Hackintosh build for video editing

roxics

roxics

Veteran
For starters has anyone here built a hackintosh for video editing?

I had been hoping that Apple would release a series of new Mac Pros that started a little more affordable ($1500). But it appears they may have gone in the opposite direction and built a machine that will start at more than the current entry level mac pro. So I'm looking at other options.

My current machine is a late 2008 macbook unibody aluminum. That poor machine that Apple decided didn't need a firewire jack. I ended up with it because my girlfriend bought it for school and then ended up dropping out after getting a full time job. I was building a new PC at the time and we traded machines since she likes to game and I used to own a mac before. Had I bought it, I would have got one with a firewire jack because I have a lot of old DV/HDV tapes I'd like to import to an external hard drive.

That said the macbook has been a good machine as a daily driver. I upgraded the ram to 8GB and will probably drop a solid state drive in this year just to give it a speed boost. It can easily go another two years for me as an everyday browsing/blogging/photo editing on-the-go machine. But now I want something I can cut video on at home. This thing is a dog for cutting video. Five minute videos without any effects or color correction take two hours to render.

I want to stick with OSX for cross compatibilty between machines. Also I just love OSX. Even though I'm an Adobe user I want the option to go FCPX if needed or if I take on a project that comes to me as a FCP project. It's happened a few times at work where I cut on a dated PC and my macbook came in handy. I may or may not load windows on it. If its as stable as my macbook, I haven't needed windows nor desired it.

Price however is a downfail. I don't make money off my personal machine. At least not yet. So I'm trying to stay under $1000 yet build something with upgrade potential in the next two to three years. I intend to keep this machine for at least four years.

I came across two great videos where both guys built almost the exact same machines. The first is Dave Dugdale:

http://youtu.be/E2CapyMkubg

http://www.learningdslrvideo.com/new-editing-computer-build/ - parts list

He built his as a windows machine, but based on the second video(below) it looks like he could easily go hackintosh because of the parts he used.

The second video series is about building a hackintosh for video editing:

http://youtu.be/K9CNsBCmrNg

Both of these guys built $2000+ machines. I'm looking to cut that price in half by going with an i5 instead of an i7, using only one SSD and an HDD for storage, no liquid cooler and even skipping the dedicated GPU for now and just using onboard graphics. My philosophy here is that it should match the power of a mid range 2012 iMac. I'm still putting together a parts list that is compatible with hackintosh/OSX.

If anybody has any input or suggestions I'm all ears. My girlfriend also wants a new PC so I'll probably build her the same machine. It's easier to build the same machine twice. Knowing her she may also want to go OSX after seeing mine. But like me she's not going to want to spend $2000+ on it.

I'll try to keep this thread updated with my progress.
 
I have built several hackintoshes for video editing. Generally, I do so my following information posted here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/home.php

He posts monthly updated "CustoMac" buying guides, wherein he posts multiple build options and parts that are all hackintosh compatible. He also publishes some of the software that makes actually getting the OS to work very very easy.

I'd suggest looking there. Hope that helps.
 
It's what I use. I built one in November and love it! awelgraven is right, that website is where I went. I had to do some research before ordering anything. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't work at all, although I have built lots of PC's over the years.
 
Kevin Lee said:
It's what I use. I built one in November and love it! awelgraven is right, that website is where I went. I had to do some research before ordering anything. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't work at all, although I have built lots of PC's over the years.
Click to expand...

I built my first hackintosh years ago... back in the OS X 10.5 days I believe... and back then it really was a crapshoot of what would and wouldn't work. I spent a solid month trying to get a graphics card to work... and it never did :)

But these days... it's so simple... basically if TonyMacx86 lists it on his site, you know it's going to work just fine. There's also a very helpful forum on his website if you have further questions.
 
tonymac is really a good resource for hackintoshes, if not the best. i also built mine, following this guide: http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...e-core-i7-3930k-radeon-hd-7970-ghz-3gb-3.html

i changed a few components though - but overall it puts me in between the 8 and 12 core current mac pros...

