The Hackintosh Thread

MacCheetah3 · Jan 16, 2020

NOTNlCE said:
I've been doing this stuff for years and wouldn't move back to Apple hardware simply because I'm not a fan of what they've moved toward in the company. (Low repairability, soldered SSDs, Butterfly keyboard, etc.)

I certainly won't disagree with that complaint. It forces a person to purchase a machine probably at least twice what they currently need to have any real longevity usage (which, of course, means a somewhat unreasonable higher upfront cost). Add to that the Apple exec's (under Cook) decision to up their premium -- it's gotten to the verge of insane -- and there's now a huge fee to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

With that said, many other companies are going along with this disposable gadget mindset i.e., consumers are willing/prefer to buy a completely new unit every 1-3 years. My 1.5-year-old HP laptop has no user-friendly upgradeable internal components. The RAM and SSD technically are upgradeable, but it's a huge pain to execute.

NOTNlCE said:
Hope that helps!

Flint Ironstag · Jan 16, 2020

MacCheetah3 said:
I know this is a beginner/noob inquiry, but I'm curious from those who've done a lot on this topic.

Background:

I have a seven-year-old Mac and even though it's doing okay, not great but sufficient, I feel I'm nearing an upgrade point. I do occasional small/medium graphics work, occasional video conversions, typical Web, email and so forth tasks, but also will be getting into software development (iOS, maybe Apple TV and macOS, plus Android, though that will probably be on a different machine).

Closing in on the point:

I've been looking at the new Mac mini and MacBook Pro 16" and the configs I feel most comfortable with investing would cost about $2,300 - $3,000. With this price tag, I have looked into custom PC builds -- which I've done in the past having Windows OS -- or a Hackintosh Razor Blade Stealth.

To the point:

I've looked over guides and other resources for assembling a Hackintosh, but they seem very tedious, clumsy and no guarantees. I'm not opposed to putting in time and effort, though there's an extent that's not worthwhile. So, then I thought, "Maybe I could simply create a mac VM on my Windows 10 laptop." Well, from my first attempt, it doesn't seem any less cumbersome than what I've read for the actual Hackintosh -- not extremely surprising, although, a little because it's interpolated hardware.

I don't use Windows as the main OS in part because I don't want to do half a dozen steps and endless troubleshooting to make hardware or software function as intended.

THE QUESTION:

Is a Hackintosh (in any form) truly worthwhile or is the financial cost savings just transformed into extraneous work, i.e., ends up being a wash or loss eventually anyway?

I am currently experimenting with bare metal virtualization of MacOS on HP Z840. So far this seems like the way to go. Have a professional set it up for you, and make sure your snapshots are current. I'll do a writeup of the whole process at some point, but I have zero complaints so far. Z840 suits me very well, and so do the multiple Z820s running 100% for the last year or 2.

NOTNlCE · Jan 16, 2020

Flint Ironstag said:
I am currently experimenting with bare metal virtualization of MacOS on HP Z840. So far this seems like the way to go. Have a professional set it up for you, and make sure your snapshots are current. I'll do a writeup of the whole process at some point, but I have zero complaints so far. Z840 suits me very well, and so do the multiple Z820s running 100% for the last year or 2.

QEMU emulation with graphics passthrough for macOS has come a long way in the past few years. I haven't done it personally but if I had just one tower to do everything this is probably the way I'd go.

TheZb · Jan 16, 2020

Has anyone tried building a hackintosh for live audio/gigging? I'm interested in running Ableton with the capabilities of CoreAudio at low DPC, but I'm not sure if it's possible on a hackintosh.

TheStork · Jan 16, 2020

TheZb said:
Has anyone tried building a hackintosh for live audio/gigging? I'm interested in running Ableton with the capabilities of CoreAudio at low DPC, but I'm not sure if it's possible on a hackintosh.

Sure. I use my hack for my guitar playing feedback using GarageBand. However, see BoomR's threads as he's an audio engineer.

