Anyone build a hackintosh for music related stuff?
I was debating building a new desktop since mine is older and meomory/cpu go through the roof if I have too many VSTs open or kits loaded into maschine and it doesn’t even really make sense to dump any money into this thing.
I have no experience with building hackintoshes and it seems like they can be a pain in the ass but promising with good planning and buying the right parts there may not be any issues. Windows is also really starting to annoy me so the prospect of building a $5000 mac pro for $1000 is very appealing.
I just wonder would there be any particular issues with building a hackintosh for music related stuff? I mean I think the hardware restrictions would only apply to system components right? Once all the drivers work on the desktop could there be any unforseen issues with software, soundcards, midi controllers, and other basic studio devices?
Yeah, I mean I’m sure there would probably be issues with really fancy studio hardware and audio interfaces but I’m just wondering for basic USB stuff. I saw some people even had apogee cards working but I wouldn’t try it.
I think this topic is generally frowned upon here but I’ve looked into the same thing as well
Some digging on google would get you started and the route you seem to want to go is much easier than a laptop.
Someone sold a hackintosh in the BST forum along with many people selling jailbroken ipads here recently so I don’t really see why talking about it in general terms would be an issue. I’m not really asking for guides how to do it and I would be buying osx anyway.
Basically I’m wondering about it from a music production perspective and what the pros/cons might be and any particular issues that might come up relating to music software and hardware.
Best thing to do is browse the forums for osx86. They have Wikis of all the hardware supported etc.
It is kinda of a pain to maintain at times, especially if you want to utilize updates. It can take a lot of trial and error to get that first install stable.
I have a friend who builds hackintosh to order.. it runs like a demon when using it for music. Running traktor would have no problems and he bench marked ableton will 100 channels on audio + 60 channels on massive no problems.
Basically your biggest concern if you aren’t really good with computers is to have the right hardware…So your starting at the right time.
I did it with my a desktop I built for my girlfriend and bought a really rare video card so I had to go in and change a bunch of kext codes myself, not fun at all.
So bascially, if you can match up hardware with what the macs already have in it then it should be alot easier.
Otherwise use google and use templates of what other ppl have used hardware wise and just buy those pieces specifically…I mean down too the having 2 dvi ports on a type of video card vs. 1 vga and 1 dvi.
Is there like a database or forum somewhere that shows people’s exact builds they used?
I would want to pick components known to work and if someone already built a system with the right specs that was easy to set up I would want to just duplicate it.
Built one? No
I did put OSX on my PC (Asus A8N, AMD3700XP+, Nvidia 7800GTX) to work around the old Traktor Pro send monitor state Windows bug tho
It worked a treat but since they fixed the bug in Traktor 2 I’ve gone back to XP.
Don’t know what kind of dual booting you are referring to but you can partion just fine and boot into either system…atleast thats what I did with win7 and OSX.
Would be the same as setting up two partitions running windows 7 which I did on my old laptop, one for music and one for everything else…
Pick around that site for a while…thats a new page that I didn’t have when i built one…
Honestly I don’t care for the OS at all but my gf wanted it and I could see why you would want mac for your desktop since I know you have a macbook pro.
I might get back into hackintosh if I ever hear back from apple about jobs haha
Then again for what I do i bet they still use windows haha
edit: Graphics cards are the most important thing, basically any intel CPU will work but the wrong graphics card can really f u. As you can see from that page they basically match up the hardware inside the ‘desktop’ apple computers.
Wow that site is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!
Damn there is so much crap I want to buy. Every time I try to save up for CDJ-2000s I always think of all the other things I could just buy instead or save my money. $3200 on CDJ 2ks, or spend half as much and get a whole bunch of more useful things.
I still need to put aside money for a hotel for ultra…
My needs are a little more specific, I do engineering/design work on the side and the software I use(Solidworks) is picky about what video cards it likes(pretty much the InVida quaddro series). Since I’d imagine that hackintosh drivers for those cards could be difficult to manage I’d essentially be looking at a dual video card setup. Pain in the ass? Yes. Possible? Who knows, not I right now…
Just FYI: while it is perfectly fine to build a hackintosh in many countries, it isn’t in the US. US courts have repeatedly upheld apple’s EULA which prohibits installing os x on non-apple hardware.
In fact, for that reason, most us-based forums prohibit discussion of hackintosh.
i’m waiting on a little net book coming running osx, paid £100 on ebay for it, simply to see if i like the os as ive never really tried it. But if i do i plan to build a monster of a desktop for home.
