Hate noisy PCs? So does Joe Golton, who set out with $600-$700 to see if an ordinary person with no technical know-how can buy an off-the-shelf system that's also very quiet. Here's what he learned.

I replaced both my home and work desktop PCs during the past year. My previous home system was a noisy, energy hogging, budget 2006 Dell model that was bogged down with useless preloaded software while my work system was a 2004 Dell that was also noisy. I'm done with Dell.

More importantly, I'm done with noisy PCs. This time I was determined to get the cleanest, quietest PC I could get for less than $700.

Clean system is easy. Stick to Asus or Lenovo systems while avoiding Dell and HP systems, especially those intended for homes. Or switch to Macs.

It took a bit of research to find out that quiet is also easy. Brands, fan types, case types, hard drive quality, DVD drive type, or quality builds are minor factors compared to one dominating factor:

The main chips must generate little heat.

To get quiet along with decent performance, you simply limit your chip choice to mainstream mobile CPUs with integrated graphics from AMD or Intel that have been released in 2011-2012: Lllano, Trinity, Sandy Bridge, and soon Ivy Bridge.

The rest of this post answers in more detail the two questions implied above: For about $600-$700 can an ordinary person with no technical know buy an off-the-shelf system that is very quiet (and clean, while you're at it)? Among the thousands of possible off-the-shelf systems, what simple rules of thumb can you apply that insure the system will be quiet and clean?

But first, to understand the basics of why processors are so important to quiet systems . . .

CPU and graphics chips both consume most of the power inside PCs or laptops. The more power they consume, the more heat they generate, and the more cooling is required to prevent damage by overheating. Cooling is usually done by fans, which are effective and inexpensive, but get louder in proportion to how much heat must be dissipated. Therefore:

Less power –> less heat –> slower fan speeds –> quieter system.

The Best CPUs for a Quiet, Affordable PC

To determine which CPUs offered an appropriate mix of high performance and little power usage, I read half a dozen lengthy articles about the latest chip technologies, dove into tech forums, and took extensive notes. It ended up boiling down to just a few points:

1. Chips which require the least amount of power also tend to be too slow for your main system. These include Intel's Atom and AMD's E-350 chips. AMD E-350 chips are faster than Atom so some claim they're good enough for systems used mainly for office work. This may be true for a newly purchased PC. But if you want your system to still feel snappy after a few years of software and operating system updates (or if you use more computationally intensive software), you want a faster chip inside.
2. Mainstream chips since 2011 from AMD (Llano and Trinity) and Intel (Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge) are very fast and power efficient compared to prior generations. Intel's chips are better suited for computationally intensive tasks like large spreadsheets while AMD's systems have better integrated graphics and are therefore more suitable for light gaming. Both handle all routine mainstream tasks with ease, including 1080p video playback.
3. Mobile versions of these chips are geared for lower power consumption, which ultimately means a quieter system than systems using desktop chips. Furthermore, in Intel's case the mobile version includes better integrated graphics. Intel chose not to include very good integrated graphics with most desktop versions of their Sandy Bridge chips, so most desktop systems will include a graphics card that generates even more heat, leading to an even noisier system. This is very annoying for those (like myself) who prefer desktops over laptops. And, for reasons unknown to me, large Windows system vendors don't build Windows desktop systems with mainstream mobile chips at mainstream prices.

   Therefore, to get the best combination of quiet, low power system with good performance (also known as best "performance per watt"), you're best off with mainstream mobile chips inside. Apple figured this out long ago with its Mac Mini model-the main reason it's so much quieter than other desktop systems is the mobile CPU inside.

4. Currently the sweet spot for quiet systems with good performance at affordable prices is mobile systems based on AMD's Llano or Intel's Sandy Bridge. Recently released AMD Trinity and Intel's Ivy Bridge systems coming out later in 2012 have better performance per watt, but cost more. You can have a very quiet system with any of these.

