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I want to build a Core i7 hackintosh (help)

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macrumors member
Original poster
May 1, 2008
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I've never built a hackintosh before. I was under the assumption that if you pick the right parts, OSX is as easy as if it were on mac. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Second, I need to know which parts I'm supposed to pick. Which motherboards work well for hackintoshes? Which video cards?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.
 
I just checked out the insanelymac forums and wow, it looks like a complete pain in the ass to do this.
 
Action said:
I just checked out the insanelymac forums and wow, it looks like a complete pain in the ass to do this.
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Yep!

Way as well chuck out the money and get a proper Mac.

A shame the 17" MBP costs as much as it does, but it's ultimately worth it.
 
I already have a 2 year old mbp that's fine as my workstation. I want to build a gaming pc, but I NEED OS X or no deal. I figured it was just a matter of picking out the same chipsets and such and it would be no different than, say, a mac pro.
 
Action said:
I already have a 2 year old mbp that's fine as my workstation. I want to build a gaming pc, but I NEED OS X or no deal. I figured it was just a matter of picking out the same chipsets and such and it would be no different than, say, a mac pro.
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Not quite there are some thorough guides for i7 systems but it still takes some work. The main reason for doing a hackintosh is as a hobby. If you are doing this just to save money, then only do so because the alternative simply is not feasable.
 
Action said:
I've never built a hackintosh before. I was under the assumption that if you pick the right parts, OSX is as easy as if it were on mac. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Second, I need to know which parts I'm supposed to pick. Which motherboards work well for hackintoshes? Which video cards?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Don't Do It! I just went down this path myself because I wanted to build a cheaper 'hack Pro' and it was an ****ing pain in the ass! Big time! Unless you want to spend countless hours searching forums and troubleshooting for basic things like sound Don't do it! Hackintosh's don't "just work" like a real mac does, in fact they're even more trouble than windows.

If you want to save money bite the bullet and get a pc and run windows. If you want to run mac osx take my advice and save your pennies a little longer and get a real mac. Trust me it's worth it! I ended up giving up on my hackintosh and selling it, I lost a lot of time and money in the process and If I had just waited a couple more months I could have easily bought the new i7 imac. I have a 2007 MBP and it works flawlessly. I upgraded the hard drive recently without a hitch. Something a simple as a software update on a hackintosh can crash your system and bring about hours and hours of pain trying to get the effing thing working again!

The whole point of buying a mac is the fact that you don't have to spend countless hours setting it up and configuring to get it working properly! A mac is one set of hardware designed to work properly with one operating system. As I learned from my experience a mac isn't just about the sum of it's parts, it's the whole!
 
Angelo95210 said:
Please keep us informed. I am interested as well, but I feel the same. Seems like something really annoying on a day to day basis.
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It's more than an annoyance, it's a constant chore. If you want to do any real work on your computer don't go down this path. It might be alright for hobbyists but for people who want it for work it's not even worth considering.
 
jayjohnson said:
It's more than an annoyance, it's a constant chore. If you want to do any real work on your computer don't go down this path. It might be alright for hobbyists but for people who want it for work it's not even worth considering.
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That much ? How advanced do you evaluate your geek skills ? I mean DIY, hacking etc. I consider myself as quite advanced and I can imagine some people are just struggling with this...
 
jayjohnson said:
Don't Do It! I just went down this path myself because I wanted to build a cheaper 'hack Pro' and it was an ****ing pain in the ass! Big time! Unless you want to spend countless hours searching forums and troubleshooting for basic things like sound Don't do it! Hackintosh's don't "just work" like a real mac does, in fact they're even more trouble than windows.

If you want to save money bite the bullet and get a pc and run windows. If you want to run mac osx take my advice and save your pennies a little longer and get a real mac. Trust me it's worth it! I ended up giving up on my hackintosh and selling it, I lost a lot of time and money in the process and If I had just waited a couple more months I could have easily bought the new i7 imac. I have a 2007 MBP and it works flawlessly. I upgraded the hard drive recently without a hitch. Something a simple as a software update on a hackintosh can crash your system and bring about hours and hours of pain trying to get the effing thing working again!

