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Why not build a hackintosh? I've got a beast of a rig that has been flawless. Easy upgrades (though you do have to wait a few days), handoff, continuity, thun

Why not build a hackintosh? I've got a beast of a rig that has been flawless. Easy upgrades (though you do have to wait a few days), handoff, continuity, thunderbolt all working 100%. The only downtime I've had is restarts due to security updates. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JnJCf8 https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JnJCf8

dijit 9y ago
I saw a dude with a ryzen hackintosh rig, it performed incredibly but... even among enthusiasts he mentioned 'This was not for the faint hearted. I don't recommend you actually do this- even though I got it to work with minimal quirks it took probably more than a month of my life". Obviously not all hackintosh's are not as bad as that (AMD being a completely unsupported platform in Apple-land) but the /risk/ of it is a very large blocker for many people. I bought my first mac precisely to avoid these kinds of issues.
- wolfgke 9y ago
  > Obviously not all hackintosh's are not as bad as that (AMD being a completely unsupported platform in Apple-land) but the /risk/ of it is a very large blocker for many people. > I bought my first mac precisely to avoid these kinds of issues. The lock-in to Apple products should also be considered as a large blocker.
- jawngee 9y ago
  If you stick to "standard" parts there is little to no risk. There is so much information out there on which parts are compatible and which aren't. The hardest obstacle for me was sourcing some parts because they weren't available here in Vietnam. I had to fly to Singapore for most of it. Ironically, it was cheaper to do that for the parts I could get here, so everything worked out in the end.
Aaargh20318 9y ago
> I've got a beast of a rig that has been flawless. Can you guarantee that ? Who is responsible if an upgrade doesn't work or bricks your machine ?
- matthew-wegner 9y ago
  Of course not. macOS has no DRM, but that could change at some point. Information on changes for updates come quickly, and it's pretty standard practice to clone your boot drive before major updates. In a worst-case scenario, you just stay on a version of macOS until it makes more sense to use that same hardware for a Windows/whatever OS change.
  - Gaelan 9y ago
    Not true IIRC. Several OS components are decrypted at runtime by “Don’t Steal Mac OS X.kext”. Not very effective, of course.
    - matthew-wegner 9y ago
      I'm aware of DSMOS, but as yet it doesn't do any verification of anything before decryption. Also, the actual key used is simply "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc". To virtualize OSX/macOS on hypervisors that don't natively support Mac, you have to pass this in yourself.
- jawngee 9y ago
  That's why you wait a few days. The hackintosh community is very active. Also, at this point, the things that would brick you in the past are no longer applicable with a modern hackintosh.
  - Aaargh20318 9y ago
    > That's why you wait a few days. The hackintosh community is very active. That may be fine for a home user, but if my livelyhood was dependent on this machine I'd rather buy something less hacked together and with actual support options. This is not about wether or not it will actually work, it's about liability.
    - jawngee 9y ago

dijit 9y ago

I saw a dude with a ryzen hackintosh rig, it performed incredibly but... even among enthusiasts he mentioned 'This was not for the faint hearted. I don't recommend you actually do this- even though I got it to work with minimal quirks it took probably more than a month of my life". Obviously not all hackintosh's are not as bad as that (AMD being a completely unsupported platform in Apple-land) but the /risk/ of it is a very large blocker for many people. I bought my first mac precisely to avoid these kinds of issues.

wolfgke 9y ago
> Obviously not all hackintosh's are not as bad as that (AMD being a completely unsupported platform in Apple-land) but the /risk/ of it is a very large blocker for many people. > I bought my first mac precisely to avoid these kinds of issues. The lock-in to Apple products should also be considered as a large blocker.
jawngee 9y ago
If you stick to "standard" parts there is little to no risk. There is so much information out there on which parts are compatible and which aren't. The hardest obstacle for me was sourcing some parts because they weren't available here in Vietnam. I had to fly to Singapore for most of it. Ironically, it was cheaper to do that for the parts I could get here, so everything worked out in the end.

Aaargh20318 9y ago

> I've got a beast of a rig that has been flawless. Can you guarantee that ? Who is responsible if an upgrade doesn't work or bricks your machine ?

matthew-wegner 9y ago
Of course not. macOS has no DRM, but that could change at some point. Information on changes for updates come quickly, and it's pretty standard practice to clone your boot drive before major updates. In a worst-case scenario, you just stay on a version of macOS until it makes more sense to use that same hardware for a Windows/whatever OS change.
- Gaelan 9y ago
  Not true IIRC. Several OS components are decrypted at runtime by “Don’t Steal Mac OS X.kext”. Not very effective, of course.
  - matthew-wegner 9y ago
    I'm aware of DSMOS, but as yet it doesn't do any verification of anything before decryption. Also, the actual key used is simply "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc". To virtualize OSX/macOS on hypervisors that don't natively support Mac, you have to pass this in yourself.
jawngee 9y ago
That's why you wait a few days. The hackintosh community is very active. Also, at this point, the things that would brick you in the past are no longer applicable with a modern hackintosh.
- Aaargh20318 9y ago
  > That's why you wait a few days. The hackintosh community is very active. That may be fine for a home user, but if my livelyhood was dependent on this machine I'd rather buy something less hacked together and with actual support options. This is not about wether or not it will actually work, it's about liability.
  - jawngee 9y ago