Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone now considering a Hackintosh computer after a hoehum update?
- Thread starter Ca$hflow
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I also wanted to add that the only way I'd go the hackint0sh route is if I already owned a pc that is compatible for it.
I wouldnt really go build one or buy a new pc just to put hackint0sh on it. I'm actually looking into buying a desktop or building one to run windows 7 but mainly wanting a dual ATI 5870s for gaming.
I wouldnt really go build one or buy a new pc just to put hackint0sh on it. I'm actually looking into buying a desktop or building one to run windows 7 but mainly wanting a dual ATI 5870s for gaming.
I'm one of the few people who actually bought a Mac purely for it's specs and didn't really care much about OS X. Despite what people say about Macs never being able to win PCs in specs, there was a point in time when it could.
Back in 2007 when the Santa Rosa MBP was released, the MBP used one of the best CPUs available (not counting Core 2 Extreme CPUs). The MBP also had the 8600M GT GDDR3 which was the most powerful mid-range card for almost a year until it was surpassed by the 9600M. Not only that, the MBP was also the smallest and lightest notebook that had a 8600M GT with the exception of one Zepto notebook. Any other similar spec-ed laptop by the competitors (Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo Thinkpad) were all much heavier and bulkier than the MBP. This was also the same laptop that won the title of 'The fastest Windows laptop'.
Unfortunately since then, Apple has not done anything impressive with the Macbook line other than throwing a 9400 into the MBA. But Sony has already topped that by throwing a GT 330M into their Vaio Z. Everything else that Apple has done is simply mediocre.
If I don't see Sandy Bridge quad cores or a good new (meaning no rebrands from Nvidia) graphic chip in the next generation of MBPs, I'm definitely switching over to another brand since I'm primarily a Windows user.
Back in 2007 when the Santa Rosa MBP was released, the MBP used one of the best CPUs available (not counting Core 2 Extreme CPUs). The MBP also had the 8600M GT GDDR3 which was the most powerful mid-range card for almost a year until it was surpassed by the 9600M. Not only that, the MBP was also the smallest and lightest notebook that had a 8600M GT with the exception of one Zepto notebook. Any other similar spec-ed laptop by the competitors (Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo Thinkpad) were all much heavier and bulkier than the MBP. This was also the same laptop that won the title of 'The fastest Windows laptop'.
Unfortunately since then, Apple has not done anything impressive with the Macbook line other than throwing a 9400 into the MBA. But Sony has already topped that by throwing a GT 330M into their Vaio Z. Everything else that Apple has done is simply mediocre.
If I don't see Sandy Bridge quad cores or a good new (meaning no rebrands from Nvidia) graphic chip in the next generation of MBPs, I'm definitely switching over to another brand since I'm primarily a Windows user.
Turning a PC notebook into a hackintosh is not for the faint at heart. If your notebook model has been out a while, chances are that someone else on the internet already solved most of the problems for you.
However, the original poster referred to the latest and fastest machines available that surpass the new line of MacBook Pros in performance. Chances are that these latest PC notebooks have not been hacked, i.e. drivers for periphals have not been tweaked to make them work.
Of note: Nobody so far said, "I have the new XYZ notebook from Delnyba, I'm running 10.6.3, all hardware works, sleep works, and it's running circles around the new MBP."
Guess why.
However, the original poster referred to the latest and fastest machines available that surpass the new line of MacBook Pros in performance. Chances are that these latest PC notebooks have not been hacked, i.e. drivers for periphals have not been tweaked to make them work.
Of note: Nobody so far said, "I have the new XYZ notebook from Delnyba, I'm running 10.6.3, all hardware works, sleep works, and it's running circles around the new MBP."
Guess why.
I really wish there was an easy way to do it because I want to run OSX, I really do think it's the best OS out there. But am done with Apple's greedy nonsense and will not buy their bloated price, mediocre hardware anymore.
Uh...not for the reason you think.
Likely people with such machines are not here in this fanboy forum in great numbers and more importantly I doubt many people have both to compare.
