Build a Hackintosh with better performance than a Mac Pro — for half the price. A comprehensive, free, step-by-step guide.
Last updated March 2013 with the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processor and motherboard recommendations (which, it’s worth noting, are not available on the out-of-date Mac Pros) and OS X Mountain Lion-native installation instructions. We’ve also refreshed the nVidia GPUs. New in this latest build: Thunderbolt! However, note that to use the Thunderbolt ports on a Hackintosh, you will have to plug in your Thunderbolt device at boot-up; it is not hot-swappable. We also have native nVidia graphics drivers for the best possible video/3D support.
Introduction
What do you do when you need a high-end Mac — for editing video, retouching photos, recording music, animating 3D graphics, or just playing games — but you can’t afford a Mac Pro? Build one out of PC components. Yes, it’s possible to take off-the-shelf PC parts and build a Mac with your bare hands. It takes a D.I.Y attitude and a sense of adventure, but the result — a machine that’s faster than the entry-level Mac Pro, for half the price — is worth it. I wrote this how-to with video editors and other creatives in mind, but this hackintosh will work for anyone looking to get more bang for the buck out of a Mac. I believe this is the most in-depth guide you’ll find online, as I explain a lot of the reasons for choosing certain components, and I also include a full suite of testing utilities to ensure you end up with absolute best hackintosh (less) money can buy. As more folks build this exact machine, the article should get even more comprehensive, thanks to comments and additions.
Creativity shouldn’t be relegated to the upper class. But in the 21st century, many creative pursuits require the latest technology — especially working with video, which requires a lot of processing power and storage space. But when Apple recently announced new Mac Pros for the first time in almost two years, I wondered why they were so expensive, concluding that they were “not a good value proposition.” As far as video editors were concerned, I also wondered why they no longer offered nVidia graphics cards as an option, despite (or because of) the fact that Adobe Creative Suite uses nVidia cards to get drastically higher performance when editing video. So here’s the latest technology at a fraction of the cost — all it requires to build a Hackintosh is some elbow grease and a DIY attitude.
Here’s a screencast (no sound) of my original hackintosh running flawlessly, loading notoriously slow applications like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word in a jiffy. You’ll have to full-screen it to read the text:
The new model represented in this article is quite a bit faster.
This isn’t easy. There are literally a million things that can go wrong when trying to build a hackintosh. You need a basic level of technical ability to do this! While I knew from reading the experiences of others that this was possible, I hadn’t seen anyone put together a guide for creating a hackintosh specifically for video editors, animators, and filmmakers, so I exhaustively researched the components and procedures — often ordering more than one component and choosing the best option — and put together this step-by-step hackintosh guide. Then I tested it on a real-life project. Then I tested it some more and replaced a few components. Then I started over and rebuilt it from scratch to ensure it would work for others. Only then was I satisfied that I’d put together the absolute best hackintosh from a price, performance, and reliability standpoint. As such, I would strongly recommend you use the same components and follow the step-by-step guide, because any deviation from the instructions here might result in a hackintosh that doesn’t work perfectly.
One final note for this introduction: like The DSLR Cinematography Guide, very little of this information originated with me. Instructions for how to build a hackintosh are scattered all over the internet, contained in many different forums and web sites. However, no one’s written a guide specifically for video editors and other professional digital creators. Despite their lack of cohesive organization, however, online forums are absolutely incredible resources — and the first thing you should do is bookmark the following forums. I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have while we build a hackintosh, but these forums are also a great resource:
For a comparison of the speed of this Hackintosh and the current Mac Pro, turn the page:
(Apple photo by kyz)
282 COMMENTS
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jack on 02.20.12 @ 3:04PM
Never mind apparently I’m dumb and the drive is inserted from the outside not the inside of the case. Oh well next time i will RTFM.
/facepalm.jpg
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Thanks for the heads-up, guys, I have updated the components to ones that are currently available.
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Is it possible to build a hackintosh using a G5 case an power supply as the base?
A friend “donated” his G5 to me. The mother board failed.
Or is the issue that the hackintosh mother board is a different form-factor?Craig
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Craig, yes, but it looks like a giant pain in the ass. See this thread:
http://legacy.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=16300
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Yea Koo seriously you rock, I’m going to be building my new machine from this.
It’s a mess out there to build one of these without your nice compilation of information.
Thanks for all your time, it’s much appreciated.
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Brandon on 03.27.12 @ 1:04PM
How long did this take you to do Koo? How many days and how many hours of actually putting it together and getting Snow Leopard working? Great guide by the way, I’m excited to build but must know How long this takes so I can plan my schoolwork accordingly.
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fantastic work, again !
