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New Mac or Hackintosh PC?

N

Necross

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 31, 2011
131
33
I really want to switch back to the Mac OS for my home system, which is mostly used for web & graphic design and light video editing. All Adobe apps. Problem is, I can't really afford a new mac. I have a budget of $1000 (but would like to spend much less). I could get the mini with just the i7 upgrade, and then possibly upgrade the RAM later on.

then I started thinking about installing Mac OS on my PC.. total wipe of the hard drive, not a dual boot kind of thing. For around $600, I could upgrade my motherboard and CPU to a 9th gen intel i7-9700k (currently has a 6th gen cpu), and keep my current 32 gb of ram and nvidia 1070 video card, 1 TB SSD and everything else.

Just curious, are there issues with installing Mac OS that would make it not run good? or just die on me one day for no reason? I don't want tons of headaches, I like to have a system that just works when I need it.

I'd like to have a legit real mac, but I feel like I can get more power under the hood for almost half the price if I just upgrade the PC and switch the OS. So I'm kinda torn. Is it easy to install the OS or is it a really technical project? I looked at some sites and videos, seems like something I can handle but if something goes wrong I probably won't know how to troubleshoot it. Is it worth doing, or should I just suck it up and get the mini?
 
Necross said:
Just curious, are there issues with installing Mac OS that would make it not run good? or just die on me one day for no reason? I don't want tons of headaches, I like to have a system that just works when I need it.
Click to expand...

Then hackintosh is not the way to go. It can be relatively easy with the right hardware but it can also go wrong. There is a good community that can help you but besides that you're on your own with your issues.

Necross said:
I'd like to have a legit real mac, but I feel like I can get more power under the hood for almost half the price if I just upgrade the PC and switch the OS. So I'm kinda torn. Is it easy to install the OS or is it a really technical project? I looked at some sites and videos, seems like something I can handle but if something goes wrong I probably won't know how to troubleshoot it. Is it worth doing, or should I just suck it up and get the mini?
Click to expand...

Definitely true, you can get a really powerful machine for a lot less. You seem to be already aware of the pros and cons.

Why don't you want to dual boot? I think it would be the best thing to do right now. Buy a small SSD and install macOS on it before you upgrade your machine. If you think it's too much trouble then you didn't spend much money and can buy the mini. You might realize it's easy for you and then you can upgrade your PC and reinstall macOS. Make sure you buy compatible hardware.
 
The budget is not enough for a new Mac. How about getting a used Mac? I just bought an 15' rMBP 2015 (i7+ 16G RAM + 256 SSD) for only $1100.
 
It's "easy" to hackintosh if you have the right parts, but not everything will work 100% as expected all the time, there will eventually be updates that require tinkering / fixing, waiting on updates, and this will definitely consume time and take research. APFS will always be slower on hackintosh, handoff can be really finicky, other little tradeoffs. You should probably at least mildly enjoy puzzles or you will be frustrated. I run one genuine and one hack.

Also, notably, your 1070 (and almost all nvidia cards) will not work on Mojave, and Nvidia has no real timeline for drivers on Mojave. They seem to be in a mini war with apple about the drivers.
 
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Necross said:
I really want to switch back to the Mac OS for my home system, which is mostly used for web & graphic design and light video editing. All Adobe apps. Problem is, I can't really afford a new mac. I have a budget of $1000 (but would like to spend much less). I could get the mini with just the i7 upgrade, and then possibly upgrade the RAM later on.

then I started thinking about installing Mac OS on my PC.. total wipe of the hard drive, not a dual boot kind of thing. For around $600, I could upgrade my motherboard and CPU to a 9th gen intel i7-9700k (currently has a 6th gen cpu), and keep my current 32 gb of ram and nvidia 1070 video card, 1 TB SSD and everything else.

Just curious, are there issues with installing Mac OS that would make it not run good? or just die on me one day for no reason? I don't want tons of headaches, I like to have a system that just works when I need it.

I'd like to have a legit real mac, but I feel like I can get more power under the hood for almost half the price if I just upgrade the PC and switch the OS. So I'm kinda torn. Is it easy to install the OS or is it a really technical project? I looked at some sites and videos, seems like something I can handle but if something goes wrong I probably won't know how to troubleshoot it. Is it worth doing, or should I just suck it up and get the mini?
Click to expand...

I am highly against use a Hsckintosh as your main working Mac. I did that a few years ago purely for academic reason. Is it possible? Yes. Is it reliable? No. No matter what part you get, how close the parts are to a real Mac, it's just never the same for many reasons. If you have the unlimited time to fiddle with a hack, go for it.

Unlike the urban myth, Mac is more expensive, that is not true. By the time you gather all parts for a hack, it is not cheap. Do you just want a Mac to do your work, chances are you don't necessarily need to get the state-of-the-art Mac. You don't need all the bells and whistles Apple thinks you need. Go to places like ebay, Ali... you can usually get a second hand Mac, not too old one or two models before the newest, you can find reasonable Mac. If you already have your own monitor, keyboard etc. Don't overlook the Mac mini.

When get a real Mac, that saves you a lot of time and aggravations in fiddling around with a hack, well worth it.
 
Jack Neill wrote:
"Been through 10.12 --> 14.2.
Rock Solid."

Tell us about your hardware setup.
I'd like to know!
 
rich1812 said:
Unlike the urban myth, Mac is more expensive, that is not true. By the time you gather all parts for a hack, it is not cheap. Do you just want a Mac to do your work, chances are you don't necessarily need to get the state-of-the-art Mac. You don't need all the bells and whistles Apple thinks you need. Go to places like ebay, Ali... you can usually get a second hand Mac, not too old one or two models before the newest, you can find reasonable Mac. If you already have your own monitor, keyboard etc. Don't overlook the Mac mini.
Click to expand...

Macs are a lot more expensive than Hackintoshes, purely from a hardware standpoint. You have so much more control over your hardware needs (bells and whistles) and can easily build a more powerful computer for often half the price of what Apple offers. Hackintosh itself is not even the cheapest route for a computer you assembled yourself, because you are limited in the hardware selection.
 
Necross said:
I really want to switch back to the Mac OS for my home system, which is mostly used for web & graphic design and light video editing. All Adobe apps. Problem is, I can't really afford a new mac. I have a budget of $1000 (but would like to spend much less). I could get the mini with just the i7 upgrade, and then possibly upgrade the RAM later on.

then I started thinking about installing Mac OS on my PC.. total wipe of the hard drive, not a dual boot kind of thing. For around $600, I could upgrade my motherboard and CPU to a 9th gen intel i7-9700k (currently has a 6th gen cpu), and keep my current 32 gb of ram and nvidia 1070 video card, 1 TB SSD and everything else.

Just curious, are there issues with installing Mac OS that would make it not run good? or just die on me one day for no reason? I don't want tons of headaches, I like to have a system that just works when I need it.

I'd like to have a legit real mac, but I feel like I can get more power under the hood for almost half the price if I just upgrade the PC and switch the OS. So I'm kinda torn. Is it easy to install the OS or is it a really technical project? I looked at some sites and videos, seems like something I can handle but if something goes wrong I probably won't know how to troubleshoot it. Is it worth doing, or should I just suck it up and get the mini?
Click to expand...

A PC with Hackintosh is hard and complicated to get going, and then keeping it updated is even more of a pain. I personally would just buy a Mac. That's what I did after selling my i9-9900k system.
 
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