Cost of building a Hackintosh vs. buying a new MP

[Tutor]

Not sure what he's including there, maybe shipping times?

Mine took 5 hours. 1 hour to build 4 to install system and configure stuff.

If you don't like to tweak at all, or you have no free time to do so, or you're drunk from the iOS coolade or you don't want to ponder what's led to the threads of late, this is not for you.

When I started tweaking in the early day (circa 1985), I didn't imagine that I would be where I am today. I started by swapping chips such as clock/timing chips. Later by changing/adding ram, peripheral slot/GPU cards, etc. and each of these discete tasks then took, for me, what seemed like an inordinate amount of time. Now, I can do these things extremely rapidly because I learned the drill. Then I progressed to studying papers published by Motorola, IBM, Intel, Seagate and later AMD and Nvidia about specs and why they believed the specs were important. That exercise took quite some time. Most of that time was spent reading and learning and as I read more what originally appeared to be gobbledegook became informative. Now, the physical act of building a system and getting it to to run stably so that I can install applications takes about 4 hours. What I get done within that time frame would satisfy over 90% of tweakers, i.e., putting together a stable system that's as fast as comparable systems. For many Mac tweakers, the prime advantage of being able to tweak used to be primarily cost driven because the options weren't many. But as time progressed, more and more cost plus more features plus significantly greater system performance began to be very important.

If you like to tweak a little, such as by changing CPUs, ram, pci-e/GPU cards, etc. then you've already begun this journey - now it's just a matter of degree; but your mental state helps determine whether that degree make you feel hot, satisfied or cold. If you're not confident in yourself you're only part way their; but if you're confident in yourself you have only part way to go. The physical process is really the easiest part and you can get to the basic level fairly quickly. Attaining the higher levels is what takes more time. If you like to achieve higher goals - then time flies. Who knows - this may have been your calling. If you strive to achieve the level of master tweaker then it becomes a mission and the time that you spend along the way is never wasted because you have profited more intangibly. Your lion emerges as the sheep in you recedes. No matter what happens externally, like what happened beginning at 10 a.m. PST on June 11, 2012, it does not cause you significant consternation. You will begin to see the parallels/onenesses between tweaking and almost everything else in life. You become more likely to stumble upon those things that may likely have inspired the designers of motherboards, cases, cooling system, CPUs and other components, as well as the more important things of which you need to be aware to not only survive, but to prosper when others all round you see nothing but doom and gloom. Their fears and the objects of their dissatisfactions become your inspirations to take charge of those things in your life that you're confident that you can control and to dismiss worry about those things over which you have no control. So when I ponder the cost of building my own system vs. buying someone else's system, that independence streak in me takes charge and demands that I rephrase the query with "What's the cost of self-sufficiency and whats the cost of reliance?" Now that's a call I can answer. There is no such thing as total self-sufficiency because one has to rely on others for certain essential items. So reliance and self-sufficiency have to be in balance. For me in this matter, they are in balance when mistaken reliance takes a back seat to self-sufficiency. Each one of us has to chart his or her own path, balancing self-sufficiency with reliance, for the short and the long term.

 

[Buffsteria]

I'm typing this on an i7 2700K Hackintosh... the other part of the benefit (for me) is USB 3.0, 12 drive bays, and surplus cash.

Yep, got me a CustoMac Pro too. ;-) Unfortunately I had a software incompatibility that made it so I had to switch to Windows 7 temporarily.

I don't see myself as a Windows user, I'm a temporarily embarrassed Mac user. ;-)

----------

Each one of us has to chart his or her own path, balancing self-sufficiency with reliance, for the short and the long term.

Whoa. Thank you Morph...er, Tutor! That red pill tasted like cherry!

 

[hibernian56]

I now have a ML Hackintosh running after 2 days of tinkering, maybe 4-5 hours a day. Everything wen't pretty smooth.

Its a 4 Core Q6600 2.4 which I build using a salvaged PC (in lieu of a debt) just to prove to myself that it could be done reasonably easy. I must say it's extremely stable, I even have a dual boot Win7 option.

