Mac Mini / Hackintosh Advice

[Dominator24]

Hi,


I have been searching around for many weeks - I usually go through this stage about wanting to switch to a mac - but with yosemite just around the corner and it is just what I am looking for (bringing things together) I am certain I want to join the mac world.


However I have a problem and I hope you guys can give me some advice.


I am a PC gamer, I do not own a console and buy all my games through steam etc. I play both graphical demanding games such as BF4 and CPU/MEM demanding games such as minecraft.


My current PC was custom built and is over three years old (some newer like mobo/PSU as something went boom) and I bought all the parts on finance which I have just finished paying.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core
MSI B75A-G43 ATX LGA1155
8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Asus Radeon HD 6950 2GB
RV03B-WA ATX Full Tower
Corsair 500W ATX12V




------------------------


I have a iphone 5s and an ipad mini and the whole yosemite/mac fully linking together really does interest me.


I am very computer literate and know terminologies so I can see myself being able to hackintosh with using your guides with ease and I will probably enjoy it at first but at the same time I absolutely love the hassle free life of IOS/apple that android/windows does not offer.


------------------------


If budget was no answer I would probably buy a mac pro or top imac and be done with it, simple. But I would like to keep my kidneys and not sell them to pay for a mac.




What I am torn between getting an mac mini (will wait until if it gets updated next month) or spend that cash an an hackintosh.


Mac mini = £500
Base model
Hackintosh = ~£700

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core
Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150
Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB WINDFORCE
BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower
Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) £82.94
Mac OS £14.00



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The reason I am torn between is because if I buy a mac mini I would probably use it as my main driver for surfing web, mail all the normal stuff - But when I want to game I would just turn on my PC which is now three years old and play some games - I am unsure if this seems longwinded.


If I build an hackintosh I will strip the PSU/HDD's from my PC build and would want to use it as my all in one PC and dual boot windows and just have the best of both worlds.


--------------------------


From what I understand I can just turn off automatic updates on an hackintosh, if an update comes out I am capable of waiting days/weeks for the hackintosh community to work their magic and then spend 30mins tinkering to update. is this the case? and I also seem to think that the only thing not to work (if you buy from the buying guides and pick carefully) is the bootcamp?


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Thank you for taking the time to read my post and hopefully you can post your thoughts and advice as I am really stuck. Do I fork out for the mac mini and keep my ageing PC for gaming or do I hackintosh?

 

[neilhart]

Why not just upgrade your current PC? Add the GTX 760 and set it up to dual boot OS X and Win 8.1 (each OS on a small SSD).

Going from an i5-2500k to an i5-4690K does not buy you much in real world performance where the upgrade in video will be noticeable.

Good modding
neil

 

[Dominator24]

Thanks for the tip/advice.

I have an MSI motherboard and I'm under the impression that this is not hackable or very difficult forgot which one, the reason why I slated the idea. For that I would have to get a new mobo which would mean buying an obsolete part to go with my CPU and not very cost effective.

The other reason would be that my OEM windows was technically Win7 that was upgraded to windows 8. So I would have to buy a new OS for windows as if by chance they let me install it on another board (on my third mobo) I would have to install windows 7, upgrade to windows 8 then install windows 8.1 which took ages the last time I did it.

 

[Solidww]

I agree with Neilhart. Your computer will be fine for a few more years. Simply upgrading the parts will do what you need.

 

[Dominator24]

Okay I would like to ask the question differently - the same reasons above.

• I love simplicity of mac/ios
• I've started to hate the hassle
• Not a huge budget
• A PC gamer, no console

What do you think I should do? If the hassle of a hackintosh is basically 30mins of installing/upgrading when there is an update out (if i use the trusted hardware) and waiting a week or so until the community has hacked the newest update and fixed audio/video. (Tell me if I am wrong).

1. Buy a mac mini for £499 (wait until to see if it gets refreshed) - use this as my main daily driver, but then turn my PC on when I want to game.
2. Strip out my PC and use the parts to build a hackintosh as my main driver - Just one machine but boot it up on separate disks.

Motherboard​

Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H​

CPU​

i5 2500K (REUSED)​

Memory​

Kingston HyperX Grey 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 (REUSED)​

Storage​

Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" SSD (OSX)​

Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" SSD (Win8) (REUSED)​

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM (REUSED)​

Video Card​

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB WINDFORCE​

Case​

Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX Full Tower (REUSED)​

Power Supply​

Corsair 500W ATX12V (REUSED)​

OS​

Microsoft Windows 8.1
Mac OS Lion
​

Extras
​

Wireless Network Adapter TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1​

Bluetooth Adapter GMYLE​

(REUSED) = basically what i've stripped from my old machine which technically will be everything apart from GPU and mobo so I will have to buy Win8.1 again as an extra.

