uses a different partition table called GPT than Windows' MBR partition table, so you'll need to do some modifications to get it installing on a MBR partition if you don't clean it first. If you don't want to wipe it clean before installing OS X, google: "Hackintosh Mountain Lion on MBR partition" and you'll most likely get some hints.
Q6: I found these OS X distributions on the internet! They seem to make everything easy.
A: NEVER use OS X distros like iAKTOS, iDeneb, Hazard etc. for your hackintosh. They usually do kernel modifications, have too many kexts that conflicts with each other and are pirated versions of OS X which is illegal. They will do more harm to your system than help it, so do not bother, do it completely vanilla to get the best OS X experience.
Got all the information you need? Good. If not, ask away. Let us start with the actual guide:
First off, let's take a look at the requirements for installing OS X:
- A (modern) Intel CPU like the Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Celeron, i3, i5, i7. AMD CPUs do NOT work! They just don't. You can get a AMD CPU to run Snow Leopard through "massive" amounts of work, but it will be unstable beyond belief. Do not bother if you have a AMD CPU.
- A compatible graphics card. Google your graphics card and "hackintosh" or "OS X" to find out if your card is compatible or not. nVidia GTX 6xx cards works straight out of the box for example. Intel APUs like HD3000, 3500, 4000 works out of the box as well. Mobile GPUs and desktop GPUs are completely different in compatibility.
- [Optional] A compatible network card for wireless. If yours isn't compatible, take a look at a TP-Link TL-WDN4800 or build your own airport card.
- A compatible motherboard is recommended, but pretty much any motherboard works very well. Gigabyte motherboards are often recommended due to not needing any DSDT.
- A USB flash drive bigger than 8GB.
That's about it! No Apple tech required to assimilate your computer.
Now for the actual installing. For this I'll link you a proper written guide that is easy to follow: http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html
This will tell you all you need to do in a better way than I can explain.
Some extra hints:
- You can use a virtual machine on your Windows computer to install UniBeast onto a USB device instead of hunting down a real mac or buying the snow leopard DVD.
- If you are planning on dual booting with Windows, make sure to partition your HDD (not the USB) into TWO partitions instead of one like the guide tells you. One which is Mac OS X Journaled and the other one is FAT. The FAT one will be Windows.
- If you are having problems getting into the installer after booting up and pressing the installation media, start writing different arguments before pressing enter to boot the installation. Commonly used arguments are in the guide under "Troubleshooting tips".
- There's no need to panic if you don't have a DSDT. It is recommended, but not required.
- Keep onto your Mountain Lion installer USB until you've installed Windows again! You'll need it to boot into OS X and reinstalling the chimera bootloader with MultiBeast.
- If you're having problems, Google the error or ask in this thread. You'll probably get some help sooner or later!
I do hope this was sort of helpful for the aspiring hackintosher, please do not hesitate to ask questions related to any of this. Good luck!