To Build or To Buy

[jmarston4]

I have read this site pretty thoroughly and am having a tough struggle with the decision to go ahead and build a Sandy Bridge Hack Pro or just buy a 21.5" iMac i5.

The model I'm considering only has the i5 2400s processor which puts out 2.5 Ghz (yuck) but also comes with 12 gigs of ram installed and applecare extended warranty until may 2014. I have even read on many sites I would be able to replace the processor with any other solid (thinking 2700k) processor if I wanted though the process is quite insane.

All in all, my friend is willing to sell me this for only $450 cash on top of my 2 month old iPad 2 32gb with 3G so we are talking ~1000 to purchase but Geekbench scores for this mac only run just over 7k.

I am fairly certain I can build a monster of a machine for even hundreds less than this (granted no display included but still, those are cheap). Depends on a few things but I live near a Microcenter so the i7 boards with $50 off mobos is enticing. The bluetooth and sleep issues on the Sandy Bridge machines however is a bit troublesome in my book compared to a 100% working guaranteed machine that will hold good resell value for awhile if needed.

Any recommendations before I go one way or another? No turning back once bought in either case. I will pretty much only use this machine to learn and work on iOS development (initially).


Thanks ahead of time!

 

[kidpub]

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice on both sides of the fence. I think that most of us who build hacks do so because we enjoy the challenge, and because tinkering with hardware and software is a fun hobby. If you feel that you'll be frustrated by having to work at getting your hackintosh to run properly, then you probably should just buy a Mac. I've done both...built a few hackintoshes, and also bought a MacBook Air.

As a point of data, I also live near a Microcenter but bought most of my parts online...MC tends to offer prices about 10% higher than what you can find elsewhere. I easily saved $200 by buying parts from NewEgg.

Perry

 

[mstratmann]

Just built my custom system, I split things with what was on sale (Microcenter had the MB and RAM on sale, cheaper than Newegg), added in some of what I already had layin' around...I fully agree, you can indeed get a snappier and more custom unit with a custom build, but it does take some time and tinkering...but hey, it's kinda fun in the end!

Nobody can make the decision, if you absolutely need solid stability, get it from Apple...if you don't mind a little tinkering...build it!

 

[Jamesbond007]

I have read this site pretty thoroughly and am having a tough struggle with the decision to go ahead and build a Sandy Bridge Hack Pro or just buy a 21.5" iMac i5.

The model I'm considering only has the i5 2400s processor which puts out 2.5 Ghz (yuck) but also comes with 12 gigs of ram installed and applecare extended warranty until may 2014. I have even read on many sites I would be able to replace the processor with any other solid (thinking 2700k) processor if I wanted though the process is quite insane.

All in all, my friend is willing to sell me this for only $450 cash on top of my 2 month old iPad 2 32gb with 3G so we are talking ~1000 to purchase but Geekbench scores for this mac only run just over 7k.

I am fairly certain I can build a monster of a machine for even hundreds less than this (granted no display included but still, those are cheap). Depends on a few things but I live near a Microcenter so the i7 boards with $50 off mobos is enticing. The bluetooth and sleep issues on the Sandy Bridge machines however is a bit troublesome in my book compared to a 100% working guaranteed machine that will hold good resell value for awhile if needed.

Any recommendations before I go one way or another? No turning back once bought in either case. I will pretty much only use this machine to learn and work on iOS development (initially).

Thanks ahead of time!

I agree with the previous poster that if you do not want to fight a possible battle to get your machine working, then it is better for you to just get a real Mac. I am not saying you will encounter problems if you go for the hack, but you must be prepared to deal with problems in such a case.

 

[powerpcg5]

If you're not building the hack yourself (i.e. using your own 2 hands, 2 eyes) and planning to buy instead a ready-made hack, i would say DO NOT DO IT. Just buy an original Apple.

Now, if you're planning to build it yourself, and willing to go through the hoops and hurdles you may encounter (and more importantly LEARN and KNOW the process and the debugging), then it's a different matter.

What you don't want to happen is buying a hack, and it breaks down the road (KP, won't boot for example) and you are clueless and have no idea on how to solve it and get it up and running again.

