Stability : Hackintosh vs. Mac Pro

[RugbyPete]

its the same depending on what you are comparing. as for stability it's the same the only real difference is a real mac pro is a lot easier to update. it's not hard to update your hackintosh you just may run into KP's and find yourself performing a few extra steps but overall thats the only real issue. Also when Apple releases Lion I doubt you will be able to upgrade right from snow it will need to be a fresh install more than likely. Mac Pro has less technical headaches but more financial headaches. Also I have seen Logic Boards go quicker, like die before a hackintosh board does. if you buy a real mac get apple care because chances are you will run into problems right around the 3 year point and the best part is I have seem them replace an old mac pro for the most recent model compared to what they payed for. Not getting apple care, make sure your room temperature is f'n perfect lol, don't smoke don't even let the smell of alcohol near it lol jk just be careful is all.

 

when building a hackintosh or pc remember your warranties are all separate it's not like buying a dell. so keep all your receipts and everything necessary just in case bad things happen.

Experience drills into you, especially coming from the early PC days myself, that 'it will fail'. Over the years you try to reduce it being you that caused the problem, or if you do (and like to tinker - trial and error!), you have taken the steps and measures to protect your data.

 

Example, i didnt load any data onto my hackintosh until it was working sweet for at least a week, and i had upgraded, installed, uninstalled apps and so on, then found a backup solution, brought in a COPY of the data, set up the backup process, made sure it worked then i could remove the copy at a later stage.

 

now it backs up twice a week, always backup before any changes to the OS, and have a dual boot in case it all goes t*ts up (with an app to read apple partitions)

 

Also, grab yourself some recover tools/ linux live cds

[Zaap]

Interesting. I responded to this topic just shy of two years ago, yet my answer is still the same.

 

I'm also using many of the same Hacks I was using back then, and they still run fine and get my work done. So much so, I have been reluctant to do a full upgrade as my main Hackintosh -first build in May, 2008, with many key components since upgraded- still gets the job done beautifully and is as reliable as any real Mac.

 

I'd back up my work on any system I use- usually the only critical failing that would lose data is a hard drive failure, and that could happen with any machine, Mac or PC, at any time. With a Hackintosh, you can boot multiple installs of the OS from the same drive, or different drives, so the idea that I'd somehow 'lose' all my user data even if my main OSX install got hosed isn't really a concern. If my OSX install got hosed, I'd merely boot OSX again from another partition or drive (and really, it's just plain STUPID to run a Hackintosh without a backdoor OS install just for this) and there's all my data just where it should be. Basic data backup should be the same on any computer. With a Hack, there should just be the extra step of ALWAYS leaving yourself a 'backdoor' back into your system in case an update or something borks your main OS.

 

For the non-computer saavy, some of these extra considerations may be too much hardship, but for anyone who is even a little bit tech-saavy, this stuff should all be common sense.

[ovo]

After over a year going down the hackintosh path I realized that if I billed at $50 an hour for all the time Ive spent fixing problems with it I would have paid the difference for a macpro easily.

 

Thats not including the amount of time filling my head with information I really dont want to know to put the whole build together, its a very attractive idea building a faster machine for half the money that is also upgradeable and in my case silent, even more so than a macpro.

 

You have to ask your self if you are a just a user of the tool or a maintenance man for the tool, I just wan to use a computer and get on with making music etc, stuffing around trouble shooting is not my idea of a good time and while Im sure there are plenty of pple without problems I bet nearly all of them are 'pc enthusiasts' who spent A LOT of time previously fixing pc's AND enjoy it.

 

personally I HATE doing it after a year of constant problem/fix problem/causes another problem/fix that/hardware problem and so on, the only reason I still have a hacky is ive spent so much time and money on it now I cant afford to just get rid of it cheap, ohh the irony..........

 

Macpros are definitely over priced but if you have the money and are like me, you will enjoy a trouble/stress free experience for many years after you forgot how much u spent on it.

[Zaap]

What hardware did you use?

 

People claiming to be troubleshooting all the time- what exactly were you futzing with all the time?

 

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I think people that make this claim either:

 

A. couldn't be bothered with using the RIGHT hardware to begin with.

 

B. Didn't follow proper instructions at some level, either with hardware builds to begin with, and/or setup later

 

C. Never really actually built a proper Hackintosh.

 

 

There's simply nothing to be dicking with constantly if you do things right from the start, use proper hardware, and can follow a few basic instructions.

[BlackCH]

After over a year going down the hackintosh path I realized that if I billed at $50 an hour for all the time Ive spent fixing problems with it I would have paid the difference for a macpro easily.

Probably at the time you built it you had the time and not the money on your pocket.

 

FYI, I´ve 3 hacks (on the signature) and I harldy need to re-tweek or fix anything ever. They work 24/7 without problems

[bigpoppa206]

Interesting, my hack has been rock solid! I guess it's true that YMMV.

[mrdelurk]

Long term user feedback: I bought 4 HackMacs from builders over the past two and half years. Two are back to Windows 7 already, two more are still holding, not sure how long.

 

The thing is, when some serious sh_t hits the fan due a sneaky background OS auto-update or such, only the builder can restore the HackMac to a useable state with his FreeBSD (or whatever BSD it is) command line wizardry. So when he says "I wish I could help but I don't have anything with 10.5 anymore to help you" you're effed.

 

Then I usually just throw Windows 7 on the CPU, and keep it using as a Windows box. Will probably happen to the 2 remaining HackMacs too, when some yet other OS update does them in eventually. Ableton Live gets far more oomph out of the same CPU on Windows 7 than on OSX anyway so it's a soft landing

[mrdelurk]

Two are back to Windows 7 already

 

3 more years later, three are back to Windows 7. The last HackMac is holding out with its academic copy of Final Cut, used maybe 1 week a year. Frozen in time: the academic Final Cut will never be updated, the hack OSX 10.6.8 will never be updated, it's a sort of a memento of a bygone era.

 

Perhaps it was all an Apple marketing ruse: get people to buy lots of "not Macs" (HackMacs, iPads, etc) then make them pay a premium to ascend to the "full Mac" experience one day. If that's the plan, it's clever. I concur with the poster who said, he could have bought a Mac with the money spent on troubleshooting HackMacs. Same here, except I don't want to buy that real Mac anymore.

 

The reason? The OSX 10.4 - 10.5 - 10.6 - ... migrations. One decimal point up and half of the apps don't work anymore? To me that IS the worst instability: the deliberate kind. It's not a bug, it's a feature? Pass me the feature spray, then... :-)

[kvonlinee]

Long term user feedback: I bought 4 HackMacs from builders over the past two and half years. Two are back to Windows 7 already, two more are still holding, not sure how long. The thing is, when some serious sh_t hits the fan due a sneaky background OS auto-update or such, only the builder can restore the HackMac to a useable state with his FreeBSD (or whatever BSD it is) command line wizardry. So when he says "I wish I could help but I don't have anything with 10.5 anymore to help you" you're effed.Then I usually just throw Windows 7 on the CPU, and keep it using as a Windows box. Will probably happen to the 2 remaining HackMacs too, when some yet other OS update does them in eventually. Ableton Live gets far more oomph out of the same CPU on Windows 7 than on OSX anyway so it's a soft landing

If you take time to learn how to run osx on hackintosh, you could return back to osx.

With a standard users hads no prevelige to upadte system except administrator.