How to Get Quiet Systems with Best Performance per Watt at Mainstream Prices

1. To achieve mainstream prices of less than $700 for a very quiet, pre-built Windows system that includes a display and a high performance CPU, you'll have to get a laptop (or notebook or ultrabook or whatever they call it these days).
2. For Intel, this means any chip model number on this Wikipedia list for mobile Sandy Bridge, or this Wikipedia list for mobile Ivy Bridge.
3. For AMD, this means any chip model on this Wikipedia list for mobile Llano, and any chip model on the mobile portion of this Wikipedia list for mobile Trinity.
4. If you think you'll want to do light gaming on your system, then get AMD. If you think you'll do heavy calculating (i.e. very large spreadsheets), then Intel. If neither of these applies to you, then it doesn't matter whether you use AMD or Intel, so long as the mobile chip is on one of the lists I linked to.

That's it!

Are My Systems Actually Quiet?

Yes and No. Yes for my work system, thanks to being paired with a quality slot loading DVD drive. I review it here:

My Amazon Review on Lenovo ThinkPad Edge e420s

My home Lenovo system has a tray-loaded DVD drive which is noisy when spinning at high speeds. A bug in Windows Media Center forces noisy, high speed spinning when movies are played from DVD. If not using Windows Media Center to play movies, the less expensive home system is as quiet as the work system:

My Review of the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge e520 on Amazon

If I had to do it all over again I would have purchased both Lenovo Edge e420s systems. The e420s can often be found for less than $600 with an Intel Sandy Bridge i3 inside and has better overall build quality, with the DVD drive mattering most from the noise perspective.

But I'm happy with both of my new systems, despite the fact that Intel marketing pushed me to buy laptops when I really wanted desktops. I've even begun to use my systems away from my desk, on occasion.

Bottom Line: My new systems are fast, clean, and quiet. I'm done with Dell. I'm done with useless pre-loaded software. And most importantly, I'm done with noise.

Want the Quietest PC? Just Get the Right Chip... | FilterJoe

Joe Golton is an ex-hedge fund manager who has developed a passion for increasing the internet's signal to noise ratio, especially around product information (filterjoe.com). Joe is cofounding a startup which aims to greatly improve online product information.

Photo by Dave Monk.

Want to see your work here? Send an email to submissions@lifehacker.com!

Dear Lifehacker,
I recently updated my video drivers and discovered that a lot of my other drivers were out of date. Do I really need to keep them updated all the time? Will I notice any improvements in speed or features if I have the latest versions?

Sincerely,
Disorganized Drivers

Dear Disorganized,
Drivers can be pretty confusing, and while we've talked about them a bit before, there are a few things everyone should know about how to manage their drivers and when to update them. Here's the most important stuff.

The Golden Rule of Drivers: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

Before you go obsessing about up-to-date drivers, you should note that, while we always recommend you keep your software updated for security and stability, drivers are another matter. While you should keep an eye on any security updates that pop up, different driver versions can introduce stability problems, so if your hardware is working as expected, you're better off not updating, since you never know when it might cause problems. You'll rarely get big speed or feature boosts from a driver update, so unless you see in the release notes that there's something big, you're usually okay to just ignore it.

Instead, only update your drivers if you're having a problem with your hardware. Say your ethernet connection drops occasionally, or your printer isn't printing properly. In this case, one of the first troubleshooting steps you should take is to update the driver, since these issues may be fixed in a new update.

The main exception to this rule is video drivers. Unlike other drivers, video drivers are updated often and usually with big performance increases, especially in new games. Heck, a recent Nvidia update increased Skyrim performance by 45%, and the driver after that increased its performance by another 20%. If you're a Skyrim player, that's a huge boost. So, when you see that your video card has a new driver available, see what improvements the driver offers—if it offers system-wide performance improvements or improvements in a game you're currently playing, you'll definitely want to update. If it doesn't, stick with the current driver.

Where to Get Your Drivers

So you need to install or update a driver, but you often have a few choices in where you get it from. When you first plug in a device, Windows will often install its own generic version of the driver itself, and your device will get basic functionality right away. For some things this is fine, but oftentimes you'll find that downloading the driver from the manufacturer's web site gives you lots of extra features. Sound drivers may give you things like virtual surround or room correction, while video drivers will usually give you a whole control panel of options that let you customize your graphics performance, features like Nvidia's PhysX, and more. In general, there are three different places you'll find drivers, and here's how they differ:

