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hesitating to jump

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Hello All,
Just joined up.
A friend told me about hackintosh many years ago. When I explored the idea then, it seemed that those systems were rather fragile, and that one had to be very careful about upgrading apps or OS, or interacting with Apple Store in any way allow them to make your system inoperable. So I dropped the idea.
Now...., for the past year I have been waiting patiently for Apple to upgrade their hardware. I do photo editing and a year ago bought an iMac I5 with 4k monitor (the best Best Buy had) to run a high-end photo editor. The iMac could not keep up. An unusable experience. I returned it within 10 days and !Basta!. Now, it seems that Apple has no interest in keeping the Mac Pro current with todays hardware improvements. Out of desperation I just converted my Linux box to Windows 10 to run that photo editor (as well as learning video editing). Ugh, not good. A chaotic interface. Looks like the midway to a county fair. So now I want to consider a hackintosh.
That this forum has so many participants makes me think that you have already satisfactorily answered the following question for yourselves. Nonetheless, here it goes:
Is a well-functioning hackintosh (one that is working fine now) going to be stable enough tomorrow so I can trust it to run mission-critical software (demanding software like video & photo editing)? Or is there a risk that some shennigan by Apple store, or an OS update (not necessarily even an OS upgrade to the next version) will sneakily make the hackintosh stop working? Can not Apple store detect that these systems are not proper Mac hardware? Why are their lock-out tactics of years back not working now?
What do you think, is it a good business model to rely on the hackintosh solution?
Thanks,
Bimmelbahn
 
Is a well-functioning hackintosh (one that is working fine now) going to be stable enough tomorrow so I can trust it to run mission-critical software (demanding software like video & photo editing)? Or is there a risk that some shennigan by Apple store, or an OS update (not necessarily even an OS upgrade to the next version) will sneakily make the hackintosh stop working? Can not Apple store detect that these systems are not proper Mac hardware? Why are their lock-out tactics of years back not working now?

It's impossible to predict what will happen in the future. The best we can do is make logical and educated guesses. Anything can happen, but, at the very least, you will still be able to run the version of macOS that you got running. The only things from the App Store the can break a working system is an OS update. To be safe, avoid updating until they have been confirmed to work.

That being said, I made my first build when El Capitan was the newest version of macOS. Since then, I've done all the updates within 3 days of their release all the way up to the most current version of Sierra.

Based on what I see on this forum, there are a good number of people using hackintoshes for work in professional environments. Check some of the builds in the Golden Builds and Users Builds sub-forum to see how systems are running for others.

Personally, my build has been running 24/7 since its completion and just goes to sleep during periods of inactivity. It's proven to be every bit as stable as my old Mac Pro that it replaced.
 
I'm in a similar situation, wondering if a Hackintosh will be stable enough and future-proof enough to replace my current iMac.
If Apple had come out with a significant iMac upgrade I'd probably get that but they haven't and who knows when they will. This guy seems to be making a nice system: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/ultimate-data-transcoding-hackintosh.212610.

If done correctly, there's no reason it won't be stable.

Not sure what you are looking for in terms of future-proofing... All CPUs and chipsets get updated on a regular basis. Almost all of the current Z270 motherboards now included USB 3.1. If you need Thunderbolt 3, there are motherboards that have that too.

I'm guessing, but I truly believe the iMacs will be updated with Kaby Lake CPUs this year and I also think that Apple will finally release new Mac Pros.
 
I'm guessing, but I truly believe the iMacs will be updated with Kaby Lake CPUs this year and I also think that Apple will finally release new Mac Pros.
Wondering if a Hackintosh will be stable enough and future-proof enough to replace my current iMac.
If Apple had come out with a significant iMac upgrade I'd probably get that but they haven't and who knows when they will.
I tend to agree that this is the year Mac desktops, iMac and Mac Pro will get a refresh or even some dramatic changes that will make them appeal to more people. If not now (this year) for the Mac Pro, it is probably never going to happen and it will become another Mac museum piece for collectors. That being said, I wouldn't wait, only to be disappointed once again and another year wasted using Windows. My 2012 Sandy Bridge build has been the most stable and reliable piece of tech I've ever owned going back over 20 years. It's completely silent, hardly uses any electricity, never crashes or kernel panics. Is still as fast as the first day I Installed Lion on it back in Jan. 2012. I've never had that kind of experience with a Mac or PC before.

Have no regrets about taking this direction and installing OS X on PC hardware, one of the better choices I've made.
 
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Great to get all these responses. And helpful.
It's been quite a few days since the original post, so I considered it reasonable to continue my research. Unfortunately, I did not bookmark the one page that I found the most interesting. It described the questions and reflections of a professional video colorist and how he was trying to keep ahead of the technology curve to remain competitive. As I (dimly) recall, he has long been working in 4k and is now looking to be ready for 8k development, all of which requires keeping up with hardware advances. It was a podcast and he had a builder from ADK with him. Two things the builder mentioned: 1) one can waste a lot of money building a computer if one is not fully clear on how all the components have to be at the same technological level or else the weak link will slow down the rest of the computer (One can pay for Xenon multicore monster, but in the end it might effectively work at the level of an i5 cpu and 16 GB RAM), 2) software companies have noticed that Apple has dropped the ball on workstations and so these companies are now writing the software directed to take advantage of the Windows architecture. Frankly, the discussion was beyond my technical level, I did not understand it. Since his company was a PC builder, one might consider bias. But the technician was very specific about CUDA, OPenCL, the various "pipes" transferring data between CPU and GPU and back again, memory tuning/speed, and so on, that he seemed rather objective about his assertions. Sorry that I do not have the link anymore.

