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Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide

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Re: Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide

#12

Post by kbar13 »

yuhong wrote: post #9
jamescun wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this point, Macs are only a notch away from a stock PC. Even the last vestige of difference, such as the use of EFI, are becoming common practice by other computer manufacturers. The time and effort required to introduce technical preventative measures far out-weigh the "loss" from the Hackintosh community (which is still a minuscule niche in comparison to their genuine markets).

I know. What is funny is that they made OS X free despite that.

pretty sure the margins for the hardware is significantly higher than the margin for their OS, so it's much more valuable that Apple makes it as easy as possible for people to buy into their ecosystem.

Re: Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide

#13

Post by rickyc091 »

m0th87 wrote: post #4

Do these rigs break down with Apple patches or the like? Can I reasonably expect a setup now to work 5 years from now?

It depends on the patch. If they introduce a patch to fix something say bluetooth or wifi, that patch could very well break it. If it breaks, you might have to hack it again to resolve the issues. Having a hackintosh myself, I think it's easier to just buy a mac and not worry about it. If you love tinkering / you have the time to deal with it, then by all means.

Re: Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide

#14

Post by pudquick »

yuhong wrote: post #9
jamescun wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this point, Macs are only a notch away from a stock PC. Even the last vestige of difference, such as the use of EFI, are becoming common practice by other computer manufacturers. The time and effort required to introduce technical preventative measures far out-weigh the "loss" from the Hackintosh community (which is still a minuscule niche in comparison to their genuine markets).

I know. What is funny is that they made OS X free despite that.

The point of giving the OS away was to encourage buying a new device. Especially when it sends you notifications/badges that the new OS is available - and then the new OS takes advantage of newer hardware features ... and for older hardware makes sure to let you know that your Mac/iOS device doesn't support this feature.

The margins on selling the OS were never very good. Apple has always made the majority of their money from hardware sales.

Re: Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide

#15

Post by honopu »

presumeaway wrote: post #8
sounds wrote: post #3

The Hackintosh movement is still going strong. One would think Apple would make their life difficult but quite the opposite appears to be the case: there are a few well-understood workarounds to get OS X working on an off-the-shelf PC, mostly just audio and networking. Be careful if you choose not to follow the guides, though! There's a reason most Hackintoshes use Gigabyte motherboards, Atheros wireless, etc. - Just…

Once it's set up and working the way you want, how often do you find yourself dealing with small issues?

I ran one for about 6 months, then finally gave up and bought a Mac Pro. I had a board that wasn't necessarily supported but through trial and error I was able to get it to work. I wanted to go to 3 monitors and my video card wouldn't support it, so I just went ahead and bought the Mac Pro.

If you needed to build some machines that you don't necessarily care about updating (like some networked "macs" for compressor or rendering) then I think these would be great. I may end up building another one but I really can't justify it with a retina macbook pro. I don't game and that's the only reason I'd go back.

Re: Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide

#17

Post by jacquesm »

zippergz wrote: post #16

Just quickly doing the math in my head, it seems like the Mini costs roughly the same as a real Mac Mini. So, what's the advantage of going the DIY route? I presume the price gap grows on the higher end systems?

What's 'real' about the 'real' Mac Mini that's not real about this one?

For one I would assume that since it's built up from separate parts you can upgrade it at will, something you can't really do with a 'real' Mac Mini.

Re: Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide

#20

Post by berberous »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
zippergz wrote: post #16

Just quickly doing the math in my head, it seems like the Mini costs roughly the same as a real Mac Mini. So, what's the advantage of going the DIY route? I presume the price gap grows on the higher end systems?

What's 'real' about the 'real' Mac Mini that's not real about this one? For one I would assume that since it's built up from separate parts you can upgrade it at will, something you can't really do with a 'real' Mac Mini.

I assume he means the much better support, much nicer case, higher resale value, etc.
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