The Definitive Hackintosh topic

giuliobottini

But as far as you know, do you think a hackintosh can be a reliable and solid workhorse for fcpx and after effects?

CFreak

I find my hackintosh to be the best mac I have ever owned, it's fast, cheap and extremely stable. I edit weekly using PPro CS6 and recently started learning After Effects to check out Shian Storm's GHears. I have also run FCPX 10.0.7 but didn't like the app so I switched to PPro. Recently I needed to turn 50, 10 second clips in to smooth slow-mo at 25%, and after a lot of fiddling in AE and opening up a hack in PPro CSS6, I found the great results and easy workflow/output was actually form FCPx's optical flow. I stacked up all 50 clips, let it render over night and came back the next day very happy.

Stablility: I would say once, I got an error message from the boot loader, so I rebooted and then all was fine. Haven't seen that message since.

My Hackintosh is 100 times more stable than PPro is. Sometimes it crashed 3x in one day, then is stable for weeks. I have a friend with a real macPro with the same issue in PPro CS 5.5. I recently color corrected a short in FCP7 and it was 100% stable.

Updating the OS is a pain, you need to always have a clone (in a dual boot config) of your working system, of course you are going to run Time Machine and have your data backed up, to insure having a trouble free experience. Setting it up and maintaining it, there IS A LEARNING CURVE, but, everything you need is on the TonyMac site and people there can and will help.

You will do better to build it yourself and go through the learning curve. Then you will be the master of the Hackintosh.

If this sounds like too much find someone local to build it with/for you OR buy a real mac. The real problem is now they all come with designed obsolescence.

CFreak

For performance comparison you might start looking at the geek bench 32-bit (free version) scores of the different machine you're considering. More: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/168066#Comment_168066

or maybe someone here can offer some better advice?

Search TonyMac for "g5 mods". People can go nuts with this stuff. Here's one: http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-g5/83498-dschijns-g5-mod.html

Also that ebay seller "phobos_87" might be a TonyMac member... http://www.tonymacx86.com/members/phobos/?page=1 might be worth buying that machine if it's the same guy.

dtr

You will do better to build it yourself and go through the learning curve. Then you will be the master of the Hackintosh.

+1

It takes effort to learn and do it yourself but you'll be able to fix things when they go wrong. Will that ebay seller provide support?

giuliobottini

I think the seller is a serious one, they have a site, a facebook page and have their company not far from my place. If i will buy a hackintosh i'll probably go with them, since i don't want to spend time building a new one. They should offer support as well...

dtr

Building the parts is one thing (and a regular PC case is going to be much easier than a G5), installing the software system is another. By installing it yourself you'll learn what's necessary to make a hackintosh work: bootloader, kext's, DSDT's, etc. This comes in handy when, for example, you run an OSX update that breaks your system and you can't boot anymore, or install a new graphics card and all you get is a black screen. Things like that happen with a hackintosh. When you installed it yourself you'll be able to figure out how to fix things. If you didn't you're going to be entirely dependent on support from the one who did. Reverse engineering the process at that point is going to be much more difficult than just starting it yourself. It starts with the very choice of hardware components. I advise everyone to do it themselves so they don't have to rely on others for support. The resources/guides/forums at tonymacx86 are great and make it relatively easy.

giuliobottini

thank you for your suggestions. i agree that building one is the way to go to have a hackintosh, so i decided to pass by this time and bought a 2011 imac. thank you for your answers!

giuliobottini

thank you for your suggestions. i agree that building one is the way to go to have a hackintosh, so i decided to pass by this time and bought a 2011 imac. thank you for your answers!

CFreak

What @dtr said +1. Anyone can put the components together, it's the software installation and updating that's the issue. GPU swaps, etc. that can bring on the problems. I always clone my boot drive anytime I update anything. Only once did I have to fall back on it, but, man, what a time saver.

If anyone thinks this sounds too difficult, it isn't, if you have a head for the technical. The machines are very expandable and parts are cheap. Something my 2008 MacPro couldn't do. The GPU offerings were very limited on that thing, unless you want to give up your boot screen.

matt_gh2

Does anyone know if you can take a Windows 7 laptop (quad core 2.2 ghz, 16 gb ram) and use it for both PC as well as Mac. I currently run Adobe Premiere, Audition, Speedgrade, and After Effects on it as regular PC, but I would like to also run FCPX and/or FCP7 on it. Can this be setup so I can use it as a Mac to run FCP on some days, and other days use it as PC to run my Adobe software?

dtr

Laptops are tricky as you don't get to choose components as freely as in desktops. I think that even the most compatible laptops don't have their dedicated graphics cards working, only integrated Intel HDx000 stuff. Resource sites like tonymacx86 have sections for laptops where you can find guides etc.

jaycass

Hi just a quick question does any one know if amd radeon r9 290 graphic card works with hackintosh

matt_gh2

@dtr I'll take a look at tonymacx86 site - thanks. If I can get my Windows 7 PC laptop to work as a Hackintosh, does that it I can run it BOTH in Mac OSX or Windows OS...like today I do Premiere in Windows OS and tomorrow I do Final Cut Pro in Mac OSX? Thanks

tinyrobot

You can run Premiere Pro on OSX so why dual boot? I dual boot also but eventually will ween myself away from Windows if OSX stays stable. You only complicate with dual boot.

matt_gh2

Thanks @tinyrobot - sounds like good advice.

alcomposer

@jaycass you may need 10.10 for the 290. Get the public beta to test it out.

As a general rule if you want boot screens with an ATI you will need a GOP UEFI VBIOS.

But then again sometimes it's cool to blind boot. But things do boot faster in UEFI land.

Most manufacturers can supply them to you if you send in your current VBIOS. You can easily save it to your hdd by using clover -yet another great Russian software engineer!

Cheers Al

Vitaliy_Kiselev

NVidia quietly posted beta macOS drivers that should support any GeForce 10-series card, whether it's a simple GTX 1050 or an all-out beast like the Titan Xp

https://images.nvidia.com/mac/pkg/378/WebDriver-378.05.05.05f01.pkg