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Buying Hackintosh off Craigslist


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I've been interested in owning a Hackintosh computer for quite some time. However, I'm not very computer savvy and I'm worried that if I try to install a MAC OS on a netbook by myself, I'll mess everything up. So I looked on craigslist and found a couple of people in my area selling Hackintoshs from $300 to $450. I also looked on ebay.com and found some people selling it within that price range. Oh and I'm only interested in buying MAC OS installed on those dell netbooks because I heard they are the most compatible with MAC.

 

In typical craigslist fashion, I know nothing about these sellers, or their background on computers or anything like that. I'm very interested in buying from them because the price is cheap, however I do not want a netbook that will fall apart in a few months because of a {censored} MAC installation job.

 

So I ask you

 

1. Are there any post installation red flags I should look for?

2. What are some questions I should ask them to ensure that everything is running 100% smoothly?

3. Are there any of you who bought a Hackintosh on craigslist/ebay? How did that go for you?

4. For people that have used Hackintosh for several months to a year, what are some common problems that may occur in the long run?

 

I think those are all the questions I have for now. If any of you could answer these, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

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(disclaimer- I have hackintoshed since 2006 and have made over ten hackintoshes)

 

I don't want to burst your bubble, but I think its a terrible idea to buy a hackintosh if you lack the skillbase to put one together yourself.

 

Why?

 

Because hackintoshes are fragile. No I don't mean that they are unstable, or that the person you are buying from did a poor job. By fragile I mean that they take effort to keep up to date. Any hackintosh you buy now, eventually some software update will break it almost guaranteed (just like 10.5.8 broke sleep for tons of people here) in the long run. There is NO Hackintosh setup that currently exists that is completely "update proof" no matter what you are told.

 

And with Macs, not being update proof is a problem. Within two months of Leopard coming out many of the apps I used happily on Tiger had new versions that would only work on Leopard (Handbrake most notably). Macland is a fast moving world- PowerPC Macs were still sold in 2006 and today they are obsolete with Snow Leopard. You just don't see that pace in Windowsland- I know business still transitioning from Windows 2000 to XP today...

 

And not to discourage you, but hackintosh stuff is hard. On the geek scale (of 1 to 10) if installing XP on a blank HD is a one and cracking a copy of Adobe Photoshop to keep it from activating itself is a 3 than most OSX86 stuff is an 8 or a 9 with some stuff (like dsdt hacking) something like an 25. There is really nothing as hard as hackintoshing in the Windows world.

 

Personally I love that challenge. But I build computer from parts as a hobby and I think hacking bioses is more fun than hanging at keg parties. Not to brag- many people here are WAY above me- but just letting you know that OSX86 is a hobby. There is NO way to justify the time that needs to be spent on it for any other reason.

 

The only way buying a hackintosh is worth it is if you get it with every program you will ever need from day one and you are ok with never having the newest thing. Then technically if you avoid the Software Update it should run for you just as well on day one as it does the last day you use it. That means no new printers (as they might only have Snow Leo drivers), no new software (as they often want the newest version of OSX to work correctly), and no things like new 3G wireless cards four years from now, no fancy new iPhones/iPods, etc.

 

You simply can't buy a hackintosh that is future proof that is also painproof. It makes sense if you think about it- if hackintosh was easy, why would Apple and its crazy lawyers let this community exist?

 

If you are still intent on buying one, then make sure it works 100% before you give them the money. Bring a pen drive with a mp3 on it to the exchange and make sure the system can play the mp3 perfectly through the speakers, then autoswitch to heaphones when you plug some in (very possible on Dell Mini 9s). Also make sure to look in the "System Profiler" and make sure the graphics card is set up right and that the resolution is maxed. Finally make sure it sleeps properly.

 

Last thing I will say is that I have a Netbook myself (an Acer 10 inch, not that such things matter) that I have tri-booting XP/Linux/OSX and I must say that OSX kinda sucks on a netbook, despite the hype. Some parts of OSX just break down at that low of resolution, plus the lacking of true fullscreen options (or fine tuned DPI controls like Linux has) makes doing things on it a pain. I imagine it would be even worse on the smaller 9 inch Dell. I mean I LOVE my Netbook, but of the three OSes Leopard is the most sluggish and the most difficult to work with on the smaller and weaker netbook hardware. Mine stays in Linux 90% of the time....And its not due to OSX being unworking as I have everything working 100% except sleep...

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Just to add my $0.02, I agree with poofyhairguy. If you're "not very computer savvy," you shouldn't be looking at a Hackintosh, whether you're the one to install it or not. In fact, a good case could be made that you'll be worse off if you don't install it. This is because you'll necessarily learn a great deal about how it works, and therefore how to repair it when something needs fixing, by installing it yourself. Without that knowledge base, when you need to fix something, you'll have more to learn.

 

The one exception to this rule would be if you've got Hackintosh "tech support" nearby, in the form of a spouse, roommate, or whatever who's able to do the geeky stuff for you. In that case, you should consult with your potential tech support source.

 

Otherwise, if you want to run OS X and aren't tech-savvy enough to install OSx86 yourself, buy a real Mac. I know, they're pricey, and the last I heard there weren't any Mac netbooks, but thems the breaks. Apple hardware is at least high in quality, and you won't have hassles with software glitches -- or if you do, you'll be able to call Apple for tech support.

