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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Hackintosh?

D

Dwight Hartnett

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I am considering the pros/cons of building a hackintosh to be my dedicated Red Computer (transcoding/data management. Set up with a Redrocket). Has anyone done this? Pitfalls? Advantages?
 
With EFIX, it's pretty simple if you are tech savvy enough. Though you are limited to the hardware that is officially approved by EFIX. Unpredictability when it comes to compatibility and stability, but I generally know people who have good results with EFIX. You're always the last to get a crucial mac OS update, as each update could end you be able to use your computer at all, etc. etc. It's a good low cost solution if you are doing a lot of your own stuff, but IMHO, i wouldn't go that route if you're doing a lot of corporate or high end work. The price of reliability can by high, but is always worth it. (Not pc bashing, but pc and MAC OS is not a bullet proof territory)
 
Dwight Hartnett said:
Pitfalls?
Click to expand...
-Hardware selection tied to available drivers (unless you have time time and knowledge to write your own drivers...)
-Requires more time to setup/maintain than "Remove from box. Plug in. Turn on."
-Warranties depend on the individual parts you purchase - and their customer service.
-Potential for low hardware and software reliability.

Dwight Hartnett said:
Advantages?
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-You can get your hands dirty building a custom computer. Which I think is fun.
-It can be cheaper than an off the shelf Mac.

My personal experiences with "Hackintosh" has been trepidatious. I'd like to have one for personal use/exploration. But if I had to have one computer to run my business from, it wouldn't have "Hack" in the name.
 
For Drivers, Buy Parts that have drivers. I've never had an issue with a motherboard I bought. Because I checked the Chipsets on Audio, ethernet, and Southbridge. Be smart, dont buy some random board. I now use DSDT, So I dont use a Video Driver or Audio Driver and Ethernet usually works out of the box if its a Marvell or Realtek.
Asus, thats my choice. 3 year warranty on any Motherboard. It takes two weeks but they always replace it. I just go buy a new board for $300, and build a new computer when that one shows up.
 
Michael Olsen said:
-Hardware selection tied to available drivers (unless you have time time and knowledge to write your own drivers...)
-Requires more time to setup/maintain than "Remove from box. Plug in. Turn on."
-Warranties depend on the individual parts you purchase - and their customer service.
-Potential for low hardware and software reliability.


-You can get your hands dirty building a custom computer. Which I think is fun.
-It can be cheaper than an off the shelf Mac.

My personal experiences with "Hackintosh" has been trepidatious. I'd like to have one for personal use/exploration. But if I had to have one computer to run my business from, it wouldn't have "Hack" in the name.
Click to expand...
I agree completely, except for the part about being "cheaper than an off-the-shelf Mac". It should read "SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper...", which for many is the tipping point, and worth the extra maintenance and headaches. :)
 
Jaime Vallés said:
I agree completely, except for the part about being "cheaper than an off-the-shelf Mac". It should read "SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper...", which for many is the tipping point, and worth the extra maintenance and headaches. :)
Click to expand...

When they are built for Professional operation they cost as much as typical Workstations. Dual i7 Socket board is $650, 2.8ghz 32nm i7 are $600 each. Your already at $2000 with only 3 parts. Render Nodes become cheaper, they dont need everything that a workstation does.

I never built these because it was a little bit cheaper. Its configurable to your needs, thats why. And you can spend as much money as you like. But you get what you pay for.
 
Would DAVINCI RESOLVE MAC work on a Hackintosh?
Cause in the Requirements, it's said you need a
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Blackmagic Deckling HD Extreme 3D[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Installation[/FONT][FONT=&quot] PCI Express 4 lane, compatible with 4, 8, 16 lane PCI Express slots on Mac OS X™, Windows™ and Linux. Mac OS X™ systems require a Mac Pro computer.

[/FONT]Why would you need a Mac Pro because of the PCI Slots?
 
I'm in the Hackintosh boat and I have to say you must like it rocky for it to be worth the trip. I happen to have more time than money in my hands which is great for Hackintoshes, but I wouldn't even think twice about getting a Mac Pro. They're incredible machines and worth every penny.

That said, back to the Resolve thing... I believe it is possible to run it on a Hackintosh (I'm having a blast with Storm on my Rocket right now). Nevertheless, you'll have to sink in a retarted amount of time in prep and research to find parts that work and will keep working as the updates go.

For sure you'll need the Decklink card, a CUDA capable video card and some more boards (I'm still wrapping my head around it).

