Apple's adoption of the Intel processor along with the introduction of OS X provided the opportunity for anyone to build an off-the-shelf PC and load Apple's operating system on it. Please be advised: Apple does not support this activity and automatically voids the the OS X warranty for anyone who elects to build this type of system. With that said, should you decide to pursue building one of these systems, you are legally and ethically required to purchase a legitimate copy of Apple's operating system.
Generic Parts
Starting with the generic parts, select a well-designed case to build this system with and a full-sized ATX style case will provide you with the most flexibility. As a recommendation, do not cut corners on your choice of power supply. Make sure to purchase a good quality, ATX power supply, one that is rated for a minimum of 500 watts and is equipped with dual 12-volt rails. Most CD/DVD drives are supported, including read/write models. A good rule of thumb is that if the drive technology is supported by Apple, it will integrate with your system easily. The hard drive should be a SATA interface chosen in whatever size you desire. For ease of use, it is recommended that an Apple or Apple-style keyboard and mouse be incorporated into your build.
Manufacturer Specific
The motherboard and graphics adapter are critical to the process of loading OS X onto this system. While the newer AMD CPUs are supported using a patch, Intel CPUs are required if the target is to have a pure "vanilla" installation of OS X on your system. Both nVidia and ATI graphics cards are supported but for the best results it is recommended that a card that is known to function be included. As a convenience a link has been supplied in the Resources section that lists all of the hardware components which have been tested and are known to work.
OS X
Apple's introduction of OS X began a new direction for the manufacturer with the adoption of BSD as their operating system. BSD is a Unix variant, somewhat similar to Linux, but with a number of very important differences. In the BSD world, OS X is referred to as the Darwin fork, which is loosely based on the NetBSD fork. Theoretically, if a software package can be run on NetBSD, it should be able to run on OS X, and this holds true for which hardware can be supported.
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