If you don't get OSX with your hardware, you'll have to buy it. Doesn't this level out any price advantage a Hackintosh laptop might have?
OSX Snow Leopard only costs 30 bucks...I also bet most people that would do a hackintosh already have a copy or two from other computers.
The drawback in hackintoshing is the constant maintenance needed to keep it functioning.
If someone would produce a fairly priced Mac clone I'd buy a couple, black market or not...I don't care if Steve doesn't like it. He could have had my money but chose to try to squeeze even more so screw him
I have been told the 30 dollar SL is a full install and will work, by several people including Apple workers, have I been mislead?
The point is people with kick ass PCs are not giving a hoot what some people in a Mac forum think thus will not be posting here. You seem to think the lack of people showing off "better" PCs here means there isn't such a thing. Bad logic.
The problems come usually with things like webcams, sleep, WLAN, any proprietary controls (like the awful volume control touchstrip on HP Elitebooks for example) etc because there are simply no drivers for them. You can try faking them as devices found in Macbooks and pray that it works. Desktop systems are far easier because you can easily pick a compatible motherboard, CPU and graphics card (ATI cards seem to be quite problematic compared to nVidia).
It doesn't help that any documentation (if it even exists) for fixing things is littered around the 'net on various forums mostly so you have to skim thru VERY long threads to find all the info. I find that the people who do great things by writing driver or DSDT hacks are usually also terrible at telling what their creations do in a way that is easily understandable.
The Snow Leopard upgrade DVD works just fine for installing a Hackintosh.
I'll still prefer taking the easy route and just getting a MBP and having a desktop PC for video encoding and other processor intensive tasks.
Your information is correct. Still, it's an upgrade. Apple relies on your honesty.
(That was rude. I'd say my logic is better than your reading.)
Of course there are. I was referring to something completely different:
I haven't heard of PC laptops that outperform the new MacBook Pros AND are easily hackintoshed AND are cheaper. Hand-patched drivers etc. are easily (!) available for last year's PC, but not for the last state-of-the-art model.
This voids the usual "I'll get me a better PC laptop and hackintosh it instead of buying the overpriced Apple hardware." statement.
Unless, of course, you're a hackinpro.
I doubt anyone will buy one!
Looks like they are going to sell just fine as my local Apple Store sold all of their stock out in less than two days!
I am sure enjoying my 15" i7 which is working perfectly. Even Boot Camp with Win 7 Ultimate is doing everything it is supposed to do including sleeping and waking up properly over and over. This is the first MBPro I have had do this!
Always complainers when new hardware arrives, I think many buy after complaining for a while, when they can afford it!
Looks like they are going to sell just fine as my local Apple Store sold all of their stock out in less than two days!
I am sure enjoying my 15" i7 which is working perfectly. Even Boot Camp with Win 7 Ultimate is doing everything it is supposed to do including sleeping and waking up properly over and over. This is the first MBPro I have had do this!
Always complainers when new hardware arrives, I think many buy after complaining for a while, when they can afford it!
I'll give you this, if you grab the "hazard" distribution of Snow Leopard it'll work with a few PM55 machines out there (including the Vaio F), and those are i7 laptops.
On my Vaio F the things that don't work?
* Battery meter
* Wifi (going to need another card I guess)
* Sleep
* proper GT330m support...
That's about all I can think of. However, the new MacBook Pro has a 330m..........
From what I've heard a proper GPU driver tends to lead to proper sleep, so hopefully that works out. Now if only the wifi worked easily! Grr. It ALMOST DOES TOO, it's an atheros 9287 which got support by snow leopard in 10.6.2, but doesn't.. quite work for some reason or another.
RE:
"Are you ready to learn how to patch your DSDT? Learn what kernel extensions you need? Install bootloaders? Figure out what to do when your system kernel panics? Learn to use the command line and single user mode? Maybe (depending on hardware) not have sleep function at all? If yes, then a Hackintosh may be for you"
Hmmm.... anecdotal experience follows.
