I've been a Hackintosh user for some time now and thought I'd document my own setup experience and steps to get OS X working on my hardware.

My Hardware Components

• Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Works without custom DSDT files, loads of SATA and USB 3 ports, 4 RAM banks for up to 32Gb.
• CPU - Intel i7 3770 @ 3.4Ghz - would have got a 3770K but got a REALLY good deal on the non-K
• Graphics Card - Gigabyte Nvidia 660 Ti
• Hard disks - OCZ Agility 4 SSD + a 3Tb 7200rpm drive running as a fusion drive - good compromise between performance and space. Also have some other kinds of storage for media files - totalling around 6Tb

Software Components

• Clover EFI Bootloader - Native EFI bootloader for OS X, can load kernel extensions (kexts) at boot as well as patch existing ones, so things like audio, networking survive entire OS X updates, upgrades and even new installations.
• FakeSMC.kext - the most essential component of any hackintosh - this emulates the Macintosh System Management Controller and is essential for any Hackintosh. Download the Binaries.dmg file
• Clover Configurator - Clover is a pig to configure sometimes, this makes it (a bit) easier
• Various Kernel Extensions (kexts) for my hardware:
• AppleIntelE1000.kext - Intel Ethernet drivers for those not natively supported by OS X (including the on-board GA-Z77X-UD5H ethernet)
• AtherosL1cEthernet.kext for the Atheros Ethernet NIC (note: use this (version 1.2.3) and not the AtherosL1Ethernet.kext which has a known memory leak)
• Realtek ALC Audio Injection - drivers for various ALC audio codecs which are patched on boot (includes ALC898 from the GA-Z77X-UD5H)

Creating an OS X Installation USB Stick

You will need a mac for this and a USB stick with at least 8GB capacity.

Step 1 - Format a suitable USB Stick

In disk Utility, find your USB stick and select Partition and select 1 Partition under layout. Name it Yosemite. It should look like this:

Click the Options... button and select GUID Partition table.

When done click Apply and wait a few moments for it to format.

Step 2 - Copy the OS X Installation Media

When done with that open a terminal window (Utilities/Terminal) and paste the following command:

This may take a while to complete, so be patient!

Step 3 - Install Clover

Now you need to install Clover on to the USB stick. Run the installer and click Change Install Location and select your OS X Installation USB stick (now called "Install OS X Yosemite")

Then click Customize

Select the following options for a pure EFI system (i.e. GA-Z77X-UD5H):

• Install for UEFI booting only
• Install Clover in the ESP
• Drivers64UEFI:
• EmuVariableUefi-64
• OsxAptioFixDriv-64
• PartitionDxe-64

Click Install and wait for it to complete

Step 3 - Configuring Clover and kexts

Once installed Clover will create a partition on your USB stick. This will be auto mounted as EFI

Navigate to /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER/ and open the kexts folder. If it does not already exist, create a subfolder called 10.10 and place any kexts you need (including FakeSMC.kext). Clover will automatically add these at startup.

Next use clover configurator to edit the config.plist file in /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER. Configuration varies from system to system, but for mine I used this config.plist

Clover should create a system definition for you, so there's no need to worry about this.

Installing OS X

Once Clover is on your USB key you're ready to install OS X on your hackintosh.

Booting

With the USB key inserted, reboot your Hackintosh...TBC

Setting up a Fusion Drive

Post-installation configuration