Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

If there is no iMac refresh by the end of July, what will you do?

  • Keep waiting, I gotta have it no matter how long it takes.

    Votes: 133 65.5%
  • Bail, if Apple can't get me the hardware I want I'll find it somewhere else.

    Votes: 70 34.5%

  • Total voters
    203

awer25

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2011
1,100
327
If anyone is interested in taking the hackintosh route, I've been reading that with Mountain Lion GM, the Gigabyte Z77 mobo, Ivy-bridge CPU, and nVidia GTX 6xx GPU setup works basically out of the box. There's very little tweaking and it seems perfectly stable (and REALLY powerful). This is a big improvement from the old days where one had to do all kinds of kext modifications. I'm going this route and just ordered my Gigabyte GTX 670 to try out once Mountain Lion is released in its retail version.
 

sukai

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2012
160
0
If anyone is interested in taking the hackintosh route, I've been reading that with Mountain Lion GM, the Gigabyte Z77 mobo, Ivy-bridge CPU, and nVidia GTX 6xx GPU setup works basically out of the box. There's very little tweaking and it seems perfectly stable (and REALLY powerful). This is a big improvement from the old days where one had to do all kinds of kext modifications. I'm going this route and just ordered my Gigabyte GTX 670 to try out once Mountain Lion is released in its retail version.

For someone with experience building a pc, how difficult would it be to follow this route?
 

Sam Spade

macrumors regular
Aug 30, 2007
181
0
If anyone is interested in taking the hackintosh route, I've been reading that with Mountain Lion GM, the Gigabyte Z77 mobo, Ivy-bridge CPU, and nVidia GTX 6xx GPU setup works basically out of the box. There's very little tweaking and it seems perfectly stable (and REALLY powerful). This is a big improvement from the old days where one had to do all kinds of kext modifications. I'm going this route and just ordered my Gigabyte GTX 670 to try out once Mountain Lion is released in its retail version.
Great info!

Where is the best place to read about and research this?

Is there anyone out there building hackintosh systems for a fee?
 

Gaiduku

macrumors member
Jul 3, 2012
45
0
For someone with experience building a pc, how difficult would it be to follow this route?

I'm in the same boat as you and have never built a pc before. However a friend showed me some very good videos by newegg tv on YouTube which really outline the process well.

It's a three part series which you can easily find just by googling newegg how to build a pc. Part one covers the components you'll need to buy to build a working pc and what to look for when purchasing. Part 2 covers the actual build itself and part 3 covers the loading of windows and drivers to th completed pc. Like i said they're very good videos
 

Nandifix

macrumors 6502
May 10, 2012
343
0
To be honest I will just wait. Yes I have a 6 year old pc that is utter c*ap but it will have to do!
 

sukai

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2012
160
0
I'm in the same boat as you and have never built a pc before. However a friend showed me some very good videos by newegg tv on YouTube which really outline the process well.

It's a three part series which you can easily find just by googling newegg how to build a pc. Part one covers the components you'll need to buy to build a working pc and what to look for when purchasing. Part 2 covers the actual build itself and part 3 covers the loading of windows and drivers to th completed pc. Like i said they're very good videos

I take it the process would be similar to a hackingtosh(what i would prefer) but people seem to say its a bit more complex?
 

Gaiduku

macrumors member
Jul 3, 2012
45
0
I take it the process would be similar to a hackingtosh(what) i would prefer) but people to say its a bit more complex?

Oh sorry no I have no idea about that. I guess parts 1 and 2 will still be relevant but you'll have to read up elsewhere on what components you need for a hackintosh and also load on the OS. I also would like to use mac osx but if I build a computer...I think Ill just use windows. Apple are so into their proprietary tech id worry about trying to get it to work on a custom machine
 

jmhart

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2012
127
0
For someone with experience building a pc, how difficult would it be to follow this route?

The tricky part is finding a DSDT bootloader and a DSDT file that matches your hardware. At that point all you do is make a copy of your OS install disc to a USB boot drive of some sort, install the bootloader to it...now you have an OS installer that will boot on your PC. Use that to partition and install the OS, then just install the bootloader to your boot partition and you're done.

Once you get the OS installer drive built, it barely any more work than installing OS X on a real Mac. The better bootloaders come with their own boot partition selector that comes up when you boot so you can select OS X or Windows.
 

sukai

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2012
160
0
Oh sorry no I have no idea about that. I guess parts 1 and 2 will still be relevant but you'll have to read up elsewhere on what components you need for a hackintosh and also load on the OS. I also would like to use mac osx but if I build a computer...I think Ill just use windows. Apple are so into their proprietary tech id worry about trying to get it to work on a custom machine

The tricky part is finding a DSDT bootloader and a DSDT file that matches your hardware. At that point all you do is make a copy of your OS install disc to a USB boot drive of some sort, install the bootloader to it...now you have an OS installer that will boot on your PC. Use that to partition and install the OS, then just install the bootloader to your boot partition and you're done.

Once you get the OS installer drive built, it barely any more work than installing OS X on a real Mac. The better bootloaders come with their own boot partition selector that comes up when you boot so you can select OS X or Windows.

Maybe waiting isn't so bad after all ahaha. Thanks for the info. I don't think I'll be making one this time but I will do some research and walkthroufhs for a future project if I decide to follow one.
 

iSayuSay

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2011
3,792
906
To be honest I will just wait. Yes I have a 6 year old pc that is utter c*ap but it will have to do!

You could say the same thing for iMac you currently own 6 years from now.

I got nothing against you for taking a leap from PC side. I did it around 3 years ago. But honestly it's not much different with Mac. Years gone by and your machine would not be as capable as it used to.

