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Building a cheap Hackintosh for Logic Pro X

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You say that you already have a PC for games etc, and would have to share monitors and keyboards with this new Logic Hackintosh?

Why not just see if you can turn the one you have into a Hackintosh and have a dual boot thing? Then you could run Windows and MacOS on the same machine. Makes more sense to me...

Although, what you need to consider is that if you want to use Apollo MkII interfaces, you need to make sure that whatever build you decide on supports Thunderbolt, which seems to be a bit of a tricky situation...

I just ordered parts for one specifically for use with FCPX and Logic Pro X... i posted the parts but my thread seems to have been deleted for some reason... (it’s also not cheap at €1700)
 
a computer geared for FCP should cost a lot compared with Logic. computers may be on the verge of a fantastic breakthrough. Intel core i9 with 36 threads is already here, but for $2500/€21014.17, well in the US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075XRYMDR/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

M.2 memory at 4 times the speed of normal SSD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JCXXQ1A/?tag=tonymacx86com-20 http://www.goplextor.com/Product/Detail/M8Pe(Y)#/Features

but i do not think motherboards are good at keeping up and keeping cool with these speeds. they are designed to allow EITHER M.2 OR PCIe, not both in each instance.

i don't know how true it is, i am reading that dual boot is not recommended for ... i forget, i think it's some of the newer Mac OS Xs/Linux and Windows10/Linux, so i have become leery of dual boot that include EITHER: Mac OS X 10.10.1 OR Windows 10 dual with each other or Linux

sometimes i come across a glitch or incompatibility like focusrite 18i20/Logic 9 and X (plus routing issues or?) so it would be nice to have redundant backup system including a lower cost computer to avoid shutting down the project because of little glitches. i don't want to be locked in to any particular OS so means RME,https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BabyfacePro, Mackie, behringer, Sound Devices: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/USBPre2

and limited plugins, excluding UA and satellite, which is essential it seems

i do not expect to have a few FCP €1700 computers laying around yet, although eventually that will be nice
 
i am not sure if i'll end up with a processor as nice as your Intel i7-2700k

https://ark.intel.com/products/61275/Intel-Core-i7-2700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz

4 cores/8 threads
3.5 to 3.9 GHz

do you do music or video editing?

intel i9-7960x
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075XRYMDS/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
  • 16 Cores/32 Threads
  • Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 up to 4.40GHz
this i9 looks really fast for video editing, i am a newbe, so as i interpret the specs, not sure if it supports Mac OS X

it would be nice to have several PCIe slots available and 3 M.2 drives; one OS drive, one project drive and one effects plugins
it is Compatible with Intel X299 Chipset. i wonder which MB would work well and if they support Mac OS X HS

"so the SM951 NVMe may not be showing the full potential of NVMe. Intel told us it didn’t produce an M.2 version of the 750 because at top speed, the power draw exceeded what’s available from M.2 slots. Basically, not all the ducks are in a row yet to fairly evaluate AHCI versus NVMe."
quote from half way through the article, after the last bar graph, before "Intel 530 360 GB":
https://www.pcworld.com/article/297...dup-tiny-drives-deliver-huge-performance.html

after that on the same page:
"Samsung SM951 AHCI/NVMe ... your system will show a level of responsiveness you probably didn’t even realize was possible. The AHCI version is currently faster for large sequential transfers, while the NVMe version is great for server-type, queued loads. This may change as the NVMe implementation matures."
 
Hi all,

I am completely new to this forum as well as building a Hackintosh. I am a through and through PC user but have just started a Music Technology course in college and all the work is done on Logic Pro.

I was hoping somebody could steer me in the right direction hardware wise for build a machine just for use on logic, and for a cheap as possible without causing problems, all my gaming is done on a PC so I don't need anything overly powerful, just enough to have a smooth experience with Logic.

Just as a little side note, I am currently using 2 monitors for my PC and will be dedicating one of them to the Mac now, I would like to use synergy to still allow me to use the same keyboard and mouse for both systems, as well as use for Youtube videos, Spotify, etc. I'd love to know if this would still be possible with a Hackintosh.

Cheers for your help guys!