I really won't be scared to launch into a big build now, buying a piece or two every month, the cpu will be the last purchase obviously.

Specs;
Mountain Lion 10.8.1 & Windows 7 (I need it for some CAD software)
Gigabyte GA EP35 DS3
4 Gb DDR2 800mhz (upgrading to faster and 8Gb)
1 x 1000TB (OSX)
2 x 160Gb (Win 7, keep it small for the inevitable reinstall & data drive)
nVidia GT520 1Gb (Twin monitor setup)
Total cost, €700

Geekbench score; 5713

Basically the reason it's so slow is the memory, with decent memory I recon I will get 8000 - 9000 with this machine. When I upgrade the memory it should only have cost me €800 - €900!!! Thats a pretty good bang for my book.

I know its nowhere near MP standards, but for €900 who can complain?

I have used mac's for years, I don;t see the value anymore due to the constant issues I have with some of their hardware. When it goes wrong I find Apple tend to stone wall as opposed to admit an issue.

U;timely their machines are superbly designed, but built in China. 'Nuff said.

 

[flatfoot]

I now have a ML Hackintosh running after 2 days of tinkering, maybe 4-5 hours a day. Everything wen't pretty smooth.

Its a 4 Core Q6600 2.4 which I build using a salvaged PC (in lieu of a debt) just to prove to myself that it could be done reasonably easy. I must say it's extremely stable, I even have a dual boot Win7 option.

I really won't be scared to launch into a big build now, buying a piece or two every month, the cpu will be the last purchase obviously.

Specs;
Mountain Lion 10.8.1 & Windows 7 (I need it for some CAD software)
Gigabyte GA EP35 DS3
4 Gb DDR2 800mhz (upgrading to faster and 8Gb)
1 x 1000TB (OSX)
2 x 160Gb (Win 7, keep it small for the inevitable reinstall & data drive)
nVidia GT520 1Gb (Twin monitor setup)
Total cost, €700

Geekbench score; 5713

Basically the reason it's so slow is the memory, with decent memory I recon I will get 8000 - 9000 with this machine. When I upgrade the memory it should only have cost me €800 - €900!!! Thats a pretty good bang for my book.

I know its nowhere near MP standards, but for €900 who can complain?

I have used mac's for years, I don;t see the value anymore due to the constant issues I have with some of their hardware. When it goes wrong I find Apple tend to stone wall as opposed to admit an issue.

U;timely their machines are superbly designed, but built in China. 'Nuff said.

Instead of putting more money into that build, I'd rather save the money in order to spend it on a Sandy/Ivy Bridge system. Those are even easier to get up and running.

 

[bax2003]

About "mighty" SATA 3......HD's can't even saturate SATA2. Only way to use SATA 3 speeds is with SATA 3 SSD, and even with SSD I prefer seek time speed up, not the raw transfer rate.

 

[Pressure]

How do you price support, stability and reliability?

A 3rd party case manufacturer already said that it would probably cost them $700 to make the Mac Pro case alone.

I always find these comparisons inherently flawed.

Just compare workstation prices from HP, Dell and Apple. If all things are as equal as they can be, the Mac Pro have historically been the cheaper option (besides the current rift that exists now because of older hardware).

 

[MacinJosh]

How do you price support, stability and reliability?

A 3rd party case manufacturer already said that it would probably cost them $700 to make the Mac Pro case alone.

I always find these comparisons inherently flawed.

Just compare workstation prices from HP, Dell and Apple. If all things are as equal as they can be, the Mac Pro have historically been the cheaper option (besides the current rift that exists now because of older hardware).

I made an off-hand attempt at making a Hackintosh out of an older spare system I had lying around. An MSI G41M-P23 + Pentium E6500. Even though it required a fair bit of tinkering, it worked out fine and I'm surprised that it's been going rock solid for 3 days straight now. In other words, stability and reliability seems surprisingly good from my own experience and others here as well.

