My build: GIGABYTE Motherboard GA-H170N-WIFI So whatever else you do, choose one that’s hack-approved!
Mobo for short, this all-important printed circuit board must be compatible with a Hackintosh build because, when you’re fooling software into thinking that it is running on proprietary components, that communication all starts with the Mobo. It’s like your computer's nervous system, telling the heart to beat, and the legs to walk. The motherboard is in charge of all the communication between the components of your computer. Here's an introduction to what each part of your Hackintosh does: Neato.)Īnd while the components and software may change, understanding the process does not. (Recently, support was announced for NVIDIA 'Pascal' cards. Parts change all the time, and more importantly, Hackintosh support for parts changes all the time, so it's a good idea to check the Tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide for news on build components. It comes with a 4.00 GHz quad-core CPU, H170N-WIFI motherboard, EVGA GeForce GTX 970 GPU, and Samsung SSD drive among other things for between $1200-$1500. I’m calling this build Video Editor on a Limited Budget Pro. If you want to peruse the plethora of current options, go there. Tonymacx86 is the hub for all things Hackintosh, and has an amazing selection of supported builds that are always up-to-date.
Since drivers are the software that tells the OS how to interact with the hardware, you must seek out parts that have an OSX driver.
Since Mac OS was designed to run exclusively on proprietary Apple parts, most hardware vendors just aren't writing OSX drivers for their hardware. What makes building a Hackintosh trickier than a regular PC build? You can’t make one out of any old components -you must use parts that have OSX drivers. The basic components of a Hackintosh include a motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, GPU, SSD, RAM, WIFI card, power supply, and case. I’d never done a build, but have worked on Mac since Apple IIe-hello, 65 KB of RAM! Not only did having a partner like Peter help tremendously in finishing the build without any catastrophes, it also made the process way more fun. Peter is a software developer and SQA analyst who’s built tons of PCs from scratch, but never a Mac. I asked my friend Peter Reinhard to team up with me. With that being said, deciding on a build and assembling it can be both nerve-wracking and tedious. I enjoy figuring out how to build things from the ground up, and you probably do too, or you wouldn't be reading this. Just keep in mind that neither Ryan, myself, or any NFS writer is an actual lawyer. But that’s not a crime that would land you in the clink it's a contract violation. The way Ryan Koo first explained it, building a Hackintosh may violate the End-User License Agreement (EULA) that you agree to when you download Mac OS X. (Remember Psystar?) But building your own is legal gray area. Note that it is illegal to sell a Hackintosh.
With that in mind, this guide is meant to help you not only choose and build your system, but give you a beginner's primer on how and why everything works. I also wanted to have a better understanding, as a video editor, of how my editing machine actually worked. This past year, I decided to finally do it because: a) my old computer was dying a slow pinwheel of death, and b) I didn't have the budget for a real Mac Pro. If you're interested in doing the same, I've compiled a step-by-step beginner's guide (including a detailed list of components) based on my experience to help you get started your first machine.īuilding a Hackintosh (or CustoMac, depending on your vernacular) had been on my mind ever since Ryan Koo posted the original No Film School Hack tutorial a few years back. Putting together my first Hackintosh was a lot of work, a lot of fun, and saved me a heck of a lot of money.
Why not build your own upgrade? It worked for me.Īs a relative novice to the world of computer builds, practically all I'd done prior to this was install RAM. If you’re like me, the data rate of your footage may be multiplying faster than your current computer can handle.
Don't buy your next computer, build one with the performance of a Mac Pro-for half the price!