used mac vs hackintosh

[eddiehackintosh]

I’m looking to do some basic HD video editing. Short clips, maybe 1-5 minutes.

Planning on using Final Cut and After effects.

 

I need a laptop (w/ windows and snow leopard) to start with and will upgrade to a box later.

 

With an $800 budget would you buy a pc and hackintosh-it (17” with an i5, 500 gb hd, 4gb memory), or a used macbook pro with windows 7 (17”, core duo, 250 hd, 2 gb memory)?

 

Would there be a noticeable difference in performance?

 

I’m concerned about reliability and smoothness though. (I’m not into windows “maintenance” anymore)

 

A third alternative would be a used imac. 24” duo core

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thanks,

ed

[diafebus]

... go for i5 with a GigaByte motherboard (to easy snow leopard installation)... much powerfull and mucho configurable

the real thing that interest of apple is the OS... not the hardware, that yes is beautiful and everything that you want, but is not as powerful as a pc at the same price...

I own a C2D 2,66 iMac and one friend of mine owns C2D 2,7Ghz Pc with snow leopard, and his computer is a bit faster,

i get about 150-160 points on Xbench and he get 178 points...

he can add more hard drives, i can not,

he can add a better graphics card, i can not

he can upgrade processor, i can not

he can add much more ram, i can not..

 

that's a hackintosh vs Macintosh...

 

of course everthing that i'm saying is if you doesn't mind to spend some time configuring and installing OS X... buecause nowadays is very easy but it wants your attention and some time to do it!!

[Moose Tracks]

Honestly ask yourself the following before making any choice:

 

1. Am I ever going to change out the hard drive?

2. Am I ever going to change out the graphics card (you want a laptop so this is a moot point)?

3. Do I want to go through the extra hassle of using a Hack?

4. Do I really need Adobe After Effects or will Final Cut do the job rather nicely?

5. Do I really want Windows on my system? This is an honest question, believe it or not.

 

Those 5 questions plus maybe 2 more will give you the answer you need.

[diafebus]

Honestly ask yourself the following before making any choice:

 

1. Am I ever going to change out the hard drive?

2. Am I ever going to change out the graphics card (you want a laptop so this is a moot point)?

3. Do I want to go through the extra hassle of using a Hack?

4. Do I really need Adobe After Effects or will Final Cut do the job rather nicely?

5. Do I really want Windows on my system? This is an honest question, believe it or not.

 

Those 5 questions plus maybe 2 more will give you the answer you need.

 

right!

[TennisGeek]

Put aside the fact that After Effect and Final Cut Express alone costs more than $1,000, if you want to edit HD, the biggest problem is rendering time. (FC Studio at B&H is about $820 too.)

 

If you are going to edit often enough, you'd not want to edit it on Core Duo for sure.

 

Few years ago, I've made a 70min of SD video with 2 HD cameras (Sony's Z1Us, friend's cam. I have no money to buy a $4,000 cam.) with MacBook Core2 Duo 2GHz with an external FireWire disk.

It's not bad at all in terms of editing performance as long as you have a big/good external screen.

Once you start DVD encoding, 'Book's fan starts screaching, and takes 4 hours or so of DVD encoding.

 

If you are using Final Cut Express (like me), you end up frequently rendering HD segment, and you definitely want to do it with fast CPU, and more cores are better.

I edit it on my quad hack, not on MacBook anymore.

 

I don't have any experience with After Effect, but I have a few pro video editing friends. As far as I understand, AE is even more CPU intensive.

 

If you have a choice, more CPU power the better. i5 is probably at least 2x faster and no brainer.

 

-- TG

 

 

I’m looking to do some basic HD video editing. Short clips, maybe 1-5 minutes.

Planning on using Final Cut and After effects.

 

I need a laptop (w/ windows and snow leopard) to start with and will upgrade to a box later.

 

With an $800 budget would you buy a pc and hackintosh-it (17” with an i5, 500 gb hd, 4gb memory), or a used macbook pro with windows 7 (17”, core duo, 250 hd, 2 gb memory)?

 

Would there be a noticeable difference in performance?

 

I’m concerned about reliability and smoothness though. (I’m not into windows “maintenance” anymore)

 

A third alternative would be a used imac. 24” duo core

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thanks,

ed

[eddiehackintosh]

Put aside the fact that After Effect and Final Cut Express alone costs more than $1,000, if you want to edit HD, the biggest problem is rendering time. (FC Studio at B&H is about $820 too.)

 

If you are going to edit often enough, you'd not want to edit it on Core Duo for sure.

 

Few years ago, I've made a 70min of SD video with 2 HD cameras (Sony's Z1Us, friend's cam. I have no money to buy a $4,000 cam.) with MacBook Core2 Duo 2GHz with an external FireWire disk.

It's not bad at all in terms of editing performance as long as you have a big/good external screen.

Once you start DVD encoding, 'Book's fan starts screaching, and takes 4 hours or so of DVD encoding.

 

If you are using Final Cut Express (like me), you end up frequently rendering HD segment, and you definitely want to do it with fast CPU, and more cores are better.

I edit it on my quad hack, not on MacBook anymore.

 

I don't have any experience with After Effect, but I have a few pro video editing friends. As far as I understand, AE is even more CPU intensive.

 

If you have a choice, more CPU power the better. i5 is probably at least 2x faster and no brainer.

 

-- TG

 

 

thanks for the advice everyone, very helpful. 2 last questions before I make the leap

 

1. After initial setup, how is the reliabllity on the hackintosh? I've heard mixed reviews. Some say you still end up with the high maintenance of a pc over a mac. I just wanna turn it on and go to work.

 

2. Anyone know of a good hackable laptop (preferably 17")

 

 

thanks

[diafebus]

1. If you make good hardware choises, it's gonna be reliable as rock. the friend of mine that had lot of problems with win XP and he bought a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR (it's good for hackintosh but not the best one) and he has everything working perfectly and he works on audio, and as i said before with core 2 duo 2,7 he had more points on xbench than me...

 

2. yes there are some laptops able to be hackintoshed... you have to make an extensive search of all options that you have to get the best working one!!

 

good luck!