And the only thing remain from an old machine is resale value. Mac tends to be good at this as long as you keep the original parts intact.
 

awer25

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2011
1,100
327
The tricky part is finding a DSDT bootloader and a DSDT file that matches your hardware. At that point all you do is make a copy of your OS install disc to a USB boot drive of some sort, install the bootloader to it...now you have an OS installer that will boot on your PC. Use that to partition and install the OS, then just install the bootloader to your boot partition and you're done.

Once you get the OS installer drive built, it barely any more work than installing OS X on a real Mac. The better bootloaders come with their own boot partition selector that comes up when you boot so you can select OS X or Windows.

That's the good part about the new Ivy Bridge setups - you don't need the DSDTs or crazy edits in Terminal anymore. It really works almost "out of the box" (with the right Apple-compatible hardware). You make a bootable USB drive with Mountain Lion (using the app "Unibeast") and install it. Then just run "Multibeast" to get the drivers installed and it works. There may be a step or two in between, but it looks really easy.

So far, the "out of box" setups with Mountain Lion are using a quad-core i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge CPU, a Gigabyte brand Z77 motherboard (I went with the GA-Z77X-UD5H) and an nVidia GTX 5xx or 6xx GPU (I went with the 670). Since there's a BIOS, you can even overclock if you want, making one heck of a powerful machine that's as stable as any real Mac.

Check out www.tonymacx86.com for EVERYTHING on the subject, or youtube vids to watch how easy the install is with Mountain Lion (it's only a couple extra steps with Lion)

However, for those with no building experience, I still wouldn't recommend a hackintosh. It's not a good "first build" unless it's not a primary computer and you have time to fiddle with it.
 

SaltSlasher

macrumors member
Jan 16, 2011
45
0
WVC, SLC
I am not really concerned with a July release...

But I am with a PRE-SCHOOL release(which is the first two weeks of September, by that time school will be settling in)....if they don't release before school, then don't bother releasing one till next "PRESCHOOL SALE".....

Honestly the current iMac is like 5 steps ahead in a few categorys, like the fact that no one I know has 1440p desktops, except those with iMac 27.

Wind7 vs OSX, I think OSX is at least 3 steps ahead.

Honestly I might just snag me a current iMac, and get it swapped for 2013's.
 

Lancer

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,217
147
Australia
I'm just glad I didn't get a 2005 iMac and instead went for a Mac Pro when I git this one on eBay, also glad I updated the RAM to 4Gb last year.

Like I've said before I'll wait and get the update when it comes, even if it's later this year.
 

SaltSlasher

macrumors member
Jan 16, 2011
45
0
WVC, SLC
I'm just glad I didn't get a 2005 iMac and instead went for a Mac Pro.

I like that 1440p and really want one, But if they dropped Mac Pro's instead, I would think about getting one of them. Even though they are more money.

I mean they have way better internal storage, more potential and up-gradable!

I would like to see 4 HD bays in an iMac, or a cheap 8 bay thunderbolt storage unit.
 

benwiggy

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2012
2,391
208
You're going to pay Apple's 2011 price for the SSD option?! :eek:
At the moment, that's Apple's 2012 price. If I need an iMac with an SSD, that's what I have to pay.

If you're going to do that, at least get it used or refurbished. Paying Apple's 2011 prices for an SSD makes no sense. Hey, I have a great Nintendo 64 console for you, only $299! No extra charge over sticker! :D
I don't want a 2nd hand or refurbished Mac. I need a brand new one. Paying the current price for an SSD is therefore what I have to do.
A Nintendo 64 isn't the latest console from Nintendo. The 2011 iMac is the latest iMac from Apple.
 

Lancer

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,217
147
Australia
I like that 1440p and really want one, But if they dropped Mac Pro's instead, I would think about getting one of them. Even though they are more money.

Oh correcting, just realized I said Mac Pro, I meant G5 PPC. The Pro wasn't released until 2006. But still the G5 Tower is much better than the 2005 iMac.

I mean they have way better internal storage, more potential and up-gradable!

I would like to see 4 HD bays in an iMac, or a cheap 8 bay thunderbolt storage unit.

I agree the storage is much better in the Pro but I can' justify the extra cost over the iMac.

I'd rather put some money into a large storage unit, even if I only used a few of the 8 bays at first.
 
Last edited:

torana355

macrumors 68040
Dec 8, 2009
3,609
2,676
Sydney, Australia
Ill wait, i just got a Samsung 830 ssd for my 2008 iMac which makes it lightning fast, its actually faster in practice then the current platter based HDD iMacs anyway lol..If you get used to pulling iMacs apart they are quite fun to mod once they are out of warranty. I will upgrade to the new iMac once its released.
 

mjoshi123

macrumors 6502
Apr 14, 2010
451
5
My Hack cost $1155. How is that more expensive? Unless you don't have a monitor.

I have an ATI Radeon 6870 2GB. It has a minidp port and I can use our old 2009 27" iMac as a monitor.

Edit so people stop complaining I didn't include monitor costs:
The iMac with the 3.4 i7 and 2GB 6970M is $2299. That's the 1TB HDD 4GB RAM version. Even if I bought the Apple Cinema Display for $949 off Amazon I'd still come in at around $2100. I have an i7 2700K 3.5, 16GB RAM, the 6870 2GB, 4TB HDD, a 120GB mSATA SSD for OSX and a 128 SSD for Windows. Now compare.

Could you please share how you did all this ? I might look into that instead of keep waiting forever.
 

Seamaster

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2003
1,147
257
The iMac isn't dead.... This is so ridiculous. Unless you're saying that you had an iMac from 1998 to 2012, then thats a whole different story.

Yeah, I had an iMac of each generation from 1998 to 2012. But it's time to move on.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.