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I just built a powerful Hackintosh for about $1.5k with Sierra. Was worried about how stable it would be and took good care of researching all the parts that w

by asenna 9y ago

I just built a powerful Hackintosh for about $1.5k with Sierra. Was worried about how stable it would be and took good care of researching all the parts that were verified by the community[1]. It's been going good for 3-4 months now. Took some effort to get it all setup but am very happy now. I use this for Video/Photo post-processing, web development mainly. [1] https://www.tonymacx86.com/ https://www.tonymacx86.com/

tambourine_man 9y ago
Sleep, Bluetooth, Wifi work fine?
dmix 9y ago
My concern with this type of set-up is not neccessarily getting it working initially. Clearly you did you research and found parts that were supported. My concern is upgrading. For people with hackintosh experience what has the longevity experience been like? Do things break each major upgrade? Are things slow moving to get to the latest version? I'm worried it might be like Linux desktop back in the day. I've found modern Linux to be very stable while using cutting edge versions of Linux. Largely thanks to Archlinux. But I've been interested in having a seperate OSX install for Photoshop and Sketch to have an OS for doing design and having Linux for programming/everything else.
- cmsimike 9y ago
  During my tenure with a hackintosh at home, I never upgraded the OS as it basically meant a reformat. This was around 10.6-10.8 - I don't know if it has got better. Meaning once I installed a flavor of 10.x.y, I would never upgrade to 10.x.(y+1) until a new x came out, then I'd just reformat.
- nik736 9y ago
  I am upgrading by doing a clean install every big version. I just did my Sierra "upgrade" last week. I am using a Hackintosh for 3 or 4 years now and while it is working I would not recommend it to people who just want something "that works". It gets annoying quite fast and the only thing that kept me using it was the fact that Apple was so bad with updating their product line, which is over now as I will buy the new 5k iMac.
  - dmix 9y ago
    > the only thing that kept me using it was the fact that Apple was so bad with updating their product line, May I ask what type of hardware you are using?
- giobox 9y ago
  I've been lucky in that my Hackintosh's working 'uptime' has been pretty great over the past 3 years. That said, I've had a couple of OS updates putting my desktop out of commission for a day or two - I would never consider it for a work machine. With today's MacBook upgrades, I've ordered a 'real' Mac and reverted my desktop tower back to Windows gaming box duties - the 'fun' of hackintoshing quickly fades once you've done it for a few years and just want to know your computer is always going to boot when you press the power button, especially if like me you use OS X 99% of the time. Maybe I'm just stupid, but as far as I'm concerned folks with hackintoshes who haven't had a boot breaking issue occur are either lucky, or it has yet to happen to them. I deliberately built the most 'golden' of mainstream hackintosh builds (close to identical to the Dan Benjamin one folks are linking here), no custom kexts, used Clover, still had the occasional issue. Given Apple are moving to ever more intertwine custom hardware into Macs (touchbar, touch id, secure enclave etc), I think the future of hackintoshing is probably going to be harder than it is today.
- dplgk 9y ago
  Upgrading is usually painless. You typically need to reinstall a driver (kext) or two after upgrading... The same ones you installed when first setting up the mac. So assuming you documented your setup, it's no problem.
jachee 9y ago
See also Dan Benjamin's nice, minimal, well-researched http://hackintoshmethod.com http://hackintoshmethod.com
bobbington 9y ago
People shouldn't use hackintoshes. In addition to being buggy and illegal, it's also disrespectful. They put a ton of work into their os and their right to sell it how they please should be respected. If you don't want to pay, then don't use it.

by asenna 9y ago

tambourine_man 9y ago

Sleep, Bluetooth, Wifi work fine?

dmix 9y ago

My concern with this type of set-up is not neccessarily getting it working initially. Clearly you did you research and found parts that were supported. My concern is upgrading. For people with hackintosh experience what has the longevity experience been like? Do things break each major upgrade? Are things slow moving to get to the latest version? I'm worried it might be like Linux desktop back in the day. I've found modern Linux to be very stable while using cutting edge versions of Linux. Largely thanks to Archlinux. But I've been interested in having a seperate OSX install for Photoshop and Sketch to have an OS for doing design and having Linux for programming/everything else.

cmsimike 9y ago
During my tenure with a hackintosh at home, I never upgraded the OS as it basically meant a reformat. This was around 10.6-10.8 - I don't know if it has got better. Meaning once I installed a flavor of 10.x.y, I would never upgrade to 10.x.(y+1) until a new x came out, then I'd just reformat.
nik736 9y ago
I am upgrading by doing a clean install every big version. I just did my Sierra "upgrade" last week. I am using a Hackintosh for 3 or 4 years now and while it is working I would not recommend it to people who just want something "that works". It gets annoying quite fast and the only thing that kept me using it was the fact that Apple was so bad with updating their product line, which is over now as I will buy the new 5k iMac.
- dmix 9y ago
  > the only thing that kept me using it was the fact that Apple was so bad with updating their product line, May I ask what type of hardware you are using?
giobox 9y ago
I've been lucky in that my Hackintosh's working 'uptime' has been pretty great over the past 3 years. That said, I've had a couple of OS updates putting my desktop out of commission for a day or two - I would never consider it for a work machine. With today's MacBook upgrades, I've ordered a 'real' Mac and reverted my desktop tower back to Windows gaming box duties - the 'fun' of hackintoshing quickly fades once you've done it for a few years and just want to know your computer is always going to boot when you press the power button, especially if like me you use OS X 99% of the time. Maybe I'm just stupid, but as far as I'm concerned folks with hackintoshes who haven't had a boot breaking issue occur are either lucky, or it has yet to happen to them. I deliberately built the most 'golden' of mainstream hackintosh builds (close to identical to the Dan Benjamin one folks are linking here), no custom kexts, used Clover, still had the occasional issue. Given Apple are moving to ever more intertwine custom hardware into Macs (touchbar, touch id, secure enclave etc), I think the future of hackintoshing is probably going to be harder than it is today.
dplgk 9y ago
Upgrading is usually painless. You typically need to reinstall a driver (kext) or two after upgrading... The same ones you installed when first setting up the mac. So assuming you documented your setup, it's no problem.

jachee 9y ago

See also Dan Benjamin's nice, minimal, well-researched http://hackintoshmethod.com http://hackintoshmethod.com

bobbington 9y ago

People shouldn't use hackintoshes. In addition to being buggy and illegal, it's also disrespectful. They put a ton of work into their os and their right to sell it how they please should be respected. If you don't want to pay, then don't use it.