Selling my iMac and going the Hackintosh route?

[MagicThief83]

Hackintoshes are immensely easy to build and maintain these days. You also get the peace of mind of being able to upgrade your components quite easily... so long as you are using OS X friendly-components.

You will have to familiarize yourself with updating drivers and occasionally editing kext files... but if you stick to using strictly Mac-friendly parts, there is a lot less maintenance. I'm quite happy with my Hackintosh. 10.8.4 added native driver support for the Titan GTX and I just upgraded to a 27" IPS display.

Awesome! Nice to hear a positive experience lol. Yeah I've done a lot of research and know enough now as far as the right components and what applications I must run, in addition to boot loading and kext editing.

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After running a stable hackintosh since mid 2011. I'm doing the opposite and looking forward to moving to a mini.

Just curious as to why you are doing this? And why a mini lol? Although I admit, I was thinking about picking up a mini and using it as my "real" mac/media server.

 

[\-V-/]

Awesome! Nice to hear a positive experience lol. Yeah I've done a lot of research and know enough now as far as the right components and what applications I must run, in addition to boot loading and kext editing.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/section/295-customac.html

This should help immensely.

Also, everything I did to get my Hackintosh running came from that site. The only troublesome part was building the PC, honestly (and that was the fun part for me). The rest was cake. The only drivers I had to install were sound and USB 3.0. My wireless and graphics cards worked out of the box.

 

[MagicThief83]

http://www.tonymacx86.com/section/295-customac.html

This should help immensely.

Also, everything I did to get my Hackintosh running came from that site. The only troublesome part was building the PC, honestly (and that was the fun part for me). The rest was cake. The only drivers I had to install were sound and USB 3.0. My wireless and graphics cards worked out of the box.

What wireless card and GPU did you use?

I'm going to use the TP-LINK Wireless and the NVIDIA GTX 770 GPU.

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I also used that website as a point of reference

 

[garnerx]

I've been running a Hackintosh for about five months now, it's by far the best computer I've ever used.

Motherboard is the Gigabyte UD5H - no Thunderbolt or wireless but I never use that stuff anyway. CPU is i7 3770K at 4GHz, GPU is a GTX 670.

The bootloader is great. I set it so it boots to the options screen so I have to press the arrow keys to choose OSX or Windows 8 - you can set it to default to one or the other, but I find I use them about 50-50. Each OS has its own SSD, and starts up in about 10 seconds.

I've also loaded it with other hard drives, so I've got one storage drive for each OS and a big Time Machine backup drive. Even with all that, there are still unused SATA and USB headers for future expansion, the option to add another 16GB of RAM, a lot of headroom to increase the overclock, and the ability to swap out the GPU or get a second one for SLI in Windows - stuff I couldn't have done with an iMac, and most of it not even with a Mac Pro.

I've never had to tinker with it beyond the initial afternoon it took to install OS X. Getting Windows working was actually harder.

 

[MagicThief83]

I actually based my build off the tonymac86x 2013 guide, with some minor modifications to my liking, but the parts are fully compatible and will definitely blow any Apple system today out of the water! It's going to be hard parting with the iMac because I waited a long time for it and love the machine, BUT, I'm really looking forward to building this Hack, and I want it to be a build that's going to last me for quite sometime (> 4 years) without having to worry about updating or underperformance.

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Seriously, I even did a spec comparison between my build and a similarly configured Mac Pro in the Apple store, the Mac Pro with a similar (but still inferior specs) configuration would've cost me close to $4000 (and mind you, this was even with an educational discount applied) and that's not even including a monitor! That's just insane!

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Speaking of which...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1592907/

 

[mslide]

I used to think Hackintosh's were just as good as the real thing also but they're not. I've done the hackintosh thing several times over the years and got them to work on all sorts of hardware from tonymac builds to Dell laptops. Sure, getting non-Apple hardware to boot OSX is pretty straight forward these days. It's getting all the nice-to-have features and bells and whistles working that I just got tired of. Even something simple like getting dual-monitors to work (even with a GPU listed in tonymac's builds) can be really annoying. I also got tired of stupid things breaking after software updates.

Hackintosh's are still just a hobby, IMO. I grew tired of the fiddling that is required. Despite what some say, they are not 'set it and forget it' nor will they ever be. If you are OK with that, then that's fine. They can be a lot of fun if you're into that sort of thing. However, one shouldn't be fooled into thinking that they can always be a valid substitute for a real Mac.

In the end, I turned my last Hackintosh, that used popular components on tonymac, into a Windows gaming PC and went back to using a real Mac (new 13" MBP) for everything else.

 

[\-V-/]

What wireless card and GPU did you use?

I'm going to use the TP-LINK Wireless and the NVIDIA GTX 770 GPU.

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I also used that website as a point of reference

I'm also using the TP-Link card. I don't know if that GPU is supported on OS X. I'm currently using the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB card, but I'm upgrading to the GTX Titan since it's been confirmed as working out of the box with the recent 10.8.4 update. Going with the Titan for its lower power consumption and high performance.

 

[Beaverman3001]

You bought a iMac with a slow drive and low end GPU then complain about them, not sure what you were anticipating. You might want to reevaluate why you even want a Mac.

 

[MagicThief83]

I'm also using the TP-Link card. I don't know if that GPU is supported on OS X. I'm currently using the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB card, but I'm upgrading to the GTX Titan since it's been confirmed as working out of the box with the recent 10.8.4 update. Going with the Titan for its lower power consumption and high performance.

It is supported as several threads on Tony Mac have confirmed support with OSX 10.8.3/4.

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http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-hardware-discussion/100440-geforce-gtx-770-works.html

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You bought a iMac with a slow drive and low end GPU then complain about them, not sure what you were anticipating. You might want to reevaluate why you even want a Mac.

