I admit to knowing next to nothing about what is involved in hacking a PC to run OSX. However, with many folks here threatening to jump ship, and with all the talk about building hackintoshes, I'm wondering what (other than the cost, which I assume would be higher than that of a build-it-yourself hackintosh) would prevent someone from hacking the genuine Dell or HP workstation to run OSX. I can see some benefit to getting a system-wide warranty that these machines come with.
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Can an HP or Dell workstation be hacked to run OSX?
- Thread starter akadmon
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It's not too difficult to build one yourself. I have one. It just scored 12086 on the 32 bit geekbench which seems low but I only spent $1144.
The Hack is a serious option now.
Since Apple have decided to throw the smallest fish they could to the Pro community this year, a Hackintosh is looking like a worthwhile investment. At least until they get off their huge pile of iToy revenues and start releasing a real replacement next year.
An i5 powered PC tower can reach 15000 scores in Geekbench using a full 64 bit test and could cost as little as $800 to build with all the right bits in.
Only the lack of dual CPU support lets these bargain basement builds down.
With support for decent Nvidia cards now available in OS X a purpose built i7 tower with a GTX580 in it could be much more cost effective than the "new" Mac Pro.
Sandybridge i5 vs. 2008 Mac Pro
Since Apple have decided to throw the smallest fish they could to the Pro community this year, a Hackintosh is looking like a worthwhile investment. At least until they get off their huge pile of iToy revenues and start releasing a real replacement next year.
An i5 powered PC tower can reach 15000 scores in Geekbench using a full 64 bit test and could cost as little as $800 to build with all the right bits in.
Only the lack of dual CPU support lets these bargain basement builds down.
With support for decent Nvidia cards now available in OS X a purpose built i7 tower with a GTX580 in it could be much more cost effective than the "new" Mac Pro.
Sandybridge i5 vs. 2008 Mac Pro
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Heres mine:
i7 2700K (220)
GA-Z77-DS3 MB (120)
Corsair H60 (80)
16GB 1866 Corsair Vengence (32GB Max on SNB)(110)
Corsair CX 600 Power Supply (70)
Gigabyte 6850 OC (149)
2 Optiarc DVD (44)
1 Optiarc Blu Ray (92)
Corsair Carbide 300r (74)
2 140mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle in the Front (28)
2 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eage SE push/pull on the Rad. (30)
Obviously that doesn't include drives and cards..right now it's at 4.2Ghz and is Geekbenching right at 16,000.
The computer is virually silent, silent enough the waterpump is what all you hear it's far quieter than my MP or G5.
It's a nice computer but thats really it, I'm not passionate about it like my Macs..
If you don't need ECC RAM and such a hack is probably the way to go but keep in mind right now you still need a modified kernal to run Ivy..
i7 2700K (220)
GA-Z77-DS3 MB (120)
Corsair H60 (80)
16GB 1866 Corsair Vengence (32GB Max on SNB)(110)
Corsair CX 600 Power Supply (70)
Gigabyte 6850 OC (149)
2 Optiarc DVD (44)
1 Optiarc Blu Ray (92)
Corsair Carbide 300r (74)
2 140mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle in the Front (28)
2 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eage SE push/pull on the Rad. (30)
Obviously that doesn't include drives and cards..right now it's at 4.2Ghz and is Geekbenching right at 16,000.
The computer is virually silent, silent enough the waterpump is what all you hear it's far quieter than my MP or G5.
It's a nice computer but thats really it, I'm not passionate about it like my Macs..
If you don't need ECC RAM and such a hack is probably the way to go but keep in mind right now you still need a modified kernal to run Ivy..
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Mine is more modest.
CPU: Intel Core i7-2700K 3.5 GHz LGA 1155 Processor BX80623I72700K
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6870 2GB
SSD: 120GB OCZ Nocti Series SATA 3Gb/s
Storage: 2TB Seagate 7200 RPM
Case: Corsair 400R
RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3
PSU: Corsair 750watt
It was my first build and I love it, it dual boots Windows 7 and Mac OS X. Cost me $1144.
