September 10th, 2012Top StoryThe Always Up-to-Date Guide to Upgrading Your HackintoshBy Adam Dachis
When I upgraded my hackintosh for the first time, I learned there's a lot more to the process than a simple hardware swap—it's almost as much work as building a new hackintosh if you don't properly prepare your system in advance. In this post we'll look at the best upgrade options at your disposal right now, how to prepare your system for the swap, and preemptive measures to take so you're ready for the most common issues. We'll also keep it up to date as great, new hackintosh hardware is released so you can learn about the best hardware to buy at the moment. Current Version: Intel Ivy Bridge (September, 2012) Step One: Choose Your Upgrade HardwareWhen you upgrade a hackintosh, the only part that warrants a guide like this is your motherboard. The motherboard is the part of your hackintosh that requires the most effort on your behalf as OS X generally has to be forced into submission in order to work with it. Thanks to some of the latest Gigabyte motherboards, however, very little work is now necessary. In his 2012 buyer's guide, tonymacx86 (the king of hackintoshes) revealed six motherboards that require nothing more than an audio driver to fully function. That means, audio excepted, the motherboards will work out of the box. This will make your job much easier. Here are your best options (as of September, 2012):
These motherboards support the Intel socket 1155 chipset, which means most of the new Ivy Bridge processors will work. At the time of this writing, there are no Macs using Intel socket 2011 CPUs so they will not work properly. You can find more information about build options on tonymacx86's buyer's guide. You may also want to upgrade other hardware, such as your graphic's card, hard drive, RAM, or SSD. So long as you pick a OS X-supported graphics card, you won't have to worry about compatibility issues with other components. There are exceptions (e.g. various types of expansion cards), but in general the motherboard is the only component you need to worry about. Step Two: Prepare OS X
Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper are both great candidates for the job, but you can use any cloning software you want. The important thing is to make a bootable clone of your disk, and the two recommend apps will be able to tell you if your copy will be bootable or not. If you're using another app that isn't quite as informative, there are three important things to remember when cloning:
An internal hard disk or SSD, or an external USB drive of any kind (so long as it's large enough to hold the data on your boot disk) is suitable for the task, and if you follow the rules above everything should work just fine. Hopefully you won't have to use the backup drive, but in the event something goes terribly wrong you'll want to have it available. Another option is adding a separate partition to an existing drive in your computer. This can be the boot drive if you have lots of free space open, or another internal drive you're using for other purposes. This way you do not have to dedicate a single drive for the sole purpose of backing up your system. Once your clone is ready, start wiping out your hackintosh files. Which files need to be deleted will depend on what you installed when you initially built your hackintosh, but here's what most people will have to remove:
Once you remove those files and folders you will not be able to boot normally anymore, so be sure you have a copy of UniBeast on a USB flash drive. You should have this already from building your hackintosh in the first place, but if not you can get it from tonymacx86 and consult these instructions if you need help using it. Finally, download a copy of Multibeast (which you can also get from tonymacx86) so you can use it after your upgrade is complete. Step Three: Install Your New Hardware
With your motherboard removed, you'll need to put your computer back together again with new hardware. If you need any help, consult our computer building guide. Once your hardware is ready to go, it's time to boot into OS X and make it all work properly. Step Four: Configure OS X for Your New Hardware
That's all there is to it! Upgrades are straightforward most of the time, but mistakes can occur and so it's important to prepare for the worst. If you do run into the problem, the precautions you took by following this guide will provide you with a means of troubleshooting or, at the very least, a fallback plan. In the event of a serious problem, consult our hackintosh troubleshooting guide for some common strategies and request assistance on the tonymacx86 forums. Your upgrade process should go off without a hitch, but if not you'll be prepared. Happy hackintoshing, and enjoy your new hardware!  |
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