You might want to re-evaluate your post and why you're here...you sound ridiculous.

 

[collinmac]

Are updates a lot more stable now? I know in the past, every update changed something, had to do a reinstall, or one piece of hardware stopped working.

i've been interested in Hackintoshs for a while, dabbled with my old dell 17" laptop a few years ago with 10.6 and could just not get it to work properly.

I'd be interested in a low-cost build in the near future, but I just love Apple hardware, the form and function is incredible.

 

[MagicThief83]

Are updates a lot more stable now? I know in the past, every update changed something, had to do a reinstall, or one piece of hardware stopped working.

i've been interested in Hackintoshs for a while, dabbled with my old dell 17" laptop a few years ago with 10.6 and could just not get it to work properly.

I'd be interested in a low-cost build in the near future, but I just love Apple hardware, the form and function is incredible.

Updates are A LOT more stable now, especially since a lot of compatible hardware and Intel chipsets are supported by OSX 10.8 natively. Some updates causes minor problems like loss of audio, which simply involves reapplication of kexts and that's it, you're done. Problems are certainly possibly, but working through them have become far less arduous. Just do the research on your build of interest, compatibility, and installation procedures, and you should be golden!

 

[\-V-/]

It is supported as several threads on Tony Mac have confirmed support with OSX 10.8.3/4.

Cool. Well then by all means.

 

[MagicThief83]

Cool. Well then by all means.

Getting the cart ready!

 

[\-V-/]

Getting the cart ready!

Just be sure wherever you get the parts has a good return policy. Dead on Arrival components is the worst thing that can happen during a build. I've only had it happen once... and it was a motherboard... but it sucks... lol.

 

[MagicThief83]

Just be sure wherever you get the parts has a good return policy. Dead on Arrival components is the worst thing that can happen during a build. I've only had it happen once... and it was a motherboard... but it sucks... lol.

Ordering from newegg?

 

[\-V-/]

Ordering from newegg?

They're usually pretty good. The RMA process can take a while, though... so if you are not patient... make sure you have the dough to get another component right away in the event that bad joojoo happens.

 

[MagicThief83]

They're usually pretty good. The RMA process can take a while, though... so if you are not patient... make sure you have the dough to get another component right away in the event that bad joojoo happens.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

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Order placed!

 

[\-V-/]

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

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Order placed!

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Arfdog]

But, I can upgrade all of these components at a later time making the initial investment a better value with less depreciation over time since I can pull it apart as needed.

I think you'll find the "investment" proposition favors real Macs. Macs lose much less value than any custom PC or OEM PC for that matter.

 

[Spartanator]

I think you'll find the "investment" proposition favors real Macs. Macs lose much less value than any custom PC or OEM PC for that matter.

Exactly. Mac owners, for the most part, tend to take care of their Macs and when it's time to sell, you'll get more for it vs a PC from the same timeframe.

Maybe 5-10 years ago, I would have been all about going the Hackintosh route. Nowadays, I just don't have the time to fool around with that kinda stuff. I just need to turn it on and work. I put in entirely too many hours at work to fool around with my computer when I get home.

To those that do it and do it well, I say enjoy the Hackintosh and build away.

 

[garnerx]

Exactly. Mac owners, for the most part, tend to take care of their Macs and when it's time to sell, you'll get more for it vs a PC from the same timeframe.

Maybe 5-10 years ago, I would have been all about going the Hackintosh route. Nowadays, I just don't have the time to fool around with that kinda stuff. I just need to turn it on and work. I put in entirely too many hours at work to fool around with my computer when I get home.

Honestly, it's not that bad. I got it up and running on day one and I've barely had to do anything since. The only noticeable 'quirk' is that the audio output doesn't automatically switch when I plug in headphones.

Regarding Macs retaining their value, I'm not so sure that's relevant. The best thing about a hybrid PC/Hackintosh is that you could keep it up to date by upgrading various parts as required, rather than having to buy a whole new one.

 

[alvindarkness]

I can say my hackintosh is every bit as, if not more, stable than my 15" MBP. Updates not a problem either, cant remember the last time I had to do anything apart from run the combo updater and/or software update and thats it. I dont think twice about it - just like my real mac.

The trick is simply choosing the right hardware - hardware that is inherently hassle free in osx. Some gigabyte boards like the UD5H mentioned above, and kepler based graphics cards (like the gtx6xx and gtx770) also mentioned above make life easy.

Go for it and enjoy amazing OSX performance, along with gaming (under windows) the way it should be.

 

[leman]

[/COLOR]Seriously, I even did a spec comparison between my build and a similarly configured Mac Pro in the Apple store, the Mac Pro with a similar (but still inferior specs) configuration would've cost me close to $4000 (and mind you, this was even with an educational discount applied) and that's not even including a monitor! That's just insane!

Well, the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in a while, and then, it uses workstation mainboards and CPUs (which cost more then the 'regular' ones).

 

[themcfly]

I was very tempted to build one myself: the biggest reason was to have a properly gaming machine, with the same money of a top of the line iMac you could get an Haswell gaming rig with GTX780 and 27" 1440p IPS monitor from LG. I just love pure performance.

But also considering the love I have for a simple, clean desktop, and the ability of the iMac to stay incredibly cool and quiet (the reasons that brought me to choose it in the first place) I decided to stick with it. I'll re-evaluate it when BF4 comes out. =)

 

[garnerx]

The trick is simply choosing the right hardware - hardware that is inherently hassle free in osx. Some gigabyte boards like the UD5H mentioned above, and kepler based graphics cards (like the gtx6xx and gtx770) also mentioned above make life easy.

The Gigabyte boards are definitely the ones to go for. They make those things with Hackintosh users in mind, and the latest revisions require minimal setup.