![\"Hackintosh_logo_by_kossnocorp\"](\"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hackintosh_logo_by_kossnocorp.png\"){kind=logo}
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This is a re-post from a response I recently added to a Creative Cow thread about the value of Hackintoshes. I built one late last year and I’m happy with it. But I know that happiness comes with a cost. The system does not have a high resale value and has many potential troubleshooting issues down the line.<\/p>\n
I came to terms with the reason why I wanted to build one: because I wanted to know\u00a0IF<\/strong> I could build one. It was a challenge which was frustrating but fun. I love learning about all the tech we use in our daily lives. It was a satisfying DIY project.<\/p>\n I ultimately feel that buying Apple provides a better value<\/b> over building a Hackintosh. But you don’t necessarily gain knowledge about your system and it’s components if you purchase a Mac. It’s like buying a refrigerator. If it breaks, you call a repair man. You’re most likely not going to open it up and fix the compressor (unless you’re a repair man!). So you might never understand how a refrigerator, a very important piece of tech in your life, works.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Hackintosh part prices below are current and possibly not reflective of what I paid. But it’s very close. This gets you mostly in parity with a top of the line iMac (minus Bluetooth and WiFi, which cost about $46 total for the components). Here are my specs:<\/p>\n Intel Core i7-3770K $320 TOTAL: $2003<\/strong><\/p>\n iMac System Specs: TOTAL: $3040 (before tax)<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, here’s the kicker. While Geekbench isn’t the be-all end-all, I think it’s a nice cross-reference for the technologically-barely-informed (such as myself ;-)).<\/p>\n My iMac 27″ top o’ the line gets a healthy 14268<\/strong> For all intents and purposes, they are equal systems. One costs $3014 and comes with a warranty. The other costs $2003, works great, and is expandable, but has risks. Again, if you need to purchase a monitor, keyboard and mouse for the Hackintosh, that will add an additional amount and bring them much more in line price-wise.<\/p>\n Let’s look at the percentage difference if we take out AppleCare to get the systems more in line.<\/p>\n iMac: 2845<\/strong> Now, let’s look at potential resale value and upgrade costs. This is assuming a new iMac will cost about the same amount in 2 years:<\/p>\n iMac late 2012 resale value in 2 years (conservative): $1250\u00a0<\/strong> Hackintosh upgrade option 1, resale and build from scratch:<\/strong> Hackintosh upgrade option 2, upgrade CPU, Mobo, and RAM<\/strong> So there you have it. At most, there’s an $870 difference (not including time spent) in favor of an equally spec’d Hack Pro and a top-end iMac over a 2-year period. Divide that out by 2 years and that’s $37 per month<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The ultimate question I propose (which I’ve already answered for myself): Is it worth it for you to build one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a re-post from a response I recently added to a Creative Cow thread about the value of Hackintoshes. I built one late last year and I’m happy with it. But I know that happiness comes with a cost. The system does not have a high resale value and has many potential troubleshooting issues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,43],"tags":[62,51,63],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5-TH (has 2 thunderbolt ports) $245
\n32GB 1600Mhz DDR3 $217
\nCorsair Carbide 500R $158
\nCorsair 650 Watt Modular $90
\nGeForce GTX 680 $497
\n480GB SSD Drive $363
\nSyba SATA III 6Gbps PCI-e Card $17
\nStarTech.com 3 Port 2b 1a 1394 PCI Express FireWire Card Adapter PEX1394B3 $63
\nCooler Master Hyper 212 EVO: $33
\nI owned a Kona 3, which I installed and is working fine.<\/p>\n
\n3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
\n8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM-2X4GB
\n1TB Fusion Drive
\nNVIDIAGeFrc GTX 680MX 2G GDDR5: $2600
\nAppleCare: $170
\nRAM from OWC: $270<\/p>\n
\n The Hack Pro gets a substantial 14124<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nHack Pro: 2003<\/strong>
\nPercent Difference: %30<\/strong><\/p>\n
\niMac 2014 (high end) potential cost: $ 2900<\/strong>
\nOut of pocket difference: -$1650<\/strong>
\nTime needed to reinstall software and test new system: 1 day (based on purchase of iMac)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nHackintosh Late 2012 Cost: $2003<\/strong>
\nHackintosh Resale Value in 2 years: $400\u00a0<\/strong>
\nHackintosh Late 2014 potential cost: $2000<\/strong>
\nOut of pocket difference: -$1600<\/strong>
\nTime needed to research new system and find best prices on parts: countless nights on Hackintosh boards<\/strong>
\nTime spent building system: 1 day<\/strong>
\nTime spent testing parts and debugging: 2 days (conservative)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nNew Motherboard, Processor, RAM (assuming all current PCI Cards work properly and base prices stay the same): $782<\/strong>
\nTime spent researching whether all parts will work with new system and what CPU\/Mobo to get: 2-3 evenings on hack boards<\/strong>
\nTime spent installing new parts: 2 hrs<\/strong>
\nTime spent reinstalling OS, debugging: 1 day (conservative)<\/strong><\/p>\n