What was your primary reason for building a hackintosh?

[opz918]

My first computer that I built turned out to be a 2010 build without me knowing it. I have wondered before what it would be like to install Mac OS on a PC back when I built it, but I didn't have the resources or the patience to try and figure out how to make a bootable USB. I had used UNIX before but this was a big jump from dual booting on the same drive.

4 years pass and I decide I would try to install it because I had nothing to fear, especially since I ended up getting a separate drive for it. Everything seemed to work but I know I wouldn't necessarily depend on it. Since it was on a separate drive from my Windows drive, I didn't have much to worry about and things were working fine. Ever since then I've been slowly upgrading my first PC and made sure components would be supported in Mac OS.

I know it had some limitations with USB 3.0 and PCIe 2.0, so I eventually built a second Hac Pro build that had pretty decent specs similar to my first build. I spent a good amount on the second build, but not as much as my first since I knew by then what I needed initially and I swapped GPUs until I got something I was comfortable with. Having a computer that could run both Windows and Mac OS made a few things in my life interesting, and I wanted to try to work with art programs in Mac OS with the assistance of the iPad Pro through Astropad. So on both computers, I can play games and be productive. This experience has helped me grow and be more independent of solving most computer problems and have some fun figuring some things out too.

 

[dreidel]

for me it was a matter of budget. I owned a March 2009 Mac Mini which I dearly loved to bits, and was my daily workhorse machine for my music recording hobby, internet, email etc. (I still have another one which I use as my TV streaming computer).

After 7 years the Mini started going brain-dead, and I realised it was time to upgrade. Unfortunately, the computer Apple wanted to sell me at the price I could afford was woefully underpowered, and was not upgradable as regards RAM. Plus I also needed Firewire ports for a couple of peripherals I had like my UAD-2 DSP processor.

Building a Hackintosh always intrigued me, but at the time I was fairly intimidated by it. Then Krishna Sadavism, artist for the PC Weenies webcomic, did a blog in which he detailed how he went about building his own CustoMac . This pushed me into doing research for the next eight months into doing my own build, looking at all the options and determining what I could get for the best bang for the buck. Both Tonymac and Insanely Mac were my go-tos for finding info on parts and what worked best together - it was the latter which showed me the way to go was with an MSI H81M-P33 motherboard as the basis for the build.

When I had my shopping list, I waited until I could find all the components either on-sale or open box deals. Thankfully that all came together over a two week period. I then took my time putting all the components together. Any snags I had quicky got solved with watching YouTube tutorials.

The build has now run for about a year, and I love it. Initially it came out to $519 CDN, but as I could afford it I added more components like a pair of SSDs for my macOS and Windows 10 drives, and a better graphics card, and a beefier, quieter CPU fan.

It's a great day to day machine, and I found it also runs Cubase 9 beautifully for my music work. In fact I've been more prolific in working with it for my music in years, it's now finding the time and inspiration for composing and recording. It's also fun for troubleshooting, I've always been some sort of tinkerer over the years and I find it fun to squeeze out as much performance out of my simple rig as I can. I have no regrets doing this!

 

[itscience]

I've owned four real Apple computers, all had one or more hardware failures in the first few months. I realized that Apple was in pursuit of form over function, so finally I just decided to build my own.

I have run the same setup for 5 years now with zero failures, and zero problems.

 

[BillG66]

I've been dyed-in-the-wool Mac since first using the JMU Mac lab back in '84. Bought my first Mac, a dual-floppy SE, in 1988. In this case, my 2007 iMac had reached the end of its useful life, and I was waiting for a new Mac Mini release. It still hasn't come.

I built my first Hackintosh last year because I needed a new Mac, I couldn't afford anything but a Mini, and the newest Mini was nearly three years old. The Hackintosh I built smokes the specs of the best Mini available today, and... as has been mentioned several times... I now have the luxury of easily upgrading components as the system ages, something I've never experienced as a Mac owner before.

I did the Optiplex 780 SFF conversion for my wife last month for essentially the same reasons... her early 2008 MPB was showing the signs of age, I wanted her to have a faster machine that could run Sierra, but I was tapped. I built my wife's system for less than $150 (I kid you not... it helped getting the machine, itself, for $12 on eBay), and it's one of the most stable Macs I've ever owned! I have to admit, though, while cost was the driving factor on the first one... and, if I'm being honest... the second one, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that fun/challenge paid a big role in tackling the Optiplex.

The kids now have the early 2008 MBP, and the 2007 now iMac essentially serves as my Plex server.

 

[Narod28]

Just (well few days ago) made my first hackintosh. This is the second computer because my main work is still on Windows machine.
Primary reason was to replace Macbook Air. I do all kinds of things on Mac like browsing, chatting, web developing work, some photoshopping and etc and Mac-Air connected to HDMI Display was just getting too slow for this tasks. I was thinking on getting Mac Mini but man... the lowest model of Mac Mini costs like 700$ and have the specs of some calculator from 2011... WTF? Even Mac Mini models from 2012 have better specs than 2014 Mac Mini. Even if you decide to go with 2014 Mac Mini, you would have to spend like 2k$ for fast machine with SSD and at least 8gb of ram.

So I said screw you Apple and decide to build my own Mac mini, in small aluminium mini-ITX case, nearly silent at all times. Believe it or not I didn't think it was that easy. Yeah I spend 1 day building it, another 2 days configuration everything, trying to get some things working, and boom it's like you say guys - Golden build. Everything works, even trailers in iTunes that doesn't play on some peoples Hackintoshes. iMessage works, iCloud, Handoff and all that stuff (thanks to that Broadcom chip).

 

[zaurav]

I did the Optiplex 780 SFF conversion for my wife last month for essentially the same reasons..

Didn't know this. I have a spare one lying around. Maybe I'll get working on it. Thanks.

 

[BillG66]

Didn't know this. I have a spare one lying around. Maybe I'll get working on it. Thanks.

I used this guide rather than Uni/Multibeast, since I was hostage to the existing Optiplex 780 hardware:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...l-optiplex-780-small-form-factor-with-clover/

I have used KextBeast to tweak the Optiplex since the conversion, and the Tonymacx86 iMessage/FaceTime guide to get that working... and the machine is performing amazingly well. So well, in fact, I'm afraid to attempt an upgrade to 10.12.4, because it's just working so perfectly...

 

[Solidww]

Working with OS X, iOS, and TV OS platforms is an absolute pleasure. I am deeply engrained and won't be looking for a reason to switch from Apple's formats to Windows or Unix based systems for a long time. Thus, for professional work I feel a custom built machine is way better than anything Apple currently offers.
To be completely frank I haven't had a Custom Mac for over 3 years now. Just a Macbook Pro from 2012, last of the DVD drive models. I continues to serve all my needs for, browsing, email, writing, and video editing(Only 1080P BTW!). So, no need to switch for now. I am lurking on this site more now though. As the GT650M is becoming a bottle neck for larger format workloads. A Custom Mac, with 2 mid range GPUs will be a need, soon enough.

 

[LolloCollo]

For me, the main reason is because I hate Windows 10, but I don't want to use Windows 7, sooo...

 

[Narod28]

For me, the main reason is because I hate Windows 10, but I don't want to use Windows 7, sooo...

... Windows 8? ))