The Build

            Computer building became a hobby for me only several years ago. Prior to that, I owned Apple computers and never even thought about building one from scratch. It wasn’t because of laziness; I enjoyed the OS X environment operating system, and you couldn’t make an Apple computer from scratch at the time. They are so clean and easy to use and designed beautifully. Also, back then, they were almost bulletproof concerning computer viruses.
           
One day, during my journeys through the vast internet, I found myself coming across a website. Tonymacx86 is a site dedicated to installing an OS X operating system on PC parts that you can readily buy. The place was clean and easy to use, like Apple’s OS. The guides were complete and written out as an easy step-by-step for a clean installation. Kind of like following along with Lego build instructions with photos of where your screen should be when doing each installation step.

            “This was my answer!” I declared. This was a way to build my own affordable Apple computer at a lower price. They called it a “Hackintosh.” Doing this would save me money. As we all know, Apple computers aren’t the most inexpensive, and for a good reason. They last a long time and hold their own when editing photos and rendering video and audio. But now I can build one from scratch and for half the cost. Today I am running a 2012 MacBook Pro with no issues whatsoever; it is my photo editing on the fly laptop.

            The first thing I did was look at the product guide on Tonymacx86. It laid out the basic foundations of the build and what parts to use. On their site, you had several choices of builds, which was great for me! I didn’t need a hefty computer build. I decided on a middle-of-the-road build, kind of like a mid-range iMac. Before I went into ordering mode, I needed to follow some basic steps for a smoother OS X installation.

One thing about going this route was that it was all based on current OS X computer builds. Intel CPU and AMD graphics were kings at the time. Those are the parts you make to create a working PC running OS X, keeping in mind the little things like a network card, sound controllers, and USB controllers. All of these had to work and be identified in OS X. The operating system needed to identify these items properly for the computer to work correctly.

Also, the OS! This key made Tonymacx86 one of the better sites to choose when going “Hackintosh.” You needed to own a Mac already or buy (at the time) a Snow Leopard disk to install OS X properly. They did not allow or condone the use of distros or illegal downloads from pirated sites. We were already in a grey area of installing OS X on a non-branded Apple computer, but I felt this was an ok option as a hobbyist and not a resale. I happened to own a legal Snow Leopard disk because I owned an iMac.

So now I hit the stores for computer parts! Well, the virtual ones, that is. Newegg, Amazon, and eBay were my new friends for this task. I researched and googled all I could about the parts I needed, and on eBay, all the seller ratings I considered buying from were high. I didn’t want dead pieces or any significant headaches along the way. So I ordered a case, power supply, motherboard, CPU, memory, graphics card, hard drives, and the tools to do the job correctly.

So, after about a week, all the parts finally showed up in various-sized boxes, with the computer case being the biggest. I was intimidated by the collection of boxes I had amassed in front of me. I began to open each box, checking the product they protected inside for any damage. Shipping such delicate items can be tricky as the electronics and small parts can be damaged easily—especially the hard drives, as they are like little record players encased in a metal rectangle shell. The platter and record can be damaged when dropped or banged about.

After the parts inspection, I laid all the hardware around my desk so each piece was easily accessible. I placed the PC case on its side with the motherboard mounting section facing up, ready to accept the addition of the motherboard. I opened the box containing the motherboard. This was the first time I had ever handled one, and I was worried about static electricity. All the research I did warned that you needed to ground yourself and take precautions when handling electronics like this. I did buy a grounding strap and an anti-static pad to work on. But I wasn’t taking any chances.

The box that housed the motherboard had a flip-open top that revealed the anti-static cellophane that the motherboard was protected by. It was like an envelope with a delicate and expensive letter inside. It wasn’t see-through and smelled like CDs did back in the day when you freshly opened them. A familiar and old smell I missed. I smelled each part as I removed it from the anti-static cellophane. It was a fulfilling sensation.

I slipped the motherboard out of its envelope and examined it as the chemical and electrical smells overwhelmed my senses. The underside of the motherboard had tiny solder points throughout it that poked my fingers like carpenter ant bites—pokes that didn’t hurt but felt strange enough to annoy me. At each solder point were little roadways that ran to other solder points. They all coincided with the item attached to the other side of the motherboard.

Turning the motherboard over, I found a mini cityscape full of transistors and resistors with the same roadways leading to each one. I felt as though I was holding a small metropolis in my hands. Buildings strewed about, ports on the sides and a lower section to plug things into, and in the upper left center, the socket to house the brain. I didn’t want to open that yet. A simple latch held down a plastic square plate over where the CPU went, and I saw enough photos to know what was under it. There are just over a thousand tiny pins that I in no way wanted to damage.

I took out the IO shield, the plate that covered the back of the motherboard in the case. The IO is where you have your USB, audio, and network ports, to name a few. The plate snaps into place, and then the motherboard lines up with that and the nine studs you utilize to screw the board onto inside the case. Three at the top, three in the middle, and three at the bottom of the motherboard. These hold the motherboard while putting the case in its proper orientation placed on the ground. I tried not to tighten too hard; I didn’t want to break anything or strip the screws.

Once the motherboard was in place, it was time to install the CPU. This step was a crucial moment as these pins were small, so small that they resembled tiny metal hairs. I flipped the metal latch and removed the plastic cover, exposing all those hairs. This socket was the socket, and it housed 1366 fine little pins in roughly an inch square opening. The CPU sat on these pins in a certain way to match the pattern. The metal clamp, when closed, pushed the CPU down onto those pins. Which then sends information through and out of the CPU.

