Still waiting for iMac 2012 or Hackintosh?

[MagicThief83]

Hello All,

I was interested to see who here is still patiently waiting for the supposed 2012 iMac, or has hopped on the Hackintosh bandwagon? I have been following this website for sometime now:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/100-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-2012.html

They have some really great custom builds there, with native Ivy Bridge, Thunderbolt, and Nvidia Kepler desktop graphics support, all running under the awesomeness of Mountain Lion. A moderately powerful build will run you around $1600, throw in a decent Dell monitor, and you're looking at $1900-2000 total. Not bad at all considering the raw performance you obtain with such a rig, and the ability to boot both OSX and Windows. I am eagerly awaiting the new iMac, but I dare to admit, I am easily tempted at the thought of building my own gaming/computing rig that could run both OSes. Anyone here have any experience with Hackintoshes? I know there's few tinkering involved as far as settings and drivers/kexts and what have you, and there's also the issue of aesthetics (I personally love the simplicity of the iMacs all in one, and prefer that over all the wires, clutter, and wasted space that comes with having a huge tower, monitor, and speakers), but these appear to be minute annoyances, and the stability of such systems are much improved and have come along way. If I were to build, I would follow the guide exactly and select the recommended/compatible hardware. I have a MacBook Air as a backup machine if anything goes wrong. What do you guys think? Is is better off just avoiding this headache altogether and just waiting for the new iMac? (which is a headache in and of itself!)

 

[P1otr]

I'm waiting for the new iMac, too. My time is limited- must buy it before the 16th of September. If it doesn't arrive until then- I'll probably go for Mbook Pro plus a big, 27 inches display. Hackintosh? Never.

 

[iMacFarlane]

I'm waiting for the new iMac, too. My time is limited- must buy it before the 16th of September. If it doesn't arrive until then- I'll probably go for Mbook Pro plus a big, 27 inches display. Hackintosh? Never.

I'm with you on the Hackintosh thing. No way.

I bought a MBP to hold me over, just dealing with the screen size (it's fine, actually, all 13" of it!). Looking forward to a super-specced 27" whenever she's done.

 

[Djlild7hina]

I did hackintosh before and it's not too bad. I was debating if I should go that route again or not but I'm deciding to wait for the 2012 iMac hopefully it has the 680m and should be plenty for gaming. Don't want to deal with the hassle of hackintosh anymore

Best setup for 2012 Hackintosh right now is: i7 3770K, z77x-up5 th (dual thunderbolt), and gtx 600 series card.

 

[MagicThief83]

I did hackintosh before and it's not too bad. I was debating if I should go that route again or not but I'm deciding to wait for the 2012 iMac hopefully it has the 680m and should be plenty for gaming. Don't want to deal with the hassle of hackintosh anymore

Best setup for 2012 Hackintosh right now is: i7 3770K, z77x-up5 th (dual thunderbolt), and gtx 600 series card.

Yeah those GTX 600 cards will obliterate any games that come their way, although the GTX 680m which is probably to be included in the refreshed iMacs, can hold it's own against its desktop brethren. I hope Apple includes a GTX 680m across the board on all the iMacs as a BTO option. I would hate to get anything less than that, because that GPU is sure to drive current gen games, as well next gen games quite well. How did you find setting up and maintaining the system? Was it a hassle to get up and running?

 

[Lancer]

I'm waiting on an iMac not just for the price (compared to the Mac Pro) but the design, why would I want a Hackintosh? also I already have a G5 tower and a PC box, I don't need another!

 

[jmhart]

Hello All,

I was interested to see who here is still patiently waiting for the supposed 2012 iMac, or has hopped on the Hackintosh bandwagon? I have been following this website for sometime now:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/100-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-2012.html

