Any Hackintosh users thinking of transferring to a Mini?

[SSD-GUY]

I've been toying about with various Mac Mini configurations over the past few days, because as explained on a previous thread I posted, I don't always have the time now to tinker with a Hackintosh to ensure everything works as planned when conducting updates etc. However, the Mac Mini's price becomes a bit exrotionate when you add on more storage, so much so that a 512GB i7 model comes to almost £1900. This is without eGPU enclosure (£300) and a GPU (£300 for an AMD 580), taking the total cost to £2500.

I recently priced up a Hackintosh build, and a top end 8700K, with an AMD 580, Hackintosh friendly motherboard, 500GB M2 SSD and 16GB RAM comes in at around £1100. The CPU is beefier and the rig has ample upgrade possibility.

Therefore I'd like to hear from others in a similar predicament, as right now Im finding it hard justifying spending an extra £1400 for a not-so comparable build CPU wise (I admit, the read/write speeds would be better on the mini). I'm using a rig from 2011 which hasn't been too bad, has it got easier to Hackintosh now?

 

[Zackmd1]

I've been toying about with various Mac Mini configurations over the past few days, because as explained on a previous thread I posted, I don't always have the time now to tinker with a Hackintosh to ensure everything works as planned when conducting updates etc. However, the Mac Mini's price becomes a bit exrotionate when you add on more storage, so much so that a 512GB i7 model comes to almost £1900. This is without eGPU enclosure (£300) and a GPU (£300 for an AMD 580), taking the total cost to £2500.

I recently priced up a Hackintosh build, and a top end 8700K, with an AMD 580, Hackintosh friendly motherboard, 500GB M2 SSD and 16GB RAM comes in at around £1100. The CPU is beefier and the rig has ample upgrade possibility.

Therefore I'd like to hear from others in a similar predicament, as right now Im finding it hard justifying spending an extra £1400 for a not-so comparable build CPU wise (I admit, the read/write speeds would be better on the mini). I'm using a rig from 2011 which hasn't been too bad, has it got easier to Hackintosh now?

I was set to buy a Mac Mini before the keynote. Now I am looking more into a hackintosh. As you stated, the new mini is just to expensive for me to be able to justify. My current PC is not as easy to become a hackintosh (AMD ryzen here) so I have been looking into a switch to intel. With that switch, I have been looking into the feasibility of building my new machine in a Mac Mini housing. The idea currently is to use two Mini shells in a stackable configuration. One for the motherboard and CPU and one for the GPU (A configuration I believe apple will use for their new "mac pro". Stackable Mac Mini Units containing different components)

In terms of hackintosh systems. It has gotten FAR easier and FAR more reliable. As long as you source the correct boards and components, a hackintosh can become indistinguishable from a real Mac nowadays.

 

[SSD-GUY]

I was set to buy a Mac Mini before the keynote. Now I am looking more into a hackintosh. As you stated, the new mini is just to expensive for me to be able to justify. My current PC is not as easy to become a hackintosh (AMD ryzen here) so I have been looking into a switch to intel. With that switch, I have been looking into the feasibility of building my new machine in a Mac Mini housing. The idea currently is to use two Mini shells in a stackable configuration. One for the motherboard and CPU and one for the GPU (A configuration I believe apple will use for their new "mac pro". Stackable Mac Mini Units containing different components)

In terms of hackintosh systems. It has gotten FAR easier and FAR more reliable. As long as you source the correct boards and components, a hackintosh can become indistinguishable from a real Mac nowadays.

Yes, having looked at a few guides on TonyMac, it seems like the process is a lot easier compared to when I started 6 or so years ago. I think I've made up my mind, and this christmas I'm going to be getting the parts together to build a similar build to this (including the case, which looks spectacular).