 

[cytomatrix]

I made an off-hand attempt at making a Hackintosh out of an older spare system I had lying around. An MSI G41M-P23 + Pentium E6500. Even though it required a fair bit of tinkering, it worked out fine and I'm surprised that it's been going rock solid for 3 days straight now. In other words, stability and reliability seems surprisingly good from my own experience and others here as well.

3 days? That's your idea of stable system?

 

[chiefroastbeef]

3 days? That's your idea of stable system?

:d

 

[greenmeanie]

And you don't need lame AppleCare for a frigging warranty.

I'll toss my post in here from another thread:


12-core Xeon Mac Pro: $4,999

Buying parts separately:

2x 6-core Xeons - $1599

ATI Radeon 5770 - $71

8GB 1333MHz ECC DDR3 Ram - $84

Motherboard - $439

1 TB hard drive + Power Unit + Case = ~$400


12-core Xeon Hackintosh: ~$2700.

Time and effort needed to get these parts up and running 100% stable as a hackintosh: 1-10 days.

Warranty: 1-3 years for individual parts.

 

[MacinJosh]

3 days? That's your idea of stable system?

Read again. I was surprised that it was running rock solid for 3 days. And it's four days now and counting. Didn't say it was stable. It *seems* stable based on that and numerous reports on the Internet. Got it?

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Interesting.

One aspect of this debate is ECC vs. non-ECC memory. The i7 doesn't support it, the Zeon does. I am wondering how much of a difference this makes to folks.

ECC is important for hot server environments. Hotter RAM-chips, means more noise in the semiconductors, and more signal errors. Wikipedia says, the problem for larger RAM installations is the background radiation, but i think this is only a small part of the entire story.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Got it?

No. ;-)

 

[lixuelai]

One of the main benefits of getting Hackintosh is that you can overclock. With the latest consumer i7 system you can overclock a quad core Ivy Bridge to around 4.5ghz without too much effort if the other components are of decent quality. An Ivy Bridge at like 4.5GHz is going to compete with most Mac Pros at a far lower cost. The main downside of Hackintosh is risk when OSX gets patched. Usually its fine but you never know.

I had a Hackintosh with an old i7 930 running at 4GHz during college before switching to a Mac Pro 8x 2.93GHz after I graduated. I recently put that i7 machine back together to play GW2 and it does a lot of things faster than my Octo. Was fairly reliable but I admit it was a pain to do OS upgrades since the board I used wasn't very common.

 

[PunkNugget]

One of the main benefits of getting Hackintosh is that you can overclock. With the latest consumer i7 system you can overclock a quad core Ivy Bridge to around 4.5ghz without too much effort if the other components are of decent quality. An Ivy Bridge at like 4.5GHz is going to compete with most Mac Pros at a far lower cost. The main downside of Hackintosh is risk when OSX gets patched. Usually its fine but you never know.

I had a Hackintosh with an old i7 930 running at 4GHz during college before switching to a Mac Pro 8x 2.93GHz after I graduated. I recently put that i7 machine back together to play GW2 and it does a lot of things faster than my Octo. Was fairly reliable but I admit it was a pain to do OS upgrades since the board I used wasn't very common.

I hear you on the update/patches thing. I've learned (and shared) that messing around with that can only cause issues. Also, with minor eye-candy changes on the OS, is it really worth it? IMHO, not really. But aside from that, I would also like to add that there is another BIG benefit to having a Hackintosh OVER a MacPro, which is Underclocking (UC'ing). It's what I consider the "new" Overclocking (OC'ing). If you want to find out more please go here and read the entire thread from beginning to end.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1333421/

Most anyone can benefit from this. Why UC'ing over OC'ing?

1) Cooler CPU (and much cooler workspace, like your office and extends the life of your CPU)
2) More efficient (only uses the power of your CPU when needed)
3) Faster & better performance (it's the "less is more" theory kicked into action; read the thread to understand why)

So far, Tutor has the highest GeekBench score (GBS) around at 40,100 and myself, 36,583. I believe anyone who reads that thread can reach their own personal best, and if you have an EVGA SR-2 setup with X5680's or X5690's, 48GB of 2000MHz RAM and a 4890 OC'd GPU, then with some tweaking you could even surpass GBS's that we have.

