Hackintosh anyone?

[Nate]

Macs are great. Best platform I've ever used. I love the style of most of the software available and I'm just more fluent on navigating a mac.

But damn...the price tag. They look pretty, but I can't afford that kind of price tag on a GOOD iMac. So I've come across this term a few times and I started doing some research on Hackintosh - in other words, building your own PC, and then loading OSX onto it.

One of the videos shows a guy loading a 6 core i7 processor and all kinds of other goodies for right around the $2k price range...compared to the almost equivalent Mac Pro for around $5k

The parts are cheap..getting cheaper every day...building computers is fun...so I think I'm gonna take the plunge and DO IT!!

Anyone had any experience with building your own Hackintosh??

[Wh00h0069]

I have never built a mac, but I have built PCs based for Windows and Linux. I stopped building them though because they are so cheap now. I can usually find good quality custom built PCs for cheaper than I can buy the individual parts.

[Mike41793]

I have never built a mac, but I have built PCs based for Windows and Linux. I stopped building them though because they are so cheap now. I can usually find good quality custom built PCs for cheaper than I can buy the individual parts.

I agree, to buy all your own parts to build it isnt worth it any more. To the OP: I would try and find a PC that you like, either a base one or one with some of the different add ons youre already looking for instead of trying to build the whole thing from scratch. It will be much cheaper and then buy the software/add ons you want to go onto it.

[The Serpent Merchant]

I have. You have to be very careful in which components you choose, because EFI firmware is usually much larger than the stock firmware. I would suggest that you visit the forum over at Mac Rumors. They have a hackintosh forum and most of the people on the Mac Pro forum know what they are talking about.

[OhhWatALoser]

I always wonder how it would be different than building any other computer. My last 2 systems have been prebuilts that I added a gfx card to, again cheaper than buying all the parts individually.

[The Serpent Merchant]

I always wonder how it would be different than building any other computer. My last 2 systems have been prebuilts that I added a gfx card to, again cheaper than buying all the parts individually.

The biggest difference is that you have to flash all of the components with EFI firmware. This can be very difficult and takes a long time to find/get working. I've personally gotten rid of my hackintosh now that I have a 2010 hex core Mac Pro with 24 GB of RAM. But I am using non-apple graphics cards. I have 2 NVIDIA Quadro 5000 GPUs that I flashed with the apple supported Quadro 4000 drivers/firmware.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Macs are great. Best platform I've ever used. I love the style of most of the software available and I'm just more fluent on navigating a mac.

But damn...the price tag. They look pretty, but I can't afford that kind of price tag on a GOOD iMac. So I've come across this term a few times and I started doing some research on Hackintosh - in other words, building your own PC, and then loading OSX onto it.

One of the videos shows a guy loading a 6 core i7 processor and all kinds of other goodies for right around the $2k price range...compared to the almost equivalent Mac Pro for around $5k

The parts are cheap..getting cheaper every day...building computers is fun...so I think I'm gonna take the plunge and DO IT!!

Anyone had any experience with building your own Hackintosh??

There are 2 things I will warn you about. First off an i7 is not a Xeon. My Xeon hex core runs circles around my old i7 that was almost exactly the same spec for spec. The architecture of the processor itself it far better.

Second when using a hackintosh you loose a lot of the reliability and dependability that Macs are known for. They tend to have a mind of their own but if you are willing to put in some serious time they can work. This will not be a small project. It took me months to get everything right with mine.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't go this rout just that you should know that it isn't as simple as building a PC and will take a lot of time and parameter adjustments to get working well. Research and a strong knowledge of OS X's inner workings will be your best bet at getting this to work.

[RichsBallPythons]

I agree, to buy all your own parts to build it isnt worth it any more. To the OP: I would try and find a PC that you like, either a base one or one with some of the different add ons youre already looking for instead of trying to build the whole thing from scratch. It will be much cheaper and then buy the software/add ons you want to go onto it.

Prebuilt computers that are windows based are cheapr for a reason. Never should someone that knows how to build go out and spend money on prebuilt. As you get crappy parts that are all low end.

What one can buy in store i can build it with better components all name brand with warranties, windows installed for around 30-50% cheaper.

My last build cost close to 2k. Store bought one of this caliber would be over 4k in store and im sure would be low end Ram, Motherboard,Hard drive,Heatsink, and so on.

Its ALWAYS best to build your own computer saves time, money and you know what goes wrong if something does. Then send it out for repair rather Whole computer to Hp,Dell,Gateway .....


To the OP you can build one and put Apple OS on it. Ive done it for college class through a Virtual Machine off my Desktop.

[Wh00h0069]

Prebuilt computers that are windows based are cheapr for a reason. Never should someone that knows how to build go out and spend money on prebuilt. As you get crappy parts that are all low end.

What one can buy in store i can build it with better components all name brand with warranties, windows installed for around 30-50% cheaper.

My last build cost close to 2k. Store bought one of this caliber would be over 4k in store and im sure would be low end Ram, Motherboard,Hard drive,Heatsink, and so on.

Its ALWAYS best to build your own computer saves time, money and you know what goes wrong if something does. Then send it out for repair rather Whole computer to Hp,Dell,Gateway .....


To the OP you can build one and put Apple OS on it. Ive done it for college class through a Virtual Machine off my Desktop.

I don't agree. I buy prebuilt custom PCs from a company online. They have the exact same parts that I would use to custom build a PC for less that what it costs me to buy them individually. I am not referring to in-store PCs.

[Mike41793]

Prebuilt computers that are windows based are cheapr for a reason. Never should someone that knows how to build go out and spend money on prebuilt. As you get crappy parts that are all low end.

What one can buy in store i can build it with better components all name brand with warranties, windows installed for around 30-50% cheaper.

My last build cost close to 2k. Store bought one of this caliber would be over 4k in store and im sure would be low end Ram, Motherboard,Hard drive,Heatsink, and so on.

Its ALWAYS best to build your own computer saves time, money and you know what goes wrong if something does. Then send it out for repair rather Whole computer to Hp,Dell,Gateway .....


To the OP you can build one and put Apple OS on it. Ive done it for college class through a Virtual Machine off my Desktop.

Whoa easy dude, I have never built a computer so my knowledge is somewhat limited. My friend has built many of them though and I unfortunately get stuck listening to him rambling on about computer jargon occasionally lol. I was just saying this because I thought getting all your own parts and putting in the time to put it together would be about the same as buying one and adding on to it. On a side note; where do you get most of your computer parts from that are so much cheaper? I've gotten things off Tiger Direct before but I was wondering if theres somewhere else you get stuff from thats even cheaper?