Build matching an 21.5 inch iMac

[Tiuno]

Hello mates I come to you once again seeking help, I've been disconnected from the whole hackintosh world since I get my last MacBook Pro, and I rather haver GA-X58A-UD3R with i7-960 but I desperately need portability and until my needs changes retail will be my choice. You might then ask why am I wandering here, well it's simple, my father needs a new computer, Windows OS's are not his choice neither are GNU/Linux, nor other UNIX or UNIX Like OS's then Mac OS X is his choice, but he never liked Lion and now that Mountain Lion is out he's almost crying for Apple's future. Well I want to propose him a build Snow Leopard Compatible yet powerful enough to do his work, he's a painter and works a lot with pictures of his artwork, then Aperture, Lightroom and other similar applications, and of course everyday computing, but the main thing I'm seeking for is stability, well he's not a computer savvy nor tinkerer, so he can't afford a failing hackintosh. I know that GA-X58A-UD3R with i7-960 would be the right choice but it's kind of expensive and I can't find the board here in Mexico, one of the things I terribly miss from USA. Well then if you have any idea for a board CPU and GPU I'd be glad.

Thanks in advance!


Colin G.

 

[alans17]

What is it about the new versions of OS X that he hates so much? The newer OS X versions take advantage of new hardware without any hacks. Besides, I'm not aware of many Lion or Mountain Lion features that can't be tweaked to behave like Snow Leopard.

 

[Tiuno]

Well in fact it's pretty simple and I can understand why he doesn't like Lion nor Mountain Lion, no Rosetta for PPC apps and the fact that Apple is focusing so much on Social Network, and make consumer Apps instead of real work tools, some say that older version of iMovie are quite better than the new one. Plus you know it's hard to change and old man's opinion when it comes to technology and almost about anything lol!

 

[alans17]

Well removing Rosetta is a reasonable argument, but that was more of a problem back when it happened. Since that time, most applications have either been updated or replaced so I don't really think it's the issue it once was. I can't speak for the iLife suite since I've never used it (even though it came with my MacBook Pro for free).

As for the social networking integration... I guess you can always just ignore it? Heck, even staying with Lion will avoid all that social networking business and still give you a lot of great features like native HD 3000 video support in the Sandy Bridge chips.

I'm not a hackintosh expert, but I do think that a Lion/Sandy Bridge build will probably be more stable anything on Snow Leopard - especially if you're trying to use new hardware.