Total cost = £393

So it basically looks like a saving of £100 - would this be worth the hassle compared to running two machines separately and having seamless updates etc?

Obviously the mac wouldn't be running of full power, such as SSD and the extra ram etc. But beefing up the hackintosh is mainly to serve the purpose of dual booting with windows 8 so I can run games.

Would that above build work fine and run into little issues? I don't have access to a mac now so will have to buy the disk and update from there. if the above hardware will work - what am I to expect when everything is installed will it run as perfect as a mac until the next update comes to which I will have to wait until a work around has happened etc?

Thanks!

p.s. it took me ages to find a mobo to work with my CPU that was still available to buy since it's end of life etc.

 

[Going Bald]

Motherboard​

Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H​

p.s. it took me ages to find a mobo to work with my CPU that was still available to buy since it's end of life etc.

I would not use this board with a Sandy bridge CPU - it is Ivy Bridge board.
Recommend you use something like http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006ZBS30W/?tag=tonymacx86-21

It has been used successfully before - http://www.tonymacx86.com/lion-desktop-guides/55403-guide-gigabyte-h61m-s2pv-rev-2-0-fa.html and at only £35.98 it is cheaper than the Z77 board.

 

[Dominator24]

Thanks for your advice.

Anything to shave the cost off the build and i'll take it!

I am taking that you think in my situation you would recommend going the hackintosh route if the table was turned?

p.s. im guessing with the above build using compatible parts from the list and the mobo you suggested everything would work just as well as a mac would minus the updates and bootcamp?

 

[DrEskimo]

Why not buy another SSD and try installing OSX on what you have already? If it's a PITA then look at getting a replacement motherboard.

This will also give you an idea of how much hassle a hack is. If it's not for you, you'll only have spent a little on an ssd, which I pressume you could stick in the Mac mini if you go that route in the end.

 

[fussie]

Hi Dominator,

Thought I'd add my 2 cents worth in case they might help you decide.

- It sounds like you are happy with your gaming PC's performance, maybe just thinking about upgrading the graphics card in the distant future, and consider yourself a PC gamer.
- You like no hassle, stress free solution for iOS/Mac.

Considering the above I wouldn't recommend a hackintosh because:

- I went the hackintosh route initially as my main computer for both general use and gaming via booting to Windows (on separate SSD). This worked great up until a certain point. You have to commit to restarting into Windows whenever you want to start a game. This works fine if you only game at certain times but if you like to jump into a game randomly, you end up having to restart each time which got very tedious (1st world problems, I know, but that was enough of an inconvenience for me)

- While my hackintosh was very hassle free early on, with updates and everything else small, nagging problems started to develop. The community are a great help but sometimes certain things can't be resolved without further hardware upgrades or extensive troubleshooting (eg Nvidia 560 graphics card). Updates can cause some features to stop working completely temporarily (eg iMessage) and even if most have experienced no issues, your machine might do due to different hardware configuration.

Hackintosh are great and I still love mine but if I'm honest with myself, I wouldn't be able to call it 'hassle free'. It's fun if you love to tinker and don't mind spending a fair amount of time with it during updates (which I initially did, until I got lazy). If you are not looking to always install the latest updates and features, then you can get a pretty bullet proof system.

As with most things, it depends. Your setup, your preferences etc. I found making a 'pros vs cons' list helped and just try looking at things objectively.

-fussie

 

[Dominator24]

Hi fussie,

your reply is exactly what I was looking for. I have been gathering pro's and con's of both sides but always arrive back at the same problem. You've addressed some concerns that never even crossed my mind, mainly because I have never hackintoshed and relying on peoples past/present experience here who probably was or in the same situation I am in in regards to wanting things simple, don't really mind 30mins of update time and an avid gamer.

Switching from mac/windows when wanting to play a game
Things physically not working after an update, maybe even months such as imessage

From what you replied I think it may be better to get an imac first to live in the mac world and when my system needs updating have a dual windows/hackinotsh so I can have the best of both worlds and if the hackintosh fails for some reason such as an update I can always revert to a mini.

I just hope that they update their mini range in the next month or so as I know apples performance/cost ratio isn't the best but since the hardware is well out of date it seems that much worse.

Thanks for the info!

p.s. it seems like the mac mini has been internally confirmed by a reliable source who has confirmed things before and been correct - but unable to speculate what is changed other than to expect apple to release a new mini. -- i'll have my fingers and toes crossed.