few questions from a noob / most stable build for Pro Audio?

[MintSauce]

i'm a newcomer to this hackintosh stuff but i've been doing some research and am pushing toward selling my 2009 imac i7 quad core for a hackintosh with faster specs. it seems like the rumors of a new imac wont be coming anytime soon. i was really hoping to get a new imac for the usb 3.0 support and a processor spec bump, along with applecare.

aside from music production i would like a machine that will be really fast at rendering video in final cut pro x. i just got started getting into using and its a little slow when editing 1080p content with my current imac.

i've looked around at the golden builds, and the tutorials on how to install os x on their specific machine has been a huge sign of relief when it comes to me installing osx.

but the main reason for this post is, getting a few questions answered.

1) how is typical system updates applied?
- i know with hackintoshes you have to inject custom kext files into the system for specific hardware and things to work right. but ive also read things where system updates, like combo updates can often break a working installation of your hackintosh machine.

what is the typical update procedure look like whenever apple releases one?


2) has any Logic Pro update caused your hackintosh to stop working?
- i use logic pro as my main daw, and it generates my income. so i was wondering if
software related updates ever "break the OS" and if so what is the remidy to fix this?


3) is there any issues with Logic Pro, or any other DAW that you had while running lion?
- i've tried lion about 7 months ago on my current imac, and i was a lot slower, most likely due to new additions in mac os lion. if i build a faster spec'd hackintosh would i have to worry about the slowness of logic's performance with lion? or should i stick with snow leopard?


4) upgrade procedure to Mountain Lion?
while i know Mountain Lion is still a new OS, it definitely feels like how snow leopard was to leopard, much faster and optimized. so i'm very excited to run mountain lion when its solid and ready to go for hackintosh machines..

what was it like when snow leopard was the new OS to the hackintosh world?
how long did it take to get everything working for hackintosh machines?
what was the upgrade procedure like?


5) can anyone recomend a "Gold Build" built towards pro audio?
- theres alot of golden builds on the site, but which one would be best for me running logic?

6) Firewire Audio Interfaces
- i'm using a M-Audio Profire 2626 as my interface, has there been any reported issues with this interface with hackintoshes? i've read that most firewire interfaces work fine since its an external sound modual with drivers already written for mac osx is this true for me to believe?


thanks alot, i look forward to hearing your replies.

I run 10.6.8 because Lion loses keystrokes in Logic9 (I bought Lion and then had to step back to 10.6.8 on my macbook pro because it was a basically useless for DAW use in my studio, so I only developed my Hackintosh as far as what works reliably (read absolutely rock solid) and it's as fast as **** (FWIW I overclocked to 4.4GHz without any problems whatsoever)

My Tascam FW interface was recognised without any problems

I'd recomment the build I have (3 friends have copied it now and they are all very happy with their machines)

My DAW runs 102 tracks in Evans Logic benchtest without any issues (and I have done mixes of over 200 tracks in the real world without problems)

If I were you I'd avoid ML like the plague until it's been revised a few times (why you'd want a DAW to act like an iPhone I dont know, but I'm sure there are people out there with their own good reasons to do so :wink: )

If you want reliability and a studio that doesn't have issues I'd stop at 10.6.8 and use the time that it'd have taken to upgrade further to make some music

HTH

 

[MintSauce]

and do you guys suggest any tips to minimize noise from the pc?
wether it be any specific brand of fans or power supply, or computer case?

i'm looking to make it as quiet as possible.

That my friend is a black art in itself (and it's possible to spend obscene amounts of money on that path) :wink:

Personally I went with a Scythe Suriken CPU cooler. I have a racking case (see my sig) so low profile is also a priority to me, FYI I'm overclocked to 4.4GHz (from 3.4GHz stock speed) without any thermal or acoustic issues at all

Having said that, racking the computer contributes to keeping things quiet :wink:

Also get a reputable quiet PSU (I'd recommend the Nexus RX-8500 850W)

Case fans are all Scythe slimline models (I bought them because I was impressed how quiet the CPU cooler was) but there are other brands out there, I tend to stick with what I know :wink:

HTH