I've been a Macintosh user EXCLUSIVELY since 1987 (Apple // user before that). Although I've become pretty good with Macs, I know NOTHING about PC's, Windows, etc. And don't want to...
My sister is 50 and up to this point has never used a computer before at all. Her knowledge level is [essentially] ZERO when it comes to personal computing.
But she decided she wanted some kind of a computer. A Mac was too expensive and I wouldn't be able to support or help her if she got a Windowz PC.
So she got a Dell "Mini 10v" netbook.
I browsed around and discovered several resources for putting OS X onto a netbook (Gizmodo's guide is one of the best). I had an 8gig flashdrive available, and it was very basic to copy an image of the Snow Leopard DVD onto it, and then "transmogrify" it into a netbook-compatible version of the OS using a one-click application called "Netbook Maker".
When the Mini 10v came, I unpacked it, plugged in the flashdrive, and then followed some VERY simple instructions to make adjustments in the BIOS. (Aside: until a few days ago, I had no idea what a "BIOS" even _was_, letalone having ever tinkered with one before). Then, rebooted the Mini into OS X using the Snow Leopard install flashdrive.
From that point, the initial installation of the OS was indistinguishable from installing on a Mac - initialize the hard drive, select install options, install.
Once done, I rebooted the Mini once more. The initial bootup was a bit slow, because the customized Snow Leopard flashdrive installs an invisible application called "Netbook Installer" than runs automatically on reboot.
But - after the "behind the scenes" facets of the "first boot" took place, up comes the Snow Leopard "welcome" video. Again, from that point, setup (creating accounts) was indistinguishable from the Mac experience.
Shouting intentional: THERE WAS NO NEED TO INSTALL ANY HACKS OR DRIVERS, or anything additional -- all was incorporated into the Snow Leopard boot flashdrive. All automatic.
I had previously downloaded the 10.6.3 "combo updater" and burned it to a DVD on my iMac. Hooked up an external DVD drive to the Mini, and applied the 10.6.3 update. Rebooted, and again, the invisible "Netbook Installer" took care of everything, automatically making the necessary adjustments to get the Mini 10v "up to" 10.6.3.
I then used Software Update to download and update Safari and a few other things. All worked "as if it were a Mac" -- no problems whatsoever.
The end result is a netbook that for all practical purposes _IS_ a "Macintosh".
I had trepidations going into this project that there would be roadblocks and hazards along the way. THERE WERE NONE.
I was more than surprised as to how easy it actually is. I was AMAZED at how easy it actually is.
WAIT! PROBLEMS!
My sister's friend somehow managed to mess with the password in the administrative account I had set up. The password I had initially set up wouldn't work! What to do? I couldn't boot from a "stock" Snow Leopard DVD to reset it.
Hmmm... wait a minute.... I inserted the USB flashdrive with the customized Snow Leopard install DVD on it, restarted the Mini10v using the "one time boot" button (F12). Up pops a screen that looks remarkably like the "startup manager" you get when you boot a "regular Mac" using the option key. I was able to select the USB flashdrive from which to boot. Like booting a regular Mac from the install DVD.
Got to the first installation screen, and used the "reset password" utility to correct the password problem -- just like a "real" Mac!
It's too bad that Dell has discontinued the Mini 10v.
Putting the Mac OS on it was NOT "a hack". No tinkering with drivers, no "editing" of .plists.
It was a "simple installation".
Yes a few "extra steps" were required (preparation of the flashdrive, setting the BIOS, pressing the one-time boot key).
But not much different than doing a "full reinstall" on a regular Mac.
Most of the credit for this goes to one person -- the guy who developed the "Netbook Maker" and "Netbook Installer" prep applications.
Just before Apple put them out of business, Psystar was onto this, too, with something called "RebelEFI".
I think we're going to see more of this to come...
"Are you ready to learn how to patch your DSDT? Learn what kernel extensions you need? Install bootloaders? Figure out what to do when your system kernel panics? Learn to use the command line and single user mode? Maybe (depending on hardware) not have sleep function at all? If yes, then a Hackintosh may be for you"
Hmmm.... anecdotal experience follows.