• From the chipset manufacturer's web site: This is the first place you'll usually want to look. The chipset manufacturer is the company that designed the original video or sound chip, e.g. Nvidia or Realtek. These companies often have the very latest drivers available before anyone else. Some drivers (like Nvidias) will come with extra features, while others (like Realtek) will only offer the latest generic drivers.
• From the hardware manufacturer's web site: If you find that you have problems with the chipset manufacturer's drivers, or that they only offer generic drivers with no extra features, your next stop should be the hardware manufacturer. This is the person who made the actual hardware, like EVGA or XFX for video cards, and companies like Gigabyte or MSI for motherboards (which often include things like sound and ethernet). If you have a laptop, you'll want to go to your laptop manufacturer's site instead, e.g. Asus or Lenovo.
• Directly from Windows: Windows' generic drivers are usually the bare minimum of what you need for something to work. It isn't ideal for most things, but in some cases—like printers—that's exactly what you want. If you visit your printer's web site, they'll only offer you a driver that includes a bunch of software that may include other features, but not necessarily ones you'll use. Regular printing and scanning is already built right into Windows, and you don't need photo editors, cloud services, and other junk bloating up your machine. So instead of getting drivers from the manufacturer, just get them right from Windows as described below.
• From the CD that came with your device: You'll almost never want to do this. These drivers are probably outdated by the time you get the computer up and running, so you should download the drivers from one of the above sources instead. The only exception: ethernet drivers, if Windows doesn't have them built-in. Obviously if you start up your computer and can't access the internet, you can't download drivers. So install the ethernet drivers from the CD, connect to the internet, and download all your other drivers online.

How to Update Your Drivers

When it comes time to update, the process is very simple. Just open up Device Manager (by clicking on the Start orb and typing "device manager" into the search box) and right-clicking on the hardware you want to update. Click Properties and go to the Driver tab. Here, you can see your current driver version. If you're updating through Windows, click "Update Driver" to update it. If not, check the driver's version number and head to the manufacturer's web site. If their driver number is newer than the one you have, an update is available and you can read up on it, if necessary. Then, just download the installer from there and run it like you would any other program. When you're done, you should have shiny new drivers ready to help you get the best out of your hardware.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. Got any extra driver-related tips to share? Favorite features you found in another version of a driver? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments.

Photo remixed from boroboro , tele52, DVARG, and Diagon (Shutterstock).

Building a hackintosh—that is, installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware—used to require extremely restricted hardware choices and quite a bit of know-how. Now your options are vast and the installation process is fairly simple. With that in mind, here is our always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine, and installing OS X all on your own. Thanks to a new process, it's even easier than before.

Currently Up-to-Date Version: Mac OS X 10.7.4 (UniBeast Method)
If you're looking for the former method of installing Mac OS X Lion using TonyMac's EasyBeast utility, we have archived it here. While there's really no reason to follow those instructions if you're looking to install Lion, you can use them to help you install Snow Leopard.

First Things First: What Is a Hackintosh, Exactly?

A hackintosh is simply any non-Apple hardware that has been made—or "hacked"—to run Mac OS X. This could apply to any hardware, whether it's a manufacturer-made or personally-built computer. For the purposes of this guide, we're only discussing a tried-and-true method for building a hackintosh that you build.

IMPORTANT SANDY BRIDGE PROCESSOR NOTE: If you're building a hackintosh with a Sandy Bridge Intel processor, there is an issue with OS X 10.7.4 in which your clock speed may end up getting capped to 1.6 Ghz. If you don't want this to happen, you'll need to also install an SSDT file. You can ready about how this is done here.

That means you'll need to be comfortable with the idea of building your own machine
and providing your own technical support when you run into problems. While this can be a little bit of a scary prospect if you're new to building a hackintosh, it comes with the advantage of saving you a lot of money while still providing you with an incredibly powerful, fully customizable machine. We'll also point you to several resources we've put together to help you learn everything you need to know about building a computer so you can feel confident on your first time through the entire computer building process. While it's important to know that building a hackintosh from scratch is not a project for beginners, it is something that anyone can learn to do. We think it's a wonderful alternative to purchasing an official Apple product and a rewarding challenge. Now that you know what to expect, let's get to work.

How Does This Guide Work?