Heck there are units that have 3930K, X79 mobos & 32GB of RAM that are getting GBS's of 28,000+! That's pretty amazing using just one 6 core CPU. Imagine UC'ing that type of system and being able to possibly reach GBS's of 30,000+?... That would be amazing!

Lastly the cost:

3930K Hackintosh setup: $1,900+ with a GBS of 28,000+ vs. 2012 Mac Pro (Maxed out) setup: $9,000+ with a GBS of 23,000+?... mmmmm...

 

[twietee]

While highly impressed with all these hackintoshes, I wonder if there is a thread or known max. possible config one could fit into the existing MacPro case with and without modifying the case back?
I already searched but didn't really found any recent 'models'. I know that most of you are 100% interested in content over aesthetics, but if someone could give me a hint where to specifically search, I'd be really thankful as I love the case and it would also give much more possibilities to upgrade once a MacPro is already in posession (e.g. the 6-core 3.33 which is almost non upgradable CPU wise).

 

[PunkNugget]

While highly impressed with all these hackintoshes, I wonder if there is a thread or known max. possible config one could fit into the existing MacPro case with and without modifying the case back?
I already searched but didn't really found any recent 'models'. I know that most of you are 100% interested in content over aesthetics, but if someone could give me a hint where to specifically search, I'd be really thankful as I love the case and it would also give much more possibilities to upgrade once a MacPro is already in posession (e.g. the 6-core 3.33 which is almost non upgradable CPU wise).

When you say "...without modifying the case back?" If I'm understanding you correctly, just gutting out the existing mobo and CPUs and just simply replacing it with regular PC parts (all the while) keeping the same Mac Pro case without having to make any mods in the back of the case? I haven't seen that done... yet. All the others that have existing Mac Pro cases have had to mod some way or another to make everything fit. Although I haven't seen that yet, look at AquaMac's build:

http://www.s155158671.websitehome.co.uk/modifiedg5hackia.html

I mean, you can STILL make this type of system look amazing and even better looking (like what AquaMac put together), but if you look at the back of the unit he had to mod it. I'm just sayin'. Again, I hope I understood you correctly... Later...

 

[twietee]

Thank's punknugget!

Sorry for my expressions, I'm an almost idiot in these things. Yeah you understood right. I thought both could be possible (with and without moddding the caseback) so for me (unexperienced as I am and always will be) a simple motherboard exchange with new CPU and the likes would be easily possible..

BTW That's a beautiful machine aquamac put together, but quite old as well.
With so many mac enthusiasts I thought there would be 'floating' quite a lot of such builds around.

 

[PunkNugget]

Thank's punknugget!

Sorry for my expressions, I'm an almost idiot in these things. Yeah you understood right. I thought both could be possible (with and without moddding the caseback) so for me (unexperienced as I am and always will be) a simple motherboard exchange with new CPU and the likes would be easily possible..

BTW That's a beautiful machine aquamac put together, but quite old as well.
With so many mac enthusiasts I thought there would be 'floating' quite a lot of such builds around.

LOL !!! you're definitely NOT an idiot, just asking questions... Me on the other hand, I ask questions, then (at times) go do my own thing and wonder why it didn't work; as in the case with my SR-2 system. That is until I FINALLY took heed to the correction needed to make my SR-2 finally stable; which it could have been months ago, had I listened to advice to begin with. Anyhoo, if you want to see the build please go here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=277433

Let me know what your thoughts are about the build. Also, to me there are far nicer cases that are out there, like the Silverstone FT02:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242&area=en

that are very Mac Pro like in their appearance, but are far better in their internal cooling abilities, when it comes to the vertical (90˚ turn) on the mobo and positive airflow design and how the fans are orchestrated to make that happen. Plus, you don't have to go crazy trying to fit parts and cutting things as this particular case is roomy and quiet enough. Here's another link that shows you my first build using this case:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods/18983-mac-hak-pro-silverstone-ft02-black-sheep-family-3.html

View the pics on Post #29 & #30. Now me, I like to go against the grain (when I can), that's why I chose the black case, but if you like the Mac Pro, you can get the Aluminum Brushed look with or without the window. Later...