I was just wondering : is it possible with this new configuration to still boot on Snow Leopard ? I have to stay on this OS because I still use a lot of apps that are not 64 bits… Unfortunately the last macbook pro (a real one !) I just bought don’t allow me to install Snow Leopard any more… It would be one of the many reasons for me to build a mackintosh !
does anyone know ??
thanks ! -
kago on 04.20.12 @ 6:44PM
What does apple say about this? What action do they take when they find you running a hackingtosh in you office?
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fxtentacle on 05.4.12 @ 4:59AM
Great article! Thank you!
I’ve built two hackintoshes on my own and back then i needed to modify and compile my own bootloader and DSDT tables.
This time i’m lazy and i want stuff to “just work”. I’m glad i stumbled upon your nicely written and well-researched article :)
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Hello,
Do you plan on updating your recommended hardware with the release of premiere cs6?
Here http://www.eoshd.com/content/8027/macbook-pro-editors-rejoice-new-premiere-pro-cs6-supports-opencl-for-renderless-timeline-not-just-nvidia-cuda
it seems we don’t need a nvidia graphic card anymore to get gpu acceleration in premiere cs6.
I’m curious to know what you would recommend for a cs6 hack pro.Thank you
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could you also use the new 3rd gen Intel i7, the Intel Core i7 3770K?
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Jack Allred on 06.13.12 @ 12:51PM
Koo,
Great tutorial.
Will you be updating later this month for ivy bridge/usb3/thunderbolt/gtx680 support? July will be prime time for a Hack Pro, and many (including myself) will be looking for an up-to-date tutorial as detailed and thorough as yours.Thanks for the great work and effort!
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Daniel on 06.16.12 @ 9:08AM
I’d also like to know more about Ivy Bridge, thanks Koo! Great guide by the way, hopefully I’ll be building my Hac Pro soon!
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I’m eager to start building a new system. Any idea when the updated tutorial will be online? Thanks for all your work!
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Martin Viel on 06.14.12 @ 6:22PM
Hello
Is it possible to install 2 graphic cards, in order to use DaVinci Resolve ?
If I want to enable Cuda on a Nvidia Quadro 4000, do I have to buy a special kind of motherboard ?Thank you for the help.
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Is is guide updated? It says it hasnt been updated since December 2011 but someone posted it was going to be updated on June 13th. Was it updated then?
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This is great!!! I’m looking forward to building me a HackPro. I had a question to see if you have tried to install Mountain Lion? I saw somebody else say it was not recommended. Also, I know the Ivy Bridge chips are out. Any luck integrating those? Somebody mentioned a new motherboard was coming out? It would be nice to see thunderbolt. What’s your opinion?
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I’m checking out the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H motherboard to go along with the Intel i7 3770K processor. Thunderbolt might not be all that important to me…prices are still pretty high on that stuff and eSata is really quick. Hopefully with the release of Mountain Lion we will see a native support of Ivy Bridge processors. Then we can get our hackintosh on.
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Jordan H on 07.25.12 @ 1:59PM
Hey everyone,
I’m going to start my build this weekend and I’d kind of like to use Snow Leopard instead of Lion. It’s just that I’ve been reading and it seems like Lion still has some compatibility kinks to work out with some other software. (as every update does) and I just don’t want to deal with that. I’m wondering if there would be any problems/differences in either the functionality of the computer or steps that should be taken during software set up?
Or am I misled in my hesitation to use Lion?
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Robert on 08.12.12 @ 11:02PM
The only problem with building a Hackintosh is that many of the SUPER high-end video cards, like the GeForce 690, don’t have Mac drivers available. It’s totally unusable, I believe.
Meanwhile, drivers for Windows 8 are already out for these cards, and Windows 8 isn’t even officially released yet.
I’ll stick with high-end PCs. But you can get by with the lower-end cheaper cards. They have plenty of cores. :)
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Robert on 08.15.12 @ 12:24AM
There are many solutions, but here’s what you would get in a Hackintosh with that video card:
Quadro FX 4800:
1.5GB memory
192 CUDA coresGeForce 690:
4GB memory
3072 CUDA coresAs everyone knows by now, the “workstation” video cards are out of date and out-classed by the higher end “gaming” video cards. These cards are not only used by gamers and video editors, but also by scientists and doctors who need super-computer processing power.
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mardus on 09.26.12 @ 3:52PM
can not wait for the update!
I hope it’s going to be something awesome with dual xeons :)) -
Very interested to see the price and specs! Want to dual boot Linux.
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destorck on 09.4.12 @ 6:07AM
Great recommended hardware for building a hackintosh
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac
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Colored on 09.8.12 @ 1:44AM
I’m looking to build a blazing box that can handle the newest DaVinci Resolve, Apple Color, Symphony 6.5, and FCP 7. Would your latest hackintosh fit the bill? Any info would be apprecitated. Thanks!
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I finally built my hackintosh.