It may seem strange to have an always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh because the process changes based on the hardware choices you make. Although this is true, it doesn't change that much. We'll be discussing the process of building a hackintosh on a broad level, as it applies to most hardware. As a result, this guide will not always be able to tell you the exact boxes to tick and choices to make, but it will teach you how to figure that out for yourself. We'll hold your hand as tightly as possible through as much of the process as we can, but there will be some decisions you'll have to make on your own. It can be a little scary sometimes, but that's part of the fun.

In summary, this always up-to-date guide will explain how to pick the right hardware for a great hackintosh and walk you through the standard OS X installation process, but it will also require you to be diligent and informed in regards to the variables in your specific build.

How to Choose the Best Hardware for Your Needs

Picking out hardware and building a computer is often the most daunting part of this process. If you've never done it before, it can often feel like putting together puzzle where many of the pieces seem interchangeable but truly are not. That said, we have plenty of resources to help you demystify the purchasing and building process so you're feeling confident.

First, let's talk about choosing hardware and what makes certain options better than others.

When Apple builds their official Macs, their parts are not that different from the parts we can buy online when we build our own PCs. In fact, they're often the same. Additionally, third-party manufacturers will create hardware for Apple's Mac Pro computers to add additional options to the mix. This means that Apple, or the third parties, need to create software drivers for Mac OS X in order for the hardware to work. This means that virtually any hardware with these drivers is going to be hardware you can use in your hackintosh build. Additionally, the talented people on the internet have developed their own open source drivers for non-Mac hardware in order to provide additional options for your hackintosh. While all of these efforts only span a small percentage of the available hardware on the market, it still provides you with a lot of great choices. Many motherboards, graphics cards, and processors are compatible thanks to these combined efforts.

The next question is, how do you know what is and isn't compatible? Like we've already discussed, if Apple has used the part before, that's generally a good sign that you can use it, too. That said, you always want to double-check when you're putting your hardware list together. To help you out, we've created a hackintosh hardware buyer's guide so you can figure out what will and will not work. Follow that guide when choosing your hardware and you should be good to go. You can also reference our Hack Pro and Hack Mini builds, or just use the sample build provided at the end of this section.

Once you have your hardware you're going to need to assemble it into a working computer. We have an entire night school course on computer building, but this specific lesson will walk you through how to build your first computer. Follow it diligently, read your motherboard and case manuals closely, and you should have a functional machine in no time.

A Sample Build

With the resources we've discussed, you should be all set to build your hackintosh. Before we move on, however, let's take a look at a sample build so you can get an idea of what a basic hardware shopping list looks like. This is an actual hackintosh we've built, based on hardware suggested by tonymacx86. It only costs a little over $400, so it's a great option for beginners. Here's the list of parts (last updated on February 6th, 2012):

• CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 with Intel HD 3000 Graphics
• GPU: None necessary (it's integrated with the CPU)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3 or
• RAM: CORSAIR 4GB 240-Pin DDR3
• Case and Power Supply: APEX MI-008 Mini-ITX with 250w PSU
• Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc
• Data Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500 GB SATA 6Gb/s (HDD) or OCZ Technology 120 GB Agility 3 SSD (SSD)
• Bluetooth (Optional): Jabra A320s USB Bluetooth Adapter (this adapter works much better than any others I've tried, so I recommend getting this one even though it's larger and generally a little more expensive)

You'll find lots of builds like this on tonymacx86's blog, so you can build those exact machines or use them as starting points to create your own build. However you want to go about it, be sure to read our a hackintosh hardware buyer's guide if you want help with selecting your parts.

By this point you should have purchased your parts, built your computer, and turned it on to make sure everything is functioning. If all systems are go, it's time to move on to the installation process.

How to Install Mac OS X on Your Hackintosh

Installing Mac OS X on hackintosh hardware involves a bit more than just popping in a DVD, choosing a boot volume, and clicking a button. You'll have to do all of that, too, but there's a bit of prep work involved. Let's get started.

Step 1: Configure the BIOS

When you turn your machine on, it should display its BIOS welcome screen. This is generally an image with the name of your motherboard and indicators for a few keys you can press to edit your BIOS. Before we can install OS X, we first have to make a few changes to the BIOS (your motherboard's settings), so you're going to need to press the key that corresponds to the BIOS Settings when you power on your machine. This is almost always a function key (like F12) or the delete key, but reference your BIOS image to be sure. (Click the image to the left to see an example.) Press and hold down that magic BIOS settings key and wait for the BIOS settings to load.

