Over all, how stable has Hackintosh Become?

[wroachbarrette]

Im sorry for this blunt question because honestly, its very hard to answer, so ill try my best to explain it in better detail below.

I have always been a mac user, well for as long as i was really a literate computer user And now it has come time for me to head off to collage. I am getting rid of my MacBook Pro 13in Mid 2009, and am trying to decide weather to get a hackintosh desktop, or the highest priced 15in pro.

I am a software developer, as well as a musician and cinematographer in my spare time. So i need a power house computer. But if i were to build a hackintosh using an intel motherboard, i7 sandybridge processor, HIS Radeon HD 5770, and 8 gigs of DDR3 1600 Ram, would i be able to create a stable enough environment to work with on a daily basis with the same chance of crashing as on the 15in MacbookPro. Now i know this is a tall order, because i expect this thing to update and all that with no problem, as well as preform whatever task i can throw at it. So it really comes down to the question, how stable is hackintosh?

THANKS so much in advance for the help, and please, give me fact based opinions, as it seems i havent been able to find many of them to sway my decision either way.

 

[wroachbarrette]

If you make sure before you buy that your components are 100 % compatible then it's like a real mac.

My i5 media center is on 24/7 has been on for 2 months (before that my amd hackintosh was on for a year 24/7) I've had no stability issues whatsoever. Coming from a mac mini it's a real upgrade going to i5 or i7.

My i7 Power machine is overclocked to 3.96 ghz and is doing 11 114 points in geek bench.. Rock solid for Photoshop audio editing and music.

The key point is doing your homework before buying will make you a very solid and very stable experience!

thanks, its good to hear this from someone that came from a Mac. So its best to stick with parts that is native to Macs? Would doing this mean that when update time comes, it should update without any issue because the drivers would be built right into the update?

 

[justr]

If you expect all updates to just work-- stop now, give up the hackintosh idea, and get the MBP.

Really.

Nobody on here will be telling the truth if they tell you that any hackintosh is future proof, particularly to system updates, software updates, driver updates, etc. Just scan a few threads, and you'll learn that even folks with perfectly compatible hardware run into strange and sometimes enduring problems. Everything from gamma changes in Steam, to weird performance hits, to kernel panics and blank screens.

The point is: going the hackintosh route has some MAJOR advantages; it also has disadvantages. The disadvantages are: lack of guaranteed future proofing, sometimes difficult to decipher problems, the chance a software update (system or otherwise) might hose your system, the change (rare as it may be) that Apple will make it harder to update your hack, lack of hardware support from Apple.

The advantages are performance, ability to swap out individual parts for upgrades or to fix faulty hardware, lower prices, more flexibility with components-- and fun!

I'm writing this as someone who came from a lifetime of Macs (literally, started with a IIsi), whose last Macs were an iMac C2D and Macbook-- and currently consider my hackintosh the best decision I've made regarding computers. I LOVE my system, its disadvantages rate pretty low, and its advantages rate very high. I use my system as a production machine (photo & video, mainly) daily, I have had few to now problems with software/compatibility, and my setup has basically been a breeze to get running and maintain (thanks, in major part, to the great folks on this website, and Notshy's fantastic guide).

I am a full-on hackintosh enthusiast-- but given you seeming adamance about having a system that you can just apply updates to and expect to work, I really want to stress the reality... you simply cannot count of that if you go the hackintosh route. You can build a computer that is 100% as stable as a real Mac, but there are simply no promises that the next update won't hobble the system or simply be un-installable (though I'd be happy to bet against that happening!).

 

[wroachbarrette]

If you expect all updates to just work-- stop now, give up the hackintosh idea, and get the MBP.

Really.

Nobody on here will be telling the truth if they tell you that any hackintosh is future proof, particularly to system updates, software updates, driver updates, etc. Just scan a few threads, and you'll learn that even folks with perfectly compatible hardware run into strange and sometimes enduring problems. Everything from gamma changes in Steam, to weird performance hits, to kernel panics and blank screens.