 

[JohnnyMac2001]

@jmarston4

A very personal decision, buy or build, but if you have spent a lot of time researching, then you know that more people don't have trouble than do.
They do research using the posted threads and just work on their computers. Most of the problems I see posted have been answered many times, so they didn't do a little research before posting.
For myself, my mid 2010 i3 iMac has 8GB RAM, a firewire 1TB drive for TimeMachine and storage and an external DVD DL LightScibe Drive. And it is booted at least once a week, just so I know it runs.
All of my work/play is done on my Hackintosh.
I just upgraded my Hackintosh CPU from a i5-2500K to a i7-2600K and my SSD to a 120GB from 60. Less than an hour.
But the iMac is minimal hassle, just plug and play.
So buy an Apple or build your own Hackintosh, either way works great and the final decision is personal preference. Of course, building is an education!

 

[light_vader]

Hey there friend.

It is indeed as posted before me, a very personal decision, but one you should NOT overlook.

A hackintosh only has one clear advantage over a "real" Mac, and that is, PRICE.
Look at my PC, while not the best videocard out there or 16 GB RAM, I think it could very well kick the ass of any Mac Pro, except for maybe the really high end server-like versions, and I built it for a quarter the price or less (not counting the monitor, as I use my HDTV).

But in my opinion, I made the wrong choice. Because not only they'd give me half the money for this machine now (here in my country, selling stuff is not as easy as putting it on ebay), but I've wasted countless hours making it run.
If you buy the absolutely recommended builds by the users here (and provided you have the chance to get them, I did not as MoBos here are all usually the cheap crap models not what is recommended), you should have no problems.

Of course you'll learn a bit, but just a bit. Calling this an university of knowledge would be far from the truth. You'd learn more about computers by building a Linux distro from scratch or something like that, unless of course, you NEVER EVER built a PC by yourself (I did many times before, countless to be honest, that's why building a hackintosh was more of a software thing, than learning about hardware at all).

If you're before your 20s, or in mid 20s and have a lot of time to waste and in reality you'll end up using this machine for maybe gaming a bit or doing non-power user tasks, then I'd say go for it.
If you are in an age like me (approaching 30s) where TIME is important and you can't just throw it away in the garbage can like that, then you'd appreciate the convenience of having a plug and play machine (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Mini), while enjoying your Mac OS X trip.

I initially built this hackintosh for the sake of tasting Mac OS X. In the end I loved it so much, I ended up making the transition from Windows (I love Windows as well), and I never even touched my Slackware box again.
But now after more time wasted dedicated to making it run, I regret buying it, and now I just want a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro.
I do power tasks (Video rendering, 3D animation, Music Production with heavy plugin load), but I would not care if the Air or the Pro (MacBook) would take double the time as I seem myself not only doing more and more work on my iPod (soon iPhone or/and iPad) but also I could have been productive from time zero shall I had bought a Mac last year, instead of wasting my weekends getting this run properly.

So anyway, I just gave you a different perspective.

In any case, have fun!

 

[jmarston4]

Thanks to everybody for your comments. They have been very helpful. I have built many pc's from the ground up in the past and maintain our company's web servers with pretty strong nix knowledge so I feel competent enough for sure.

Truth be told, I may end up building the hack desktop and then purchasing a MacBook pro down the road for travel.


I'll post my actual build and results once everything is purchased.


Also, to the mention about newegg earlier, while they have great prices overall, micro center sells 2500k and 2600k processors for like $60-$80 less than newegg and you get a moo for $50 off so definitely best way if you have one near you IMO.


Thanks again! Any additional feedback is always appreciated too.

 

[jester969]

You can do way better building your own hack pro.

I would decide if you really want to work with your hands and software to get your system up and running, learning new things and creating something you built with your own two hands knowing how each and every part works inside out.

My system has been running for four months strong and no issues as of yet or KPs. The only issue is more HDDs since these prices are ridicioulous when before the price jump I was being too cheap buying 250GB HDDs off eBay for more than 16 dollars.

My Acer AMD desktop machine has been catching dust bunnies efficiently.

I love my machine.

 

[goober296]

Just follow along with jester,powerpcg5, or gordo's responses to questions asked and the recommended hardware builds, and you will find its pretty easy to build a hack. Mine run 24-7 smooth as silk.