The BIOS settings for every motherboard is going to be somewhat similar but never exactly the same. For that reason we can't tell you, command-by-command, where to go to find and make certain adjustments. That said, we can tell you what to look for. Here are the settings you will need to adjust (or at least verify) in your BIOS to make your hardware hackintosh-friendly:

• Disable Quick Boot. You may have to look around for this, but we've often found this in a section titled Advanced BIOS Settings. Just look for a Quick Boot or Fast Boot option and ensure it is set to disabled.
• Configure SATA as AHCI. By default, your motherboard will configure SATA as IDE and you'll need to change this to AHCI. In some cases you'll be asked if you want to do this when you boot up for the first time. If so, choose yes. If not, go into your BIOS and look for this setting as you'll need to make the change for everything to work smoothly.
• Change the Boot Device Order. Your BIOS will default to a specific boot order, which means it'll look for a startup volume (where the operating system lives) in various places until it finds one. The boot order is the order in which it checks each location. In general, you want to set your optical drive to first boot device so you can easily boot to a disc by simply putting it in the drive and turning on your machine. The second item in the order should be the hard drive or SSD where you're going to install OS X. The order beyond that isn't terribly important and entirely up to you.
• Adjust the Hard Disk Boot Priority. Some BIOS settings pages will also have a setting called Hard Disk Boot Priority, which is used to identify which hard drive to try and boot from first if there are multiple drives in the machine. If you install more than one drive in your hackintosh, be sure to set the Hard Disk Boot Priority to the drive where OS X will be installed.

Once you've made these changes, you'll need to save them. In most cases you'll only need to press the escape key a few times to get back to the main screen, and then F10 to save and exit. Your BIOS settings page will tell you which keys save, exit, and so on, so you should have no trouble figuring out the right keys to press.

Step 2: Install Mac OS X Lion

Now we're ready to actually install OS X, but this is going to be a fairly in-depth process that requires a number of tools. Before getting started, be sure you have the following:

• A copy of Mac OS X Lion from the Mac App Store or on a thumb drive.
• An 8GB thumb drive (or larger).
• UniBeast, available from tonymacx86.
• MultiBeast, also available from tonymacx86. You want the version for Lion (as opposed to Snow Leopard).
• The DSDT file for your motherboard of choice. If you followed our hackintosh hardware guide in the previous section, you may already have a pre-edited DSDT file for your motherboard. If not, visit tonymacx86's DSDT database, choose your motherboard from the list—making sure you choose the version that matches your motherboard's firmware—and download it to your hard drive. (Note: You can generally discover the firmware version of your motherboard by looking at its BIOS boot image.)

Once you have everything, you'll need to prepare your 8GB+ thumb drive to be bootable and capable of installing Mac OS X Lion. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Connect your USB drive to an existing Mac and open Disk Utility (in your Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Utilities folder). If you don't already own a Mac, you can still use the old method but it's a lot more work.
2. Click on your thumb drive in Disk Utility and then click the Partition tab.
3. Click on the drop-down menu that reads "Current" and choose "1 Partition."
4. Click on the "Options..." button and select the partition scheme labeled "Master Boot Record." Click "OK" to accept your choice.
5. Give the thumb drive the name USB (which you can change later).
6. Set the drive's format to "Mac OS X Extended Journaled."
7. Click the "Apply" button and then the "Partition" button.
8. When Disk Utility has finished partitioning your disk, make sure the "Install Mac OS X Lion Application" you purchased from the Mac App Store is in your Applications folder. If you purchased a Lion thumb drive, just make sure it's plugged in to your computer.
9. Open UniBeast and click "Continue" three times, then agree. This should bring you to a drive selection screen. Choose USB (the thumb drive you just partitioned) and click "Continue."
10. You'll now be presented with three checkboxes. Select the one that applies to the type of Mac OS X Lion installer you bought (app store or thumb drive), then click "Continue" and enter your admin password.
11. Wait about 10-15 minutes for UniBeast to do it's thing. DO NOT unplug the drive or stop the installation while it's in process.