Music

www.tonymacx86.com

dfritchie · Jan 16, 2020

When ever I had some spare time I did research into hacks. After about a week I ordered parts through Amazon and built in 2016 the machine I still run today. For (then) $1200 I got the equivalent to a $2400 iMac. It runs both Windows and macOS (10.15.3 public beta) with no problems. Don't know about audio work but every thing I run, runs faster due to upgraded video card the iMac never had, plus I use DDR4 ram instead of the DDR3 that apple used. As far as time spent maintaining my hack, no more spent than maintaining the wife's iMac. Do I think the money saved was a wash? Not at all. YMMV.

BrianBaughn · Jan 17, 2020

If you don't think you'd enjoy the monkeying around that it takes to get a hackintosh running then I'd say stay away. For me it was a love/hate thing…frustrating at times.

My first one was experimental and I was lucky that my PC hardware was compatible. The next one I did had components that were compatible.

Many times it can be a major re-do if you need to update the OS.

However, having a tower with a combination of 6 hard drives & SSDs is nice.

sevoneone · Jan 17, 2020

I'm on my 4th hack since 2007. My primary machine has almost always been a MacBook or MacBook Pro and my Hackintosh a reasonably powerful desktop that can pick up the slack in photo and video editing.

Is it frustrating? At times. The times it has been really bad were almost always made worse by my lack of preparation, like having a bootable backup incase I start tinkering the setup and something blows up.

Is it worth it? I'd say back during my 1st and 2nd builds in 07 and 08 the amount of time I spent trying to keep them running smoothly was probably not the best of choices. Now though, it is almost too easy. Do your homework and get the right components and whatever hair pulling, if any, is kept to the build and getting to that initial stable install. From there is it pretty smooth.

MacUser2525 · Jan 17, 2020

sevoneone said:
Is it worth it? I'd say back during my 1st and 2nd builds in 07 and 08 the amount of time I spent trying to keep them running smoothly was probably not the best of choices. Now though, it is almost too easy. Do your homework and get the right components and whatever hair pulling, if any, is kept to the build and getting to that initial stable install. From there is it pretty smooth.

When I started doing this in 2007 I was lucky enough to have the exact board almost that apple used for their intel machine. Only had to buy a firewire card and Firewave for the surround sound. That still works to this day with my machines. Only thing needed was to download the Kalyway disk and boot to install to the hard drive. The retail install came early in the new year in Feb. You just need to choose your parts properly and make sure not to update as soon as possible. Let the fools do the testing for you to see if anything breaks when updates are availabe both from Apple and the hackintosh software.. And above all never let perfection be the enemy of good enough. Do not tinker all the time it is useless to do. There is no way it is ever going to be a real Mac. Accept the limitation of that and be happy.

nigelbb · Jan 17, 2020

NOTNlCE said:
Maybe pick up something cheap and used that's known to work (like those HP ProDesk towers people often post in hack forums) and get your bearings on that in your spare time before you shell out for a new computer.

I can thoroughly recommend this. I have built & run various Hacks going back 10 years but the easiest & best value have been a couple of HP ProDesks 400 G1s with i3-4130 CPUs that I bought on eBay for £75 ($100) each. I upped the RAM to 16GB & added a 1TB SSD to each plus a USB sound dongle. Everything works & they are stable as a real Mac. They are both still on Mojave but so is my MacBook Pro as I see no pressing need to upgrade.

mcnallym · Jan 19, 2020

i replaced my 2010 cMP with a hack. Followed a golden build from tonymacx86 and worked like a charm. Have a gigabyte z390 designare with a sapphire rx580 pulse, booting off a Samsung 970 evo nvme drive. Followed the guide and took about 2.5 hours to complete the first time, much of which was reading, and re-Reading, checking screenshots.

updating really a case of just wait a few days check the thread, usually updating a few Keats (really not difficult) then using software update To update as if a normal Mac.

really these days if can buy the parts listed, use a screwdriver and read then a hack shouldn’t be too difficult for regular use.

ekwipt · Jan 19, 2020

Has anyone found any information about mackintoshes and Apples Pro XDR display, I haven't found any thing Regarding what cards work etc

GoldfishRT · Jan 21, 2020

ekwipt said:
Has anyone found any information about mackintoshes and Apples Pro XDR display, I haven't found any thing Regarding what cards work etc

I don't think you're going to be able to use the XDR on any Hackintosh, at least to full effect.

