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Mac Pro-like Hackintosh Guide, $900 (Lifehacker)

UltraNEO* said:
Me? I'm happy with my genuine Apple MacPro m8 🙂
Six internal HD's, a internal MO plus internal Blu-Ray and 20Gb ram and there's still space for more! And it's all deadly silent...


I wonder how those hackintosh sound...🙄
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Mine's not a hackintosh. Yet. But it's not really loud. Fans are 20dbA, save graphics, which I don't run hard. But it took effort and planning.

I'm still thinking about some rework for temps (see other thread). Not terrible by any means, but I know it could be better. 😉
 
UltraNEO* said:
So... How much is it to build a hackintosh to the Octo-core MacPro's specification with the same workstation X5400 CPU's?

I can't imagine it'll be much cheaper, or economical. Anyone fancy a go?
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That's why "nobody" builds an Octo Hackintosh, it's the missing xMac we all build ourselves.

NathanCH said:
...
I don't know if I should spent $2500 on a Mac Pro, or $900 on a hackintosh. Is the few problems I'll have going to cost me $1600 in pain? Probably not. Hard choice 🙁
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I really like my Hack it is fast and stable, but i will probably leave it on 10.5.8 i'm a bit fed up with tinkering with this machine after every OSX upgrade. I will probably get a MacPro in 2010 or 2011, enough time for saving up some money.
 
Donar said:
That's why "nobody" builds an Octo Hackintosh, it's the missing xMac we all build ourselves.
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There's always some fool out there who want a MacPro but their bank manager isn't so keen... So for that reason, I'm wondering How much one might cost, IF they built it as a hackintosh.
 
For those of you on hackintoshes, how much trouble are they to keep running?

Are they stable?

Do you need to read the osx86/insanleymac forums before every update?

Should I be worried?

I'm thinking about a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P/E9650/GTX 260 build. Thoughts?
 
nice walkthrough. i recently got an i7 pc to go along with my mac pro. i might just do this one day. we'll see
 
UltraNEO* said:
Me? I'm happy with my genuine Apple MacPro m8 🙂
Six internal HD's, a internal MO plus internal Blu-Ray and 20Gb ram and there's still space for more! And it's all deadly silent...


I wonder how those hackintosh sound...🙄
Click to expand...

I'm curious to which Bluray drive you're running… I'm looking to use Bluray to archive my media and files, but I'm not sure to which burner to pick.
 
snakesqzns said:
For those of you on hackintoshes, how much trouble are they to keep running?

Do you need to read the osx86/insanleymac forums before every update?
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It's no trouble to keep it running at it is. But upgrading will mostly break sleep. You have to do upgrades from a second partition or bootable Harddrive. I for myself clone my working install to a second harddrive install upgrades to this drive. Replace the drives (replacable frames) reboot - look out if all is working properly.

Most likely some of the problems i had in the past will not re occur as there are better tools out now than some time ago e.g. custom .kext can be placed in an extra folder where they will not be overwritten by every OSX upgrade.
snakesqzns said:
Are they stable?
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Unless you bought defective parts or overclocked too much, yes. And no you shouldn't be worried.

This is the right place to ask such questions. Link
 
alphaod said:
I'm curious to which Bluray drive you're running… I'm looking to use Bluray to archive my media and files, but I'm not sure to which burner to pick.
Click to expand...

Panasonic 8X, model LF-PB371JD
It's a couple years old now, brought it from Japan but it's still rockin'!! 🙂
 
snakesqzns said:
For those of you on hackintoshes, how much trouble are they to keep running?

Are they stable?

Do you need to read the osx86/insanleymac forums before every update?

Should I be worried?

I'm thinking about a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P/E9650/GTX 260 build. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

i jave spent many hrs fixing mine and have had to do countless installs. kernel panics are annoying, as are sound issues, as areusb issues, as are optical drive issues, sleep/restart issues, etc

every update is a pita usually and yes, you want to read insanely mac before to learn if there are any issues

its such a pita that i am having a hard time justifying installing SL when i could just stay at the latest leopard (that i have perfect) with no more updates to worry about
 
I've just bought my parts for a hackintosh, I spent nearly £350, but for that I got a Quad Core 2.83, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB HDD, Mobo, Case and 500W PSU and Im using my old X1900XTX as they dont have any problems, drivers readily availble, might get a 4890 when they get cheap this Xmas.

