Hackintosh?

[Chris Ratledge]

There's a guy in LA named Mike, who posted here a while back and was quickly banned, who builds Hackintoshes and sells them on craigslist. Sometimes MONSTROUS overclocked ones, and He LOADS them up with beefy hardware and I've seen him advertise 3 years of support on systems he builds, and the hardware is covered by individual manufacturers warranties.

He's got a monster for sale on the LA craigslist now. I've never bought from him, but he may be able to answer some more questions.

Hackinstein sale link click here.

 

[Mr_Anderson]

Hackin Who?

Hackin Who?

Did somebody call my name?
EVGA SR-2 / Dual Xeon 12 Cores / 96 GB RAM / 32 TB storage / GTX 470 + GT 240 :sarcasm:
​

 

[Colin Sheldon]

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.

That Mac Pro will not last forever. How long do you realistically plan on using it for? And what will the value of the machine be in 3 or 4 years? Will you get an extra $1000-1500 to make up for the extra you paid? I doubt it.

So what happens when you sell your hackintosh? You slap Windows on it and presto - you have a gaming and/or CS5 system that is perfectly sell able. You're not building a frankenstein system - you're building a high end windows system that happens to be dual bootable.

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.

The hacking community seems to be something that Mac users have a hard time comprehending. There is no shortage of hackers out there, Tonymacx86 just happens to be the current hub. If they go away one (or two or three) will rise up in it's place. It's the way it's always been in the PC world.

Another thing to realize is that once you're system is stable, you don't need Tonymacx86 anymore unless you change your hardware, or if there is a major OS upgrade. So the worst case scenario is that you have 10.6.5 for six months or a year longer than everyone else, and an extra $1k in your pocket.

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... )

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

Every month building a hackintosh becomes simplier, but it isn't simple and it takes a lot of time. It's definitely for specific sorts of users. If the budgets are big, get a mac pro. If the budgets are small look at all the options.

Buying a mac pro is the simplest and safest way hands down and I would recommend it to 90% of the people out there. However, it's not the only option, and once the system is running no one could ever tell the difference. No matter what you buy - do your research and wade through all the misinformation to find what will be right for you.

 

[Rick Burnett]

That Mac Pro will not last forever. How long do you realistically plan on using it for? And what will the value of the machine be in 3 or 4 years? Will you get an extra $1000-1500 to make up for the extra you paid? I doubt it.

So what happens when you sell your hackintosh? You slap Windows on it and presto - you have a gaming and/or CS5 system that is perfectly sell able. You're not building a frankenstein system - you're building a high end windows system that happens to be dual bootable.



The hacking community seems to be something that Mac users have a hard time comprehending. There is no shortage of hackers out there, Tonymacx86 just happens to be the current hub. If they go away one (or two or three) will rise up in it's place. It's the way it's always been in the PC world.

Another thing to realize is that once you're system is stable, you don't need Tonymacx86 anymore unless you change your hardware, or if there is a major OS upgrade. So the worst case scenario is that you have 10.6.5 for six months or a year longer than everyone else, and an extra $1k in your pocket.



Every month building a hackintosh becomes simplier, but it isn't simple and it takes a lot of time. It's definitely for specific sorts of users. If the budgets are big, get a mac pro. If the budgets are small look at all the options.

Buying a mac pro is the simplest and safest way hands down and I would recommend it to 90% of the people out there. However, it's not the only option, and once the system is running no one could ever tell the difference. No matter what you buy - do your research and wade through all the misinformation to find what will be right for you.

I hate to break it to you but Mac Pros retain their value A HUGE AMOUNT more than any PC ever has. In fact, go over to eBay and take a look at how much people still get even for older hardware. I used PCs from the mid 80s till 2003 when I bought my first mac. Every time I upgrade, I sell my old one and use that towards the new one. When the last batch of Macbook Pros came out, it cost me $400 to upgrade and the new machine had 2x RAM and significantly faster processor.

I also sold my G5 after quite a few years and STILL got $1k for it. PCs do not hold their values like that.

My Mac Pro 2006 still sells for $1000 or more which amazes me. Of course, I have not upgraded it because I put in 15G and an 8800GT card and it works great. If I did anything, I'd add a render farm.

I built two Hackintosh systems last year, and a friend built three of them. We bought the parts that were supposed to work but I have to say, both of us experienced A LOT of issues with driver incompatibilities still, changes in the system as things get updated, and even further, some things just refused to work. It was definitely fun to build, but since I use SO MANY applications on a regular basis, and TONS of audio plugins, like 130+, for me it just made sense to go with the mac pro. I also use a Black Magic Intensity pro and an UAD2 audio processing card. I shudder to think how much of a pain it would be for my system to run on a Hackintosh with the trouble I've had at times on a Macintosh!

For me, time is money. Hackintosh is time. It had to go. But I will say, again, they are a lot of fun to play with if you have time.

 

[Vico Martin]

best site to check for the custom-pc mac
http://tonymacx86.com/

cool site Tony. :yesnod:

 

[Colin Sheldon]

I hate to break it to you but Mac Pros retain their value A HUGE AMOUNT more than any PC ever has. In fact, go over to eBay and take a look at how much people still get even for older hardware. I used PCs from the mid 80s till 2003 when I bought my first mac. Every time I upgrade, I sell my old one and use that towards the new one. When the last batch of Macbook Pros came out, it cost me $400 to upgrade and the new machine had 2x RAM and significantly faster processor.

...snip...

For me, time is money. Hackintosh is time. It had to go. But I will say, again, they are a lot of fun to play with if you have time.

As I indicated earlier, if you want a high end system, get a Mac Pro. If you're looking for an upgradeable (and Rocket enabled) 27" iMac with an i7 chipset... Hackintosh starts looking more interesting.

The thousand dollars you save going the hackintosh route more than makes up for any lost resale value.... but you're right, you need to have a lot of spare time on your hands.

The nice thing is that it is getting easier to do, hopefully a year from now it will be as simple as popping in a couple of discs and everything will just work.

 

[Alex Carr]

Its very simple today! These machines open many doors, However I'm not saving any money... But I have machines configured to my specialized needs.

I install 10.6.4 onto a HDD, 100% un-modified. I've adopted the usb bootloader method, One per computer. You never need to install bootloader to EFI partition. I can swap Operating system Hard Drives in a snap, making it a very reliable method in case a hardware failure occurs.