The point is: going the hackintosh route has some MAJOR advantages; it also has disadvantages. The disadvantages are: lack of guaranteed future proofing, sometimes difficult to decipher problems, the chance a software update (system or otherwise) might hose your system, the change (rare as it may be) that Apple will make it harder to update your hack, lack of hardware support from Apple.

The advantages are performance, ability to swap out individual parts for upgrades or to fix faulty hardware, lower prices, more flexibility with components-- and fun!

I'm writing this as someone who came from a lifetime of Macs (literally, started with a IIsi), whose last Macs were an iMac C2D and Macbook-- and currently consider my hackintosh the best decision I've made regarding computers. I LOVE my system, its disadvantages rate pretty low, and its advantages rate very high. I use my system as a production machine (photo & video, mainly) daily, I have had few to now problems with software/compatibility, and my setup has basically been a breeze to get running and maintain (thanks, in major part, to the great folks on this website, and Notshy's fantastic guide).

I am a full-on hackintosh enthusiast-- but given you seeming adamance about having a system that you can just apply updates to and expect to work, I really want to stress the reality... you simply cannot count of that if you go the hackintosh route. You can build a computer that is 100% as stable as a real Mac, but there are simply no promises that the next update won't hobble the system or simply be un-installable (though I'd be happy to bet against that happening!).

Thank you. You seem to be the first person I've run into that's given me the cold hard facts I've been looking for.

Really when it comes to updating, I only want to perform them if they fix some major problem or add some great new feature, so by hackintoshing I seem to be taking a shot in the dark, if I do, Im pretty sure I'll be a happy camper for the first few months. But as I've been told its usually six months down the road that you run I to problems with them, usually with updating.

Well, ive been givin the information I've been looking for, now time to do some debeatinf thanks again for your help

 

[Going Bald]

I have been using mine for over a year now and it has been extremely stable once I got the early bugs worked out. The only "problem" I have had with updates has been with audio - at each update I have had to "rollback" the applehda.kext in S/L/E to the 10.6.2 version because I have the ALC889 and Apple quit supporting it in their kext with the 10.6.3 upgrade. Other than that, hardware-wise, I have been very happy with my rig.
It also works well with Win7 and does everything I have thrown at it with ease.

 

[abelpinate]

Well, I was considering get a real Mac years ago. I'm architect, and Autocad is new. I mean, when I was studying, I need Windows. In my last year, CAD came to OSX, but is too late for me. When the collage finished, I decide to move to W7. Someone hack me PC and that was all. I have several days reading about install mac, and iBoot was the most legal way.
So, because I will only use the Cad in the office, I decide to install. Maybe you will going crazy the first or two installation. That was my case. I made a 3th because I got a stable system, and I decide to made all clean. And, since that, I'm very happy.

They are some cons, like maybe you will need kext for audio (not my case) or things like that, but the pro are so big. I'm in Venezuela. Here a Mac Pro is about 47.000, that's something like 4,500$ to 10,000$ (because our "democracy" have the dolar controlled) so in my hands aren't ways to get one right now.
I'm doing a G5 mod, so, literally, I have a completely Mac Pro, or Power Mac, like you want. The really good thing is you can upgrade you hardware, and always you can use Win. I don't know, I see more pros that cons.

Oh, and about CAD in this machine, I'm not able to run, because the OSX recognize the machine like a mac pro 3,1 and CAD run in 4,1 and lastes. You can change it, but that give me a Kernel Panic (the unique rare thing) and I leave like 3,1. Another extrange thing is, sometimes, I turn off, and the machine turn on lonely, but that's very rare. Go ahead, you can use the extra dollars in another things!

 

[freedumb2000]

Oh, and about CAD in this machine, I'm not able to run, because the OSX recognize the machine like a mac pro 3,1 and CAD run in 4,1 and lastes. You can change it, but that give me a Kernel Panic (the unique rare thing) and I leave like 3,1. Another extrange thing is, sometimes, I turn off, and the machine turn on lonely, but that's very rare. Go ahead, you can use the extra dollars in another things!

Funny, Autocad for Mac runs fine here. Btw it is really poor on features compared to the Win version.