So, I'm thinking about getting a copy of Mac OS X, where can I get a legal copy from? I've looked at eBay but dont feel too good about ordering it from there.

Any ideas?

HamzaB
 
hamzab said:
I've just bought my parts for a hackintosh, I spent nearly £350, but for that I got a Quad Core 2.83, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB HDD, Mobo, Case and 500W PSU and Im using my old X1900XTX as they dont have any problems, drivers readily availble, might get a 4890 when they get cheap this Xmas.

So, I'm thinking about getting a copy of Mac OS X, where can I get a legal copy from? I've looked at eBay but dont feel too good about ordering it from there.

Any ideas?

HamzaB
Click to expand...
amazon
newegg
ebay
craigs
apple
bestbuy


theres a billion places
 
It's all very well that I could have bought a near mac like build for half the price of my Mac Pro.

Would I want to **** around whenever an update arrives, or whatever? No.

I turn it on, do my work, turn it off again. It works, every time (bar some things which i've fixed now).

You buy a Mac because you can't be bothered messing around and for me my Macbook Pro, Mac Pro, iPhone 3GS and Airport Extreme do what they say on the tin. Work. Everytime. Apple support is second to none, book a time, walk in, problem sorted there and then.

I used to build my own computers, but now I don't have the time or inclination to mess around. So I landed £2k on a Mac Pro and half the time it sits there doing nothing, but when I need it my god do I love it.

The old saying applies, you get what you pay for. Anyone thinking of hackintoshing, my advise is don't bother if you like an easy life.
 
dukebound85 said:
i jave spent many hrs fixing mine and have had to do countless installs. kernel panics are annoying, as are sound issues, as areusb issues, as are optical drive issues, sleep/restart issues, etc

every update is a pita usually and yes, you want to read insanely mac before to learn if there are any issues

its such a pita that i am having a hard time justifying installing SL when i could just stay at the latest leopard (that i have perfect) with no more updates to worry about
Click to expand...

Sounds like you put together a poor build, maybe upgrading to better supported parts would ease your troubles?

Concorde Rules said:
It's all very well that I could have bought a near mac like build for half the price of my Mac Pro.

Would I want to **** around whenever an update arrives, or whatever? No.

I turn it on, do my work, turn it off again. It works, every time (bar some things which i've fixed now).

You buy a Mac because you can't be bothered messing around and for me my Macbook Pro, Mac Pro, iPhone 3GS and Airport Extreme do what they say on the tin. Work. Everytime. Apple support is second to none, book a time, walk in, problem sorted there and then.

I used to build my own computers, but now I don't have the time or inclination to mess around. So I landed £2k on a Mac Pro and half the time it sits there doing nothing, but when I need it my god do I love it.

The old saying applies, you get what you pay for. Anyone thinking of hackintoshing, my advise is don't bother if you like an easy life.
Click to expand...

That's not necessarily true, if you buy components that are 100% supported your troubles will be very limited, personally I scoured the internet for the most compatible parts and got those, it all depends on what you purchase. And did it for under $600, but I just purchased a high-end water cooling kit so that bumped it up to around $850, but either way it will run circles around the 1.66CD Mac Mini it's replacing, and it's definitely worth it even if I have to tinker with it a bit to get everything just right. I could not justify paying another $2500+ for a Mac Pro to be a home server, and that's exactly what I need, a headless home server, and the Mini's will no longer cut it. Hackintoshing is for a specific set of people with a specific set of needs, I needed a Quad Core machine for under $600 that ran OS X, be it made by Apple, or by me it didn't matter.