When UniBeast finishes, you'll have a hackintosh-bootable USB thumb drive. Plug it into your hackintosh, boot up, and press the key on your keyboard that will take you to the boot selection menu. (If you don't know what it is, just look on your BIOS boot screen. It is commonly ESC, F10, or F12.) If the thumb drive boots successfully you'll see a thumb drive with the tonymacx86 logo appear on your screen along with a single boot option: USB. Choose it and boot into the installer.

Note: In some cases you may need additional boot flags to get to the installer. If you have an unsupported graphics card, you'll need to add GraphicsEnabler=No. If you have an ATI Radeon 6670 installed you'll need to add PCIRootUID=0. You can just type these in at the boot option screen before you press enter to choose "USB" and boot into the installer.

When the Mac OS X Lion Installer finishes booting, you'll be presented with a welcome screen and can choose your language. Do that, but before you can continue you'll need to format your disk. Go to the Utilities menu and choose Disk Utility. Select the disk you want to use for installation and format it. To format it properly, follow these steps:

1. Choose the disk in Disk Utility and click the Partition tab.
2. Set the partitions to one (or however many you want) and their format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
3. Click the options button and set the partition scheme to GUID Partition Table
4. Click Apply and wait for the disk to finish formatting.

With your destination disk ready to go, you can now run the Lion installer just like you would on any other Mac. When it completes you might be met with an "Installation Failed" message at the end (or not), but that's nothing to worry about. When the installation is complete just restart your machine. When you do, access your boot menu and choose the USB drive. You still need it to boot up. When you see the familiar boot options screen again you'll now be able to choose the drive you installed Lion on. Pick that and press enter, also entering any boot flags you used when booting into the installer previously.

Step 3: Install Your Drivers

Now that you've got Lion installed, it's time to make all your hardware work properly. For that, you need to install some drivers. Copy MultiBeast to your hackintosh's hard drive and open it up. Click through the install windows and get to the options page. What you choose is going to vary based on your build, but here's a look at all your choices and what they do, using our sample build as a guide:

1. EasyBeast Install - Just ignored this.
2. UserDSDT Install - This is the option that applies your custom DSDT. You downloaded it earlier, so put a copy on your desktop and check this option so it will be applied.
3. System Utilities - It's always a good idea to check System Utilities as it repairs permissions, runs maintenance scripts, and other helpful stuff like that.
4. Drivers & Bootloaders - This is the section where you'll be making most of your decisions. You'll have your pick from an array of hardware drivers that will allow everything from audio to Ethernet to function on your hackintosh. All you really need to do is go through this list and select the relevant hardware in your build. If you have Azalia Audio on your motherboard, that generally means selecting ALC8xxHDA and the AppleHDA rollback options. Most graphics cards you use won't require drivers, and so you can often skip the Graphics subsection, but just turning on GraphicsEnabler, which you'll do in the next section. Enabling any of the drivers in the Disk subsection will help provide support for SATA and eSATA hard disks, but they won't be necessary for most users. The miscellaneous sections has a lot of goodies. If your board supports any of them (like USB 3.0, for example), you should check them off for installation. One kext that always seems to make things work better is NullCPUPowerManagement. We recommend installing this as it tends to make a significant difference in performance on some machines. Lastly you have the Bootloaders subsection, which you can skip as the UserDSDT Install process took care of installing the Chimera bootloader earlier.
5. Customization - If you're following our guide you're using a pre-edited/patched DSDT file, so the only thing you're going to want to do in this subsection is check off 64-bit Apple Boot Screen (unless your hackintosh has 32-bit hardware) to enable your video card in full force. You probably won't need the other options unless you have a special situation or are troubleshooting an issue.
6. OSx86 Software - You don't really need to choose anything in this department, but if you'd like some handy OSx86 tools installed to your Applications folder you can choose them from this section.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you're building a Sandy Bridge-based hackintosh with a motherboard using Realtek ethernet, be sure to check out Lnx2Mac's ethernet driver. It's released separately from MultiBeast and sometimes the version it provides is not the latest. That is currently the case and the latest version supports newer socket 1155 (meaning Sandy Bridge-compatible) motherboards. If you're having trouble with your ethernet, download it directly.