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I agree with the other replies in this thread, but let me try to answer your questions:

 

1. Are there any post installation red flags I should look for?

 

Look to see that the computer can shutdown, restart, and sleep, then make sure it can do this repeatedly. Generally, once Leo or Snow Leo is loaded it doesn't have any problems (at least from my experience).

 

After that, look to make sure all the hardware works - you want graphics to be able to select all resolutions and also to support Core Image and Quartz Extreme in System Profiler (under Leopard). In Snow Leopard I only know of a utility to make sure OpenCL is working. You want to make sure audio and LAN/Wifi work correctly.

 

2. What are some questions I should ask them to ensure that everything is running 100% smoothly?

 

I'd say look through the console for any strange errors but since you're not very tech savvy I'd say that'd be a waste of time. Ask about stability and how long the system stays up without any errors/panics. Like I said, a system that can boot osx and have graphics working is about 80% of the way there!

 

3. Are there any of you who bought a Hackintosh on craigslist/ebay? How did that go for you?

 

I bought a system off Craigslist because it was cheap, but I made sure the components were compatible. Meaning I researched the motherboard to see what integrated components worked, I knew that I would have to buy a discreet video card and that was my only other expense. I spent $300 on a system that currently runs Snow Leopard perfectly so I'd say things are good!

 

The netbook route you are choosing could be different and I urge you to look up the specific model on this forum.

 

4. For people that have used Hackintosh for several months to a year, what are some common problems that may occur in the long run?

 

No problems for me, not even through updating. For me, doing a RETAIL install and keeping my non-standard kexts in a separate folder has allowed me to do system updates as if I were a real Mac ever since 10.5.6. Of course, only time will tell how long my good luck will run!

 

Common problems that I read about are when people want to be perfectionists and have everything working correctly. For instance, some insist on pin-mapping their audio so that it works natively, I'm just using VoodooHDA which is a community written audio driver. Basically, the community is great and you should give it a shot because I've learned more about Mac OS than anyone else who owns a real Mac because I've had to use the Terminal and learn about kexts and EFI, etc etc. It's a great experience and we as a forum will always be here to support you through making your Hackintosh a success!

 

also, I just re-read my post and it's awful, I've just been doing electrodynamics for the past 8 hours so my brain is a bit mushy :D

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  • 8 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
I've been interested in owning a Hackintosh computer for quite some time. However, I'm not very computer savvy and I'm worried that if I try to install a MAC OS on a netbook by myself, I'll mess everything up. So I looked on craigslist and found a couple of people in my area selling Hackintoshs from $300 to $450. I also looked on ebay.com and found some people selling it within that price range. Oh and I'm only interested in buying MAC OS installed on those dell netbooks because I heard they are the most compatible with MAC.

 

In typical craigslist fashion, I know nothing about these sellers, or their background on computers or anything like that. I'm very interested in buying from them because the price is cheap, however I do not want a netbook that will fall apart in a few months because of a {censored} MAC installation job.

 

So I ask you

 

1. Are there any post installation red flags I should look for?

2. What are some questions I should ask them to ensure that everything is running 100% smoothly?

3. Are there any of you who bought a Hackintosh on craigslist/ebay? How did that go for you?

4. For people that have used Hackintosh for several months to a year, what are some common problems that may occur in the long run?

 

I think those are all the questions I have for now. If any of you could answer these, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

I completely agree with every one of these responses.

 

I have considered selling one or two of my hackintoshes on several occasions; in fact I'm on the fence about selling one of my harpertown octocore hackintoshes right now to a friend who is basically on the same skill level as me. But I could never in good conscience sell a complex osx86 machine to someone who, by his own accord, is not very computer savvy. If you are going run hackintosh (not even including the build process), you need to have at least a moderate understanding of not just the software, how it works, and why it behaves a certain way, but the hardware itself and how certain components interact with other components and how the OS interprets the hw configuration, etc.

 

Say I was to sell you one of my osx86 machines for $800. We go through the ropes of verifying that everything is in perfect working order. There are no bugs and it is, in so many words, a fully functional 8-core mac pro for a quarter the price of a genuine Apple model. Happy with what you see, you make the purchase and take the computer home. Later on down the road, you mistakenly set the preferences to download and install updates automatically and Apple releases an OS update. Overnight your fancy mac pro would go from top of line model to an expensive pile of rubble because you would not know where to begin to bring it back to life. Even if you were an avid Time Machine user or kept backup images of the system disk, you would still need to know how to boot the machine from a disk or usb stick in order to use any of those methods. And the fact of the matter is that simply because I sold you the machine and know how to maintain it does not mean that my cell phone is a tech support hotline.

 

My honest advise would be to do some research and put one together yourself. You don't need to be an expert in software engineering or know the first thing about the actual electrical circuitry on a piece of silicon to build a basic hackintosh. Start small; buy a decent Intel based Gigabyte motherboard and a lower end i7 CPU and hit the forums for advise. I guarantee that you would have at least a bootable osx86 machine in a couple weeks. And believe me, the first time you see the apple logo and little progress wheel successfully load the OS you'll be hooked. 80% of running hackintosh is the fun of the learning process, as frustrating as it can be sometimes its well worth your time. The other 20% is the money you save which is quite substantial.

 

Sorry if this seems verbose but I'm really into this stuff and feel that its not worth the effort if you're not willing to do at least a little research. In that case, the logical thing for you to do would be to do what every other person in your shoes would do...save your money and hit up the Mac store if you want to run mac.

 

Just my two cents... :unsure:

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