Andrew
 
I run a hackintosh with a Q9450 overclocked, 8GB RAM, P5Q Deluxe, GTX 260. Everything works. I use a EMU-0404 sound card as my original sound card does not work in OSX (Auzentech X-Meridian). The onboard works but it is rather crappy. Really can't tell the difference stability wise compared to my MBP. I install updates fine. Only system updates do I make a backup before installing and usually that is fine as well. Jumping to Snow Leopard though might be a bit of a hassel. I am waiting for some guides to be posted that is specific to my motherboard.

p.s. I have the Lian Li V1000b and the floppy bezel is removable. Lian Li makes the best looking PC cases other than maybe Windy which is extremely hard to find outside of Japan.
 
lixuelai said:
I run a hackintosh with a Q9450 overclocked, 8GB RAM, P5Q Deluxe, GTX 260. Everything works. I use a EMU-0404 sound card as my original sound card does not work in OSX (Auzentech X-Meridian). The onboard works but it is rather crappy. Really can't tell the difference stability wise compared to my MBP. I install updates fine. Only system updates do I make a backup before installing and usually that is fine as well. Jumping to Snow Leopard though might be a bit of a hassel. I am waiting for some guides to be posted that is specific to my motherboard.

p.s. I have the Lian Li V1000b and the floppy bezel is removable. Lian Li makes the best looking PC cases other than maybe Windy which is extremely hard to find outside of Japan.
Click to expand...

Which mother board do you have and how long have you been running this system? Also, do you know how EFI strings work? Are they just something you type into the bios?
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Good point/question.... one of the (many) things I love about my MP is that it is silent compared to any of the gaming rigs that I used to build and upgrade. That said, I think cases and quiet cooling have probably come alone some since the last custom PC I built for myself back in '07.

I recently bought an i7 system from a fellow member (for a friend) and he says it is VERY quiet, but again relative to his circa 2004 gaming rig.

If it were possible to build an i7 system with full functionality as a Hackintosh I'd probably consider it and even did with the system I picked up here on MR, but not sure if the latest X58 chipset is fully supported, etc etc. The MP is definitely not cheap, but it's also a different class of hardware... server grade xeon procs/chipset etc. This has been discussed to death here, but comparing a Mac Pro to a gaming machine is not an apples to apples comparison (no pun intended). That is unless one built up their gaming rig with workstation class dual socket xeon's, etc... And then the price gap is pretty close. The higher end Dell Precision workstations compare well with the MP architecturally and those can easily exceed the cost of a Mac Pro.... 😉
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Yeah my custom gaming pc in a heavy antec case with silent parts built for $1800 became loud after 6 months.

Macs stay silent compare to PCs.
 
Consultant said:
Yeah my custom gaming pc in a heavy antec case with silent parts built for $1800 became loud after 6 months.

Macs stay silent compare to PCs.
Click to expand...

Right, Apple uses only magical ethereal fans made from mithril and the blood of a 1000 martyred pixies. Their screams are forever consumed in the process by the great gaping maw of Wozniak, The Silencer.
 
UltraNEO* said:
There's always some fool out there who want a MacPro but their bank manager isn't so keen... So for that reason, I'm wondering How much one might cost, IF they built it as a hackintosh.
Click to expand...

There are no big savings to be found building a dual socket hackintosh when looking at retail prices. Which is probably there is no community support for dual socket boards (that I've seen anyway). Even if you can save a few hundred on each processor and reuse some components a used or refurb Mac Pro will still probably be a better option.
 
snakesqzns said:
Which mother board do you have and how long have you been running this system? Also, do you know how EFI strings work? Are they just something you type into the bios?
Click to expand...

I have the Asus P5Q Deluxe. EFI string goes into boot.plist, not into the bios. I don't use it on my desktop anyway. I do need it on my netbook however.
 
Umbongo said:
There are no big savings to be found building a dual socket hackintosh when looking at retail prices. Which is probably there is no community support for dual socket boards (that I've seen anyway). Even if you can save a few hundred on each processor and reuse some components a used or refurb Mac Pro will still probably be a better option.
Click to expand...
If one was willing to use 1333MHz FSB (667MHz memory) parts and an OC capable board (either an Intel SkullTrail or ASUS Z7S WS, assuming you can find the later), it might. I've not checked the details (done the math).

But if one wanted to do it with Harpertowns or Gainestown, not happening. The used/refurb market for '08's is still cheaper, and Gainestown DP isn't inexpensive either. Perhaps on par at best. (No OC capable board to make better use of CPU capability/make it less expensive in terms of performance on the market ATM). I've looked. 🙁
 
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