Ever since I learned that you could run the Mac OS X on a home built system, I have wanted to do it.  I’ve built a bunch of Windows based computers, but building a Hachintosh is a bit harder because you have to play close attention to the parts you buy and loading up the OS is a bit harder. Because Apple updates their product lines about once a year, most of the parts are not real bleeding edge items.  This makes them a bit cheaper than the really new stuff.  But it also means that it can be a challenge to find the right parts because sometimes the most compatible parts have gone out of production and newer stuff does not work as well.

So after a few months or reading and pondering over just what I wanted to get, I was ready to use the Amazon gift cards I got for my birthday and get started.  Thanks to my wife and mother-in-law for the gift cards.  My mom gave me some cash and that went towards the case and other parts at Fry’s.

I picked out this case at Fry’s:

An all black case. The NZXT H2 Clasic

The case is all black.  Black fittings with black screws and black wires.  Its a bit hard to work on.  It soaks up the light.

I installed the motherboard:

A Gigabyte z68XP-UD3

That adds a bit of color.  It’s very well labeled and laid out.  I guess this is what you get when you buy something that is better than the on sale board at Fry’s.

Next I put on the processor:

An Intel Core i5-2500

Then the processor fan to keep it all cool.

Nothing special, just the fan that comes with the processor.

Some memory:

16 gigs of memory

And the video card;

A Gigabyte HD 6850

And that is where things are now.  I still need to connect the wires, put in the hard drive and the DVD drive.  Then it will be time to power it up and start the install process.