Main Page. Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800 - Consumerist. @iFrodo: I'm not really sure where you're getting your figures from here.
Going on newegg.com, I can get a Samsung 24-inch LCD for $449 before rebate, $399 after, not the 330+270=$500 figure you quote in your post (and if I settle for a generic, I can go even cheaper, down to $369. Install OS X on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required - Leopard. @pdok: It's not necessarily illegal if you buy a legitimate copy of Mac OS X.
It may violate the license agreement (and that's far from a settled question, as is whether the license agreement is even valid to start with), but that doesn't make it illegal. If you just torrent the CD and don't give Apple a dime, then it's illegal as hell. But if you buy a legit license for the program, it's not illegal to download the CD; as the software companies so like to say, they're not selling you software, they're selling you a license to use software, and giving you the software on disc as a convenience. Of course, torrenting it might be a problem because you're also distributing, which is illegal as hell, but that's what Usenet is for.