It uses the weird display trickery the 5k iMac uses, where it's running two DisplayPort signals through a single ThunderBolt cable and uses a custom controller to make it look and act as one display. I think the best you'll get is a normal 4k signal into it. I don't even know if you'll be able to adjust any settings - including brightness - without official hardware.

ekwipt · Jan 21, 2020

Interesting, makes me want a Mac Pro more and more

joevt · Jan 22, 2020

The XDR can be connected without Thunderbolt. 6K can be achieved by AMD GPUs that support Display Stream Compression (DSC). 6K might not work for GPUs that don't support DSC because the GC-TITAN RIDGE won't allow two HBR3 connections like Macs and the new firmware released for the Blackmagic eGPU does (I am looking for AGDCDiagnose and DisplayDiagnose output that shows how 6K is working without DSC).

ekwipt · Jan 22, 2020

joevt said:
The XDR can be connected without Thunderbolt. 6K can be achieved by AMD GPUs that support Display Stream Compression (DSC). 6K might not work for GPUs that don't support DSC because the GC-TITAN RIDGE won't allow two HBR3 connections like Macs and the new firmware released for the Blackmagic eGPU does (I am looking for AGDCDiagnose and DisplayDiagnose output that shows how 6K is working without DSC).

Someone might be able to hack the EGPU drivers to think Titan Ridge Thunderbolt card is Balckmagic EGPU maybe?

Or can you get 5700XT to display 6K through Display port ( is there a display port to Thunderbolt (USB-c Converter)?

joevt · Jan 22, 2020

ekwipt said:
Someone might be able to hack the EGPU drivers to think Titan Ridge Thunderbolt card is Balckmagic EGPU maybe?

Or can you get 5700XT to display 6K through Display port ( is there a display port to Thunderbolt (USB-c Converter)?

5700XT probably supports DSC. If so, then it can use DSC to drive a 6K display using a USB-C to DisplayPort bidirectional cable like the one from Moshi. But you'll be missing all the USB features of the display (brightness control, etc.).

A GC-TITAN RIDGE can convert DisplayPort to Thunderbolt or USB-C with DisplayPort alt mode. But that doesn't help unless you are able to connect it to your computer's PCIe bus and enable PCIe tunnelling over Thunderbolt. People have done that on Hackintosh's. But again, you have the problem where it won't support 6K unless you're using a GPU with DSC.

ekwipt · Jan 22, 2020

Thanks for the knowledge bombs

Pinarek · Feb 23, 2020

At last I have found the only real Hackintosh thread. It got excited that I wrote something under "Unsupported Mac", because I use Hackintosh machines.

How does it look here, do you already have the Catalina 10.15.4 DP2 installed on your Hackinthos? and how did it go with you? See my signature, the two PC-1 and PC-2 are almost native iMac's 19.2 and 17.2 there are no problems.

Only the Medion laptop, which runs as MacBook Pro5.2, since the hardware comes closest to it according to Mactracker, sometimes causes problems as a no longer supported macBook Pro 5.2, especially with the nVidia 9100M graphics.

I would be happy to read something from you dear Hackintosh fans.

Simon R. · Feb 23, 2020

Hi.

Anyone have an i9 core X machine (7940x, 9980xe or alike) running flawlessly, or is it still better to go with the former Intel CPU generation for hackintosh? The reason I would like to go with core X is support for 256MB RAM with the X299 chipset instead of max 64/128 for Z390 chipset. I would be using the machine for music work in Logic and would also want working TB3.

Would love to hear from anyone who have successufully or unsuccessfully done this.

NOTNlCE · Feb 24, 2020

Simon R. said:
Hi.

Anyone have an i9 core X machine (7940x, 9980xe or alike) running flawlessly, or is it still better to go with the former Intel CPU generation for hackintosh? The reason I would like to go with core X is support for 256MB RAM with the X299 chipset instead of max 64/128 for Z390 chipset. I would be using the machine for music work in Logic and would also want working TB3.

Would love to hear from anyone who have successufully or unsuccessfully done this.