Once you've made all of your choices, go ahead and run MultiBeast. When it's finished, this generally means you're done and can restart to your brand new hackintosh. In some cases you may need to find additional drivers that MultiBeast didn't provide. This may be a driver for a Wi-Fi adapter you purchased or some third-party PCI card. If the driver wasn't provided by the manufacturer or downloadable on their web site, use popular hackintosh forums (like InsanelyMac and tonymacx86) for help. Either way, once you're done with MultiBeast you can install those drivers as well to finish up the job. Congratulations on all your hard work. You now have a functional hackintosh!

Step 4: Updating Your Hackintosh

When you installed Lion you likely received the most up-to-date version because the App Store automatically provides you with the latest. If you bought a thumb drive that may not be the case and you'll need to update. At some point you will need to update anyhow, so here's what you need to know.

For the most part, updating is pretty straightforward and you won't run into issues, but it's good to check tonymacx86's blog when updates are released to see what you'll need to do. In most cases you'll just download the latest update from Apple directly (rather than running Software Update), remove Sleepenabler.kext (provided you're using it), and then re-install it and any overwritten drivers using MultiBeast.

So how do you know what drivers were overwritten? In most cases, the only driver you'll have to reinstall is the AppleHDA Rollback, because that driver needs to be installed directly into your System Library where OS X makes changes. If you made any edits to graphics drivers, the update may overwrite them so you'll need to make those edits to the new, updated drivers as well. Whenever possible, MultiBeast installs special to a folder called Extra on your hard drive and then injects them into the boot process during startup. This method is used to prevent them from being overwritten by system updates, but if you have any drivers/kexts that aren't installed to Extra you may have to re-install them each time.

When a new update does roll around, don't update through Software Update. Download the updater directly from Apple. You can usually find it on their support site or by searching for the name of the update (e.g. "Mac OS X Lion 10.7.x Update"). Re-install anything necessary when you're done and test everything to make sure it works. Most updates should go very smoothly, but you should always back up your boot volume beforehand (we like Carbon Copy Cloner for this process) in case something goes wrong. You never know what can happen, and restoring from a backup is considerably less time-consuming than going through this entire process again from scratch.

How to Troubleshoot

Things go wrong with hackintoshes all the time. It's unlikely you'll create one without running into, at least, a minor dilemma. A lot of troubleshooting involves trial and error, unfortunately, and you'll just have to tinker around until you get the problem fixed. You will be able to find help on the InsanelyMac and tonymacx86 forums if you get stuck. You can also use tonymacx86's rBoot rescue CD to help you boot when you're having trouble doing so. You'll also want to spend some time disabling potentially problematic options and kexts in your /Extra folder (which you can get to by pressing Command+Shift+G, choosing Go to Folder, typing /Extra, and see if removing anything can help. Sometimes you'll need to add things, too, to get the proper hardware support without any glitches so just be diligent and you'll get there.

Finally, once you do get things working you should clone your hard drive so you have a boot-able copy available should things go awry. This way you can restore back to that copy or at least compare the things that changed since it was all working nicely. No matter what you think, you're going to screw something up at some point. Keep a backup. You won't regret it.

For more troubleshooting tips, check out our hackintosh troubleshooting guide.

Dear Lifehacker,
My router sucks. My connection goes wonky once every few days, and I have to unplug the router and reboot it (I believe this is called a hard reset) to fix the problem. Obviously, this is incredibly annoying. What can I do to just make the darn thing work properly?

Sincerely,
Infernal Internet

Dear Infernal,
This is a very common ailment, but there's no one universal cause (which, sadly, means there's also not one simple solution). It could be that your internet provider changes your IP address often, and your router doesn't catch on. Maybe it's overheating, or maybe it's getting bogged down by too many connections at once (which can happen if you download a lot). There isn't an easy way to figure out what the problem is, but there are a few common solutions that could help you fix the problem and prevent it from happening in the future.

First: Verify That Your Router Is the Source of the Problem

Before you start messing with your router, you should make sure the problem doesn't lie with your modem or your internet service provider. To do this, plug your computer directly into your modem and see if you get any dropped connections or other problems. If not, the problem is more likely related to your router. If your modem is a modem/router combo, you won't be able to perform this step (we recommend having a separate modem and router for just this reason). If your modem is the problem, contact either your internet service provider or the modem manufacturer to get support, since it's probably not something you can fix at home.