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Was?? Wie hast du dass gemacht? How? I didn't think of overclocking mine, I don't know if my motherboard can do that.
CPU: Intel Core i7-2700K 3.5 GHz LGA 1155 Processor BX80623I72700K
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6870 2GB
SSD: 120GB OCZ Nocti Series SATA 3Gb/s
Storage: 2TB Seagate 7200 RPM
Case: Corsair 400R
RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3
PSU: Corsair 750watt
It was my first build and I love it, it dual boots Windows 7 and Mac OS X. Cost me $1144.
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Was?? Wie hast du dass gemacht? How? I didn't think of overclocking mine, I don't know if my motherboard can do that.
I was thinking about this a while back, but the price you state there almost tempts me to build one as a stop-gap until next year...BUT...I'm guessing no Thunderbolt right?
It can..My last board was a P67, I was a 4.7 with 1.365v Vcore 17,000 and some change Geekbench..but after 10.7.4 I had to add to and Recompile MacMan's SSDT to keep it at 4.7. I hit 18,000 at 5Ghz but running prime95 sent it into the high 80's and I'm not down with killing the CPU. Remeber change the turbo multipliers not the blck..I think your build is a bit better than mine
..but mine does exacly what I want it to do transcode and author DVD'sI think Asus has a TB board coming out this month.
It can..My last board was a P67, I was a 4.7 with 1.365v Vcore 17,000 and some change Geekbench..but after 10.7.4 I had to add to and Recompile MacMan's SSDT to keep it at 4.7. I hit 18,000 at 5Ghz but running prime95 sent it into the high 80's and I'm not down with killing the CPU. Remeber change the turbo multipliers not the blck..I think your build is a bit better than mine
I need to read more about this, sounds sehr interessant!
http://macmanx86.blogspot.in/2012/05/customizing-ssdt-power-management.html
Vielen dank!
Multibeast 4.5.2 has an SSDT that will allow 4.2 start with that..it's easy peezey..
So, no answer to the original question ? What would it take to get OS X running on a Dell or HP box ?
You can't know until you know what equipment. Thats the point we were giving examples of equipment. If it were me I'd want to know if the dell warranty applies if you have OSX installed. If not then there really insn't a justification to buy.
insanelymac has threads where members discuss how they have done this. People have been doing this for years. OP nailed the upside. The downside is that you're stuck with the factory speeds, but for the Sandy Bridge E5s, this is a more or less a moot point because Intel locked them down so tightly that tweakers can at best expect a 5-7% performance increase.
"I'm gonna buy a bunch of parts of NewEgg" is a much harder sell in institutions than "I'm going to buy a Dell". Which is something the "You're better off building your own" argument seems to ignore, even when talking about the concept of a Hackintosh in a professional setting.
But you don't use hackintosh in a professional setting because they violate Apples EULA..
If you use your computer to make money it better have,
a: Warranty
b: Legitimate software with manufacturers support.
"Hackintosh in a professional setting" is a big can of worms. Installing the OS on non Apple hardware violates the users license. Not a great thing for a business to do. It's not as simple as tossing the install disk in a pc and going from there. Especially since they don't distribute OS x on disk any more.
Dale
Dale
From a technical standpoint, it's probably doable. But as mentioned, the specific hardware will matter. Which is why the specific machine would need to be examined carefully (by both it's model number, and likely by the specific boards it contains) on hackintosh sites, such as those already listed.
For example, even if the main board won't be an issue, it may have a GPU card/s that don't have OSX drivers. In such a case, it won't work, thus requiring a different GPU to be sourced that does work under OSX (may not have a model offered by the vendor that would work under OSX).
As per warranty, Dell or HP should honor the hardware (enterprise customers do customize, including other OS's, such as Linux). But there would not be any software support whatsoever (either from the system vendor or Apple).
Then there's the potential issues with the EULA in OSX (never been challenged directly in court; that direction was avoided by Apple in Apple v. Psystar IIRC, going after them for copyright instead). For an individual, or if the OP owns the company interested in doing this, then it's his/her decision.
