Budget Hackintosh “PovoMac” Early 2013 Configuration

Posted in Computer Hardware, Hackintosh

Last week I wrote how you can build your own Mini Mac Pro 2013 edition for about €600. Don’t need so much processing power? Then that kind of money can also buy you a second hand Core2Duo Mac(Book). So what are the options these days when you want to build a 100% OSX compatible hackintosh on a budget?

Budget Hackintosh

The configuration suggestion below, ain’t based on my wisdom. It’s gathered from several Hackintosh forum resources of TonyMacX86. Some refer to this configuration as a “PovoMac” (insiders know what I’m talking about).

PovoMac Early 2013 configuration

Consisting of key components;

Micro ATX Mainboard

GigaByte GA-B75M-HD3. Price: ± €60

Computercase

Matter of taste really. Cheapest & Smallest Micro-ATX case I could find with built-in 400W PSU, is the MS-Tech LC-02. Price: ± €40

CPU

Cheapest CPU I could find is the Dual Core 2.6 GHz Celeron G1610 boxed cooler. I’m not sure if the boxed cooler fits this case. Leave a comment with tips! Also sells — like most components — for > €40. CPU benchmark score: 2609.

Videocard

Although the Celeron has a built-in videocard, it’s been reported to not work well with OSX. So you can either upgrade to an I3-3225 (CPUbenchmark.net score 4381), or get a cheap PCIe videocard: Asus GT610 Silent. Price: ± €40.

Memory

2GB is rather limited, you’ll need at least 4GB to take full benefit from OSX. Just get the cheapest dual channel DDR3 RAM you can find. Price: ± €35.

Harddrive

Something you shouldn’t be saving money at, is the harddrive. Or actually solid state disk. The best budget SSD at the moment is the Kingston V300 120GB SATA600 SSD, with write speeds of upto 450MB/s. Price: ± €90.