Hackintosh or Macintosh?

[Chlysm]

So I'm in need of a new PC and I'm looking to buy or build one in May or June of this coming year, and I've dabbled with OSX86 on my PC a while back and this was mainly to see whether I can do what I do in Windows on a Mac and get acclimated etc etc.
My current system is a Core i7 870 (2.93GHz) 8GB RAM / 240GB SSD / Nvidia 9600GT which just turned 5 years old last month. My main activities these days consist of Video Editing, Audio Mixing, Photo Editing, and 3D Graphics using Vegas, Premiere, After Effects, Audacity, Audition, Photoshop, Paint.NET, and Blender.

As you could probably imagine, my system is showing it's age these days and I'm looking for something fairly powerful.

In a nutshell I want a current generation core i7 with 16GB of RAM and at least 240GB of SSD storage (I could carry my current SSD over to the my next computer) and a 27" monitor. I don't care that much about video cards unless it can help with rendering speeds.

Now the main reason I'm switching over to Macintosh is that I'm just tired of headaches. I've built and customized my PCs for years and I've reached a point to where I just want hit the power button and I want things to work. I'm tired of fending off malware or downloading an insane amount of updates every time I re install because M$ is too lazy to make another service pack for Windows 7 even though it has mainstream support. I digress.

I understand that an iMac of these specs would run me about $2,000 and if I build a CustoMac of these specs and purchase a monitor the cost would roughly be $1500 or so.

Which leads me to my question. If I build a CustoMac with compatible hardware and follow the instructions would I basically have a Macintosh in all but name? I don't mind putting in the extra effort to get there but once I've finished the process, I want for the hassle to be over so I can get to the fun stuff.

FWIW: I'm a fairly well versed individual technologically speaking and I don't have a problem with voiding warranties flashing custom BIOSes/EFIs or Firmwares, etc.


So given my predicament; which is the better course of action to take?

 

[YWO]

From the background you've provided, it seems clear to me that you should build your own.

 

[flav0ur]

I'm switching over to Macintosh is that I'm just tired of headaches. I've built and customized my PCs for years and I've reached a point to where I just want hit the power button and I want things to work.

Looks to me like you're better of with a real Macintosh. You buy one and things will just work. Updating a real Mac is no-problem but updating a Hack can be very troublesome.

 

[cdrhoek]

If you want no headaches, buy a real Mac. If you want a hobby, the latest hardware/graphics etc., build a Hackintosh.

 

[Chlysm]

If you want no headaches, buy a real Mac. If you want a hobby, the latest hardware/graphics etc., build a Hackintosh.

That and saving the money are the two main appeals. Which is the main reason I've always built my own PCs. With enough foresight, you can easily leave yourself enough room to upgrade with drop in replacements and such so that you can potentially run the same rig for a very long time which is why I like having a choice of components.

It's just a shame that OSX isn't available for PCs (technically speaking) or that Apple doesn't let people build their own Macs like you would a PC. If Apple did one of these things; they'd most likely see a significant increase in market share as I highly doubt that I'm only person who is going to buy a real Mac after running a Hackintosh.

But I did find that you can get refurbs of what I'm looking for a few hundred dollars less and so I'll just take y'alls advice and buy a real mac and be done.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[GreenSpade]

That and saving the money are the two main appeals. Which is the main reason I've always built my own PCs. With enough foresight, you can easily leave yourself enough room to upgrade with drop in replacements and such so that you can potentially run the same rig for a very long time which is why I like having a choice of components.

It's just a shame that OSX isn't available for PCs (technically speaking) or that Apple doesn't let people build their own Macs like you would a PC. If Apple did one of these things; they'd most likely see a significant increase in market share as I highly doubt that I'm only person who is going to buy a real Mac after running a Hackintosh.

But I did find that you can get refurbs of what I'm looking for a few hundred dollars less and so I'll just take y'alls advice and buy a real mac and be done.

Thanks a bunch.

Personally I'd just do my homework and buy the right parts.. if you have the right parts you should be able to vanilla install and then updates are not a problem since your not using a edited dsdt. This means that your using parts that are for the most part used in other real macs. Like the dual intel 82574L gigabit ethernet controler that is covered on my non-mac board due to reading it as the same thing from a mac pro.

Hope I explained that right... Basicly you can pick and chose what you want like a PC but if you want to run vanilla mac OSX without edited DSDT's so you don't have to worry about stuff like that, then you need to make sure the parts you select are parts that are used in a mac, at any point in history, or a controller of the same thing. For example you can run other cpus that mac never made due to the socket itself being covered.

Lots of things are supported via usb too so if you can't/don't want to get for example a onboard sound working you could easly just plug in a $2 usb to sound and run it through usb. Personally my mobo has no sound, so this is the option I picked to add sound to my vanilla system.