I just couldn't justify spending an extra £1400, that price alone could get me a MacBook Pro, however I think I'll spend the extra money on getting a 4K display or something. Also, is it perhaps worth waiting out to see if Apple supports Nvidia GPUs? Are there any AMD GPUs over the horizon which Apple will support? I guess it may be worth waiting for the Mac Pro to come out, as I'm guessing Apple is going to return to expandable designs, as that was one of the bugbears of the old trashcan nMP

 

[StellarVixen]

Last night, I went on to make the equal mini-ITX of the Mac Mini that I will be buying (with i7, 256GB SSD and base RAM), RX Vega 56 eGPU and 4K monitor.

Comparable hackintosh would cost me around 200 less.

Since I want everything to work out of the box, and do not want to shiver before every update if something's gonna break, after which I would go around the forums to beg people to help me, those 200 are just not worth the hassle.

 

[Shaddix-be]

I'm running a pretty fast Hackintosh right now (overclocked i5 6600K, RX480 GTR graphics card, 512GB SSD over Sata), but for me it's too flakey. I have to do some tricks every time I try to boot and the OS thinks I have 3 screens connected while I have only 1 (I decided to hackintosh it after I had the system for a year).
I also started a side business a while ago and I don't want to get into problems with licensing if I was ever going to get an inspection.

If I would get the Mac Mini i7 I would have a slight improvement over CPU (although the no-overclocking will probably level that out) and a faster internal SSD.

All these factors are making me want to buy a new Mac Mini.

 

[SSD-GUY]

Last night, I went on to make the equal mini-ITX of the Mac Mini that I will be buying (with i7, 256GB SSD and base RAM), RX Vega 56 eGPU and 4K monitor.

Comparable hackintosh would cost me around 200 less.

Since I want everything to work out of the box, and do not want to shiver before every update if something's gonna break, after which I would go around the forums to beg people to help me, those 200 are just not worth the hassle.

Thanks for this. Do you mind providing a cost breakdown for comparison?

 

[Zackmd1]

Last night, I went on to make the equal mini-ITX of the Mac Mini that I will be buying (with i7, 256GB SSD and base RAM), RX Vega 56 eGPU and 4K monitor.

Comparable hackintosh would cost me around 200 less.

Since I want everything to work out of the box, and do not want to shiver before every update if something's gonna break, after which I would go around the forums to beg people to help me, those 200 are just not worth the hassle.

Did you factor in the cost of an eGPU enclosure? Something you wouldn't need with mini itx?

My mini itx system with an i5, 8 gb ram, 512gb SSD costs about $675 without the GPU. An equal Mac mini costs $1300... Then factor in an extra $300 at least for the Mac mini due to the required eGPU enclosure. A hackintosh is far cheaper... More so then $200...
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I'm running a pretty fast Hackintosh right now (overclocked i5 6600K, RX480 GTR graphics card, 512GB SSD over Sata), but for me it's too flakey. I have to do some tricks every time I try to boot and the OS thinks I have 3 screens connected while I have only 1 (I decided to hackintosh it after I had the system for a year).
I also started a side business a while ago and I don't want to get into problems with licensing if I was ever going to get an inspection.

If I would get the Mac Mini i7 I would have a slight improvement over CPU (although the no-overclocking will probably level that out) and a faster internal SSD.

All these factors are making me want to buy a new Mac Mini.

Hackintoshing a pre built system can have very different results then if you built a system from the ground up to be a hackintosh. My guess is that your RX480 is the source of your issues. Likely isn't fully supported in MacOS.

A system built from the ground up can closely mirror a real Mac and as such behaves largely the same.

 

[markusberger]

I briefly considered it, just to enjoy the "it just works" as opposed to tinkering around.

Then I realized that I actually enjoy tinkering around, modifying config.plists and feeling like I "beat the system" when everything works.

The Mac Mini initially seemed like it could be priced nicely, but adding processor upgrades to get to 6 cores + HT, adding RAM so I have at least 16 GB (32 GB right now in my 8086K Hack) quickly makes the Mini quite expensive. I would still have less performance than I have now and spending 1500-2000€ on a system that effectively gives me next to no advantages (besides the "it just works" and looking pretty and space gray on my desk) doesn't seem overly reasonable in my use case.

