Fixing the Orange HardDisk Icons

Upon upgrading to OS X 10.6.3, the P55 chipset was supported OutOfTheBox.
But there's a downside...
Apparently due to a Gigabyte BIOS bug, all SATA hard drives appear as External (Orange Icons).

While it's just a cosmetic issue, it affects the familiar feeling of the OS X desktop.

Several methods were developed to overcome this.
I'll briefly describe the options here, and present my own 'Vanilla' Solution.

Installing OS X Snow Leopard - Part Three

In Part One of this article, we gathered all required components for a smooth installation, and in Part Two we did the actual OS X install...

But we need to keep booting off a CD with iBoot... It's time to fix that !
...and while we are at it, we'll pick the optimal MultiBeast options for the GA-P55M-UD4.

Installing OS X Snow Leopard - Part Two

In Part One of this article, we gathered all required components for a smooth installation, it's time to install OS X...

Installing OS X Snow Leopard - Part One

In the past, installing OS X on non-Apple hardware used to be a long journey, which involved gathering a lot of kexts (kernel extensions or drivers), and manually tweaking and installing lots of files...

Those days are over !

Optimal BIOS Configuration

Configuring the BIOS is something that almost every PC user had to deal with.

However, it's usually full of terms than even some tech-savvy users don't understand.
This lead vendors to provide a way of choosing "Optimal" settings.

I found out that, even after using Gigabyte "Optimized settings", there's a lot to improve !

With the settings here, we'll tune the PC to optimal settings.

Updating the Gigabyte BIOS

Updating the BIOS of a Gigabyte motherboard is very easy (and safe, thanks to the Dual-BIOS).

There are several alternatives for this:

• The Q-Flash Utility (embedded in the BIOS),
• The @BIOS Windows utility
• The FLASHSPI.EXE MS-DOS utility (included with the BIOS update)

Unpacking the Gigabyte BIOS without Windows

Before moving on to installing the OS, let's take care of updating the BIOS.
Gigabyte publishes (quite often) updated BIOS with new features and fixes.
So let's download and unpack the new BIOS.

Finalizing the build

OK, we are almost there...

It's time to start cabling the components.

No special surprises here, just follow the instructions on the motherboard's manual.

A couple of tips though:

• OS X supports the SATA controller included in the P55 chipset, so we'll use the Blue SATA connectors.
  Connect the HDD to SATA2_0, and the DVD to SATA2_1.
• When connecting the Front Panel Audio, use the HD-Audio connector, not the AC'97 one.

Now for the fun part...

Installing the Mugen-2 Rev.B CPU Cooler on the GA-P55M-UD4

Installing a massive heatsink that requires a backplate might be intimidating for some.
However, the back-plate and bolt-thru mechanism are much more sturdy and stable than the tension-mount or plastic push-pins most small heatsinks use.

While the instructions included with the Scythe's Mugen-2 Rev.B are very easy to follow, here are some tips.

Installing the Motherboard

Assembling a PC requires a little practice... and a couple of free hours to burn.
Personally, I've been doing this for almost 30 years, so it's become kind of second nature.

Following these simple steps, our PC will be ready in little time for installing and running OSX.

The Lnx2Mac Build Components

Picking the right hardware components for your Hackintosh build is a bit more challenging than building a regular PC, as OS X was designed with Apple Hardware in mind only.

Not doing this, can result in an installation "polluted" with custom drivers (in the best case), or to a combination which just can't run OS X...

So, wondering which components I used ?