A Reliable Retail-Quality DAW For aprox. $2500

[nebraskaboy]

What I want to do is figure out how much better a DIY Hackintosh is when compared to what's available retail. If we can come up with a much better DIY mac, then I'm going to go ahead and buy it, build it, and post a guide walking through the steps here on Insanely Mac. Your feedback is appreciated!

 

At the Mac Store, using the Education Discount, I can buy a MacPro with these specs for $2375

• One 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
  
• 3GB (3x1GB)
  
• 640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
  
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
  
• no monitor
  
• free Ipod touch
  

I could instead get a 24" iMac with these specs for $2150:

• 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
  
• 1.0TB Serial ATA Drive
  
• ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  
• free iPod Touch
  

Or even a Macbook Pro 17" for $2325

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
  
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
  
• free iPod touch
  

In my opinion those are all pretty good deals.

 

My question is this:

 

What could I get if I spent that $2000-2500 on a build I did myself?

 

Considering the downside of doing it yourself, I think the homemade build needs to blast the store bought out of the water in order to justify itself. Here are the drawbacks, as I see them:

• doesn't come with a free iPod touch
  
• have to order it piece by piece, assemble it and that takes time
  
• all the standard potential problems of using a DIY computer...
  
• ...including no tech support
  
• ...the constant danger that an upgrade will break things
  
• ...3rd party peripherals won't work and there won't be a solution
  

=========================

 

 

Keeping all that in mind, what can we build for around $2000?

 

This computer will be my main Desktop Audio Workstation, so it needs to be reliable in that regard. My comuter also needs to be able to play well with 3rd party audio inputs & midi, and to run Logic with 3rd party Audio Units installed.

 

I also use a lots of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Ideally, I will be able to cut through big renderings like warm butter. I also do some video editing, so the ability to run Final Cut Pro with stability is almost as important as the ability to run Logic 9.

 

I'm going to be buying this new computer from the mac store, or I'm going to be building my own over the course of this coming week. I'm truly on the fence about which one of those two I should do. The appeal of getting something in the mail in 3-5 days that works out of the box can't be understated.

 

On the other hand, I want absolutely as much power as I can get for my money, because this is probably going to be my biggest computer purchase between now and 2012.

 

If y'all can convince me to build my own, I promise I will post photos, specs, and write up a detailed guide as I do the project.

 

The last DAW guide I can find on these forums is from before the retail install option was available, and seems a bit outdated now.

 

So lets get building.... what do you suggest?

[DJKnight99]

OK so I'm new to this too and I'm building a system for the exact same purpose you are. So far I have compiled a list of components that others in this forum assure me will work together. They are -

 

Intel Q8400 (Core 2 Quad) 2.66GHz

 

Gigabyte EP45-UD3R

 

Asus 9600GT (512MB)

 

Kingston Hyprex DDR2 RAM (1066MHz, 2x2GB) 4GB

 

2x Seagate Barracudas (7200RPM) 500GB each

 

1x WD Caviar Blue (7200RPM) 160GB

 

EZ Cool Alpine 7103H Case (Looks just like a Mac Pro!)

 

DLink DWA-547 Wi-Fi Card

 

Samsung SH-S223Q Optical Drive

 

Now in UK terms I think that list is around the £600 mark, although I haven't totted up all the totals exactly because I'm still shopping for best prices. Add a screen and a keyboard/mouse you're looking at more like £700-£750. As a straight conversion that's about $1,200 at the current rate, but components seem to be a lot cheaper in the US than the UK, so you're probably looking at more like $900-$1000 maybe.

 

Obviously that's not the same spec as a Mac Pro, but thats MORE than enough power to handle Logic and pretty much anything else you throw at it. If you have money get more RAM and a better processor, but I'm on a small budget. I've also added 3 hard drives - 2 for mac (one is just a clone of the other for back up) and the third is for Windows. I need that for programming and I might use it for gaming. Either way, if you don't want Windows, get rid of the third hard drive and just spend more on the other two. But you should ALWAYS have 2 hard drive on a Hackintosh, you never know when something could go wrong!

 

Personally I would spend $1000 on building a nice machine and then another $1000 on outboard equipment, software, a really badass audio interface or some nice monitors or something like that. (If you have $2000 to spend that is!)

 

Build it with the spec above and you will have plenty of grunt. Unless obviously you plan on doing stupidly large projects with a shed loads of tracks. Put it this way, at the moment I'm using a MacBook (late '08 model) with a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. It runs logic pretty well, as long as you don't ask it to do too much that is. $2000 for a hackintosh seems like serious overkill!

 

Or, if portability is a problem, get a MacBook. Any size will do the job, as long as you spec it up! I would go for 13" or 15", 17 is a bit big for me and way too overpriced!

 

Good luck with the decision!

 

 

 

OH and one more thing.

 

If you're worried about audio intefaces and stuff working, if it's OS X compatible then it will work with a hackintosh. The hardware thats problematic is stuff that HASN'T been designed to work with OS X, only Windows. If the gear you buy will work on a normal mac, it will work on hackintosh!

[Swhay]

If your going to spend 2000.00 or over and want everything to work without any hassles, then buy a mac pro. If your goal is to save money and you don't mind tinkering a little bit, build your own. Check the specs in my signature below, I have been running os x for over a year on the hardware. I use it every day and it has been very reliable more so than Windows. I have been able to update right from Apple with every update since 10.5.5 with no issues except sound (on board). Since I am a programmer I naturally don't mind tinkering around with it to find a solution, and so far I have found a solution every time. I have had NO problems running any Mac software (Adobe CS4, Final Cut Pro 6.0). I have no problems with buying from Apple either, I bought a Macbook for my wife about 6 months ago, and except for the sound issue (going from 10.5.6 to 10.5.7) my DIY is just as reliable as my wife's Macbook. I trust my DIY 100%

[aylamrin]

Get a MacBook Pro. I would have done the same

[nebraskaboy]

Kingston Hyprex DDR2 RAM (1066MHz, 2x2GB) 4GB

 

If you're worried about audio intefaces and stuff working, if it's OS X compatible then it will work with a hackintosh. The hardware thats problematic is stuff that HASN'T been designed to work with OS X, only Windows. If the gear you buy will work on a normal mac, it will work on hackintosh!

 

 

Thanks for the input man.

I still haven't made my purchase, and I've only got about 48 hours left on the "student discount" / free iPod touch deal...

 

I'm interested that you're build is designed to run w/ DDR2 RAM. Was this a cost saving choice, inadvertent, or what? Is that the same reason you decided to stick with the Intel Quad-cores over the i7s?