Hackintosh anyone?

[Wh00h0069]

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?

Try 3btech.net.

[Mike41793]

Try 3btech.net.

Cool, thank you

[RichsBallPythons]

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.

Not gonna happen, Somewhere in them online prebuilts something is low end, be it the PSU,heat sink, hard drive, motherboard, ram..

I built over 150 computers in past year and not could be found online cheaper.

Let me know when you can find my build online Cheaper than you can build it yourself.

CPU: i7 980x @ 4.3ghz @ 1.28v
RAM: 12gb G-Skill 'RipJaws' @ 1600mhz / 1.5v
Mobo: Asus Rampage 3 Extreme
GPU: 3 x Sapphire 6970 2gb @ stock clocks
OS Drive: OCZ Vertex 2 60gb
Data: 4 x Seagate Barracuda 1tb in RAID5
PSU: Enermax Revo 85+ 1020w
Case: Corsair 800D

No company will have anything CLOSE to that for what i paid to build it... You can get decent mid range i7 computers but nothing like that without paying a butt load.

[RichsBallPythons]

I get my parts from newegg.com and local Micro Center. Since i buy A LOT of parts for customers i get discounts.

[OhhWatALoser]

rich, not everyone builds 2k computers, my 400 dollar pre-built from microcenter would cost 550 for the exact same parts, nothing substituted, that's part for part. Maybe the higher end stuff doesn't compare, but it was a no brainer to go with the pre-built when I got this 2 years ago. Add a gfx card and fill the ram slots, does everything I need it for.

[RichsBallPythons]

rich, not everyone builds 2k computers, my 400 dollar pre-built from microcenter would cost 550 for the exact same parts, nothing substituted, that's part for part. Maybe the higher end stuff doesn't compare, but it was a no brainer to go with the pre-built when I got this 2 years ago. Add a gfx card and fill the ram slots, does everything I need it for.

Lower end pre builts, you might be able to match the prices, But when you build your own, your wanting speed,reliability,clear performance. If you dont do Intensive stuff on a computer, then a 400$ HP or Dell will be fine. But keep in mind, the Motherboards and PSU in them are very cheaply made with small 12v rails which are known to popping resistors and or damaging everything plugged into the motherboard.

And thats where pre builts get you. You buy their ready to go out the box, but you have to upgrade ram and add in a gfx card so your not using the onboard one. In the end you done added 200-300 more dollars.

[The Serpent Merchant]

There will always be a difference between people who need more than a stock computer, Professionals that need a workstation, and people who just want the best of the best.

I personally fall under the professional workstation category and thats why I shelled out almost $10,000 for my set up. I needed something that will work 24/7 and could run circles around any other computer that I have used. I can justify the cost because the computer lets me get more work done in less time so that means that I make more money. But for someone who doesn't make money off of their computer spending $10,000 would be ludicrous.

Gamers and the people who just want the best of the best can get the same performance as I do but their system might be less reliable. The major difference here would be Xeon vs i7. (price wise as well)

Rich is right. Most pre-built PC's are crap, and I would be wary of Pre-built customs. If you know what you are doing/where to look you can build a monster of a computer for a fraction of the price that a Pre-built would.

[OhhWatALoser]

Lower end pre builts, you might be able to match the prices, But when you build your own, your wanting speed,reliability,clear performance. If you dont do Intensive stuff on a computer, then a 400$ HP or Dell will be fine. But keep in mind, the Motherboards and PSU in them are very cheaply made with small 12v rails which are known to popping resistors and or damaging everything plugged into the motherboard.

And thats where pre builts get you. You buy their ready to go out the box, but you have to upgrade ram and add in a gfx card so your not using the onboard one. In the end you done added 200-300 more dollars.

pre-built is micro centers brand - powerspec, again not everyone needs to spend 200-300 dollars on ram and a gfx card, nvidia 9500 gt was 60 bucks when I got it. ram was 40 bucks. so i had 100 bucks more into it. I hardly game anymore, the most intensive thing going on is the compiz for desktop effects and run unity on ubuntu. I just wanted dual monitors to work and It also lets me run a svideo out so I can clone my tv and watch movies in the living room that I downloaded. 8 gigs of ram is all i felt like sinking money into, so thats the speed i render stuff at, photoshop runs flawlessly, videos take a while to render, but it is what it is. just saying, not everything has to be a powerhouse

[kitedemon]

Op,
I have played with building a Hackintosh. I own an older mac pro and built an equivalent machine it was somewhat cheaper and a lot slower. The reality of the situation is if you need speed and stability you need to use apple certified components and at that point you might as well buy one. The comparison between an imac and mac pro is not fair it is not in the same ball park at all. You can get a base macpro for 3000$ and add a lower end monitor and plan on upgrading later. I don't know what type of work you do but my pro quad xeon 10gb ram still is faster than most off the shelf PC even after 3 years. I often have video playing email photoshop with 40-80 36mb images open FTP software and web browser open all at once with not much drag on anything.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Op,
I have played with building a Hackintosh. I own an older mac pro and built an equivalent machine it was somewhat cheaper and a lot slower. The reality of the situation is if you need speed and stability you need to use apple certified components and at that point you might as well buy one. The comparison between an imac and mac pro is not fair it is not in the same ball park at all. You can get a base macpro for 3000$ and add a lower end monitor and plan on upgrading later. I don't know what type of work you do but my pro quad xeon 10gb ram still is faster than most off the shelf PC even after 3 years. I often have video playing email photoshop with 40-80 36mb images open FTP software and web browser open all at once with not much drag on anything.

It all comes down to those server grade Xeon processors, and the fact that a Mac Pro isn't a glorified Laptop.