FreakIndeed Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 After WWDC 2012 and it's lack of anything new (MacPro's don't count) in the way of Desktop Macs, I started researching the world of Hackintosh. Before I buy any hardware though, I wanted to be sure that using a Hackintosh is the right move for me. I currently have an Early 2008 MacPro tower. I'm a video editor and graphics and web designer. I heavily use Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, After Effects CS6, as well as Adobe Photoshop CS6 and many of the other Adobe products. Outside of that, I do all the other basic stuff like Email, Calendar, etc. Back before I switched to Macs in 2000, I built my own Windows PCs, so putting together the system itself is not a concern. My concern really lies more in the reliability of the system once it is up and running. I would be doing my life's work on this system and would need it to perform for me without constantly fighting with this or that. Is that possible with a Hackintosh? I really need stability. Here are some of my other questions: Is anyone using Adobe Premiere and Photoshop CS6? Is anyone using the Matrox MX02? This includes a PCI card that needs to be installed and a breakout box. I would need to know this would work before committing to a Hackintosh. Is there an Nvidia graphics card with Cuda that works to take advantage of Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine? Can you install eSata cards and run external eSata raid drives? Can you install an internal Blu-Ray drive as your optical drive? For the most part, do all normal Mac OSX apps work on a Hackintosh or do many apps say "Hey, this isn't a real Mac!" I'm just a little concerned about some much needed video effects plugins. Lastly, how cost effective is it for me to build a Hackintosh and get a nice quality monitor over just purchasing a 27" iMac? If I'm going to spend two grand either way, am I getting a much better system with the Hackintosh? I appreciate any help you can give me! If I do decide to go this route, I look forward to becoming a regular (and hopefully contributing) member of this community! Thanks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxic Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I really need stability. I've not had a single kernel panic that I didn't directly cause by changing something (I knew at the point of changing 'whatever' that it may cause a panic so prepared myself with a backup partition) I've had updates knock out audio a few times but that's easy enough to re-patch. I use my 'MAC' in a similar way to you, I'm a graphic and web designer along with writing iOS apps and have never had an issue. But saying that, there is no guarentee that an update wont come out tomorrow that will break everything. If you are pretty technically savy and not affraid of a steep learning curve, go ahead! Is anyone using Adobe Premiere and Photoshop CS6? Yes, both. Is there an Nvidia graphics card with Cuda that works to take advantage of Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine? 480GTX works beautifully Can you install eSata cards and run external eSata raid drives? eSATA yes, hardware RAID no (just like a real mac) Can you install an internal Blu-Ray drive as your optical drive? Yes do all normal Mac OSX apps work on a Hackintosh Yes Lastly, how cost effective is it for me to build a Hackintosh and get a nice quality monitor over just purchasing a 27" iMac? If I'm going to spend two grand either way, am I getting a much better system with the Hackintosh? Very! Have a look in my sig, I built my hack over 2 years ago when my components were bleeding edge for less that 1k. Geekbench of around 13000 at 3.4GHz, 14000 at 3.8GHz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3.14r2 Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Well, you have a complicated question. Many people come here are willing to get a Hackintosh to do some Mac only stuff like iOS programming, FCP and so on. Some get what they want. Some not... For the most part is worth or not depends on your own computer management skills (how good you are with PC hardware). It takes time to make it work like it should. While when you buy a Mac, you get OOB working machine. Again it depends on your skills and hardware chosen. If you chose hardware carefully and wisely, install retail OS X (non patched), then you can get very stable system you can count/work on. It won't be Mac, but it most likely be quite similar experience. From OS X POV, if installation and configuration done right, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE for the software, is it Mac or not (it works the same way it would on real Mac). Sure it (that it's not Mac) can be discovered one way or another, but one should "dive deep" to do so. I have two PCs with Snow Leopard system installed. A notebook and a desktop. Notebook has OS X installed as a main and only OS. I use it for multimedia tasks and Internet surfing. Most things I need it to do, it does well. Some bugs like non-working restart/sleep or no working Line-in/Mic do exist, but I can live with that. There fore you should be ready that some things might not work (again most of that can be escaped if you chose hardware wisely). The desktop system consists of quite old hardware, so is way different from what Apple uses in their products. Nevertheless I have managed to get Snow Leopard working (with patched kernel) on it and do occasional PS5 (simple though) works, as well as IL5. It works well, and to be honest I prefer Mac version to Windows version, but Windows is the OS I'm restricted to (some Windows only applications I use for work). I can't say that this machine can be used as a work Mac machine, but it works well despite being much different from Macs. In some cases some software products even works better on this, then on Mac. CUDA will work on Hackintsoh (depending on hardware chosen). My desktop PC has Nvidia card with CUDA and it is used in PS/IL. For other hardware, if it works on genuine Mac it should also work on Hackintosh. Some hardware that doesn't work on Mac may however perfectly work on Hackintosh. For the display... To my taste LCD panels in iMacs are... say not the best ones. I'd prefer an external display against iMac display. A good LCD may cost a lot (although prices are quite low now). For the money you plan to spend, Hackintosh might be a better choose, but only if you are ready for some extra work to be done. Otherwise buy a Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreakIndeed Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 Thanks so much for the replies. I believe I have decided to proceed in this adventure. I've started a new topic with my initial gear list here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=279975 Feel free to chime in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.