Hey bombardier,
This was your first hackintosh build you said right? And what about for a first time building a computer? I'm just curious what your thoughts are now that the machine has been up and running for a little while. Was there as much tinkering as you had first thought? Once you get past the initial setup of the drivers, kexts, and making all the necessary tweaks, does the machine really run without a hitch? I'm asking because a couple of my buddies who've built PCs before are trying to steer me away from the hackintosh build for a couple of reasons:
1. I've never built a computer before, let alone a hackintosh, and
2. They think it's going to be months or years of constant headaches, worrying, complaining, etc. every time there's an update to be made or if something "breaks" and stops working.
I know this largely depends on the components and what build you follow, but from what I understand in the months of research is that many people and first time builders do end up with very reliable machines. Now I've pretty much got all my components picked out and I was planning on following the hero builds that you, JC and Stork did, but to be honest I'm still a little hesitant to go for it. I really think the overall experience will be worth it but I really do worry about what's to come in the future, if I will regret it because of things not working or breaking.
The reason why I'm here is because it all came down to money - I was unwilling to spend the insane amount of money on decent spec'd iMac, but still need a new audio production rig to run Logic Pro X. And to make my choice more difficult, I now have one of my buddies telling me he can get me an iMac tax free here in Canada (first nations have status card and they don't pay tax for stores in certain locations). That definitely helps quite a bit.... like $400 savings roughly.
I'll still save around 6 - 700 dollars if I build myself (since I still have to factor in taxes and shipping for the parts) but am wondering if I should just shell out the extra cash for something that I won't ever have to worry about. Ahhhh!! I'm so split in the middle right now... just looking for a bit of advice or maybe for someone to mention some pros or cons I've never thought of. I'm sorry for the slight rant if it sounds like it, but as this is a completely new experience for me I hope you can understand the fear I have with going the hackintosh route. From the short time I've been here I know what an amazing community this is... can a hackintosh really be something you can forget about and just enjoy for many years if you're not planning on upgrading to the latest and greatest software or OS or updates?
Thanks in advance guys.