If your mainly working on video rendering, have you checked out lga 1366 dual socket? I'm currently using a system based on two x5650s that I got for $100/pair and its insane for video rendering, whole rig cost me around $700 (including $150 for a functional 2006 mac pro+case) heres my cinebench scores:

 

[Chlysm]

Personally I'd just do my homework and buy the right parts.. if you have the right parts you should be able to vanilla install and then updates are not a problem since your not using a edited dsdt. This means that your using parts that are for the most part used in other real macs. Like the dual intel 82574L gigabit ethernet controler that is covered on my non-mac board due to reading it as the same thing from a mac pro.

Hope I explained that right... Basicly you can pick and chose what you want like a PC but if you want to run vanilla mac OSX without edited DSDT's so you don't have to worry about stuff like that, then you need to make sure the parts you select are parts that are used in a mac, at any point in history, or a controller of the same thing. For example you can run other cpus that mac never made due to the socket itself being covered.

Lots of things are supported via usb too so if you can't/don't want to get for example a onboard sound working you could easly just plug in a $2 usb to sound and run it through usb. Personally my mobo has no sound, so this is the option I picked to add sound to my vanilla system.

If your mainly working on video rendering, have you checked out lga 1366 dual socket? I'm currently using a system based on two x5650s that I got for $100/pair and its insane for video rendering, whole rig cost me around $700 (including $150 for a functional 2006 mac pro+case) heres my cinebench scores:

Well at the end of the day I would like to be a to get an current generation i7 quad core with 16GB of ram and a SSD built with reliable components; and with that be able to run OSX and get updates just like a mac.like I said , I have no problem wit LG softmodding EFIs/Firmware and putting in a little effort to get there. But once I'm there I want it to run just like a real mac with no headaches or hasssle. I have no problem purchasing specific components so long as theyre reliable. If I can do that. I'll take the hackintosh route.

 

[GreenSpade]

Well at the end of the day I would like to be a to get an current generation i7 quad core with 16GB of ram and a SSD built with reliable components; and with that be able to run OSX and get updates just like a mac.like I said , I have no problem wit LG softmodding EFIs/Firmware and putting in a little effort to get there. But once I'm there I want it to run just like a real mac with no headaches or hasssle. I have no problem purchasing specific components so long as theyre reliable. If I can do that. I'll take the hackintosh route.

I used the vanilla install on mine and I've had zero issues, in fact, I had a older vr of mavericks and was able to update without worry or issues, it didn't brake my install in otherwords cuz its a vanilla install.

Biggest thing is just simply doing your homework. Don't worry if the board has everything, since you can always plug in a usb divice to cover simple things like bluetooth or firewire or sound or even lan, so its not a must that these work, but you will want to make sure the parts that make up the motherboard are covered, for example the onboard video would prob be helpful to you since your not planning on buying an after market video card. Try looking for " Integrated Matrox G200eW Graphics" since I know its covered and its pretty common on server mobos, the "dual intel 82574L gigabit ethernet controler" is also covered so if you find a server mobo with both of these, odds are it will work flawlessly. The chipset on mine is the same intel 5500 that mac pro's use so again, this is another covered part.

Each part is going to have a model number or barcode that you can use to look on these forums (top right) to see if other people have used any of those parts before. This makes it so you can lookup a motherboard and cross reference the parts on it, since its not the whole motherboard being covered you need to look at, but rather each part by itself (sound/lan/onboard video/ect) they all have their own drivers, some are already programed into vanilla and those are the ones your looking for, where as the ones not already programed into vanilla you need to edit dsdts to get them to work and thats when you get into problems updating your OS due to the dsdt patches you put overtop being wiped when you update.

 

[Chlysm]

Very well then. I'll do some more research as I have plenty of time between now and spring (which is when I plan to have an OSX machine (whether it be a Mac or Hackintosh).

In the meantime I can gather a parts list and see what they'll cost me and share them with you guys to offer critique suggestions etc.

If I'm feeling confident enough that it can be done, I may select my MOBO/CPU and RAM in the much nearer future (as in next month) and see if I can get OSX vanilla operational the way I want it. And if things work out, I purchase the rest of the components a few months later. And if not, sell on eBay at a
slight loss.

 

[Going Bald]

Very well then. I'll do some more research as I have plenty of time between now and spring (which is when I plan to have an OSX machine (whether it be a Mac or Hackintosh).

In the meantime I can gather a parts list and see what they'll cost me and share them with you guys to offer critique suggestions etc.

If I'm feeling confident enough that it can be done, I may select my MOBO/CPU and RAM in the much nearer future (as in next month) and see if I can get OSX vanilla operational the way I want it. And if things work out, I purchase the rest of the components a few months later. And if not, sell on eBay at a
slight loss.

In the meantime, why not take a look at the Golden Builds forum? http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-builds/