Recently I heard that it was possible to install Mac OS X on a PC, so I decided to check it out. Now first of all according to Apple’s License Agreement it is illegal to install OS X on anything but a Mac. Although some people say that the Agreement can be interpreted to say that it can be installed on anything with an Apple logo. Anyway the best, quickest, easiest and most legal way to enjoy OS X is to buy a Mac.
There are different versions of OS X floating around the web (try the usual places). I decided to try the latest version being iPC 10.5.6 (Google for iPC 10.5.6 FINAL VERSION).
My setup consists of a Dell Dimension 9100 with a Pentium D processor, 1 GB RAM, mainboard with Intel ICH7 familiy chipset, Radeon X300SE graphics board and a Sound Blaster Audigy. I decided I wanted to keep the Windows XP that was already installed and opted to go for a dual boot.
So first of all I had to create a partition on my hard drive to install OS X on. Make a partition with a program like Partition Magic and make sure it is a primary partition and not a logical one. That done insert the iPC DVD and restart your computer. Hopefully your computer is set up to boot from CD first, otherwise change the boot order or press F12 to enter the boot menu.
The loading of the DVD can take some time, but after a while you get the welcome screen (after the language selection). Before you continue, select the Disk Utility and select the partition you created earlier. Format it to the Mac OS Extended Journaling format. After doing that, close the Disk Utility and you can continue with the install process. Next you select the disk where you want to install OS X86, which is probably the partition you just formatted. In the last screen it is very important that you select customize before you continue, because there is where you select the different drivers and fixes for your set up.
Now the iPC OS X86 DVD comes with a lot of fixes and drivers on the DVD which makes it possible to install it on many different configurations. Click on the different options to see the descriptions and see which are right for you. Don’t select two drivers of the same kind, that might make the install fail. For me what worked best was to select the VOODOO kernel, the ICH7 drivers for the motherboard and the kxAudioDriver of the Sound Blaster Audigy. Be sure to select a DSDT patch and a AppleSMBIOS replacement. It is also good to select the ACPI, Seatbelt and Carbonlib fix. Selecting all the applications is also handy.
After the install finished, which took about half an hour, I crossed my fingers and rebooted. Unfortunately not everything was working yet. My Linksys Wireless card with RaLink RT2561/RT61 chipset did not work and my Radeon was giving some mouse tearing. I managed to get rid of the mouse tearing by installing the Katana package, but this did not enable Quartz Extreme and Core Image and I could only change resolutions by passing it as a startup option. And after an exhausting Google search I still could not get my wifi card to work.
So then I decided to throw in the towel and buy some compatible hardware. I bought a Realtek Wireless USB stick with RTL8187B chipset and a Asus Geforce 6200LE. Check the HCL to see if your hardware is compatible with OS X86.
In order to make everything work I did a complete reinstall and selected the drivers for RTL8187B and the NVdarwin drivers for my new graphics board. Unfortunately the System Profiler crashed on my install and I could not verify if everything worked. Colonel System Profiler patch (Google it) fixed that and then it showed me I finally had Quartz Extreme and Core Image too and I could change resolutions. Thank you NVdarwin! And although in the System Profiler it reported only one core for my Pentium D, the activity monitor showed 2 cores working.
So there I had it, a OS X86 install with working video, sound and network. For the dual boot to work properly you need to edit the boot.ini under Windows XP and add chain0 to the root of your boot drive as explained here.
But remember the best way to enjoy OS X is on a Mac, so my next step is to buy a Mac Mini or a MacBook Air 
Some handy sites:
on Feb 7th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Here is another cool site
http://ihackintosh.com