So for larger entities, they usually just won't take that chance due to potential legal issues and lack of software support.
The reason I asked the question is because a lot of you here have threatened to jump ship to the Windows side, which prompted me to ask "why not hack a PC?". Most of the people who responded so far have totally missed the point of this thread. Yes I know, you're proud of your Hackintosh, I know that is the least expensive way to go. But I still don't understand why hacking a PC is harder than building a Hackintosh. Someone said that the video card may not have the right driver. OK, so why not just buy a card that does! What else?
There are certain motherboards that work well in a Hackintosh. New Gigabyte motherboards work well with OS X native power management. You can sleep and wake up, something that not all motherboards will do in a Hackintosh build. Only realtek audio chipsets are well supported, and not all PC motherboards use realtek chipsets. So I guess the answer to your question is that in order to build a well supported Hackintosh, choosing parts individually is the best course, because you know that all those parts have been tried and tested. You could probably get a brand name PC to run OS X, but you may not be able to get all the little things working, and you have no guarantees that it is possible for it to work.
the main area of concern is the machines motherboard and chipset, things like video card, sound and networking can be easily overcome inexpensively.
Many Video card are compatible with Hackintosh, Sound can be overcome by using a supported USB sound device. A PCIe networking card that work out of the box in OSX can be had for $15.
Many Video card are compatible with Hackintosh, Sound can be overcome by using a supported USB sound device. A PCIe networking card that work out of the box in OSX can be had for $15.
In simple terms, because the PC vendors tend to use odd collections of of things (USB3.0, audio, NICs, etc.) that can be pretty difficult to get running correctly if they're not already supported in OSX.
Typically, those hacks are done by people (myself included) who simply have hardware on hand and have a go at it.
It's much easier to build a system *exactly* how you'd like it and with known working parts from the start.
Hey Akadmon, I haven't jumped ship (yet) when it come to using Mac OS X. Main reason? Because all my main apps that I have run on Mac OS X and not Windows. Plus Windows really is not my type of "eye-candy." Also, the satisfaction of doing it on your own is great outlet of expressing your creativity and great hobby with a workable machine that dominates any Mac Pro (MP) that's currently out there (or has been out there for the past 2 years; and from the looks of it with the "new" MP's for the next year or two from now the SR-2 setup is still better all around) If you want, you can check one of my builds here:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=1227850&mpage=1#1227850
Looking at the first pics on the top of that post (with the Silverstone FT02 PC case) was my very first build. I was a MP buyer/user for 15+ years. I jumped ship because why spend $10,750 at the time (18 months ago); now it's $9,850. Still not much of a savings with the "new" MP's that are now out. Even still, the MP's were getting only GeekBench Scores (GBS) of no more than 24,000+. Spending $10,000+ for that kind of power; why? Even a 19 year old guy (found here):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rzxDAL_bwOo
can put together a sick build for $1,200 that can perform close to the same speeds at a fraction of the cost. Heck, my original Mac Hack Pro is still getting over GBS of 18,800+ and that's off one CPU. The current SR-2 setup that I have is getting 32,000+ and now I'm Underclocking. If you follow Tutor's way of setting up your CPUs you can reach scores close to (or even more) than his (40,000+).
My thought is, if you want the same dual CPU power (as you'd find with a Dell workstation) why not go with an SR-2 setup with two X5680's or X5690's (found here):
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=277433
and go here to Underclock (NOT overclocking) your system to get the maximum out of those CPUs. Tutor is an amazing teacher and has mastered UNDERCLOCKING here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1333421/
Whatever it is you choose I wish you the best... Hope this helps, later...
You laired to Apple CEO and then u deny that u did that and now u want to hack Apple OS, what next?
Do you still think that somebody respect u here? better just go and register a new account here on the forrum and then pretend
that you are not and never was "akadmon" because you know that nobody wants to speak with you or help you anymore.
p.s. Tim Cook does not want to even respond to your email so do not wait for it, because he does not like lairs and this thread should be locked.