Hackintosh

[redbook]

I was waiting for the new apple announcement today and it left me sort of bummed out because they not only didn't upgrade the 3D card but they totally opted it out. I bought a 2011 mac mini for music production a couple months ago and it is pretty fast for that, added 16GB RAM. But aperture runs terribly slow on the Intel 3000 integrated chipset, it's really just way to slow for me in that regard. So seeing as these new mac minis just have Intel 4000 and not a discrete GPU I don't think they would work so well. It sucks because I have 2 good monitors I recently bought and I don't need an Imac with a screen or a tower with xeon processors. I just need a fast mac because all my promotional work is done with them! Lol

SO I am wondering if building a hackintosh is realistic. All my software is bought and paid for when it comes to Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Reason, or Aperture, etc. So can I build a really fast hackintosh that is reliable to get those speed gains? Any knowledge or help on this matter would be greatly appreciated

 

[jrodfry]

There is a video about hackintoshs' on youtube. Go to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvHm_zGAMvM

Here he provides some ideas about a hackintosh. Good luck!

 

[redbook]

My mac mini server is a 2GHz i7 Sandy Bridge with Intel 3000 HD with 16GB RAM and it's tiny at 1.4 inches tall by 7.7 inches wide.

The new mac mini's released today are Ivy Bridge and come in either 2.3 or 2.6GHz i7 with Intel 4000.

The price doesn't bother me that much because they are designed really well and with thunderbolt they are great tiny powerful music machines. I'm going to have my mac mini as a dedicated piano keyboard cpu with a screen attached to my stand so that I can see and access VSTs and Audio Units I'm using and have it sync with this new faster mother DAW mac or hackintosh.

I use this on a professional level though and it being reliable is extremely important. If this thing messed up on me live, I would probably go nuts Lol I'm going to check out that video, thanks for the info!

 

[redbook]

Sounds pretty awesome but I have to research to see if those parts will all work right? I don't need a sound card as I use a pro tools fire wire interface. I guess that is another thing I have to research, how well audio interfaces work with hackintosh's :S

 

[redbook]

All those parts are compatible? That's awesome info! I watched the video jrodfry posted on the blackintosh and they say that this board seems to be really compatible? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498

If I could buy a thunberbolt motherboard that works, that would be amazing.

 

[Shekhar5]

I was waiting for the new apple announcement today and it left me sort of bummed out because they not only didn't upgrade the 3D card but they totally opted it out. I bought a 2011 mac mini for music production a couple months ago and it is pretty fast for that, added 16GB RAM. But aperture runs terribly slow on the Intel 3000 integrated chipset, it's really just way to slow for me in that regard. So seeing as these new mac minis just have Intel 4000 and not a discrete GPU I don't think they would work so well. It sucks because I have 2 good monitors I recently bought and I don't need an Imac with a screen or a tower with xeon processors. I just need a fast mac because all my promotional work is done with them! Lol

SO I am wondering if building a hackintosh is realistic. All my software is bought and paid for when it comes to Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Reason, or Aperture, etc. So can I build a really fast hackintosh that is reliable to get those speed gains? Any knowledge or help on this matter would be greatly appreciated

http://www.howtogeek.com/72417/the-how-to-geek-guide-to-hackintoshing-part-1-the-basics/

http://www.howtogeek.com/72821/the-how-to-geek-guide-to-hackintoshing-part-2-the-installation/
http://www.howtogeek.com/73113/the-how-to-geek-guide-to-hackintoshing-part-3-upgrading-to-lion-and-dual-booting/

 

[willyroc]

With Thunderbolt and GTX 670:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($314.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.82 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($359.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Tempest 410 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1259.73
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

 

[redbook]

Thanks for all the great info. After a lot of reading and research I realized that I won't be able to get my apollo working properly with a hackintosh in a way that makes me feel comfortable onstage so I will be going for a mac mini BUT this has turned me onto building my own pc for some "graphic intense" purposes.

I say Hawken the other day, and I'm not really a guy who plays games but I want it So I'm going to set up a PC for that and some other games Lol

It's weird me picking just one good answer here cause everyone was helpful, thanks a ton

 

[redbook]

I wish it was exactly the same but I did a lot of reading and people are having trouble setting up the apollo (http://www.uaudio.com/apollo).

I realized after a lot of reading that I just do not have the time to make sure my music equipment works properly. I'm currently working on an album, and the mac mini is my fastest best right now to add some extra power to my situation.

 

[redbook]

No, my friend. No propaganda, just honesty This is one of the issues I was referring to (http://www.tonymacx86.com/lion-desktop-support/68929-help-audio-driver-causes-boot-up-kernel-panic.html)

Music is my work, and not a hobby so I can't risk anything not working properly because setting up sessions is technical enough as it is and time consuming If you see in my original post, I was looking for a speed solution, not a money one. I was just under the impression that I could do it but I'm now realizing my music hardware set-up is too complex for a solution like this. I have a pro tools hd and apollo system and if I had to waste time getting their drivers to work or any other issue on a day I have to meet with a client, it's just a non-option for me in my line of work.

I'm still interested in setting up a hackintosh but for graphic work/video editing now. I feel as long as I make a system that doesn't rely on a lot of "outside machines" like my macs do right now for music, I should be okay.

 

[willyroc]

OSX is only compatible with certain hardware.

 

[redbook]

Do you know if the MSI GeForce GTX 680 Lighting 2GB is compatible? I want to get a powerful 3D card for this build.

 

[ShaneDP]

Hi all

I'm looking to build to fastest home PC setup possible without actually spending on a full licensed Linux resolve.

I researched all last week on the best home Resolve setup and went from OSX Hackintosh to Linux to PC and eventually back to OSX as I learned more.

So far I have settled on these components;
- Resolve for Mac OSX license on Mountain Lion
- Corsair Obsidian 900D case
- ASUS LGA2011 Intel C602 DDR3 1600 SATA III Motherboard Z9PE-D8 WSIntel Xeon Eight-Core E5-2687W 3.1GHz 8.0GT/s 20MB LGA2011Corsair Hydro Series
- 2 x Intel Xeon Eight-Core E5-2687W 3.1GHz 8.0GT/s 20MB LGA2011
- 64Gb Corsair Dominator 2100Mhz
- 2 x Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H100i
Cubix Expander for;
3 x EVGA GeForce GTX 680 FTW 4096MB GDDR5, DVI, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort
1 x Red Rocket Card
- GUI = 1 x Quadro 4000 for Mac
- Decklink 4k card
- Apple Display as GUI monitor (via Displayport?)
- 4 Monitoring undecided as yet
- RAID storage currently undecided


I wanted to build a Thunderbolt setup but have preferred the twin Xeon motherboard to a single i7 core - I need a super stable environment so am not over-clocking.
So my questions are;
Are these the top of the line components??
Is there a better setup?
I read conflicting info about the advantages of 2/3Gb 580 PCIe2 cards vs 4Gb 680 PCIe3 cards? Which is the definitive best for OSX Resolve work?
Why not use 4 x 680 (1 x 680 as the GUI)?
Why are Quadro seen to better with so many less CUDA cores? Is the larger memory bus the deal breaker?
Is an all Quadro / Tesla system better for Resolve (and worth the larger expense)?? They aren't approved by DaVinci.. Would 4 x Quadro 6000 work??
Is the Windows advantage of another GPU and more RAM worth the pain of dealing with the OS? (I hate Windows!)
What are the advantages of DVI over HDMI?
I am trying to build a system which will be relatively future proof moving into a 6k / 4k world.


Thanks all, any advice gratefully appreciated.

Shane
shanedaly.info