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Ghotix' CustoMac Build

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Ghotix

Ghotix

Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
42
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z270MX-Gaming 5
CPU
i7-7700K
Graphics
GTX 770
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
Hey all,

I am a brand new member here, but I have had the board bookmarked for many years. In the past, I've come here when I am about to buy a new Apple computer, always hoping to find an easy, new solution to building a Hackintosh. The time has come again, I am ready to buy a new Mac. As history tends to repeat itself, I am back here...hoping. In the past, it always seemed difficult and unreliable to build your own Mac. Today, it seems more achievable. I have to preface this post by noting that I have never built a computer before. I am a total beginner. I do work on machines for a living, and amateurishly work on my own car. So I know how to do precision work and follow instructions very well. I have also been rooting my Android phones for many years, but always had to have a guide to follow. So I have come to see if the members here think it is possible for me to pull this off. Also, as a bit of a test, to see if the responses from this post give me enough courage to try it. I have high hopes, but I am not holding my breath yet.

What has drawn me back and made me serious enough to join the conversation, rather than just lurking here again, is the downward spiral that Apple has taken. I'm sure we all agree on that, otherwise tonymacx86 wouldn't exist. It looks like Apple might pull itself out of this one, but only time will tell. I am not willing to wait.

I recently purchased a 2015 imac 5K and returned it due to a small problem, a strange colored screen was appearing on shutdown. Even though Apple support had no idea what the issue was, I have since found out this is a known issue happening to many users since upgrading to Sierra. So it turns out to be a software glitch, rather than a hardware problem I though it might be. I could just buy the iMac again and ignore the issue until an update resolves it. But this was my first experience having any problems with a brand new Mac. Since returning it, the announcement was made about the upcoming iMacs and Mac Pros. This got me thinking about turning around and buying that iMac again. It's two years old already, which means in a few years, I have a five year old machine. Lately, 5 years seems to be long enough to make a powerful Mac into an aging museum piece. Which leads me to where I am now. Also, the lack of expandability to even upgrade or replace my own hard drive has me wondering if I want to bother with Apple branded machines any more. I have never gone to an iPhone because a rooted Andorid with removable battery and SD card has been a longstanding requirement. If I require that of something as simple as my phone, and am willing to take the steps to learn how to do that, I had to ask myself why I am willing to let Apple's computers control my freedom of having to same upgradability withe the device that is far more important to my livelihood, my computer.

The iMac worked well for what I need. It was a 27", 4.0ghz i7, with R9 M395 2GB GPU, 1TB PCIe flash drive and 16GB of RAM. I do a lot of photo work with Lightroom and Photoshop, along with design work in Illustrator. With that iMac 5K, I felt confident it would do the job after 2 weeks of testing it, but I lack confidence of it for the future. So, I am looking here to see if I can find the components to build something with at least the specs of that machine, or something in between that and a Mac Pro. I would hope to spend less money, and I am fine with going to a 4K display instead of the 5K. My biggest concern is having to fix incompatibility of hardware, and having to do it every time I want to update. So I am looking for the most Apple compatible build I can do. This computer will be used for work, so while I don't mind a little work to do the upgrades (even though I rarely do them, still running 10.8.5 today), I need to be confident that I can do upgrades in the future with a little patience and willingness to learn. It seems the "Hackintosh" community has become very supportive in the recent years, so I feel pretty confident that the support will be there. Someone please correct me if I am expecting too much.

I have looked through the buyer's guide here and it seems simple enough to build the CustoMac Pro for not much more than $2000 with a 4K display. The question is, is that truly simple enough for me to do with help from you all? And if so, will the savings in price be worth it with the added time to setup, maintain and fix problems in the future? Or should someone like me who needs this computer to work just stick with buying Apple products?

Looking forward to seeing what you all think. If I end up going the CustoMac route, I'll document the build on the forum for others like me to follow in the future!

Thanks,
Ghotix
 
Go for it!

Computer parts are far better than they used to be - much more tolerant (though, yes, it pays to be quite careful) and robust.

As for building a CustoMac, there are a number of easily replicable builds on here to get the "most Mac compatible" build - see the Golden Builds and the User Builds. And with the announcement by nVidia to support 10-series cards (coming this month they say) in Macs, that's a solid win too.

From what I read, a z170-series board from Gigabyte, MSI, or ASUS will serve you well, and an i7 6700K processor to match is "best" at the moment with least (if any) issues. Use the recommended RAM, stick with standard SSDs/HDDs. If you don't want to wait for the 10-series support, use a 9-series graphics card (the drivers are currently available for those) - or use the onboard graphics temporarily. Follow the appropriate guide for the version of MacOS you want to install (remember, you need a Mac to get that, and presumably it will either be El Capitan or Sierra) and it *should* go flawlessly.