I've been a Macintosh user EXCLUSIVELY since 1987 (Apple // user before that). Although I've become pretty good with Macs, I know NOTHING about PC's, Windows, etc. And don't want to...
My sister is 50 and up to this point has never used a computer before at all. Her knowledge level is [essentially] ZERO when it comes to personal computing.
But she decided she wanted some kind of a computer. A Mac was too expensive and I wouldn't be able to support or help her if she got a Windowz PC.
So she got a Dell "Mini 10v" netbook.
I browsed around and discovered several resources for putting OS X onto a netbook (Gizmodo's guide is one of the best). I had an 8gig flashdrive available, and it was very basic to copy an image of the Snow Leopard DVD onto it, and then "transmogrify" it into a netbook-compatible version of the OS using a one-click application called "Netbook Maker".
When the Mini 10v came, I unpacked it, plugged in the flashdrive, and then followed some VERY simple instructions to make adjustments in the BIOS. (Aside: until a few days ago, I had no idea what a "BIOS" even _was_, letalone having ever tinkered with one before). Then, rebooted the Mini into OS X using the Snow Leopard install flashdrive.
From that point, the initial installation of the OS was indistinguishable from installing on a Mac - initialize the hard drive, select install options, install.
Once done, I rebooted the Mini once more. The initial bootup was a bit slow, because the customized Snow Leopard flashdrive installs an invisible application called "Netbook Installer" than runs automatically on reboot.
But - after the "behind the scenes" facets of the "first boot" took place, up comes the Snow Leopard "welcome" video. Again, from that point, setup (creating accounts) was indistinguishable from the Mac experience.
Shouting intentional: THERE WAS NO NEED TO INSTALL ANY HACKS OR DRIVERS, or anything additional -- all was incorporated into the Snow Leopard boot flashdrive. All automatic.
I had previously downloaded the 10.6.3 "combo updater" and burned it to a DVD on my iMac. Hooked up an external DVD drive to the Mini, and applied the 10.6.3 update. Rebooted, and again, the invisible "Netbook Installer" took care of everything, automatically making the necessary adjustments to get the Mini 10v "up to" 10.6.3.
I then used Software Update to download and update Safari and a few other things. All worked "as if it were a Mac" -- no problems whatsoever.
The end result is a netbook that for all practical purposes _IS_ a "Macintosh".
I had trepidations going into this project that there would be roadblocks and hazards along the way. THERE WERE NONE.
I was more than surprised as to how easy it actually is. I was AMAZED at how easy it actually is.
WAIT! PROBLEMS!
My sister's friend somehow managed to mess with the password in the administrative account I had set up. The password I had initially set up wouldn't work! What to do? I couldn't boot from a "stock" Snow Leopard DVD to reset it.
Hmmm... wait a minute.... I inserted the USB flashdrive with the customized Snow Leopard install DVD on it, restarted the Mini10v using the "one time boot" button (F12). Up pops a screen that looks remarkably like the "startup manager" you get when you boot a "regular Mac" using the option key. I was able to select the USB flashdrive from which to boot. Like booting a regular Mac from the install DVD.
Got to the first installation screen, and used the "reset password" utility to correct the password problem -- just like a "real" Mac!
It's too bad that Dell has discontinued the Mini 10v.
Putting the Mac OS on it was NOT "a hack". No tinkering with drivers, no "editing" of .plists.
It was a "simple installation".
Yes a few "extra steps" were required (preparation of the flashdrive, setting the BIOS, pressing the one-time boot key).
But not much different than doing a "full reinstall" on a regular Mac.
Most of the credit for this goes to one person -- the guy who developed the "Netbook Maker" and "Netbook Installer" prep applications.
Just before Apple put them out of business, Psystar was onto this, too, with something called "RebelEFI".
I think we're going to see more of this to come...
