June 6, 2005 is a date that lives in computing infamy as far as I’m concerned. It was on this day that Apple made a landmark announcement by confirming its switch to Intel manufactured processors for all of its machines, effectively ending their relationship with IBM who had stocked all of the company’s machines with its PowerPC chip up until then.

In the interests of time, I’ll spare you the rest of the history lesson and get to the juicy stuff. In the four years since Apple made the switch to Intel processors, the Hackintosh community has drastically fine tuned the process of turning a PC into a fully functional Mac. In fact, I’m writing this very article for all you beautiful people on a Dell Inspiron 530 that has been converted into a fully functional Hackintosh.

And just in case you feel I’m not exactly up on the up and up here, here’s a screenshot I took of my system:

... and now I’m going to tell you how I did it.

Before we begin with the in-depth process, I should inform all of you that this was accomplished with a legally purchased retail version OS/X. Many people resort to using illegally patched versions of the installation DVD in order to get the operating system up and running on their machines quickly, but I strongly encourage against this for a couple of reasons.

First off, any modifications to the installation DVD violate the terms of the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) that all users of OS/X must accept in order to run the software. If anything apart from the retail version of the operating system is installed on a machine, then the program is illegal. Plain and simple. Everyone would do well to keep this important factoid in mind.

Secondly, and equally as crucial, installing only the retail version of the DVD ensures that the OS can receive and implement software updates from Apple without any additional patching or legwork on the part of the user. Bottom line: this keeps things working the way they were intended to function. And in the end, that’s really the goal here, right?

Ok, with that out of the way, let me start by giving you a basic hardware profile (just the essentials) of my machine. I’m running an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz processor on a Foxconn OEM motherboard with 4 gigabytes of 667 Mhz RAM, a Seagate 320 gigabyte hard drive, an ATI Radeonx1950 pro GT 512MB video card, and a Linksys PCI wireless ethernet card. For audio input and playback, I’m utilizing the onboard Intel high definition soundcard.

The installation process was not easy at all. I learned immediately that getting the OS/X DVD to boot was going to be a challenge. After scouring various online resources looking for a solution, I came across the Boot-132 bootloader which seemed to be the unanimous method for solving this problem. Finding the correct boot software, however, was only half the battle, because I ended up having to play musical discs during the boot-up and installation processes, switching back and forth between the boot CD and the OS/X installation DVD.

After about forty minutes, I finally managed to get the operating system fully installed onto my machine. It was at this point that I encountered the second hurdle: I couldn’t boot up the machine without the Boot-132 CD. Thank goodness for the Chameleon bootloader application. This program is designed to configure your PC to boot like a Mac so OS/X can recognize the boot drive properly and launch you into OS/X without needing aboot disc every time.

As if all that weren’t enough, I found that some of my hardware wasn’t functioning properly after installation. Specifically, my video resolution was stuck at 1024x768 with no 3D acceleration and I had no audio at all. After about thirty minutes of more Googling, I finally managed to track down the appropriate kernel extensions (or kexts -- essentially hardware drivers for Macs) to get things working properly within the operating system.

If all this talk of bootloaders and kernel extensions is scaring you, let me assuage your fears by telling you that the setup process is by far the most painful part of the whole exercise. Now that my Hackintosh has been up and running for a while, I’ve not had a single problem with it. All of my applications are running flawlessly and I’ve not had so much as a hiccup from any of my hardware. The computer operates and feels just like a Mac.

Why go to all this trouble? Well, let’s look at some hard numbers...

All told, I spent approximately $800 on my Inspiron530, some additional hardware, and the OS/X retail disc. The cost of an equivalent iMac runs somewhere in the neighborhood of $2000 - give or take a hundred here or there. All told, I’m looking at a savings of roughly $1200 by purchasing a PC and a legal version of OS/X against buying an iMac from the Apple Store.

So in case the point isn’t painfully obvious at this point, let me spell it out for you...

Apple is ridiculously overcharging for its hardware - the same equipment that you can find in a PC now that Macs come standard with Intel processors and the compatible components. Now you see why Hackintoshes are all the rage these days. You get the look and performance of a Mac without having to pay your Apple tax... and now you can make it happen with a legally purchased copy of OS/X.

I’ve only covered the basics of Hackintoshing here, so if you’re interesting in learning more on the topic yourself, know that there are vast amounts of resources you can find online. I got most of my knowledge from the forums over at InsanelyMac, but there are plenty of other places with great information as well. Check it out for yourself. Once you go Mac, you never go back.