I just hope Apple and NVIDIA figure their 1080 TI webdrivers for Mojave out eventually. Using the UHD 630 for MacOS now which is ok and the TI for gaming in Windows.

In my Hack everything works, including handoff and so forth, so I find it hard to justify investing in a Mini right now...

 

[thera]

I have been using Hack for 2 years as main business comp. with all important files, etc., really very stable and reliable, everything works, fast, "cheap". The reasons I am buying Mini2018 are form factor and that I will leave my computer running all the time as iTunes server. My present mATX minitower with its fans is too power hungry and noisy. Second, I have not upgrade my Hack for this time, still use Sierra, so it might be security problem.

 

[trsblader]

I was in a similar predicament waiting for a new Mini or iMac to come out, but I finally bit the bullet and built my first Hackintosh. My 2011 21.5" iMac was doing great, but was starting to be slow (no ssd, base model CPU, etc.). While this Mac Mini does look great, I don't think I'll be changing back anytime soon. Upgradeable CPU, GPU, SSD, and extra bays for drives is well worth it (and amazing cooling). I had zero parts, not even a case, and still built an 8700k with 32gb ram, 960 EVO, and a 2nd cheap-o monitor (no GPU yet) for $1500. Everything was brand new, full price I believe from newegg. Everything I need works great (App Store, iMessage, iCloud, etc) so I'm really happy. The only thing that doesn't work, is wake/sleep. I haven't made my own SSDT but I use this for plex as well so it the computer is never put to sleep anyway so that really didn't matter much to me.

While the price really isn't noticeable yet for an equivalent Mini (I think about $300 savings after you upgrade ram yourself and assuming you already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse), not having to buy an enclosure when I finally add a GPU, being able to upgrade the CPU, and having more storage bays without needing to eat up ports is really nice and I think would start making the cost of the Hackintosh show more and more while also keeping ports free.

It was my first ever Hackintosh and it took me the weekend to build, Hack, and get everything working properly. Had I read everything before doing it the first time I could have saved some time wondering why USB 3 wasn't working.

 

[boomspot]

Same. I’m running a full size build with i7 8700, TB3, 1TB boot SSD, four 512GB SSDs, and 8TB spinning drive internally. RX 580 driving 2 Dell 4K monitors and the machine is dead quiet. I have about $2500 into this since I built from scratch (not counting monitors). At this point a switch to the mini would be a step backwards. Would I like to have one if I had an extra $3k burning a hole in my pocket? Sure! I’m looking forward to reviews and the new Mac Pro announcement.

B

 

[StellarVixen]

I don't say...I am still open to the possibility of building Hackintosh if I see something with the Mac Mini that I do not like.

I am on Hackintosh forums almost as much as I am here these days (although as a lurker). Learning how it works and what to expect.

I have a list of hardware that would go in the potential Hackintosh ATX case (I HATE those, btw). I can go 50 percent cheaper with Hackintosh, with a little bit better specs (for example, I would put i7-8700K in hackintosh, which outperforms i7-8700 easily).

The only problem is: you have to tinker with it, if you want it to work. Minor updates usually work as with real Mac, but sometimes even those can screw up your machine. Sometimes things refuse to work for no obvious reason, and you have to go around and try to find the issue. But, macOS upgrades are where the fun starts. It's horrible. The easiest option is to do a clean install, doing upgrade straight from the App Store is next to impossible.


Plus, I never built a PC before. I have to find someone to build it for me. I could try, but I am afraid I will screw something up.


Let's hope that Mac Mini performs well, as Apple promises, and I will not have to go this way.

 

[archer75]

I've run hackintoshes for many years, since the early pear OS days. I'm willing to spend more to get an actual mac that is more stable, more compatible and I don't have to worry about an update breaking something.
I've built PC's for decades so that's not an issue for me.

 

[D.T.]

For a fun, hobby, personal computing type machine? Sure! I've knocked around with some Hacks' in the past, but for any kind of business critical system, where I need the least hassle/effort to keep the machine running combined with a single engagement point for service? No way.