Hackintosh setup Part 1 - Introduction

edit: apologies for the constantly updating pages. I keep thinking of how to format this so it's easiest to follow.

Hackintosh Install Guide Contents

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - What You'll Need
Part 3 - Installing OSX
Part 4 - Additional Notes

I've recently been messing around with trying to install OSX on my PC. There's a ton of information on the internet, however, the problem I ran into is that this information isn't easy to sort through. There's a huge number of forum posts dealing with the various hardware combinations that people have, and it can be pretty overwhelming. An additional problem is that many of the people at the forefront of hackintosh developement are based in Asia or Europe and english is definitely not their first language.

I am not an expert on setting up a hackintosh, but I figure if I put up the setup procedure that I used for my system, someone out there might find it useful. Something that drove me crazy is that there are a bunch of tiny details that need to be paid attention to, but is hardly ever mentioned in other hackintosh guides. I'll try to highlight the ones that gave me trouble.

Hackintoshes are notoriously picky about what hardware and what drivers are used. This contributes to the fragmented nature of install guides on the web. What may work for one person's hardware may not for another. The process I used here should be applicable to a wide range of hardware, but will be the most help to those that have my same motherboard. I will be posting the kexts and boot files I used.

My hardware:
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2 motherboard
2x2GB DDR2-800
ATI Radeon HD4850
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
PS/2 Microsoft Internet Keyboard
USB Microsoft Intellimouse
Maxtor 80GB IDE HD
Pioneer IDE DVDRW

To start, here are the resources I used:
insanelymac.com - A lot of info here, but the forums are a pain because it isn't easy to find. The best you can do is use the forum search and read the stickied posts in the relevant sections. The wiki there is not really up to date or written well, so don't expect much from that.

menoob Hackintosh tutorial - This is the process that I basically followed.

bassheadtech tutorial - Another similar tutorial which was also helpful.

google.com - Yeah, I know should be obvious, but unfortunately people are lazy and need reminding. Don't underestimate how useful google can be to help you solve your install problems. If you're getting an error, chances are high someone else has experienced that same error already. The two guides posted above were found with google, and the solutions a number of driver problems I had were also found via google.