Option 1: Make Sure Your Router Isn't Overheating

This is about the easiest solution to the problem, so it should be your first go-to step. Get your router out of hot, enclosed spaces, raise it up using wooden blocks, or even stick it in front of your fan. A lot of times, a router that keeps dying can be fixed with just a bit of extra airflow.

Option 2: Update Your Router's Firmware

If the internet works fine when directly connected to the modem, it's probably an issue with your router, and the first thing you should do is check for firmware updates. To do this, just:

1. Head to your router's config page (usually available by typing http://192.168.0.1 into your browser, but you'll have to check your router's manual) and check its current firmware version. Write it down or keep that tab open so you don't forget.
2. Next, go to your router's manufacturer's web site (e.g., www.linksys.com) and head to their support page. Find your router and go to its download page.
3. If the latest firmware on the downloads page matches the one your router is using, then you have the latest firmware. If not, then you should download the latest firmware and update your router according to the manufacturer's instructions.

If you're lucky, the latest firmware will fix whatever problem your router was having that made it thirst for regular reboots. If not, though, continue on to the next step.

Option 3: Flash a Third Party Firmware Like DD-WRT

Sometimes, your manufacturer's firmware just isn't very good. In those cases, flashing a third-party firmware—like the free, powerful DD-WRT—can potentially fix all your problems. It isn't for the faint of heart, but can seriously boost the usefulness and customizability of your router, so we think it's a worthwhile project. It can also reboot your router on a schedule, which may not solve the problem itself, but will keep you from having to do it manually.

Check out DD-WRT's compatibility page to see if your router is supported, and check out our guide on how to set it up, and to turn on scheduled reboots, just head to DD-WRT's configuration page and go to Just head to Administration > Keep Alive > Scheduled Reboot.

Option 4: Limit Connections to File Sharing Services

Oftentimes, your router can just get bogged down by too much traffic coming through. This is especially common with things like BitTorrent and Usenet, which achieve high download speeds by making multiple connections at one time. If you make too many, your router will stop working and need a reboot.

If you're a heavy downloader, head into your BitTorrent or Usenet client of choice and go to its settings dialog. You should find a place where you can limit the download speed. Try limiting the speed, and see if that solves your problems (or just shut off your client for a few days). You can also try tweaking the number of connections, if your client allows it. If you find that your router woes disappear after changing these settings, you've found the problem and you'll just have to settle for slightly slower download speeds.

Option 5: Buy a New Router

The fact of the matter is that while the above tweaks may help, chances are your router is old, cheap, or just plain crappy. If none of the above solutions work, head on over to a site like Newegg.com and start reading reviews on routers. I'd look for a router that not only has high ratings, but is popular—this means that the manufacturer is more likely to update the firmware, and also more likely that DD-WRT will have a version available for it. Also make sure that you buy from a store that has a good return policy in case you experience problems within the first few weeks. You don't want to go spend $100 only to find that your new router has the exact same problem.

While you're at it, check out our router buying guide to see what other features you might want.

Last Resort: Plug the Router Into an Outlet Timer

If you'd rather not buy a new router, you might be able to solve your problem with this rather clever hack from ErnieTheGeek over at Superuser:

In situations like this I love to take a cheap garden timer from Home Depot/any hardware store and set it to reboot the router on a daily basis in a time when there's generally little to no usage.

This could solve a number of the problems that would cause your router to need a reboot, and if you just set the timer to reboot once a day when you're sleeping, you probably won't ever have to do it manually (note that if you followed Option 3 and flashed DD-WRT, you can do this with its built-in scheduled reboot feature). It isn't a perfect solution, but it's a rather clever one that doesn't involve buying a new router or going through hours of troubleshooting. Any outlet timer should work; there are a lot designed for indoor lights that will let you program the outlet over a 7-day period, like this one from GE. They're cheap and they'll get the job done.

Again, these aren't the only solutions to the infamous router reboot problem, but these are some of the most common ways to solve the issue. While you're fixing router problems, you might as well fix your crappy Wi-Fi signal, too. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. Got any other solutions for fixing a constantly failing router? Share them with us in the comments below.