The whole point of buying a mac is the fact that you don't have to spend countless hours setting it up and configuring to get it working properly! A mac is one set of hardware designed to work properly with one operating system. As I learned from my experience a mac isn't just about the sum of it's parts, it's the whole!
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wow, the stupidity. please don't consider your lack of brain power as the inability of hackintoshing to be easy. thousands of average joes figure out this stuff everyday, and you may want to question yourself as to why you can not.
 
It is not that hard to build a hackintosh from the ground up. It is much harder to have a PC then one day go "hey I want a hackintosh, lets make it into 1". There plenty of guides on how to build a hackintosh from the the ground up.
 
gothamm said:
wow, the stupidity. please don't consider your lack of brain power as the inability of hackintoshing to be easy. thousands of average joes figure out this stuff everyday, and you may want to question yourself as to why you can not.
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So true. Lifehacker has an easy as pie guide(albeit with a core2quad not an i5 or i7).
 
Action said:
I've never built a hackintosh before. I was under the assumption that if you pick the right parts, OSX is as easy as if it were on mac. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Second, I need to know which parts I'm supposed to pick. Which motherboards work well for hackintoshes? Which video cards?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you are in Europe, buy a ready-made one from www.pearc.de. There are other "Hackintosh"-companies in the world where certain restrictions of Apple's EULA won't apply or are plain and simple illegal by local laws.
 
Winni said:
If you are in Europe, buy a ready-made one from www.pearc.de. There are other "Hackintosh"-companies in the world where certain restrictions of Apple's EULA won't apply or are plain and simple illegal by local laws.
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Yeah, but it's expensive. For a Hackintosh I really think the main point is to go as cheap as possible...
 
Very impressive. Call someone stupid.

Ah, I wondered how long it would take for an ad hominem attack in this thread. Right on schedule. Anyone who has trouble making a hackintosh work must be an idiot. The previous poster just said it was a PITA, which is antithetical to the Mac experience. Apple updates the OS, not taking your brilliance into account, and then you've got to go and re-hack to get everything working.

BB

gothamm said:
wow, the stupidity. please don't consider your lack of brain power as the inability of hackintoshing to be easy. thousands of average joes figure out this stuff everyday, and you may want to question yourself as to why you can not.
Click to expand...
 
gothamm said:
wow, the stupidity. please don't consider your lack of brain power as the inability of hackintoshing to be easy. thousands of average joes figure out this stuff everyday, and you may want to question yourself as to why you can not.
Click to expand...

HEY LISTEN UP! I'm not stupid! I got my system working perfectly! It took a long time to do so but it was working fine in the end. I don't however want to have spend that much time every time I update my system! I use my computer for actual work not effing about tinkering. This path might be alright for amateurs and those that don't have anything better to do with their time, but for professionals who want a real, hassel-free mac experience it's not worth it! Otherwise, as I stated before, you may as well just get windows.

The reason I got rid of my hackintosh was not as you said because of a "lack of brain power". It was because I do not have time to be constantly maintaining my computer just to keep it running. Unlike you I actually have a life and want to use my time productively, not stuffing around with my bloody computer!
 
jayjohnson said:
The reason I got rid of my hackintosh was not as you said because of a "lack of brain power". It was because I do not have time to be constantly maintaining my computer just to keep it running.
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What exactly required constant maintenance? You make it sound like it somehow deteriorated after it was set up. Were there problems with OS updates, application updates, or what?
 
Eric S. said:
What exactly required constant maintenance? You make it sound like it somehow deteriorated after it was set up. Were there problems with OS updates, application updates, or what?
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I'm guessing OS updates. I don't know what I'm talking about though.
 
I've been contemplating building a hackintosh for some time. I've got an MSI Wind that I had OSX on (sent it in for warranty work, so have to reinstall again). I would echo the other comments that building a hackintosh is really for those who love the challenge - which I usually do - but I realized one of my desires for using OSX was in getting rid of compatibility headaches. I just didn't want to have to troll all the forums looking for all the bits/pieces to get and keep the computer running. Also, it seems as if the I7 is still rather new to the community, which spells trouble for someone like me who is not a programmer!

Soooo... ordered a 27" i7 iMac a couple days ago. It was a little hard to do given I could find a similar PC for $1000 (or less, already have a good 24" monitor). I hope I'm happy with my conversion! Although I know I would have loved to build a new PC and get OSX working on it!
 
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