 

[twietee]

... Me on the other hand, I ask questions, then (at times) go do my own thing and wonder why it didn't work...

Haha, at least you know where the failure is within your mehtod...asking questions, following the answers and still fail is far worse (I assume ).

Funny thing is I have a black Silverstone case myself, TJ04! I like it and no windows (glass, not OS).
I look your system up later..

 

[DJenkins]

I'll share my experience just to mix things up a bit. I really recommend researching your hardware very carefully. As tutor said, if you don't have time to learn and tinker around, don't do it at all or at least get anything that hasn't been proven to work before. Even things that are all proven to work on their own may cause problems when mixed together.

My SR-2 machine has been 'in the works' for 3 months now. Firstly ram, then raid cards and firewire cards have been the cause of most problems and even now not everything is fixed yet.

Taking those parts out of the picture, the machine performs better than I hoped, and I guess you could call it somewhat 'stable' for a while.

However I wouldn't call it functional for my needs. Without those components there are key parts of my job I can't do, which is a problem if you are trying to use it for real work.

So all up easily over 250 hours have been spent on this by a few people. Probably more hours actually. And I don't see it working any time soon, I still need to learn a damn lot about pretty much everything, and hopefully track down the right people to help. I never intended to get into this at all, and if you don't have much time to spend on it it can be quite stressful.

I do wonder if the hundred plus hours of my time is worth more than having to wait an extra couple of hours a week total for a real mac to finish rendering.

Also with all this time spent there is extra pressure for this machine to perform better than the new mac pro when it is released next year. If I get this thing working just in time for it to be put to shame by a mac pro I'll probably burn all my possessions and go live on a desert island somewhere.

This story sounds rather dismal and I'm having a big cry but there is an up-side.

Once this is all working, I'll have learned enough to hopefully never buy another Apple machine again.

There is a great amount of help out there, some people are very generous with their time which is amazing. But keep in mind, not everyone is going to have the same hardware as you and might not see your problems straight away, so if you have an ambitious build be prepared for it to take a while!

 

[paulrbeers]

So all up easily over 250 hours have been spent on this by a few people.

And this is why I don't recommend a hackintosh. First off, I have a full time job and work as a consultant for several small to medium sized businesses. My full time job pays me about $40 an hour (+benefits) and my consulting gig pays me about $90-100 (I have a lot of clients because I'm "cheap" apparently). That means that 250 hours of my time is worth anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000! That's anywhere from 2-5 high end Mac Pros! Now in my case, speed really isn't important but having a lot of cores to run virtual machines is, so whether it is a Westmere or Sandy Bridge based Xeon, really doesn't matter to me. Even if all I cared about was rendering, I would consider setting up two Mac Pros (or multiple Mac Mini Servers) and use Compressor in it's distributed encoding mode before I bothered with trying to build a super fast hackintosh. In the end, cost isn't important but my time is.....

 

[DJenkins]

My full time job pays me about $40 an hour (+benefits) and my consulting gig pays me about $90-100

Something I probably should have mentioned as well... I do have a pretty regular job where I use their equipment. Similar to you, I still freelance for some extra cash or when my other job is slow. So going into this I knew if I ran into troubles it just meant my extra work would be on hold, I could still survive ok.

But yes, that many hours invested is a lot no matter who you are or what your time is worth.

There is a certain market I would still recommend hackintosh to.
A business with employees is not one of them, but definitely a freelancer with pc enthusiast tendencies. If you want a single do it all box (running OSX), you simply can't do any better no matter how much you want to pay Apple.