Yeah, netbookinstaller is a really helpful tool for first-time hackintosh users. It basically does everything for you. Although even a fully "vanilla" install only requires like 2 extra kexts to work perfectly on most older netbooks. SL is remarkably easy to install on a PC, but getting every single component to work perfectly, especially on a notebook, is often just not possible.
At this point and on the 10v its fine, but if you were on the 10v earlier, and applied 10.6.2 when it first came out, it would have broke the install. Of course people figured out how to fix the Atom crippling of 10.6.2 and got it working again, but don't expect trouble free updates, at some point, something new can easily break the 10v, as it does other hackintoshes.
Its a constant struggle on a hackintosh, and you can get close to seamless, but it will never be the same, and its not pleasant going from working one day to broken the next with the next Software Update.
I'm considering a Hackintosh desktop for the sole purpose of running Final Cut Pro. I understand there may be a Mac Pro refresh in the next few months, but I doubt we will see USB 3.0 or internal blu-ray burner.
Couple of questions for anyone who has installed OSX on a windows desktop --
(1) does it become a "dual boot" machine, so that you are still able to boot windows from a separate partition, like using boot camp on a Mac?
(2) would hackintosh OSX 10.6.3 be able to make use of RAM above 8GB?
(3) the PC I would like to use has the following specs - is this even possible or do I need to use an older processor and graphics card in order for OSX to function properly?
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-980X hex-core Extreme Edition [3.33GHz, 1.5MB L2 + 12MB shared L3 cache]
• 24GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [6 DIMMs]
• 1.8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 [2 DVI, HDMI and VGA adapters]
I would ideally be using this with the Buffalo external USB 3.0 12x Blu-Ray Writer (which is imported from Japan and took a little work to get it to function properly with the US version Windows), as well as an external USB 3.0 SSD Raid0
Couple of questions for anyone who has installed OSX on a windows desktop --
(1) does it become a "dual boot" machine, so that you are still able to boot windows from a separate partition, like using boot camp on a Mac?
(2) would hackintosh OSX 10.6.3 be able to make use of RAM above 8GB?
(3) the PC I would like to use has the following specs - is this even possible or do I need to use an older processor and graphics card in order for OSX to function properly?
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-980X hex-core Extreme Edition [3.33GHz, 1.5MB L2 + 12MB shared L3 cache]
• 24GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [6 DIMMs]
• 1.8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 [2 DVI, HDMI and VGA adapters]
I would ideally be using this with the Buffalo external USB 3.0 12x Blu-Ray Writer (which is imported from Japan and took a little work to get it to function properly with the US version Windows), as well as an external USB 3.0 SSD Raid0
I would recommend starting off your build by finding a motherboard that is fully compatible with SL. there are a few of them. Just with that you'll be halfway there. And this is the wrong forum for asking this
google osx86 and you'll find some good info.Mac Pro's are in a biiiiiiiiig need of an update.
For everyone wanting to do this with a notebook. I would recommend doing it only if you find a good FAQ that is being updated on a consistent basis on the model you are looking at. Otherwise it's not really worth it
While you can install two operating systems on the same hard drive, I highly recommend just getting two hard drives, one for each operating system. Makes it all much easier and trouble-free. I'm currently running both OSX 10.6.3 and Win7 Home Premium 64-bit on my PC.
Yes.
The CPU might pose a problem, not sure if the system will support it yet. RAM should be no problem but you have to remember to run OSX in 64-bit mode to get the full benefit. 24 GB does sound rather insane though - are you sure you're not really looking for a server farm?
BluRay won't work, no BluRay support on OSX. Same goes for USB 3.0.
GTX260 will work with either GraphicsEnabler or EFI string, however I wouldn't pick a model that has such excessive amounts of VRAM. You might have to figure out how to create a working EFI string for it and apparently that is not happening with Snow Leopard properly for some reason. I have a GTX260 in my PC and used an EFI string I made when I was still running 10.5.
Judging by your desired specs you probably run some pretty major video editing things and I wouldn't recommend a Hackintosh for that. Just get a Mac Pro.