They have some really great custom builds there, with native Ivy Bridge, Thunderbolt, and Nvidia Kepler desktop graphics support, all running under the awesomeness of Mountain Lion. A moderately powerful build will run you around $1600, throw in a decent Dell monitor, and you're looking at $1900-2000 total. Not bad at all considering the raw performance you obtain with such a rig, and the ability to boot both OSX and Windows. I am eagerly awaiting the new iMac, but I dare to admit, I am easily tempted at the thought of building my own gaming/computing rig that could run both OSes. Anyone here have any experience with Hackintoshes? I know there's few tinkering involved as far as settings and drivers/kexts and what have you, and there's also the issue of aesthetics (I personally love the simplicity of the iMacs all in one, and prefer that over all the wires, clutter, and wasted space that comes with having a huge tower, monitor, and speakers), but these appear to be minute annoyances, and the stability of such systems are much improved and have come along way. If I were to build, I would follow the guide exactly and select the recommended/compatible hardware. I have a MacBook Air as a backup machine if anything goes wrong. What do you guys think? Is is better off just avoiding this headache altogether and just waiting for the new iMac? (which is a headache in and of itself!)

I've got my list of components assembled for my gaming box / hackintosh and am just waiting for the GTX 660 (maybe the TI) to be released. I'm holding off ordering any of my other items yet on the slim chance the iMac makes it out before the 660 on the 16th.

I'm definitely not holding my breath anymore and will be back to vote Hackintosh (will be the 3rd in my collection) once Apple disappoints.

Then I can join the 'Waiting for the Mac Mini' threads in the other forum so I can supplement the new gaming box with a tolerable file management and media playback machine. Once that's done I'll wait for a retina style standalone monitor (probably 4k res) to be released, an inevitability now that Apple has kick-started yet another evolution.

The truth is my Mac needs are really day-to-day stuff, web browsing when I'm not on my iPad, file management which I find nearly intolerable in Windows now that OS X has spoiled me, and media playback for my home theater. I had really hoped I could have "one machine to rule them all" (iMac), but it's apparently just not in the cards this time around.

[sarcasm]
Thanks Apple!
[/sarcasm]

 

[jmhart]

Yeah those GTX 600 cards will obliterate any games that come their way, although the GTX 680m which is probably to be included in the refreshed iMacs, can hold it's own against its desktop brethren. I hope Apple includes a GTX 680m across the board on all the iMacs as a BTO option. I would hate to get anything less than that, because that GPU is sure to drive current gen games, as well next gen games quite well. How did you find setting up and maintaining the system? Was it a hassle to get up and running?

I agree, the 680m should hold it's own against the mid tier desktop 600 series that's yet to be released. Purely for gaming you'd still be better off with a higher end 670 or 680, if you're planning to go all out with the PC regardless of cost...since you were already budgeting for an iMac anyway.

I personally will go the best bang for the buck route when I build my gaming rig, a mid-tier desktop 600 which should be just as fast as the iMac could be with the 680m and way, way cheaper.

 

[RustyMacVet]

The mere mention of Hackintosh is blasphemy! BLASPHEMY I TELL YOU!

You'r not a Mac if your a Hack, that's just for PCs.

 

[MagicThief83]

The mere mention of Hackintosh is blasphemy! BLASPHEMY I TELL YOU!

You'r not a Mac if your a Hack, that's just for PCs.

Excuse my heresy! Just trying to find the light in the shadow of Apple's darkness!

 

[Djlild7hina]

Yeah those GTX 600 cards will obliterate any games that come their way, although the GTX 680m which is probably to be included in the refreshed iMacs, can hold it's own against its desktop brethren. I hope Apple includes a GTX 680m across the board on all the iMacs as a BTO option. I would hate to get anything less than that, because that GPU is sure to drive current gen games, as well next gen games quite well. How did you find setting up and maintaining the system? Was it a hassle to get up and running?

Yeah, I hope it's not TOO expensive but we'll see.
TBH, I started hackintosh back in the old days (aka leopard?) and it was a lot more of a hassle than it is today. It's not too bad but just requires a lot of time setting it up (searching for compatible parts, checking the forums, building the comp, setting it up, etc) Also updates (10.7.1,10.7.2, etc) tend to break audio and some minor stuff so you have to repatch with a new multibeast. If you go with the recommended builds or look in the build logs section you'll save yourself more time and headache

 

[MagicThief83]

I agree, the 680m should hold it's own against the mid tier desktop 600 series that's yet to be released. Purely for gaming you'd still be better off with a higher end 670 or 680, if you're planning to go all out with the PC regardless of cost...since you were already budgeting for an iMac anyway.