I think I've just had a bad run, there are many guys out there who have been up and running very easily. You just have to be prepared for possible complications.

 

[paulrbeers]

There is a certain market I would still recommend hackintosh to.
A business with employees is not one of them, but definitely a freelancer with pc enthusiast tendencies. If you want a single do it all box (running OSX), you simply can't do any better no matter how much you want to pay Apple.
.

Good point. I agree. I would recommend a hackintosh to someone who has built PC's in the past and only want gaming rigs. Those can just follow the guides at Tonymacx86.com and build a nice Ivy Bridge single processor computer.

 

[PunkNugget]

So all up easily over 250 hours have been spent on this by a few people. Probably more hours actually. And I don't see it working any time soon, I still need to learn a damn lot about pretty much everything, and hopefully track down the right people to help. I never intended to get into this at all, and if you don't have much time to spend on it it can be quite stressful.

As you've been following me (and the other SR-2 Hackintosh owners), I've probably put in more hours than you; mainly because of my own pride of not following advice (thanks again Tutor and BrainDeadFool (BDF) for your patience with me). But NOW all of you have a guide right here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1333421/

Sure it will take time. Why do you think I called it THE HACKINBEAST? Not because it's fast, but also because it was a BEAST to tame. Now, all you have to do is read through the link (provided above), and it can be done faster so you're up and running stable - BUT you MUST follow it if you don't want to face the issues that I went through.

I do wonder if the hundred plus hours of my time is worth more than having to wait an extra couple of hours a week total for a real mac to finish rendering.

For me, it was a Mid-Life thing. I just felt like I HAD to do it (on my off time of course, which is hard to come by). I too have a business and know time constraints. But I'll go into the simple solution later.

Also with all this time spent there is extra pressure for this machine to perform better than the new mac pro when it is released next year. If I get this thing working just in time for it to be put to shame by a mac pro I'll probably burn all my possessions and go live on a desert island somewhere.

LOL !!! I too faced that dilemma, but again, I humbled out and followed the above link as my guide.

This story sounds rather dismal and I'm having a big cry but there is an up-side. Once this is all working, I'll have learned enough to hopefully never buy another Apple machine again.

I too felt the same way, but when I followed the guide and finally did my GB render test, my heart (as foolish as this may sound) was RACING with ANTICIPATION and PRAYING it would stay stable and not lock up... and hit 36,085 !!! Then I did another test (after pushing it a bit further in the BIOS) to see what it could do and received a GB of 36,563 !!! Sure I can push it further, but why? I already reached my goal of being the second fastest Mac OS X system recorded on GB (with Tutor's and BDF's guidance), so to me I climbed my K2 mountain and can now say - been there done that... and on to something else. Everyone has their own K2 out there and mine was this BEAST.

There is a great amount of help out there, some people are very generous with their time which is amazing. But keep in mind, not everyone is going to have the same hardware as you and might not see your problems straight away, so if you have an ambitious build be prepared for it to take a while!

Again, I couldn't have done the last part of my build without the help of Tutor and BDF, but again, you NOW have that same help... just follow the guide...

And this is why I don't recommend a hackintosh. First off, I have a full time job and work as a consultant for several small to medium sized businesses. My full time job pays me about $40 an hour (+benefits) and my consulting gig pays me about $90-100 (I have a lot of clients because I'm "cheap" apparently). That means that 250 hours of my time is worth anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000! That's anywhere from 2-5 high end Mac Pros! Now in my case, speed really isn't important but having a lot of cores to run virtual machines is, so whether it is a Westmere or Sandy Bridge based Xeon, really doesn't matter to me. Even if all I cared about was rendering, I would consider setting up two Mac Pros (or multiple Mac Mini Servers) and use Compressor in it's distributed encoding mode before I bothered with trying to build a super fast hackintosh. In the end, cost isn't important but my time is.....

I agree with you to a point. As I said before I have a business and need to spend time on it. I would agree that using the current SR-2 setup would set you back when it comes to time and it would not be worth it, but I do have a easier solution. You can do what I did; build a reliable Hackintosh that you can use as your work station and then on your off time (if this would be something that you like to do as a personal project), build your BEAST.