Hey Ethand8. Have you moved forward with this build yet? I'm in the same boat and would love know how it's working out for you. My interface is Thunderbolt, so I've been looking at the ASRock Supercarrier mobo which uses the Z270 chipset and has 2 TB3 ports.
 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9VCZOT/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
does anyone know if it is class compliant or supports Mac OS X or if it has graphics capability. i asked on amazon but don't expect a reply. there is very little info on amazon, guess i'll look for reviews
i love toms hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-z270-supercarrier-4-way-sli-atx-motherboard,4942.html don't skip the comments. don't forget you can add a TB 3 card, but non of the MBs i have looked at look extremely appetizing. why?
 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9VCZOT/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
does anyone know if it is class compliant or supports Mac OS X or if it has graphics capability. i asked on amazon but don't expect a reply. there is very little info on amazon, guess i'll look for reviews
i love toms hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-z270-supercarrier-4-way-sli-atx-motherboard,4942.html don't skip the comments. don't forget you can add a TB 3 card, but non of the MBs i have looked at look extremely appetizing. why?

Yeah, seems difficult to find a mobo with thunderbolt capabilities in the cards I/O anymore. I think I'll find a board that the pros here have had success with and add a TB card. Even the TB cards seem like pretty slim-pickin's.
 
i have not built a computer yet. i hope there will be no issues with a TB 3 PCIe card. perhaps someone will post their experience?? or do we need a new thread? that might not be a bad idea, MB recommendations for TB3 music production
 
Well, I don't know if the Hackintosh has been built yet or not, but I want to share my experience and I hope it can be useful to others.
I use to have a HP 4530s notebook "hackintoshed" with El Capitain and Clover, 16 Gb Ram, 256 SSD, running quite smooth. Nevertheless, when I was using Logic Pro X, particularly with several Kontakt tracks, I used to have frequent CPU overload.
I was low on budget, so I decided to buy a second hand pc with this configuration:
CPU: i7 4771
RAM: 8GB on one card, 4 slot available
MB: Asus
GPU: nVidia 730GT
I got it for around 350€.
I added:
24 Gb of RAM for a total of 32 GB (The most important thing with CPU) (around 100€) Ram speed is 1333. Don't throw away money on super high speed RAM, ti really makes a small difference, on Logic at least.
500 Gb SSD (also very important) where I have El Capitan on Clover, applications, plugins, logic songs. (Again around 100€)
2x 2Tb 3.5" HD, 7200 rpm, that I used to have in USB3 boxes, and are now inside the PC on SATA III, used mainly for Kontakt libraries and some movies. (Not mandatory. BTW, if you have external HDs and don't mind portability, put them INSIDE the pc)
USB Native Instrument sound card (I don't remember the name, but I guess it is not important). There are quite some TB pci card compatible with hackintosh, I didn't need it but some friends of mine use it.

Guess what, now it runs like hell!
I reached 195 tracks in one song, all with kontakt instances and sound loaded (for symphonic composition), quite a lot of plugins, eq's, reverbs etc, in it just runs smooth, with a memory occupation of Logic of more than 25 GB!

That said, after many years of computer music on different systems (from Commodore 64 to Atari to Mac to now) and some year with mac and hackintosh, my personal advice for people interested in working with Logic, Cubase or other DAWs on a hackintosh are the following:

1 - Don't throw away your money in the Very Last Generation CPU
2 - You need anyway some "engine", so choose a second hand GoodButNotExpensive i7, or eventually a double xeon
3 - Be careful that your motherboard support AT LEAST 32GB of RAM, the more, the better. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT AND MAKES A LOT OF DIFFERENCE, also in normal use. Forget about hyper fast/expensive RAM, 1666 is good.
4 - If you have more money to spend, my personal advice is to buy a second and eventually also a third computer (win or hackintosh) and use Vienna Ensemble Pro (around 250 € to connect up to 6 computers) to setup a distributed computing environement. This gives a lot of advantages and is far better than having all the song, sounds, plugins, dwarf and dancers on one single machine. Google for VEP 6 to find more info on this amazing solution, used by most of the professionals like Hans Zimmer or Junkie XL.
5 - Be prepared to fight a little bit on your way to success, hackintosh is not for lazy people, but once you've reached the point I can assure you everything just runs smooth and perfect, and you'll soon forget you are on a hackintosh and not on a 8K$ Mac Pro!
6 - Enjoy!
 
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