BUT: whatever you build, take care of the GPU you buy - this choice varies, depending on your editing system... There is a list of Apple approved GFX cards for FCPX - which you should use, otherwise render speeds will be super slow. If you want to use Premiere, get a Nvidia card with CUDA acceleration, which will speed up everything.

my suggestion: don't go with the onboard graphics, which are mostly rather slow - Invest the cost of a SSD in a graphics card - you will care more about render speeds, than about startup time of your machine in the end.

you could also look into over clocking, which would give you an even more powerful machine - but choose your CPU and COOLING carefully.
 
A Core i7 chip doesn't cost that much more than an i5, but will make a big difference for video editing and export speed. Best not to skimp on the heart of the machine. As for graphics, Premiere can offer "GPU acceleration" - IF you have an Nvidia GPU that is supported directly by CS6, or via "hack". Many cards are available on the PC side via hack, but I can't say what your options will be running Mac OS. Just know that if you don't have the GPU advantage, AND go with an i5, the system will be very lacking for HD editing.

Jeff Pulera
 
SHARBOR said:
A Core i7 chip doesn't cost that much more than an i5, but will make a big difference for video editing and export speed. Best not to skimp on the heart of the machine. As for graphics, Premiere can offer "GPU acceleration" - IF you have an Nvidia GPU that is supported directly by CS6, or via "hack". Many cards are available on the PC side via hack, but I can't say what your options will be running Mac OS. Just know that if you don't have the GPU advantage, AND go with an i5, the system will be very lacking for HD editing.

Jeff Pulera
Click to expand...
+1

AFAIK you could use any nvidia card of the 4xx, 5xx and 6xx series - as long as they have at least 1GB of ram - for GPU acceleration...
 
Thanks guys, I'm trying to go cheap for now though. If you follow Geekbench numbers my current macbook rates at 3760 and my work machine (PC) that I used for editing, rates at 11299. My work machine is an AMD Phenom II 6 core with 4GB ram and no GPU acceleration. So even if I can eek out the same or better as my work machine but instead using an i5, I'll be good for a year or so before upgrading to an i7 with liquid cooling and a more powerful GPU. As much as I'd love it all now, even a couple hundred dollars one way or the other is tight.

Still I'm looking around to find the best solution for the price. That site is proving to be a great resource.
 
How is the stability for those of you running OSX on these machines? Are you doing a lot of fiddling all the time?
 
roxics said:
How is the stability for those of you running OSX on these machines? Are you doing a lot of fiddling all the time?
Click to expand...

Stability is great with well supported hardware. As good as a "normal" Mac if you buy natively supported parts.

No not much fiddling at all.

Been running hackintosh since 2007. Biggest issues have been updating the OS, but in recent years that's become almost a non-issue. Again with supported hardware it's pretty much flawless.

The only thing that differentiates Mac hardware is a TPM chip. Bypassing it has become a simple process these days and as long as the OS supports the hardware natively you may as well be running a genuine Mac.
 
roxics said:
How is the stability for those of you running OSX on these machines? Are you doing a lot of fiddling all the time?
Click to expand...

Stability is rock solid these days. The days of fiddling and constant troubleshooting are essentially gone. Buy suppported hardware and you'll have no problems. System updates (10.8.3 to 10.8.4, for example) and OS upgrades (10.7 to 10.8) are the biggest issues... and even those are very small. Basically, instead of using software update to do system updates, you go to Apple's support page and download the Combo update. Install it, but before you restart, you run a Multibeast process where you reinstall a few OSx86 basics that the system update could have overwritten (like sound... ethernet... that kind of stuff).

And that's it. Some installs don't even need that. Mine does... it's literally a 15 second operation after I do a system update. I have a screen shot of the Multibeast settings I need to check... so it's as easy as pulling that up and running the install. Simple :)
 
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