There is a certain market I would still recommend hackintosh to. A business with employees is not one of them,

I wouldn't say that, since we're not the only ones on this forum. So I'm sure some businesses may have done that. Heck even if you didn't OC or UC the SR-2, if you have X5680's or X5690's, you'll reach stock GB scores of 28,000+. Also, the SR-2 Hackie has been around for 2 years now, so this isn't a new machine, but it IS the most powerful Dual CPU setup available for Mac OS X... for now (even with the new release of the price gouging 2012 Mac Pros). Sure that's not "supposed" to happen, but again, I'm sure businesses are doing it.

If you want a single do it all box (running OSX), you simply can't do any better no matter how much you want to pay Apple.

That, I couldn't agree with you more on...

Good point. I agree. I would recommend a hackintosh to someone who has built PC's in the past and only want gaming rigs. Those can just follow the guides at Tonymacx86.com and build a nice Ivy Bridge single processor computer.

To address this comment, I do have a solution for PaulRBeers (PRB), that's IF you're willing to build your own simple system. Here's the simple break down in parts for an older, reliable, but still fast system and is the one I have been currently using while I was working on my SR-2 setup:

- Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 (ver1 or ver2) - $200 to $250 (they're still around and can find one on ebay used)
- Xeon W3680 (exact same CPU as the 980X but much cheaper) - $500
- 12GB of Corsair Dominator 1600 MHz RAM (CMP12GX3M3A1600C9) - $100
- XFX HD-687X-CNFC Radeon HD 6870 2GB GPU - $190
- CORSAIR HX Series HX1050 1050W - $195
- OWC 120 SSD - $170
- Corsair H80 or H100 (all in one water cooling CPU block) - $100
- Mid to Full sized PC case of your choice (or course I would recommend the Silverstone FT02) - $150 - $200

Buy Mac OS X Mountain Lion on the Apple App store, then make sure you use a Non-Distros easy (step by step) install method, Kakewalk was the easiest and most reliable method and still is for this setup IMHO.

I think I've just had a bad run, there are many guys out there who have been up and running very easily. You just have to be prepared for possible complications.[/QUOTE]

Tops, you'll be spending just little over $1,600 for a very reliable system that will get you a GB of over 18,300+ once you PM me I'll give you the BIOS settings to get you there.

Heck you can now get 28,000+ GB scores with the newer Ivy Bridge Hackintoshes (if you follow TonyMacX86's install method) by just getting a 3930K CPU, X79 mobo and 32GB of 2133 MHz of RAM (and the rest of what I have on the buyers list above) for total of around $2,000 and you'll have a system that is just as easy, reliable and just as fast as a stock SR-2 system and you don't need to wait for the "new" price gouging Mac Pros. Also, if you're looking for RAID support, then look no further than here (I have one of these and it's fast):

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/PCIe/OWC/Mercury_Accelsior/RAID

Since you ALREADY have a Mac Pro PRB, then you could easily build one of these simple units on some of your off time instead of building THE SR-2 BEAST. It all depends on what you want and are willing to do to get there to make it happen. I can say that with my W3680 (as with the 3930K) setup that I've been using now for over a year that it's a reliable unit as well as many others out there that will agree you have similar setups. Not saying that you can't run into a glitch with maybe a stick of RAM that fails or something like that. But that's easy enough to return and replace for free. Again, on your off time you can make that happen. It's ONLY when you don't follow the directions (when it comes to installing), that's when you can run into problems. Hope this helps, later...

= THE HACKINBEAST = EVGA SR-2/2xX5690's/Sapphire 4890 2GB GPU/48GB Mushkin 2000MHz RAM/LEPA G1600 PSU/Silverstone TJ11 Case (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/ind...owtopic=277433)
Geekbench Score: 36,583 / Cinebench 11.5: OpenGL: 50.63 fps, CPU: 22.55 pts