[Hackintosh] Help building a fast hackintosh for compiling code

[justanotherspider]

Hi,

I am an iOS developer and I work on large scale Swift projects (> 500,000 LOC). I currently have a 2012 Mac mini based CI setup for preparing and submitting builds, but it is terribly slow and builds take hours (about 10 times slower than my touchbar MBP).

I can't find any Macs offered by Apple at the moment that I feel like upgrading to. Sure the Mac Pro/iMac Pro are fast, but since I will be using these machines as headless servers, I won't be using most of their features. So their cost isn't justified.

What I'm looking for is a headless code compiling machine with a super fast CPU (4-8 cores), 16-32 GB RAM and a SSD (basic SSDs are fine). The machines will not be doing any graphics intensive work and I'm fine with integrated GPUs. The will be running 24x7. Again, the focus is on raw compute power.

As far as my budget is concerned, I'm looking for something cheaper than the current Mac minis. Can anyone recommend me parts for such a machine?

Thank you

 

[Alaska_guy]

I would direct you in the same direction as the other poster above asking about a server. Check out a HP DL360 or DL380 in the gen7 series or some other manufacturer equivalent. Most large companies are on UCS hardware or some other blade type technology and are retiring/phasing out their old hardware for bottom dollar. You can get those for $200-$600 dollars depending on the options. That should fit your budget.

If you get lucky and can get a G8 you will get a much better processor/memory etc. However, they are usually pretty expensive.

You can also check out the DL160 or DL180 series as well. they are usually cheaper with less expansion. I would highly suggest to stay away from anything below G6 as their power consumption is far more and they are a lot less in the computer power department.

Buy a server with the most memory in it as ECC memory isn't cheap.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProLian...076974?hash=item2f0a3a9f6e:g:fEcAAOSwIBJaec3T

 

[BrianBaughn]

Have you checked the "buyer's guide" at Tonymacx86.com?

 

[snogroove]

I've got one working pretty good except bluetooth.

I Use an
--external USB audio interface and
--don't use ethernet. Just use for Logic and FCPX.

Massive Logic mixes don't seem to stress it at all.

Fatal1ty Z370 gaming motherboard, Intel 8th gen 3.7 hex core 8770K,
2666Ghz memory 2x8GB , cooler master 130 elite case, Radeon 560 card forget brand
Dell Wifi card was the hardest to get.
I got liquid cooling but it made assembly harder, I'd get one of the
solid metal passive ones unless you want to game on it.
Parts were about 1500

!-- MUST be a 3XX series not 2xx for 8th generation processor.
I almost bought wrong MB

The hardest parts is the hidden sector on the HD and
--don't use the new file system APFS
--don't upgrade to 10.13.4, stay at 10.13.3,
--cfg BIOS

!--Make SURE not to accidentally run Clover or the Hackingtosh configurators targeting your regular Mac hard drive it cause real SNAFU-- those utilities mutate your boot drive and then your regular mac won't boot from it.