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Mac Pro-like Hackintosh Guide, $900 (Lifehacker)

Looks like this is the way I'm going to go. I was hoping that sometime around the SL rollout Apple would finally offer an affordable i7 quad core tower for maybe a couple of hundred more than a comparable PC i7.

Ain't gonna happen and I'm not paying $2,400 for a single quad Mac Pro with 3GB, 640GB and an Nvidia 130. :mad:

I can build a New Egg 12GB, 1TB, 280 1Gb, i7 AND get a Nikon D90 for that price. :eek:
 
I've being trying to decide whether or not to buy a Mac Pro or build a hackintosh for the last few months. I got a great summer job which just ended and I earned more than enough for university and still have an extra $2500 to spend. I don't know if I should spent $2500 on a Mac Pro, or $900 on a hackintosh. Is the few problems I'll have going to cost me $1600 in pain? Probably not. Hard choice :(
 
Cave Man said:
This is really old news. Several of us have been running quad core hackintoshes for more than a year. The only difference here is Snow Leopard, which isn't all that challenging to install.
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I have 10.5.8 running in my Hack Pro, I was wondering if I could just pop in my SL DVD and do an upgrade? :D

I don't think it's that easy, though
 
NathanCH said:
I've being trying to decide whether or not to buy a Mac Pro or build a hackintosh for the last few months. I got a great summer job which just ended and I earned more than enough for university and still have an extra $2500 to spend. I don't know if I should spent $2500 on a Mac Pro, or $900 on a hackintosh. Is the few problems I'll have going to cost me $1600 in pain? Probably not. Hard choice :(
Click to expand...

All depends on what you want to do with it!

If i was a younger dude still going to school, I'd probably build a hackintosh. 10 years ago my main machine was a Linux box built with throwaway parts, with a custom built kernel. I even remember installing OpenStep 4.2 and Rhapsody (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_(operating_system) ) ... so in a sense I *did* go the hackintosh route back in those days, a decade before hackintosh was even a word. :)

Nowadays I'm a bit older, less patient with my hardware/software (everything has to "just work"), and I rely on my computer for work - so the Mac Pro was a no brainer.
 
Bubba Satori said:
Looks like this is the way I'm going to go. I was hoping that sometime around the SL rollout Apple would finally offer an affordable i7 quad core tower for maybe a couple of hundred more than a comparable PC i7.

Ain't gonna happen and I'm not paying $2,400 for a single quad Mac Pro with 3GB, 640GB and an Nvidia 130. :mad:

I can build a New Egg 12GB, 1TB, 280 1Gb, i7 AND get a Nikon D90 for that price. :eek:
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, what was making you hope this? It's not really the way  rolls.
 
pastrychef said:
Is the recommended case/power supply quiet? Would it be as quiet as the Mac Pros are? Thanks.
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I've not heard a Mac Pro on it's own, but it's very easy to make a silent PC. Especially if you don't want to overclock, the main components are the Power Supply, CPU cooler and Case fans.

Generally the way I've found it, is that the cheaper you go the louder it will be. Where as the more money you spend on a silent PSU such as a Corsair PSU and a Thermalright 120 CPU cooler you will end up with a near silent PC.

There's plenty of guides on the next on how to make your PC more silent, you would just need to apply one of those to your build.
 
pastrychef said:
Is the recommended case/power supply quiet? Would it be as quiet as the Mac Pros are? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Good point/question.... one of the (many) things I love about my MP is that it is silent compared to any of the gaming rigs that I used to build and upgrade. That said, I think cases and quiet cooling have probably come alone some since the last custom PC I built for myself back in '07.

I recently bought an i7 system from a fellow member (for a friend) and he says it is VERY quiet, but again relative to his circa 2004 gaming rig.

If it were possible to build an i7 system with full functionality as a Hackintosh I'd probably consider it and even did with the system I picked up here on MR, but not sure if the latest X58 chipset is fully supported, etc etc. The MP is definitely not cheap, but it's also a different class of hardware... server grade xeon procs/chipset etc. This has been discussed to death here, but comparing a Mac Pro to a gaming machine is not an apples to apples comparison (no pun intended). That is unless one built up their gaming rig with workstation class dual socket xeon's, etc... And then the price gap is pretty close. The higher end Dell Precision workstations compare well with the MP architecturally and those can easily exceed the cost of a Mac Pro.... ;)
 
Last week I ordered the following:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L
OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB)
XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB
LG DVD Burner Black
Arctic Silver 5
Firewire PCI Express Card

It will be here Wednesday to replace my 1.66CD Mac Mini, It's also going inside of a modded G5 case, so it can sit next to my Mac Pro with pride! Oh.. and not to mention it's going to be water-cooled!

:D

ANdrew
 
Maybe a good case for it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112072
pcv1000bplus2_main.jpg


I like that it's black.. the Anti-Mac Pro. :eek:
 
TheStrudel said:
Out of curiosity, what was making you hope this? It's not really the way  rolls.
Click to expand...

For warranty purposes mostly. I'm going to give it another month or so before I order my parts. By then the new i5 cpus will be out and be an even better deal than the i7 systems.
 
I've been through one too many hackint0shs and its not worth it. It always feels like a broken mac. I'd rather just run windows 7 on the pc.

There is NO substitution for the real deal. :D
 
Bubba Satori said:
I can build a New Egg 12GB, 1TB, 280 1Gb, i7 AND get a Nikon D90 for that price. :eek:
Click to expand...
I think your intention of going the i5 is probably a good idea. :)

Though it only runs dual channel, it's still fast enough for most software (memory bandwidth). That will almost certianly be limited to 4x DIMM slots, so you'd have to live with 8GB, assuming you plan on using 2GB sticks. Hyper Threading isn't worth anything ATM, and is best disabled anyway. ;)

Just be careful of "buyers remorse", as the cost difference between this part and the i7's isn't that much. What I'm not sure of yet, is the cost of the boards (not seen prices). :confused:

Performance link. ;)
 
So... How much is it to build a hackintosh to the Octo-core MacPro's specification with the same workstation X5400 CPU's?

I can't imagine it'll be much cheaper, or economical. Anyone fancy a go?
 
UltraNEO* said:
So... How much is it to build a hackintosh to the Octo-core MacPro's specification with the same workstation X5400 CPU's?

I can't imagine it'll be much cheaper, or economical. Anyone fancy a go?
Click to expand...
The pair of E5462's will still set you back $1700USD. The board would add another $370USD.

Now if you're willing to use a SkullTrail or Z7S WS board (Over Clock), and run CPU's with the 1333MHz FSB, it could be done cheaper. ;)
 
nanofrog said:
The pair of E5462's will still set you back $1700USD. The board would add another $370USD.

Now if you're willing to use a SkullTrail or Z7S WS board (Over Clock), and run CPU's with the 1333MHz FSB, it could be done cheaper. ;)
Click to expand...

Me? I'm happy with my genuine Apple MacPro m8 :)
Six internal HD's, a internal MO plus internal Blu-Ray and 20Gb ram and there's still space for more! And it's all deadly silent...


I wonder how those hackintosh sound...:rolleyes:
 
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