I personally will go the best bang for the buck route when I build my gaming rig, a mid-tier desktop 600 which should be just as fast as the iMac could be with the 680m and way, way cheaper.

I really am confused because It would be awesome to have a gaming rig with a desktop 670 or 680, but at the same time, I am quite limited on space and would hate the amount of clutter that a hackintosh would bring with it (just thinking about all the wires, antennas, dongles, sticking out of the tower already disgust me lol). I also don't want to deal with setting up a hackintosh, but is it really all that difficult? Would point OS releases break the system, or can one safely update without fear of failure/incompatibility? Apple has all of us by the balls! (or whatever else you got crawling around in your groins!)

 

[Djlild7hina]

Hide tower under your desk = solved. It's more of time consuming than difficult and can get frustrating. you just have to research before updating because it will most likely break something. haha I'm getting back into researching Hackintosh mainly because of storage reasons (want to connect 4x3TB JBOD)
the retina MBP is also tempting haha

 

[Mengele]

There is absolutely no reason Apple could not or should not have released new iMacs in March.

 

[Icaras]

Hide tower under your desk = solved.

Not solved. Hide heat and noise of tower = definitely not solved. I'll never go back to having a hulking block of a tower computer. Hate all the clutter, noise, and heat that go with it.

Anyway, I'm not in the market for a new Mac but I echo some of the feedback in this thread: hackintosh, never.

 

[Liquinn]

By the time the 2012 iMac comes out, Haswell will be around the corner.

 

[iSayuSay]

I'm not in the market or waiting for a new iMac since I still have this 2011 i7 iMac which works fine for me. Not really worth the time, money and effort to upgrade now.

But if I were, I would go with custom built PC route and 13" Macbook Air combo. OSX and Mac hardly would ever use a powerful hardware anymore. Going with ML update and you should see already how close it becomes with iOS.

If anything, that's what I would do in a couple of years. Maybe when Broadwell CPUs & MBA is in the market, I'd buy it along with new Thunderbolt Display at the time (hopefully with Retina already), and hook it along with my next ultimate gaming box, maybe with GTX 8xx or Radeon 9. Best of both worlds.

 

[Ishmumrhmn]

Hackibtosh is the BEST.

 

[forty2j]

There is absolutely no reason Apple could not or should not have released new iMacs in March.

.. except for the fact that Ivy Bridge wasn't out yet. But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

 

[jmhart]

By the time the 2012 iMac comes out, Haswell will be around the corner.

Shhhh...Mac users aren't supposed to be aware of such things, you're going to ruin Apple's strategy of maximizing profit by assuming its users don't know any better!

 

[MagicThief83]

Not solved. Hide heat and noise of tower = definitely not solved. I'll never go back to having a hulking block of a tower computer. Hate all the clutter, noise, and heat that go with it.

Anyway, I'm not in the market for a new Mac but I echo some of the feedback in this thread: hackintosh, never.

Those Hackintosh towers are monoliths lol! Would be pretty hard not to notice the amount of noise and heat they would make.

----------

Hackibtosh is the BEST.

Care to share your experience why this is so? You have a Hackintosh?

 

[edry.hilario]

There is absolutely no reason Apple could not or should not have released new iMacs in March.

screen lamination issues ... was reported so i rather have a solid machine than get a machine screen problems. That leads me to believe apple is working on something bigger on the imac something more than a spec bump.

 

[MagicThief83]

screen lamination issues ... was reported so i rather have a solid machine than get a machine screen problems. That leads me to believe apple is working on something bigger on the imac something more than a spec bump.

I truly hope this to be the case, because all of this miserable wait would've been all for naught if all we're getting is a mere spec bump! Some redesign and a thinner chassis would be nice. I hope they do not do away with the 21.5", otherwise I am going to break down and start crying

 

[iMcLovin]

I'm so fed up of waiting... Hope there's some more rumors this week not just Samsung trial and iPhone stuff - so bored..
With all the leaks of the iPhone i still don't understand what is significantly new compared to the 4s...

 

[Mark D]

No.