Hackintosh for editing FCP

[NyuFilm88]

Hey this is my first post ... Woo hoo

 

I am a film student and looking for a low budget solution to do some project editing on Final Cut Pro from my apt.. I am looking for information from people who have successfully built a hackintosh to reliably run fcp and other apple programs.

 

 

My budget is around 1500 since I'm a broke college kid.

 

Ideally I would be looking for 8gb of ram min, a solid video card able to support dual displays, and some decently fast processors. Essentially my key interest is having something that is fairly reliable and not a Huge Pain to get running .

 

Since I am new to the computer building scene I really appreciate any advice on builds you guys out there can offer. Thanks in advance!!

[Nick14]

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P - $134.99 - I can't say enough good things about this board. Retail vanilla install works perfectly on it, overclocks like crazy and has a ton of connectors/ports and good growth potential. Its not I7, but probably one of the best socket 775 boards available.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128358

 

 

PNY Nvidia 9500GT video card - $69.99 - Works great with OS X after installing the Nvidia 9xxx series video drivers and adding the EFI strings for it. Good middle of the road 3d video performance so that you can still play video games and have great 2d acceleration. Both CI and QE work perfectly.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814133230

 

 

Intel e5200 2.5 GHz Pentium Dual core CPU - $72.99 - My oh my what a badass little cpu for not a lot of cash. Don't let its "Pentium Dual core" name fool you. Its a Core 2 cpu with a little less cache than its brothers. Out of the box its fast and cool and overclocks like crazy with my motherboard recommendation. Is solid for 3 GHz on the stock cooler and upwards to between 3.5 to 4 GHz on a better aftermarket cooler. Its the current price to performance leader in Intel's Core 2 lineup of cpus. Plus the fact its insanely overclockable is just icing on the cake. Its a junior version of the Core2 Duo e8400.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116072

 

 

OCZ 4 GB DDR2 1066 ram - 47.99 - Great ram that has integrated heat spreaders to run cool. Since its a pair of 2 gigabyte dimms, it leaves you 2 slots open in case down the road you want to add another 4 gigs to the machine. I run 8 gigs of this same memory in my machine so I know its works perfectly with my hardware recommendations.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820227362

 

 

500 GB Western Digital SATA Hard drive - $64.99 - Plenty of space and pretty cheap too. SATA interface so there won't be any OS X issues.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136073

 

 

Samsung 22x DVDRW drive - $24.99 - Works perfectly and has a SATA interface.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151171

 

 

Antec NSK4480B ATX case with 380 watt PSU - $74.99 - Plenty of room and includes a great power supply. Should run quiet and cool.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811129032

 

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Total = $490.93 plus shipping.

 

You will of course need to provide your own purchased copy of Leopard 10.5.x

 

You can follow this guide for initial install:

 

http://auzigog.com/2008/12/23/hackintosh-20/

 

and then this forum thread for the video drivers and efi info:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=132089

[tazevedo317]

pretty much his build ^^ but get a q9550 quad core processor since you still have a lot of cash to spare. maybe look into a bigger hard drive. and since ur doing video editing go for 2 24inchs.