Out of curiosity, is this Oculus VR related?
Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
11–20 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#12If it's a hobby machine go for it. They can be a lot of fun and a good way to learn more about OS X, but if it is a work machine I wouldn't recommend it. Things break all the time, updates will Bork your system. Sometimes the App Store won't work. Power use issues, it's just a lot of work. If it's a work machine I recommend buying a base Mac mini, then adding an ssd as a second drive and maxing the ram yourself. You…
Just this, great for a hobby machine, but honestly it's next to impossible to use as something you have to relay on.
For me, it's just about updates and iMessage. I use iMessage a lot, and their security means it doesn't work on a hackintosh. Next are the updates. The issue here, is that graphics doesn't work, or the machine doesn't boot, etc. All fixable, but often you have to debug it once or twice.
Problem I had with the Mac Mini was I bought mine as the basic model, and its so slow to use, the hackintosh is better. However, nothing works as well as my MacBook for actual work.
Right now, personally, I'm waiting for the 5k iMac and when it can be used as an external monitor. I upgrade my computer every couple years, but my old Apple Cinema Display is 7 years old now, so I really need an iMac to be usable as a 2nd display. Hopefully september will bring that update.
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#13Strange how most of the comments don't address the actual question- what off the shelf PC makes a good hackintosh?
The only off-the-shelf PC I've seen used recently is a Gigabyte Brix (Gigabyte does make motherboards too but this is a complete computer).
Dell, etc. use their own BIOSes and while they may be compatible with hackintoshing, not many people are putting much effort into making them compatible. You may not be able to turn off certain instructions from the BIOS that cause crashes.
Avoid AMD processors and AMD/ATI graphics chipsets; not as much effort has been put into making them compatible.
One other detail- your legal OS X still has licensing terms that basically say if the box you install it on doesn't have an Apple on it, you're violating them.
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#14I would really advise agains even trying, unless you are simply bored. I created a system with exact parts recommended by tonymacx86 and it took days to get everything up and running. Even then basic stuff kept braking like sound. Speed stepping didn't work at all so I abandoned that ship...
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Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#15intel nuc i5 works oob with clover - also, tonymac is a thief and a fraud
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#16Have you considered virtualization? Before adopting OSX, I went the virtualization route myself 4 years ago. I know it works on vmware (at least for me back then with vmw player running on Dell Linux laptop).
It probably depends on your requirements. YMMV
If you're going through this to save a few hundreds, get a mba refurbished.
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#17Have you considered virtualization? Before adopting OSX, I went the virtualization route myself 4 years ago. I know it works on vmware (at least for me back then with vmw player running on Dell Linux laptop). It probably depends on your requirements. YMMV If you're going through this to save a few hundreds, get a mba refurbished.
I have Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite running in VMWare Workstation. They work well enough to do web testing in Safari, but the video performance has been too slow to do much else, so I don't use them for anything too serious.
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#18If it's a hobby machine go for it. They can be a lot of fun and a good way to learn more about OS X, but if it is a work machine I wouldn't recommend it. Things break all the time, updates will Bork your system. Sometimes the App Store won't work. Power use issues, it's just a lot of work. If it's a work machine I recommend buying a base Mac mini, then adding an ssd as a second drive and maxing the ram yourself. You…
Just this, great for a hobby machine, but honestly it's next to impossible to use as something you have to relay on. For me, it's just about updates and iMessage. I use iMessage a lot, and their security means it doesn't work on a hackintosh. Next are the updates. The issue here, is that graphics doesn't work, or the machine doesn't boot, etc. All fixable, but often you have to debug it once or twice. Problem I had w…
Why not the Dell 5k monitor as your second display?
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just this, great for a hobby machine, but honestly it's next to impossible to use as something you have to relay on. For me, it's just about updates and iMessage. I use iMessage a lot, and their security means it doesn't work on a hackintosh. Next are the updates. The issue here, is that graphics doesn't work, or the machine doesn't boot, etc. All fixable, but often you have to debug it once or twice. Problem I had w…
Why not the Dell 5k monitor as your second display?
Yeah could do, but the problems with the hackintosh are a pain. I honestly can't wait to upgrade. My current CPU is the intel 3770k and the 4.0ghz iMac processor is around 30% faster at max usage.
I've moved most gaming to consoles, just not super interested in PC gaming and the iMac can still do most of it.
If Apple bring out a Mac Pro though with a gaming performance GPU I might consider that too, but thats never going to happen any time soon, lol.
Also finally I love the glassy reflective screens. Just so used to them these days and using anything but is just odd to me.
Re: Ask HN: PC I can buy today to add/make Hackintosh?
#20If it's a hobby machine go for it. They can be a lot of fun and a good way to learn more about OS X, but if it is a work machine I wouldn't recommend it. Things break all the time, updates will Bork your system. Sometimes the App Store won't work. Power use issues, it's just a lot of work. If it's a work machine I recommend buying a base Mac mini, then adding an ssd as a second drive and maxing the ram yourself. You…
Just this, great for a hobby machine, but honestly it's next to impossible to use as something you have to relay on. For me, it's just about updates and iMessage. I use iMessage a lot, and their security means it doesn't work on a hackintosh. Next are the updates. The issue here, is that graphics doesn't work, or the machine doesn't boot, etc. All fixable, but often you have to debug it once or twice. Problem I had w…
iMessage can work on a Hackintosh. Works on mine. It does take effort to make iMessage work though.