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Apple M1 vs Hackintosh

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I suppose it depends on what you want from your machine and when? Right now it's all laptops and Mini that have the chips, if you need high-end/upgrade-ability/open architecture then maybe? I don't know if/when they will release a consumer-grade tower so for me it makes sense. Also do they have Windows running on the M1 yet - if you need to dual boot then it might be important to stay in Intel-land.
 
I've had the base model M1 Mini for a couple of days and it appears to truly be a game changer. I would not recommend spending more than a few hundred dollars on parts right now to build a hack. Not if you're doing it just to run the latest Mac OS.

I would definitely recommend against buying any Intel Mac right now. Don't do it unless you have a very specific and immediate business need.

Assuming your current Hackintosh is getting the job done, then wait and see what comes next. But it looks to me, gone are the days when you could safely say that you could build a more powerful Mac for x amount of dollars than Apple. It all depends on what you need it for and just how powerful the rest of the Apple lineup is going to be.

My initial impressions if the M1 were a motor vehicle: It handles very well, can easily go over 100 MPH and it gets 150+ MPG. It's my first choice for a Sunday drive or running errands. I'm not sure yet how comfortable it would be to take the family coast to coast. Can it haul cargo? Can it go off-road? :)
 
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I have been running Hackintosh for many years. My last one I7 8700k along with ATI Radeon 580 and 48gb of ram etc.

Bought a Macbook Pro basic version with 8gb ram and a 256gb hd. After using it for a while, seriously thinking about selling my Hackintosh or just use it as a PC Running Windows. Not sure yet. But the M1 is SERIOUSLY good , Snappy on everything and not so expensive. I´m even running X Plane flight simulator on it , used to use the Hackintosh for that but no need for that nomore, the M1 runs it easy.
 
I was planning to upgrade my Hackintosh, but after seeing several benchmarks of the M1 vs. 10th Gen Intels and a few AMD's (just search for them on Youtube), I've decided to save some extra money and wait for the new iMacs/Mac Pro's with the M chips inside. M1 single core scores are on par and it's just a matter of time the multicore scores will pass most of the compatible x86 CPU's. Wish Apple wouldn't charge ridiculous amounts for additional RAM...

Curious what others are thinking and doing.
 
I guess M1x with pro iGPU and 32GB(yes, I really need that much) is still going to be expensive. Apple is not going to give up on their A-brand/exclusive fashion prices. Apple may bring you want you want, but it will never be a bargain.
I also hate the fact that it is increasingly difficult to replace or upgrade an Apple product.
RAM upgrade for my Hack? $150 for 32 GB. 2 TB SSD? Another 150. Upgrading is 10 minutes work, I don't even need a screwdriver for most jobs.
 
I guess M1x with pro iGPU and 32GB(yes, I really need that much) is still going to be expensive.

You may not really need that much I mean have you tested it and know that 16gb on a M1 is not enough?

I also hate the fact that it is increasingly difficult to replace or upgrade an Apple product.
Will be impossible based on the M1 systems that have been released.

RAM upgrade for my Hack? $150 for 32 GB. 2 TB SSD? Another 150. Upgrading is 10 minutes work, I don't even need a screwdriver for most jobs.

Yea Apple likes to kill people on the memory cost. However from a Hard drive stand point TB3 devices take 30 sec to plug in and in most cases works as well as if it was plugged directly in SATA.

The current offerings are not bad on price with a lower starting point to their intel counter parts from the year before or even 2 years before.

(2018 Mac mini) Sells for 1499 with 16 gb of memory; 512SSD; 6 core I7 CPU / UDH630.

M1 Mac mini sells for 1099 with 16 gb of memory; 512SSD; 8 Core CPU / 8 Core Apple GPU.<- The better system

$400 cheaper is considerable. We complain about the apple tax, but as you can see apple was paying the intel tax. I can tell you I was totally shocked to see the new Mac mini selling for that much cheaper.

In a few months we will see some new Macs hopefully they will have a upgraded CPU/GPU and allow for more memory.
 
You may not really need that much I mean have you tested it and know that 16gb on a M1 is not enough?

Yes. I can't load a couple of my bigger sample libraries/projects in RAM. This means hiccups on first playback, and lots of RAM-SSD swapping. Not good.

Will be impossible based on the M1 systems that have been released.



Yea Apple likes to kill people on the memory cost. However from a Hard drive stand point TB3 devices take 30 sec to plug in and in most cases works as well as if it was plugged directly in SATA.
TB3 will work, or USB3.x. But this means buying an extra case, or using a swappable external case, maybe expensive cables/adapters. Plus, I love the speed of NVME. NVME in external case, costly.

It's not that I want a Hack. it's because Apple has priced most of their ecosystem out of my reach.

Unfortunately I have 25 years of Logic projects that I need to access, plus expensive hardware that is not compatible with Windows or Linux.

Otherwise I would have taken the hint and moved to working class people's hardware & OS.
 
I have been thinking about upgrading my music production build from z390/8700k to z490/10900k for TB3, a decent performance boost and future-proofing, but this thread makes me wonder if it’s worth the effort. Maybe just keep working on the 8700K and go Apple silicon afterwards.
 
I have been thinking about upgrading my music production build from z390/8700k to z490/10900k for TB3, a decent performance boost and future-proofing, but this thread makes me wonder if it’s worth the effort. Maybe just keep working on the 8700K and go Apple silicon afterwards.
The Gaming 7 has a THB_C header that means you can simply purchase a GC Alpine or Titan Ridge add in card. From there you can decide if you need to custom flash the TB card to get TB bus or if you can live with SSDT only implementations. If you can get your hands on the older GC alpine ridge you can get TB bus with only an SSDT. Then you can simply drop a 9900k CPU (8cores/16 threads) into your system. Yes the 10900k has (10 cores/20 threads) but you have to ask yourself if those two extra threads are worth the possible issues or stick with a system that you know is stable and just upgrade it a little.

There is a golden build for the z490 that would also make it easy if you get a GC Vision D.
 
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