edzhus Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Hi! I am looking forward to buy a new hardware. As a graphic designer I want to try out Mac OS, using Kalyway Leopard 10.5.2, but I am a bit confused about the best configuration. Is there a way to get a cheap but at the same time powerful configuration which could be used for easy Hackintoch installation? I am not a guru when speaking about hardware questions, but initially i looked for Intal Core 2 Duo E6600 and GeForce 7300... Help will be very appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farukp Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Hi. I am interested in this too. The specs don´t have to be "the best" if the installation would be in danger. So, maybe a very good one, with a stable installation (not a lot of patching and stuff like that). Can anyone help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BebopBlues Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I work with many professional designers and to tell you the truth, they don't use the fastest machines. A lot of them are still using G5 macs and are fine with it. So any of the intel core 2 duos are faster than those G5s. Same with graphic cards, any of the current Geforce or ATI cards will do. Now the more important hardware for graphic designers are good wacom tablets and monitors. The bigger they are, the better. If you have one monitor, it has to be at least 24". If smaller, then you need two monitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farukp Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Hi. Thanks for the Info. What about Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad. I was thinking about getting an ASUS P5W Deluxe (it should be one of the most suppored boards for OSX86, right?). Can I just get a Core 2 Quad and put it in there or is this build for Duo only? It says on the Asus website that it is Quad ready, but what does that mean? For a Graphics Card a 7300 geforce should do just fine, even if you do a little bit of gaming, right? I would invest in a lot of RAM, very important. If you have PS, Indesign, Cinema 4D open at the same time, you will need a lot of Memory... Is this about right guys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrock42 Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I dunno, having a lot of ram seems to help with the more intensive things. Also I'm heavy handed with tablets, so I use one of those super resolution mice and a griffin powermate to control line thickness and opacity. I would have to agree about the dual monitors, but at dual 24', don't you have to have a decent card to pump the resolution out? My e4600 beats the pants of my dual 1.8 g5. The hac about doubled the g5 in geekbench scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weaksauce12 Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Hi!I am looking forward to buy a new hardware. As a graphic designer I want to try out Mac OS, using Kalyway Leopard 10.5.2, but I am a bit confused about the best configuration. Is there a way to get a cheap but at the same time powerful configuration which could be used for easy Hackintoch installation? I am not a guru when speaking about hardware questions, but initially i looked for Intal Core 2 Duo E6600 and GeForce 7300... Help will be very appreciated Can you tell us more about the type of software you plan on using? 2D - Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter...? 3D - Maya, Lightwave...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edzhus Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 Generally I will be using Adobe Photoshop and Illustartor CS3. Then comes Dreamweaver and other similar web design applications. Sometimes I have to assemble a large A2 posters in Photoshop so the memory and CPU must be on the top of the list. BTW: I am currently running a Hackintosh on my old P4 box, but it seems very slow when it comes to hi-res poster creation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJMclean Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Dunno which part of the world u r at mate but check out my sig. I got mine set up for bout 850 US. Though u might wanna consider a 4 way scroll mouse instead. I run FCP and CS3. No probs here, i could do with more ram though.. lazy to get down to the puter shops Good luck and have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaap Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I use my system pretty much every day for both graphics and video work. I recommend a Hackintosh using the Gigabyte EP35 series boards, and for simplicity of setting it up with very little 'hacking' and dicking around with kexts, use Leo4Allv3, and sWORDs' guide in the middle of this thread. First off all, take note, there are MANY different hardware configurations that work great. I recommend the following, simply because I use a very similar setup every single day myself, and I've set up other systems with these specs and can personally vouch that this works great. You can start with the 'cheap' build, and upgrade any components as you feel the need, like better graphic card, more RAM, etc. Cheap, graphics-capable Hack: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L $89 Intel E4700 2.6Ghz $140 Lot of room for choice of processor. With apps that don't use all the cores of a quad (as is true of Photoshop currently) you can get away with a decent dual core- but a quad like the Q6600 may more future proof. G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066 $104 This stuff is awesome. Stick with 1066 if possible, and upgrade to 8GB either later or now. Zotac 7300GT 256MB $29 A sweet entry level card for a Hack. Fanless, supports CI/QE, dual monitors. Step up to an 8600GT or 8800 from here. 500GB WD Caviar SATA hard drive $80 There's almost no point to trying to cheap out with a less than 500GB drive- your bang-for-buck ratio just goes into the toilet. Samsung 20X DVD burner $27 Rosewill Case and 450W PSU $54 Here's where purists will pull their hair out- but if you're just trying out a mHack, dump your extra $ somewhere else more critical than the case. I've built using these cases for others and all their systems are running stable and strong with the included 450W PSU that's actually quite good. Later, after you've confirmed that a mHack is indeed the way to go for your needs, THEN upgrade the PSU, the case, etc. to as 'bling-bling' as you want. I wouldn't cheap out too far below this quality range, but this case +PSU are perfect for a budget mHack. Syba PCI Firewire $6 nMEDIAPC USB card reader $13 subtotal comes to $545 before shipping and taxes. Follow sWORDs' guide for this hardware, and you can have the above hardware running a virtually flawless 10.5.4 install in under an hour. Also, if 4GB of DDR800 RAM max is good enough, and you want a smaller form factor machine than a mid-tower, you can use a cheap MicroATX motherboard that works just as well, (DDR2 800, Gigabit LAN, Quad-capable) just with a few less slots and lesser total RAM capacity. IE: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L $60 For the past week I've been using a Hackintosh based on this board to do my work- it's performed beautifully with Final Cut and Photoshop. Another good entry level mATX mobo that has great features and is 100% Mac compatible is: Intel BOXDG31PR $65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edzhus Posted July 16, 2008 Author Share Posted July 16, 2008 Thank you, Zaap! Your post was very useful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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