Here are my specs:
-Antec P183 v3 case
-Gigabyte z77x-ud5h Motherboard
-Intel i7 3770k overclocked to 4.4 GHz
-Corsair h60 cooler
-Corsair 16GB Blue Vengeance RAM
-MSI Geforce GTX660 ti 2GB
-SanDisk Extreme SSD 120GB
-Seagate Barracuda 2TB
-Sony Optiarc DVD-Burner
-TP-Link TL-WDN4800 Wireless Card (works natively)
-Antec CP-850 Power Supply
-Dell 2412 Display
-Mac OS X Mountain LionGeekbench: +- 17000
I installed everything using unibeast & multibeast, aswell as this tutorial: http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-builds/70530-success-slugnets-video-editor-ga-z77x-ud5h-i7-3770k-gigabyte-geforce-gtx-660-ti.html
Hope I could help :)
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Andrew on 09.21.12 @ 11:01AM
It was freelancer Nitsan Simantov who mentioned to me about NoFilm School and building these Hackintosh computers and I’m so glad he did. At the moment I’m only editing in DV but on my laughably inadequate laptop – A seven year old Dell Inspiron with 2 gig ram (and a hamster on a wheel to power it) even DV video takes ages…I’ve seen glaciers move faster.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading the ‘how to’ guide and pricing up my dream HD editing Hackintosh. -
Ziggy on 10.2.12 @ 7:43PM
Great guide, will be building mine soon. So you recommend GTX 570 over the newer versions of 670,680. Also what do you think and does Mountain Lion support SLI. I was thinking maybe of two 570 with 2.5 GB.
Best,
Paul-
I don’t think Macs support SLI. And yes the 5XX cards have better architecture as far as video/3D/color correction is concerned (floating point performance) versus the 6XX cards which are seemingly designed more narrowly for games.
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Ziggy on 10.2.12 @ 11:53PM
Thank you for your reply. Have you done any research for 570 vs 580 or 590?
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The 570 just seems like the best value proposition but the 80 and 90 cards will be better. One thing to do is check out the Premiere Pro Benchmark results — you’ll see the top cards are the 570, 580, 680, etc. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison given there are different CPU speeds there, but it can be helpful:
http://ppbm5.com/DB-PPBM5-2.php
Along with the DaVinci Resolve benchmarks I link to on the “What to Buy” page:
http://www.barefeats.com/rogue04.html
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timeoutofmind on 10.3.12 @ 12:33AM
amazing. listen … i’m already a one man gang doc / brand video producer. i script, shoot, sound, post, develop business, manage clients etc etc .. i don’t have the time, not to mention the skills, to get anywhere near a project like this.
but i’m a perfect candidate … on three year old mac pro, just migrating out of final cut playschool and onto cs6, and i’d like a machine that can jump.
question: anyone know anyone in toronto who could build one for a price ?
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jdog on 10.4.12 @ 6:38PM
Followed ur advice and edited this video with my new mac in 12hrs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rca7rvbaHOE&list=UUmQmAmyVKqxJbCumVRoArVA&feature=plcp ,speed was incredible
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Nick on 10.4.12 @ 9:44PM
I’m thinking about building a Hack Pro for the purpose of using Resolve 9. That being the case, would I look at Black Magic’s Configuration Guide for PC or Mac?
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Nick on 10.4.12 @ 9:45PM
I’m thinking about building a Hack Pro for the purpose of using Resolve 9. That being the case, would I look at Black Magic’s Configuration Guide (the newest one just came out) for PC or Mac?
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Quick question regarding the thunderbolt.
I see that the device needs to be connected at startup. but due to thunderbolt being a daisy chainable system if i have a hard drive plugged in full time then connect the next thing to that, lets say a blackmagic cinema camera, would i then be able to acces it immediately? Does anybody have experience with this? or what to have a guess?thanks
PS you guys rock, thanks for the shopping list.
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Kramer on 10.15.12 @ 6:03AM
The graphic card in the $900 shopping list seem to be discontinued or hard to find.
(EVGA GeForce GTX560, 01G-P3-1464-KR)Anyone use the EVGA GeForce GTX560 Ti for this build?
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Thanks for this article. It allows me to know details about information more for power hand tools.
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Thanks for this article. It allows me to know details about information more for computer hardware.
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JoshuaC on 10.25.12 @ 3:08AM
can i use USB 3.0 with this, and how many thunderbolt ports can i install??
65 pingbacks
Thanks for this guide, it helped me out tremendously, one thing i might change is the hardware assembly order. with the p180 case it is very difficult to add the Blu-ray/DVD drive after the ram installation. i accidentally broke one of my retaining clips on DDR3 Slot 1 when removing the ram to instal it. Damn these clumsy fingers. It sucks to lose the mobo in one shot but i got a new one on the way now and i don’t feel bad about it because of how much money i was saving on it anyway. I figure id give a heads up as it might save some people a little cash if they do that instal first. You definitely get much love from me for doing this as it has saved me so much time with my research by just having to verify yours.