Mac: If you're a Hackintosh user, you know the About This Mac window on your Mac often contains errors about what hardware you have installed. Over on iDownloadBlog, they show you how to manually edit the details to include whatever you want.

A Hackintosh is a machine dedicated to running the Mac operating system but it is strictly non-Apple hardware. Apple is notoriously restrictive with the official hardware that can run its operating systems so, of course, tenacious techies have found ways to work around it. There are whole communities of devotees that dedicate themselves to creating Hackintosh machines with different specifications. Recently, app developer Mike Rundle detailed his process of building a US$1200 Hackintosh. Sounds quite cheap. So how much would it cost an Australian that wants to buy all the parts locally? We did a breakdown of the costs bit by bit.

Apple's Mac Pro, the sleek and shiny trash can from outer space, is certainly a feat of engineering. It also costs $4000. If you want to build a comparable machine yourself, you can save a lot of money by going with a Hackintosh.

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, this is our complete guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine and installing OS X all on your own.

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, this is our complete guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine and installing OS X all on your own.

A new Mac makes a great gift, but if you want to save a little cash this Christmasand give a lucky person an even faster computer than you could buy from Apple, you need to construct a hackintosh. In this gift guide we're offering up several builds to fit any need.

You didn't want to settle for Apple's underpowered hardware, so you built yourself a hackintosh. A few years later it's feeling slow and you want to upgrade. Because you created the machine yourself, you don't need to shell out tons of cash for a new one. You can upgrade for a fraction of the price of your original build. But upgrading your hackintosh involves a bit of work and some new challenges -- unless you take the right approach.

Mac: AirDrop is a simple service for beaming files between Macs. You can make it even better with a simple Terminal command.

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 complete guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine and installing OS X all on your own.

Even if you're a happy Windows user, you may have thought about trying Mac OS X. Maybe you'd like to test drive OS X before switching to a Mac or building a Hackintosh, or maybe you just want to run that one killer Mac app on your Windows machine. Whatever your reason, you can actually install and run OS X inside your existing Windows setup with a program called VirtualBox. Here's how.

If you've been waiting to build an Ivy Bridge-based hackintosh with OS X Mountain Lion, Tonymacx86's custom builds for 2012 are now available. They include a powerful budget build that you can have for as little as $US550.

From talking about my hackintosh's so lovingly, there's one question I frequently receive from PowerMac G5 or Mac Pro owners: can I modify my existing case to use hackintosh hardware? Although I've long assumed that it wasn't worth the effort, it looks like I was wrong. If you're willing to make a few modifications to your Apple case, a true Hack Pro is well within your grasp.

With great hardware comes great opportunity. Thanks to the internet and clever hacking communities, there are plenty of ways to boost the capabilities of your everyday gadgets. Some save you money, some add features, and some are the entire package. Here are our top nine favourite hardware boosting hacks.

Last week, Apple updated its Mac Pros with old processors from 2010, even older graphics cards and all the USB 2.0 ports you'll ever need. With a proper update unlikely until 2013, we thought we'd bridge the gap with "hackintoshes" -- the faster, cheaper Mac desktops you can build yourself with standard PC hardware. By making your own "Hack Pro" you'll get the up-to-date machine Apple won't provide, and you'll also save a lot of money in the process.

Chimera, the bootloader we all rely on to make our standard PC hardware boot Mac OS X, received an update allowing it to support OS X Mountain Lion. This is great news if you've been looking to try out the new features of Apple's latest operating system, but you may not want to forge ahead just yet.

While building a hackintosh is one of the best ways to get an inexpensive, super fast Mac, it comes with its own set of challenges. Sometimes your machine simply won't boot, and it can be particularly frustrating. Seasoned hackintosher StingRay demonstrates what to do when you're flooded with kernel panics.

We give you a basic overview of Multibeast -- the handy hackintosh post-installation tool by tonymacx86 and MacMan -- in our complete guide to building a hackintosh, but just enough to give you the basics. In the video above, hackintosher StingRay walks you through every little detail of MultiBeast so you can get to know one of the most vital tools for the process.

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 complete guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine and installing OS X all on your own.

Creating a hackintosh has become incredible simple, and we've kept you up-to-date on the latest process. But as things get easier, you can lose sight of how everything works under the hood. Knowing the special files that make your hackintosh run and understanding what they do can be very useful when you need to troubleshoot.