Imac vs. Hackintosh

[laserfan]

I have forgotten more about PCs than most people, having built my first in 1976 (an IMSAI 8080 with a then huge RAM complement of 768K--that's right, K, not M, and not G!) and the Hackintosh complexities make my head spin. I'm sure once you get into it, it gets easier, but it seems to me that if you only build One, and have a notion that it's going to run-and-run and you're not going to touch it till it breaks, then when it DOES break (and it will, or will need an update) then you have to re-learn what you did all over again.

Having said all of that, I am about to try to build one myself, more cuz I already have the hardware and Snow Leopard already. And I'm a hobbyist with dozens of computers here, including that IMSAI that I still have, and a few old PowerPC Macs...

But my advice would be, if you want a Mac, buy a Mac. If you want a hobby, build a Hackintosh.

 

[d4d]

Well, after a few month of quiet lurking and constant refreshing of this website and forum, you guys here on this thread convinced me.

I am going the hackintosh route, bye bye waiting for iMac.

The system I have ordered will destroy any end-level iMac Apple can announce and cost about the same as an entry-level one (2560x1440 monitor included).

I just hope it will be silent enough...

 

[mihai.ile]

So you are going to quit now that it seems that it is still some hope for an octomber release?

See the other thread... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1439799/

 

[mslide]

If the new iMac doesn't come out this month i'm seriously considering building myself a killer system following tonymacx86 buyer's guide and i'm wondering if it's worth the extra tinkering.

Like said before, it depends on the hardware you pick and how much time you're willing to spend reading tonymacx86 forums. My hackintosh is 100% stable and I've never had a kernel panic with it. The last Mountain Lion update wasn't an issue at all (my last post said I had to re-setup audio but I was incorrect). I'm very happy with it.

Even with picking exact hardware that's listed in tonymac's buyer's guide, it still wasn't a 100% smooth install. I still had to spend several hours reading threads, because of my graphics card (EVGA 560ti, which is listed in the tony mac buyer's guide). It turned out to be very simple to get everything working but it was a little annoying at the time.

Even if you pick hardware out of tonymac's buyer's guide, look at some 'Golden Builds' that use that hardware to see what you're in for. Regarding the graphics card choice, keep in mind that OSX doesn't necessarily support the latest and greatest. For example, ATI 7xxx cards are out to my knowledge. Read the forums and make sure your hardware is supported.

Once you do figure it out, I recommend the following:
1) Write down the exact steps you have to do to get it 100% right. Re-install a few times if necessary. The more times you re-install, the easier it gets.

2) Get Carbon Copy Cloner and make regular backups of your main OS partition, especially prior to software updates.