Give this thread a read: https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/t...1014-mojave-successful-buildsuccessful-guide/

KGP was very active in the HEDT platform development and wrote great guides. He has since retired, but I have two X99 systems (the one in my signature, and a Dell T5810) that I was able to build with the assistance of his work. My X99 system is very stable, though I only use 48GB of RAM at this time. I would suspect X299 to work similarly.

Simon R. · Feb 24, 2020

Thanks! That's a very detailed write-up from kgp! I have been reading a lot here and there and getting X299 running still seems like the hardest route to go for hackintosh at the moment.

Hopefully with later Apple OS updates X299 and Skylake-X will be more readily supported, do you think? Or is this not something I should hold my breath for?

Anyway, thanks. As I understand, building an X299 system right now is pretty difficult and might not be stable. 128GB RAM is just not enough for my use, so the Z390 route is not so interesting for me.

TheStork · Feb 24, 2020

Simon R. said:
Thanks! That's a very detailed write-up from kgp! I have been reading a lot here and there and getting X299 running still seems like the hardest route to go for hackintosh at the moment.

Hopefully with later Apple OS updates X299 and Skylake-X will be more readily supported, do you think? Or is this not something I should hold my breath for?

Anyway, thanks. As I understand, building an X299 system right now is pretty difficult and might not be stable. 128GB RAM is just not enough for my use, so the Z390 route is not so interesting for me.

Have you seen these threads?

Asus X299 - Support

This thread is meant to be a continuation of kgp's original post for users using ASUS X299 motherboards. The goal is to keep the support for these motherboards alive, publish updates, configurations, hardware, and so on. I'd like to thank @kgp for his effort so far and hope he'll be back in...

www.tonymacx86.com

X299 - Open Core support

This thread is meant to be support/discussion for users that are experimenting/using OpenCore. Users that are using Clover please refer to the original X299 support thread. NOTE: This post will no longer be updated, please refer to new X299 Support thread and this post

www.tonymacx86.com

Asus X299 - Catalina Support

Introduction This thread is a X299 Clover/OpenCore support for macOS Catalina. Although primary support going forward will be for OpenCore, this thread is also open to Clover users. It is a continuation of the excellent and well detailed guides from @kgp that he created for macOS High Sierra...

www.tonymacx86.com

Simon R. · Feb 24, 2020

TheStork said:
Have you seen these threads?

Asus X299 - Support

This thread is meant to be a continuation of kgp's original post for users using ASUS X299 motherboards. The goal is to keep the support for these motherboards alive, publish updates, configurations, hardware, and so on. I'd like to thank @kgp for his effort so far and hope he'll be back in...

www.tonymacx86.com

X299 - Open Core support

This thread is meant to be support/discussion for users that are experimenting/using OpenCore. Users that are using Clover please refer to the original X299 support thread. NOTE: This post will no longer be updated, please refer to new X299 Support thread and this post

www.tonymacx86.com

Asus X299 - Catalina Support

Introduction This thread is a X299 Clover/OpenCore support for macOS Catalina. Although primary support going forward will be for OpenCore, this thread is also open to Clover users. It is a continuation of the excellent and well detailed guides from @kgp that he created for macOS High Sierra...

www.tonymacx86.com

Yeah. Still don't make me so certain this is a "safe" route to go - except for the last one which is a Xeon. And I am not going to build a Xeon hack. If I am going to spend that much extra money on CPU, mobo and RAM I'd rather pay the premium and get a real Mac Pro. Would only do a hackintosh if it was something fairly inexpensive I could get rid of and not rely of if I don't get it working properly.

EDIT: Hmmm seems I might have been too fast there. Seems the machine is just reported as an iMac with Xeon CPU, but in reality kgp is using the Skylake-X 9980XE. So I will dig more into this! Thanks.

robbieduncan · Feb 25, 2020

I've just swapped out my Nvidia card for a cheap RX570 from eBay to try and get off High Sierra. Having some trouble with the Catelina installed: I get a kernel error trying to boot it. Think it might by apfs.efi related

I had a lot of trouble after this switch with graphics freezes. Enabling the IGPU fixed that so at least my current OS is working fine again

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