tonymacx86

Back at the beginning of March, Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey made controversial statements about Apple’s hardware, specifically the inability of any Mac in Apple’s entire lineup of computers to handle the graphics needs of the upcoming Oculus Rift. At one point in time, Oculus had support for OS X in the pipeline; in fact previous Rift dev kits supported Macs. As time went on, however, it was decided that the Oculus Rift would be Windows-only, at least initially.

It’s with Luckey’s comments, and the lack of initial OS X support in mind, that I’ve decided to put together a Hackintosh machine that meets the minimum requirements outlined by Oculus, yet can still run OS X. In theory, this machine could support the Oculus Rift if the necessary software was made available for OS X. It can run the Rift now if you install a Windows partition on it…
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uayELibjHEA]

Lifehacker has posted a nifty guide to building a Hackintosh, Mini style. This Hackintosh is very similar to Apple’s Mac Mini in price but more burly in specs. Hackintoshes offer a great way to learn about the innards of computers and how they work.

The end product ran up a price tag of $599.65, which is a very fair price for what you’re getting.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Motherboard $104.99

2. Intel Core i3 Processor i3-540 3.06GHz 4MB LGA1156 CPU $110.00

3. ZOTAC nVidia GeForce GT240 512 MB DDR3 DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card $84.99

4. 2x2GB Corsair PC3-10666 1333Mhz Dual Chanel 240-pin DDR3 Desktop RAM $43.99

5. Western Digital 1TB SATA III 7200 RPM 32MB Cache Desktop Hard Drive $59.99 (2TB: $79)

6. SilverStone SG05BB-450 ALL Black Plastic/SECC Mini-ITX Computer Case with SFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified/Single +12V rail Power Supply $119.99

7. Sony Optiarc 8X SATA DVD+/-RW Slim Drive $34.99

8. StarTech.com MCSATAADAP Micro SATA to SATA Adapter Cable with Power $11.71

9. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard $29.00

10. OPTIONAL: OCZ Agility 120GB SSD $199.99 (note: this is optional and not included in the total cost of the machine)

The squad over at Lifehacker used tonymacx86’s CustoMac Mini tool and a good suite of hardware. While this isn’t as small as a Mac Mini, it is very close and is a lot faster. Check out Lifehacker’s video above on how to set this up and visit their post for a list of hardware. We have to warn you, this isn’t for every computer user, because you need to know how to build your own computer and do a little tinkering.

If a Hackintosh Mini isn’t for you, check out tonymacx86’s guide to making a Sandy Bridge Hackintosh. Intel’s Sandy Bridge processor is rumored to be included in many of the new Macs. Why not go ahead and build one on the cheap? Tonymacx86 has all the answers.

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