At any rate, the lesson I took home with me is that software companies that interest me (Blackmagic) are writing for Win10, providing updated features and speed increases first for that platform. Even MacPhun is committed to writing for Windows. While I consider the opinions of the posters above that "surely" Apple will come through this year, for the moment I will be content with my Linux box (converted to Win10 and has just received a GPU upgrade) as it is powerful enough for the work I am now doing. After several more months I will be able to see just how stable Win10 is, to see if that will be a problem for the futre, and also we will see by mid-year or autumn whether or not Apple is going to step up its game. If it doesn't, that >>might<< mean that software companies will conclude that they should increase further their orientation towards Windows. As for the Windows GUI, I guess that with experience it will become second nature to me and I will stop complaining about it. (I remember that I found MacOS rather non-intuitive at first.)

So: I will just keep on waiting and see.
 
I do photo editing and a year ago bought an iMac I5 with 4k monitor ... to run a high-end photo editor. The iMac could not keep up. An unusable experience. Now, it seems that Apple has no interest in keeping the Mac Pro current with today's hardware improvements.

How much memory did you have in the iMac? 8, 16 or 32GB?

IMO, Apple's biggest failing has always been the lack of GPU power; that it either supplied slow LE, Low Energy, editions or they were sorely lacking versus PC edition GPUs that could have 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8GB of vRAM. But hasn't that always been an Apple Achilles Heel? How high could you have upgraded the GPU on that iMac?
 
How much memory did you have in the iMac? 8, 16 or 32GB?

IMO, Apple's biggest failing has always been the lack of GPU power; that it either supplied slow LE, Low Energy, editions or they were sorely lacking versus PC edition GPUs that could have 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8GB of vRAM. But hasn't that always been an Apple Achilles Heel? How high could you have upgraded the GPU on that iMac?

I am not aware there was any means to upgrade GPU vRAM. None of the online Mac-related websites mentioned that. I did buy extra RAM memory to install and bought it up to 32GB. The iMac I bought from Best Buy and the i5 is as high as they go. Don't know if buying the i7 version would have made the difference. OR(?), maybe it was a software issue from PhaseOne, as one can see from their user forum that different issues pop up depending on MacOS or Windows, and these bugs can fixed at different rates as the issue is peculiar to the platform.

Your question raises another point in favor of Hackintosh: if there are suspected bottlenecks on throughput, one can easily change out components. Not the case for Apple hardware.
 
I am not aware there was any means to upgrade GPU vRAM. None of the online Mac-related websites mentioned that. I did buy extra RAM memory to install and bought it up to 32GB. The iMac I bought from Best Buy and the i5 is as high as they go. Don't know if buying the i7 version would have made the difference. OR(?), maybe it was a software issue from PhaseOne, as one can see from their user forum that different issues pop up depending on MacOS or Windows, and these bugs can fixed at different rates as the issue is peculiar to the platform.

Your question raises another point in favor of Hackintosh: if there are suspected bottlenecks on throughput, one can easily change out components. Not the case for Apple hardware.

Very interesting discussion :)

I would think that hardware components operate in the same way in both macOS and Windows machines. The chipsets and CPUs are of the same families and so will be wired the same, fundamentally. However when it comes to operating-systems macOS definitely works more efficiently and so software written for both should, in theory work quicker on a Mac. But this doesn't always happen. Probably down to the experience and quality of the coders and programmers - and of course the APIs used and their documentation.

As for the reliability issue and comparing Windows machines, real Macs and Hackintoshes; well in the last couple of years, thanks to the excellent people here and on other sites, the latter have become a lot easier and more stable. Just like @trs96 said, my own latest build has never crashed or panicked - at all - in the six months I've been running it. Can't say that about my Windows machine (as dual-booted). Real Macs should be the gold-standard but, as you mention, their hardware hasn't been updated enough for a direct comparison, and I've certainly had crashes to my iMac caused by some errant application, rather than the OS or hardware.

As for the future support for the applications you use today, no-one can predict how long something will last. If I'm honest, in my experience Windows has actually proved a longer-lasting option (much to my annoyance!). Two examples: Extensis Portfolio 8.5 Standalone stopped working altogether when the company ceased updating it and OS X changed version. And again FileMaker Pro 8.5 no-longer works on macOS. However both are still running fine on Windows 10 - and without resorting to compatibility mode. That's why the dual-boot option is very useful.

With careful planning you can get the best of both worlds.:)
 
I would think that hardware components operate in the same way in both macOS and Windows machines. The chipsets and CPUs are of the same families and so will be wired the same, fundamentally.

I believe Apple's Intel chips are specially fabricated for them, and so, they don't have the sleep, deep sleep, hibernation problems that other Intel chips have. In the case of the Mac Pro I would rather have two XEON CPUS than one. But I really wish I didn't need to flash a GPU to make it work in OSX. The larger the GPU VRAM the less likely one would need system RAM, no? If so, then one gets a double whammy in not being able to upgrade system RAM nor upgrading to a video card with more VRAM (which should help with browser tabs, running browser video codecs, etc.)

But me? I would never buy an iMac. (Or an All-In-One from any manufacturer, whether it be Dell, HP, etc.) They could only be upgraded so far. Supposedly today's iMac will have their RAM soldered on. ntyvm. Crack the screen? Replace he whole display. Currently costs about $850. On the old iMacs a replacement glass cover screen was about $150. Eventually it will all get to where once anything is broken it will need to be replaced. The problem will be the land fill...
 
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