What's for sure is that it's a LOT of trouble... but I enjoy trouble mind you. Perhaps you don't. Think hard about it and be honest about your computer skills. I've been putting together and taking apart computers, both in home, server, workstation, and industrial settings, pretty much since I can spell and I think it's asking trouble.

In the end, the prices are lower, but not that much if you go ALL the way to be on par with a Mac Pro. (For example most people don't realise the impact in functionality and cost of ECC memory. Getting a motherboard, cpu and ram that supports ECC will make you computer SOOO much safer for your data but at at least a double of the cost.) That said, one of the main reasons I went hackintosh is the ability to customize a little more than on the Mac Pro. For example my current build sports 7 PCIe 16x slots instead of 4. Pretty handy when you start throwing in two video cards, a capture card, a red rocket and god knows what else... inside a single box. No PCIe expansion. Just a thought.
 
What I wanted was an upgradeable imac... which doesn't exist. So I spent about $1500 on a hackintosh that is an i7 950, GTX 470, 12gb of ram, 12 SATA ports, and 9 drive bays.

It's definitely not as powerful as a mac pro, but it edits red footage in FCP/CS5 just fine and all that money I saved not getting a Mac Pro can go towards a Rocket card.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time playing, and make sure you have a few drives to play with and download a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner.

As for stability, I'd say it's as least as stable as my Macbook Pro.

Updating can be a pain, but updating an editing suite should always be done carefully, and never the first day the patch is released unless you're having real issues.
 
Officially you can buy a Hackintosh in Europe : PearC Superior

Officially you can buy a Hackintosh in Europe : PearC Superior

25_1.jpg

Officially you can buy a Hackintosh in Europe : PearC Superior

Starting from from 2.099,00 EUR...

http://www.pearc.de/products/en/PearC-Superior/PearC-Superior.html
 
if you want 'a hackintosh stable you can do the update as a mac pro without having to change kext then go here http://www.convertit2mac.com/index.cfm , you can talk with buildsmart and give you her CD for installation. The mainboard who must use is the intel DX58SO.
;)
 
richard peterson said:
another option is to go refurbished and get apple care. The time lost in one untimely system fail could be a real bummer.
Click to expand...

Or you spend $50 for a clone of your boot drive. If something happens you swap drives and are up in under 10 minutes.

If you have hardware problems, my experience with Apple care has been mediocre. We had a 17" MBP go down with a failed logic board and it took about 2 weeks to fix it.

Had it been a hackintosh I could have had it up and running in a few hours.
 
I built a few 16 core hackintosh workstations with 48GB RAM, and 48 Terabytes of attached storage. The storage benchmark had an AJA speed test of 1,500MB/s read and 1,100MB/s write.

However, it's a pain getting some drivers to work. Most off the shelf components don't work properly. Sound and Ethernet components are a bit tricky. But there are some quad core boards that worked perfectly. There is usually a list of tested boards and drivers on those sites.

At the end of the day, buying a regular Mac Pro seems to be the best way to go. You might save a few hundred bucks here and there, but the aggravation isn't worth it (Just my opinion).
 
Joseph S. said:
I built a few 16 core hackintosh workstations with 48GB RAM, and 48 Terabytes of attached storage. The storage benchmark had an AJA speed test of 1,500MB/s read and 1,100MB/s write.

However, it's a pain getting some drivers to work. Most off the shelf components don't work properly. Sound and Ethernet components are a bit tricky. But there are some quad core boards that worked perfectly. There is usually a list of tested boards and drivers on those sites.

At the end of the day, buying a regular Mac Pro seems to be the best way to go. You might save a few hundred bucks here and there, but the aggravation isn't worth it (Just my opinion).
Click to expand...

Absolutely. If you're going to go high end, get a Mac Pro. If you're happy with 4 x i7 cores, then you can save a significant percentage.

Ethernet is pretty easy these days. Sound can be a bit tougher. $40 for a USB sound card is the simplest fix.
 
I think people are a little over enthusiastic about hackintoshes. Don't forget about longevity and support. That Mac Pro you buy today (refurbished is a great move by the way) will last nearly forever and will keep excellent resale value. Don't ever dream about that with your hacked together mac-frankenstein.

The day the administrators of Tonymacx86 start having babies, rack up a good contract or happen to live in the wrong state at the wrong time (think hurricane, tornado, economic crisis, name it...) and close up shop... the rug will be pulled under your feet.

I'd never dream of making anyone think building a hackintosh is either easy or smart. It's just NOT. Doubly so if your're using it to earn a living. (But it's fun... :rolleyes: )

When I carry a hackintosh on set, I bring along plan B, C, and D... all ready to fire away.
 
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