The peeps on this board will get you squared quickly should there be any questions/issues.

One caveat: If you do NOT want to (perhaps at some point), "tinker" with your setup (as a MacOS update may "break" your setup), then maybe this isn't for you. Just something to keep in mind. Most working installations stay that way without trouble, but one never knows what lies ahead.
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I shouldn't have implied I am not willing to tinker. Tinkering is in my nature. I suppose what I meant was that I don't want to have to pioneer anything, because I lack the knowledge. For that reason, I would pick a configuration that is more common. I don't mind tinkering, and I don't mind waiting for updates until the real pioneers have tested it out. After awhile, I'm sure I will be more confident and gain knowledge by following others while I learn. As long as a stable system remains stable, I can just make a clone backup of my drive before updating anything and I can always revert back by swapping drives if it doesn't work out, right?

I also don't mind waiting a bit for those drivers to come out so I can put my money towards newer technology. That sounds like a good idea.

I see the Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 you recommended has one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. I would be able to use the SM951 blade in that slot, right? Would that give similar results to what I had on the iMac? That thing was blazing fast and I would definitely consider using one in my build.
 
Ghotix said:
I would be able to use the SM951 blade in that slot, right? Would that give similar results to what I had on the iMac? That thing was blazing fast and I would definitely consider using one in my build.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if you'll be able to or not - I haven't come across that hardware as yet in the reading I've done. Bottom line is, however, if that is something Apple natively supports, yes, you'll be able to use it OOB.
 
Yes, it is supported by Apple and runs on NVMe drivers. So it should be fine, I suppose. I'm not sure it is the best option, though. A couple decent SSDs striped Raid 0 might be a cheaper option. I need to do some homework on that.

I'm leaning strongly towards a build as opposed to buying a new iMac now. One thing I am wondering is about upgrading. My main reason for going CustoMac, is that I am tired of having to buy a new computer ever 4-6 years. With a custom build, how often are you guys needing to do major upgrades to stay current? I am assuming that every now and then I can upgrade a motherboard and/or processor to get some gains. And as needed, I can upgrade GPU. And finally, of course, RAM and HD are highly expandable. The case, I assume will last as long as I want. So, all in all, over the next 10 years, I will be saving some serious money and still be able to have an up to date CustoMac, right? I assume this is only as long as Apple doesn't find a way to stop installation of the OS or lock us out of using non Apple hardware somehow. In the next 6 years, I anticipate I will have to buy 2 Macs if I continue that route. I will spend about $3k now on an iMac, and likely that much or more on a new machine when that one starts to get dated in the next 5 years or so. That's at least $6k, probably more in the next 6 years. I'd like to avoid that. So what kind of money are you guys spending over a long period and are you able to keep your CustoMac running like a current machine with minimal expense?
 
The problem with a Hackintosh is that one never knows what decision Apple is going to make that will relegate the whole idea to the dust bin at some point. That being said, I think it is a safe bet that you'll get a number of years out of your system before there's a problem. Remember - the guys here are doing things that aren't necessarily Apple-sanctioned and those things *might* eventually get supported or not.

Apple is very slow to adopt new tech (in my opinion; they seem to want to wring everything they can out of the old), so, if your system is relatively current, you will likely be ahead of Apple anyway.

The current iMac I'm using is an early 2008, and it still does what I need it to (though now grudgingly as the graphics card in it can't keep up with Adobe CC anymore). I suspect that with the newer hardware I'm planning on using to build my Hackintosh, I'll have at least 10 years before I'll need another "Mac" of either kind... :lol:

Hopefully others will chime in with their build longevity...
 
I understand that this project could end due to changes at Apple. But like you said, if the machines we build can last longer than a Mac, it's worth giving it a whirl. Even if it means keeping the old OS but being able to replace or upgrade individual components at a fraction of the cost, one machine build right now sounds like I will have a better machine for less money for the foreseeable future. I am still running 10.8 on this MBP I'm on now, so I don't mind going a few years without an upgrade of OS if it comes to that. Yes, please chime in if anyone else has thoughts on this.
 
If you never dive into the swimming pool, you won't learn how to swim. With all the support offered here it's like you've got a lifejacket on when you dive into that pool. There's really nothing you'll need to figure out on your own. If you can search for info and follow the directions, you'll have no problems. Choose a CustoMac Pro build that meets your hardware requirements, install Sierra and enjoy a fast new CustoMac.
 
Thanks for the nudge, trs96. I am looking through the CustoMac buying guide. I have tallied everything up and it looks like components are only in the neighborhood of $1200 for i7 6700k CustoMac Pro. That is great, but I can't seem to find anything on the forum that shows benchmarking for the CustoMac Pro built with components in the buying guide. Is that something I can find on the forum? I would like to see how the recommended build stacks up against the iMac 5K.
 
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