The Price of a Hack!

[aquamac]

Here is an interesting comparison that I put together comparing the last Hackintosh I built next to a real Mac Pro keeping the specs as closely matched as I can.

I have included an aluminium keyboard and a wired mighty mouse in my build to be as fair as possible to the real mac as these are always included.

Also I have 2 9800 GTX's running in my hack but I could only select 2 x ATI 2600 XT's for the real mac as a comparison. However, the real mac runs 8 cores and my hack only runs 4, so we'll call it "even stevens".

Here we go:

My Hack:

Asus P5E3 wireless @n motherboard = £229

Q9450 Core 2 Quad o'thingyed to 3.4 GHz = £206

4 Gigs Corsair 1333 ram DDR3 = £164

9800 GTX x 2 off = £434

Mac Pro case with all internal components = £200

4 x Samsung spinpoint 1 TB Drives = £300

Hyper 650 watt SLi Power Supply = £54

2 x Pioneer Super drives = £36

Linksys wireless n card = £55

Apple ALI wired keyboard = £29

Apple wired mighty mouse = £35

TOTAL = £1764

Mac Pro:

Processor 2.8 Gigs x 8

4 Gigs 800 Ram

4 x 1 TB Hard Drives

2 x ATI 2600 XT

2 X Superdrives

Wireless n

Apple ALI wired Keyboard

Apple wired mighty mouse

Total = £3229.01

Around half the price for a similar specced machine. I know that I have not included my labour in here and also that there is the upgrade agro every time Apple brings out an update.

But for anyone who is happy and enjoys spending some time building the savings are real. Of course you may already have some components to include in your build which will further widen the gap - I certainly did. My option also includes 2 x built in e-Sata sockets on the back IO panel of the motherboard to connect 2 extra HDD's.

This is in no way a bash at Apple as their computers are great but limited in Hardware options.

[nano2nd]

You can still price for a single process quad core Mac Pro on the Apple site - that will give you a better reference than the 8 way box.

I'd go and price it myself now but I'm at work and the internet meter will run out!

I think the extra value is in the journey as well as the destination. The satisfaction from building (or trying to in my case) from scratch cannot be underestimated.

[aquamac]

Hi Nano,

Yes I looked at that although I felt that 4 cores at 3.4 gigs was closer to 8 cores at 2.8 Gigs than 4 cores at 2.8 gigs probably somewhere in the middle.. You are right of course, it's getting there that is the most fun!

[HackJoe]

I'd have your spec over the real deal anyday... yeah it would be nice to just turn it on and not have to worry about it going wrong but if that was the case where would the fun be in fixing it.

I may do a price comparison on an AppleTV... I've fancied one for a while... wonder if i could build one for less.

J.

[nano2nd]

Aug 11, 2008 9:27:17 GMT HackJoe said:

I may do a price comparison on an AppleTV... I've fancied one for a while... wonder if i could build one for less.

J.

This is way off topic but I faked my own Apple TVs using modded 1st Gen Xboxes with the Apple TV skin/theme:



Old Xbox - ten quid.
Mod chip - twenty quid.
Streaming music and video in an Apple style - priceless ;D

Of course, the other good thing about this approach is I can play all my ripped DVDs and music regardless of the format, rather than being locked into Apple's walled garden.

Of course, if you want to keep it real and build an Apple TV, the Intel Atom based board and CPU combos are priced very reasonably:

www.advancetec.co.uk/acatalog/Intel_Desktop_board_D945GCLF_with_integrated_intel_atom_processor.html

BTW, I never used the above e-tailer - they're just the first hit in Google for "intel atom board"...

[HackJoe]

LOL... thats sweet... I've got an old xbox under this very desk.. i use it as a foot stool... is it just a skin? or like a AppleTV MC app you install and run?

J.

[nano2nd]

Aug 11, 2008 16:45:42 GMT HackJoe said:

LOL... thats sweet... I've got an old xbox under this very desk.. i use it as a foot stool... is it just a skin? or like a AppleTV MC app you install and run?

J.

It is XMBC - Xbox Media Centre running off the local hard drive. Very cool. I two - one connected to each of my TVs that we use all the time for music and video streaming from my Hack. The Apple TV skin is one of many out there.

[shaanky98]

Aquamac where did you get your Mac Pro case with everything inside, I am looking for that as well?