My roommate and I have been running hackintosh's since the first few disks came out in 05. We have been building machine's for the sole purpose of editing HD and now we are working with the RED camera and dealing with it's workflow and high demand on a system. I would rather people not discuss the actual names of productions due to some legal issues that may/may not rise up. But as of now we have used a Quad core on a TV pilot shot on the RED camera and DVD/BluRay extras for a newly released DVD Season of a popular US TV show. This is just a stab to see who else is taking hackintoshs to hollwood and putting them though the test on real productions.

I have built 2 for a small team of film production the hacks are working almost 24/7 and standing gorgeously

I have built 3, working 24/7 almost a year. Editing, VFX, Motion Graphic....SD/HD/.

The systems are based in stable and already tested boards and graphic cards here at insanely. Both use 8 gig of ram q6600 quad cores and xfx 8800gt one with a asus P5w deluxe and another one with a gigabyte GA-P35 DS4 both have a 250 gb and a 500 gb HD. I prefer the GA system. If I were to build a new sys today I would go for a GA-X38-DQ6 , a quad and the 8800GT as long as we have good tutorials and drivers. You dont want a buggy sys in the middle of an editing period when man and machine tend to be stressed.

Why not just buy a real mac?

The main reason why people do this is that you can build 3 hacks for the cost of one mac pro. And I'm not talking about cheapy hacks (prices estimated, but within range):

Q6600 Core 2 Quad retail box (with heatsink) - $200
GA-P35-DS3L motherboard - $100
4GB PC6400 RAM - $80
512M nVidia GeForce 8800GT - $150
Case/Power Supply - $150
2x 750GB HDD - $200
DVD Burner - $40

Total: $920
Times three: $2760
Base Mac Pro: $2799

Now, the base mac pro has a nicer case, and will take updates easier than the hacks. It also has 8 CPU cores instead of 4 compared to the hacks individually, but it has inferior hard drive space, RAM, and video card in the default configuration, and as you can see, you can build 3 hacks for the price of one mac pro. If Apple had a Core 2 Quad based mini tower, that had a video card slot, a couple of internal drive bays, and ports for attaching to external storage that ranged $1250-$1500 depending on options, there probably wouldn't be as many hackintoshes out there. (there are numerous reasons why iMacs don't make very good commercial machines, not the least of which is the permanent attachment to a monitor that won't depreciate as fast as the computer).

Shady at best.

Once again, the Hackintosh fills the gap left by the "missing Mac". This story repeats over and over.

not arguing that -- just answering the original question, which was why people would do it

(and btw: the Hack Pro in my sig would be a real mac if Apple had the above mentioned mini tower -- mini won't drive a 30" panel, nor more than one. iMac won't drive a 30" panel. Mac Pro costs too much -- I'm willing to pay a premium to Apple, but $2000 extra to get a video card that will drive my existing displays is a bit much)

I do agree, the pricing is rediculous

I'm running my small photography business on my Hackbook (HackPro before). Perfectly! No Problems, etc.

For me it is very simple. I need a Mac with both old PCI cards and PCIexpress so a Hack was the ultimate way to go.

What more? I have a macbook pro and the internal parts are just s**t low end cheap garbage. My hack behaves better, never freeze and is very stable. Apart from the case mac pros cant stand an xbench comparison, neither in parts nor in price. look at my SIG, with a dual core I have edited several films and TV productions, no need to have xeons, quads or whatever. If you are not in demanding (after effects) Hollywood productionand heavy animation rendering you dont need to buy top of the line hardware. That are for the 3 Fs Friends, family and fulls.

Maybe it is just me, but if I used OS X professionally I'd buy a Mac Pro. You don't save money on your work tools. Besides a Mac Pro isn't all that expensive for what it is.
A friend of mine,a professional photographer, uses a Powermac G5. I am telling him that it is getting old

Well since Apple doesn't sell a Professional Desktop, I will always Build my own Professional Desktops. The Mac Pro Sucks. I can't use any PCI x Hardware wtf? If people knew this before they bought it they wouldn't be as reluctant to get rid of all their Fibre, SCSI, Kona, Black Magic Hardware... There are reasons for updates, but anyone can get into the film Industry Professionally with a Hackintosh. And what about the Non-existant Bios? INEED TO CONTROL MY HARDWARE. Bottom Line. I can't control a Real mac, the RAM burns out from incorrect voltages, etc.. I hate them. I never have HARDWARE ISSUES, unless its a real Mac.

