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Mac Pro Build For a Music Producer; Hackintosh?
- Thread starter HelpMcgee
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Great news,
Anyhow got my Hackintosh working OK. Thanks for the help. So a kext hack(AppleGraphicsControl.kext), an older driver (f02), and using GraphicsEnabler=yes
And Im using recommended HW - Gigabyte H87-D3H, i5 4670, GTX570.
Just updated Nvidia Driver to (f04) to see what would happen, and now it boots OK (Go figure)
with just GraphicsEnabler=yes Have changed this in my boot.plist so all is good!
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If you have patience, and a mind for the technical, you can build a hackintosh. It's not for the faint of heart. I built mine in a custom case I built for a rackmount unit. It runs specs with the likes of the top end Mac pros. 32gb ram, I7 Haswell, 8TBstorage, Just saying... I run my entire studio with a
Hackintosh. (control room, 2 sepearate recording rooms, and multiple small boothes. It is my 3rd. You just have to know what you are doing. I have had zero issues, and zero latency. Let your interface run the audio as it was intended to. Most people that shoot down hackintosh's , just don't know how to build them, or have ever used them, and somehow think they have a clue...
But it id definitely not for everyone.
Hackintosh. (control room, 2 sepearate recording rooms, and multiple small boothes. It is my 3rd. You just have to know what you are doing. I have had zero issues, and zero latency. Let your interface run the audio as it was intended to. Most people that shoot down hackintosh's , just don't know how to build them, or have ever used them, and somehow think they have a clue...
But it id definitely not for everyone.
More efficient actually. Depending on the build you make, you can make the cooling work real well and have very low temperatures on your CPU which would also allow you to overclock.
If you install via Chimera, you wont have the ability to run the App Store or Facetime. There are workarounds to this though.
If you install via Clover, App Store and Facetime WILL work.
Installing a Hackintosh is a lot more complicated than Bootcamp.... but, then again, Bootcamp is ridiculously easy, so installing OS X on a PC is somewhat complicated. But if you read up on the forums and watch some tutorials, you'll be fine.
Yes:
http://wccftech.com/thunderbolt-pcie-expansion-card-intel/
You can get MORE power for less, LOL.
I built a Hackintosh with the following specs (prices in Canadian dollars)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White w/ Window Side Panel - $145
CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k - $420
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK - $180
RAM: 32GB Kingston HyperX Fury White 1866mhz (4 sticks @ 8gb each) - $220
Power Supply: Seasonic X650 - $160
GPU: Asus Strix GTX 960 4GB - $305
Storage For Mac OS X: Intel 320 120gb SSD - $0 (taken from my old comp)
Storage For Windows: Western Digital Blue 1TB - $65
Cooler: Phanteks TC14PE - $105
Wifi: TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 - $45
Total Cost: $1,645 CAD / $1,299 USD
Took me two days to get it all put together, installed and get the quirks worked out with the motherboard's BIOS (I was getting freezing issues but that was resolved by turning off C-States in the BIOS).
My current Geekbench score is 18,041 (64 bit multicore) without overclocking. This is roughly the same speed as a 2009 Xserve. The iMac Retina with the same processor scores 16,547 (scores here: https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks)
Why is it's score lower? Because the cooling in the iMac is terrible; it's all crammed together in a small tight package and airflow is dreadful. Because of this, there would be a possibility of it overheating and frying. Thus, Apple's got the 4790k in it actually THROTTLED so it doesn't overheat and thus you get a worse performer, LOL. More confusing is the fact that they put in the 4970k which can be overclocked, but you'll never be able to do so on a Mac anyway, they should have just put in a normal 4970.
My computer runs almost completely silent. The only time I ever hear it is when I'm gaming and even then it's a very low hum. I often have to bring my ear to the case to check and see if the computer is running (though the side panel window makes it very obvious, lol). What's crazy is that I could make it even more quiet as the power supply has the option of running in hybrid mode; fan doesn't turn off until it hits around 20% usage AND I could opt for a non-windowed side panel that includes sound isolation padding. I prefer not to because I really like the window and also prefer to have the power supply running cool thus prolonging its life span. It's already almost completely inaudible anyway, so I'm not bothered. Best of all; it looks pretty sexy in an all white and black build. I don't miss my Mac Pro's cheesegrater case at all.
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If I try to login to the app store, i get this message:
Your device or computer could not be verified. Contact support for assistance.
You'll only find a single CPU of a 2009 Mac Pro for that price IF you're lucky. 2008 Mac Pros still sell for that much. Only the x5690 gets you around 16k geekbench points, but that processor sells for around $250 USD on eBay. A dual processor 2009 Mac Pro will cost over 1k, plus another $500 (minimum) for the x5690 processors.
But you can't ignore the fact that their CPUs run wild hot at 130 watts... two of these will create 260 watts of power consumption. That's more than my 4790k computer at full load in its ENTIRETY. The heat generated from that would drive me nuts and my Dell u2410 24" monitor is already running like a furnace to the point where I need to turn on the A/C in my condo.
If I needed that much power, I'd rather go with an LGA-2011 motherboard and slap a 5690x processor in there; single processor that ranges from a geekbench score of typically 32,000 at 140watts, nearly half that of the Mac Pro. Will run quieter too.
Choices, choices… although you are a tad pessimistic on prices bladerunner (4,1 singles can readily had at $550 and $140 X5860s will work in either dual or single CPU MPs, and get you very close to the GB figures noted), you and lowend llinux make a good point about heat and power use. You didn't mention your better GPU, probably because, for audio, it's not a big deal. Bottom line: life is full of trade-offs. Some would prefer to not deal with a hack. In my case, my MP sits in a studio machine room with its own AC vent, so noise and heat are not an issue. And it just works as a Mac should.