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From: Andy Hewitt on 28 Jan 2010 08:49
I'm getting to a point where I really need to reorganise my Macs. My
needs have changed myself, and the MacBook isn't much of a benefit at
the moment, and I'd prefer to change for a desktop machine, and let
Emily have the MacBook - she would use it more.

However, financially, things haven't worked out quite as I expected, so
there's no way I can buy a new one now. Even s/h models that at least
match my MacBook for performance are fetching too much money for my
budget at the moment.

However. I have been mulling over the possibility of building a
Hackintosh. I've read some of the sites covering this, and installation
doesn't look too bad. I understand about full compatibility of the
hardware etc. I'm quite able to build up a machine from scratch, so I
could quite easily match components, and I already have a good store of
bits to cut the cost of a self-build (casings, hard drives, PSUs and
cables etc) - I already have a PC here I build up from old bits.

Some questions:
Anyone here actually done this?
How reliably does it work?
What kind of performance differences are there?
Is it worth a go for a main use machine?

Cheers.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>
From: Andy Hewitt on 28 Jan 2010 12:39
Colin Harper <colinharper(a)x.com.invalid> wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:49:27 +0000, Andy Hewitt wrote
> (in article <1jd17cs.184zxr61c6miz4N%thewildrover(a)me.com>):
>
>
> > Some questions:
> > Anyone here actually done this?
>
> Yep. Just polishing off a Snow build. On a Midi type system. It's got a Core2
> 2.6, 4GB RAM, and an old-ish 256MB 8500GT

Righto. Yeah, I was going to aim for a Core2 of some flavour, and this
does at least open up for lots of cheap bits.

I've actually got an old P4 2.66 here, which that graphics card in it,
but I've no idea how well that'll run (if at all).

> > How reliably does it work?
>
> That's variable. Firewire is not reliable. I've tried four different
> chipsets. The closest was a ti chipset PCI Expres card but even that crackles
> with my Firewire Audio modules. I've now mostly replaced those with USB. I
> don't know anyone who's had faultless Firewire. Graphics and CPU speed is
> excellent. Streets ahead of my iG5, intel Mini or eMac :-)

Ah, loss of FW could be an issue, although internal SATA cards and
internally mounted drives would easily sort that.

> I had terrible trouble with my iLok. Something about the PACE Interlok kernel
> extension really didn't like my Hack and promptly deauthorised all my
> plugins. I still have problems in that I can't restore my TM backup into the
> Haxie else iLok goes catsoup again. I'm most nervous about iLok than anything
> else on the machine, to be honest.
>
> I've installed the system to a pair of SATA 500GB drives configured in Apple
> RAID Mirror which is nice. One more SATA port for the do-everything optical
> drive. The fourth Sata port I allocated to a 1.5TB drive in a hot swap caddy
> containing a 1GB TM partition and a 500GB SuperDuper! bootable copy of the
> raid. The disk system is very fast. Also, each 500GB drive has a little
> independent 20GB Leo installation each bootable for rescue purposes.

Good to know that drives work OK.

> I have Bluetooth running on the from an internal USB socket, an integral
> bootable multi card reader. No Internal Wi-Fi.
>
> My Ethernet is not reliable yet. If I shut down VMWare fusion, I lose
> ethernet. Plus Bonjour doesn't work. Both of these problems are 'solved' by
> running a patched 'ifconfig' program to force en0 into promiscuous mode. I
> have a script which does that every 5 seconds. I'm on the lookout for a Gb-E
> PCI express card in the hopes I can not have to do this.

Hmm, unreliable Ethernet would be an issue too.

> Having said all that, it's now a much more capable machine for running Logic
> Studio than anything else I own. The GeForce runs dual screens, lots of room
> to work in. It's very very nice. It's never KPed on me either since I got it
> booting reliably. Puttering along on 10.6.2.

Good, stability is a biggie. I'm mostly concerned with getting speed out
of Aperture.

> > What kind of performance differences are there?
>
> I think I answered that above.

Yup.

> > Is it worth a go for a main use machine?
>
> This is the $64,000 question. Do I trust it. Nearly. I still have jitters
> with my iLok and plugins. I'm close to saying that i do trust it enough to
> abandon real Mac hardware whilst I save for a better real Mac. I'm doing more
> on it every day, and less on the other Macs.

Righto. I think there's certainly a couple of thinsg there that may be
an issue, unless they are fixable of course - networking, FW and Bonjour
for a start.

> And yes, I did make sure to put an apple label on the machine.

I'm sure I have some stickers somewhere ;-)

Thanks for that. I'm not sure I'd make a main machine out of this, but
it could be fun as a project some time.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>
From: Andy Hewitt on 28 Jan 2010 13:32
Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:11:09 +0000, Colin Harper
> <colinharper(a)x.com.invalid> wrote:
>
> >On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:49:27 +0000, Andy Hewitt wrote
> >(in article <1jd17cs.184zxr61c6miz4N%thewildrover(a)me.com>):
> >
> >> Is it worth a go for a main use machine?
> >
> >This is the $64,000 question. Do I trust it. Nearly. I still have jitters
> >with my iLok and plugins. I'm close to saying that i do trust it enough to
> >abandon real Mac hardware whilst I save for a better real Mac. I'm doing more
> >on it every day, and less on the other Macs.
>
> Yup. It's a little nervous, until you work out exactly what the
> trigger points for failures are. And then you have to be nervous every
> time there's a point update.
>
> I gave up after six months, bought a 2009 Mini instead. So comfortable
> and relaxing!

Yeah, I'm looking at Minis, but I'd want something that can at least
keep pace with my MacBook (2.2GHz C2D with 4GB RAM, and X3100 grapics).
But anything with those kind of specs seems to be fetching daft money on
eBay at the moment.

That's why I was (partially) considering cobbling together a Hackintosh
box. I could do that, and built it together of the next couple of
months. But, it would need to be reliable.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>
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