I personally have Edited 2 feature Films, worked on a TV series you all know and Love on NBC. And a Red One Show, Dailies everyday, Production didnt mind. The rental was cheaper than a Real MAc! $40/day. 180/week = 10 weeks - Paid off Hackintosh and half built another one.

Face it, Professionals are catching on... Apple your going to lose you crappy Hardware and be forced to Sell your OS universally.

For some of us it is a matter of principle. I enjoy the OSX OS, I have to use FCP for working with the RED digital cinema camera. I refuse to pay for an over priced Gucci Computer case and garbage hardware. I like having the ability to replace any part of my computer at will and not have to donate any body parts in the process. I would run linux on the same system as my main os if there was ample support for editing film and HD. Enough about that, This wasn't intended to be a you should have a real mac to work professionally thread. It was a who is using this on real professional productions. I have no reason to buy something more expensive to get an inferior system. I believe our latest production on the RED, a TV show Pilot that we are shooting 7 more episodes in the winter, is enough proof you don't need a real mac to work with the most demanding workflow in film today. The hackintosh held up to the challenge for 2 months straight of shooting and is ready for next two.

There are no shows on NBC that I either know OR love.

i Have a mbp for location work, and just couldnt justify the cash out for the desktop that I use rarely. Needed the extra 2k for camera equipment.

Always works, does what I need it to and more.

Most professional editing and compositing systems out there are running on Linux (and only on Linux) Smoke http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index...&id=5561833 and FFI.
I agree that Linux needs a less expensive lower end (HD) sollution though :/

Yes and NO. Tue most composting can be done on a *nix box. Depending on the program being used. Quantel uses win 2k for it's eQ and iQ. But as for editing there is no full featured professional solution for SD or HD. There are some editing application but with nowhere the capabilities of an Avid or FCP box. You don't cut movies in finishing boxes. I don't want an apple or a window on my start up and have a system I can use to it's potential. As for Splits the hackintosh hater. Why are you still posting in the thread in am sure you can get your post count up somewhere else.

I am looking at using a Hakin Pro 17". There is a lot of choice out there faster then a MacBook Pro. I see a couple people using, anyone else with success with video editing getting eSata working, audio?

how the hell do you edit with good results in motion final cut and the 8800GT?

FCP works well with 8800GT. I haven't used Motion in real production (for compositng / motion graphics only shake & AE), so I can not tell how it would keep up there. However i've made couple of short tests with particles, 3D cam and some CC, and I haven't seen any issues (except interface is a bit clumsy when thumbs are on).

I'm extremely curious, because I'm seriously considering a Hackintosh for video and sound editing - what components did you use?
Is there a "definitive" list of components for the ultimate fast and bug free 'hackintosh?

Thanks!

There is no "definitive list" but you should go with Intel CPU (Quad for demanding tasks), SATA HDDs, SATA DVD, USB Mouse&Keyboard and adequate MB. Actually MB choice is crucial for building a hack. Check this page: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...id=813269&# and see for which MB users have reported successful Leopard retail installation. On same page you can find couple of "preboot" images for different MB.
Considering GPU, my recommendation is 8800 GT.
USB or Firewire audio interface would be also great (I have couple of M-Audio Fast Track)

Smoke isn't exactly a "finishing box" only, to an extent it is but flint/flame + conform would fit that description more imho. More on the front of turnkey all-in-ones you have ifx Piranha (http://www.ifx.com/products/piranha) and even a Cinerella based turnkey (don't underestimate Cinerella) http://www.lmahd.com/cinelerra.html.
As far as compositing goes you won't get a lot more out of Apple/windows there either (shake, nuke, fusion flint/flame/inferno, houdini).. In terms of film work linux is already there, we'll see if it gets there in terms of TV/hd video stuff anytime soon though.