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What was your primary reason for building a hackintosh?

What was your primary reason for building a hackintosh?

  • Cost. Apple hardware is just too unaffordable.

    Votes: 334 26.2%
  • Apple does not sell systems with the specs I want.

    Votes: 509 39.9%
  • I already owned a PC and wanted to try macOS.

    Votes: 107 8.4%
  • I've been burned by Apple hardware failures and have no faith in their reliability.

    Votes: 20 1.6%
  • I like to tinker and learn.

    Votes: 261 20.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 46 3.6%

  • Total voters
    1,277
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The first Hackintosh i built because of my GF back then, she was having a white macbook when I realized that OS' similarity is huge to linux, so I started to read about, and then I saw that actually I could build my own, so it was a small step from her macbook to my own hackbook. However the learning curve did decreased with the years, as install and configuration methods for fine-tuning and bootup on different hardware specs do vary and change a lot. But as a conclusion for me it was interesting to see that for the price of a mac mini I could put together a more performant HTPC that can run 3OSes then buying one mac mini and struggling with the limitation (memory/hard drive/graphics card etc).
 
Truth is, I am a long term Mac owner. Probably upwards to ten in home and office over the years. Last home desktop was a mini, core-2 duo and it was adequate except for games. (I also have a Haswell macbook pro, and an iMac Ivy bridge in my office at work). I wanted to update the mini to the skylake era with built-in 530 graphics and will buy a new mini when something like that comes out. But I am pleased to have built a machine with that capability, for little more than what I was able to sell my old machine for.
 
I would switch back to buying Macs from Apple if (and only if) they release a truly modular Mac Pro. One that can be customized with PCI-e cards, NVIDIA graphics, and lots of internal storage and RAM capabilities. Basically, I want something like the old 2012 Mac Pro tower, but with new hardware (and Thunderbolt).
 
I got tired of buying Apple hardware and all of the specs were outdated with the current software on the market. I got tired of paying 3X the amount for 1/4 the machine. Durability is nice...but I'd like to be able to play the latest games and encode video with decent performance.
 
My answer is both Cost and Learn/Tinker, so I selected other. I've had many Macs over the years, starting in 1986. After getting immersed in the iOS ecosystem, I had less money for a new Mac laptop, and thought I might not need it since I was able to use my iPad when I wanted to be portable. In 2011, decided to try building a Hackintosh with the same power as a loaded iMac, and did it for half the cost thanks to this site. The machine is still running almost 6 years later with RAM replaced (and expanded, $100) a failed hard drive replaced, $87, a failed graphics card replaced, $30 and an SSD added, $187. The SSD was added after 1 1/2 years. The hardware failures happened after about 4 1/2 years, one after the other. I have a larger SSD ready to replace the older one this weekend $149. I went on to build another more powerful Hackintosh for my husband 1 1/2 years later (at about 1/3 cost of a similarly equipped Mac Pro). I just replaced that machine's RAM (random panics), $89, and upgraded that SSD too, $149.

Neither of us really need a faster machine yet, and it leaves us with more money to update the iPads and iPhones when they start getting long in the tooth.
 
To be really fair - if MacOS had so much users like Windows has, ransomware would 100% exist for MacOS. And any other viruses for that matter.

Wrong. Security through obscurity is a myth made up by Windows sympathizers. It has been proven time and again that Mac users tend to be more affluent and would make far better targets for anyone looking to profit from.

macOS simply doesn't have nearly as many security holes as Windows.
 
I would like to know what your PRIMARY reason was to build a hackintosh.
I have been looking at Apple´s offering over time and was unable to get performance and budget aligned to what I wanted. Working HD video editing makes you reach for horsepower and upgrade options, which are available in the open PC domain, yet cut off with today´s Mac Pro Generation (or better say at a sky-high premium ticket). The classic Mac Pro, the silver tower, at least gave you some wiggle room at a premium for retrofit options, graphics, RAM, CPU, and so forth, but that is yesterday. I am a proud owner of a genuine Mac Pro, but my Hack for a fraction of the cost is outperforming it easily and also running as reliably for several years, now it´s time for a HW upgrade and guess what, it is NOT the roundish can!
 
When I first started out my main reason was because I couldn't afford Apple hardware. Now it's mainly because I love building systems, hate windows, love OS X and love tinkering.
 
I have nothing to do with OS X BUT
1. I can run Windows, Linux, Debian, Android and my laptop so why don't try OS X?
2. OS X may be a worth to try experience, new thing to tinker and learn
3. Mac computer is a new brand of laptop distributed in my country, it is a symbol of wealthy. So what is the different?
4. Some friend using Apple device, and they are talking about them, want to join?
5. Spare time, don't know what to do, why don't try to hackintosh a pc?
.....

So if you have nothing to do with OS X why are you a member here and posting?
 
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