It wasn’t until several years later that I got the nerve actually to touch those pins. They are laid out in a pattern and can only be moved or brushed one way, like a hedgehog’s spikes. If you try to brush it the wrong way, bad things might occur. But for this build, I did not touch the pins. Instead, I set the CPU in the socket and pushed down the clamp, and as I did so, I could hear the sound of 1366 little pins making a crunching sound beneath the CPU. To be honest, I was worried after hearing that and thought I had done something wrong. But that was the typical sound.

Once the CPU was mounted, the cooler had to be placed on top of the CPU. That was an easy and less fearful setup for me. Unfortunately, the cooler I had bought, the 1366 socket CPU, did not come with a factory cooler. Instead, it was a big radiator-type air cooler. It was roughly three inches high and two inches wide with a fan clamped to one side. It had six heat pipes that started at its base and thinned out and meshed into what seemed like a thousand fins. The bottom was flat and seated against the CPU, with a bit of thermal paste between the two to help thermal transfer.

CPUs get hot, and the one I bought was no exception, which is why I bought a big air cooler. The fan on the cooler is plugged into the fan pin on the motherboard, where the BIOS (motherboard operating system) controls the speed to regulate CPU temperature. “There it was,” I remember thinking to myself back then. Finally, the hardest part of the build was done. I needed to add memory sticks, a power supply, and a graphics card to the motherboard.

Memory sticks were easy. There are six long slim slots on the right side of the CPU that fit nicely. Three slots were of a light tan color, and the other three were darker tan. The colors started with a darker one on the inside, then alternated with a lighter color, ending the six. Some boards only had four slots, and some even had two slots. This one with the six slots was a triple channel memory, so I had to buy three sticks of memory, all the same channel, and 4GB each stick, totaling 12GB of RAM.

They were just simple long sticks that were roughly one inch high and four inches long with a thickness of 1/8 inch. The part that went into the motherboard had shiny connectors that were millimeters thick and looked like hundreds of railroad ties along the bottom edge of the stick. There was a notch, so you could only install the sticks one way, and I placed each of the three sticks into the lighter tan sockets. There are latches at each end that secure the sticks into place, and as you press them in, they click to lock.

Now for the power supply. I unboxed the power supply to find the same smells of electrical and unwrapping of new CDs. This was to power the whole system, and it felt like it. Its weight was one of the heavier of all the components combined, and it felt as heavy as a brick. The only difference was that it had numerous wires and cables coming out of it. It reminded me of a black octopus with its base, a box, and arms reaching out to power anything it plugs into. This was the heart of the build. This would give it life. In one part, a thirty-pin plug goes into the motherboard, and a six-pin plug goes to power the CPU; another six-pin plug will power the graphics card and then plugs to power the DVD writer and hard drives.

The power supply sits snuggly at the bottom of the computer case. Its arms reached out throughout the build to power the various items throughout the case. I routed all wires behind the plate that houses the motherboard to make it look clean and tidy. I didn’t want all those cables hindering airflow, and who wants their computer to look untidy? I indeed didn’t.

As I was closing in on the finish line, I popped the two hard drives into place. There are bays inside the computer case that house these. I opted for only two 500GB drives for my system back then. Now, I currently have several 1TB drives for all of my photography stuff. But back then, hard drives were expensive. If you ever get a chance to open one up, you’ll be surprised by what you’ll find. Inside the rectangle, the case is a CD-looking disk called a platter with what looks to be a record player arm that reads it. I happened to take one apart not too long ago, and that failed.

Now, the last thing to install was the graphics card because of its size. I knew I'd run into space issues if I didn’t get all the other items in and the cables into place before the graphics card. The GPU, they call it for short, was massive. It was almost twelve inches long, three inches wide, and half-inch thick with three fans. It had the same pins as the memory cards but double in length. It also had the same solder points as the motherboard, but on top, it was covered by a plastic case that housed the three fans. Like the memory cards, it, too, snapped into place in the motherboard in a PCI slot.

Not all the bits have been placed into their new homes, and I can connect the final wiring. The power, reset, and HDD LED connections from the computer case to the motherboard will give it life once plugged into the wall outlet.

 That would be the moment of truth. Did I hook it all up correctly, and did my novice experience damage a part with static electricity? Only the push of a simple button would determine all these questions and so many more.

I set the computer next to my desk, with the Monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected and ready. I reached over and pressed the power button on the case. Suddenly, the system came alive. Fans fired up and spun like a creature awakening from a long slumber, inhaling a huge breath. It was alive! The monitor flickered to life, showing the bios splash screen, and there I knew I had done it all correctly.

The build was complete, and now I could do with it as I pleased! It was my minion, and I was its master! I could take over the world with this computer, and I thought to myself that I had spent roughly $1200 on building this system from scratch. If I had bought an Apple equivalent, it would have been well over double the final cost. I also would lose out on upgradability as I still have this PC running today! 

That one build started a hobby that, to this day, still continues. I have several computers now that have different tasks. I got into Tonymacx86, became a moderator there, and tested various hardware to run with OS X. I made server computers, Home Theater Computers, gaming rigs, and photo editing rigs. All are built from scratch. I enjoy building computers. My current system runs OS X and Windows 10, and I can choose what operating system to play on. Windows is used for gaming and Office Suite work, and OS X is used for all my Adobe editing and web coding.

For as long as one can build computers, one should do so. The benefits of this are immense, the biggest of which is cost. However, there is also the satisfaction of the finished product and a new minion to join my ranks as I slowly take over the world one custom PC at a time.