Hackintosh - do I go Supermicro, Tyan, Intel, or ...?

Which workstation-class mobos/systems are the most MacOSx86 compatible?

  • Tyan

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • "mass market workstation makers" incl Dell, HP, etc (please post specific)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .
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Latest round and topic of computer research continues... trying to understand the latest possible curveball..

It's becoming increasingly apparent I will probably want to directly boot MacOSX (I also hope to explore using OSX under ESXi, VMware, etc but I assume that's easier - this is specifically concerning OSx86 direct boot stuff) because as I get more involved in AV pursuits it's becoming clear i'll be going uphill if I don't go with the standard. It wont be the only OS (everything will be multiboot) but it looks like I need to definately plan for "Mac too" for my workstations.

Note I may NOT exclusively run the newest Mac OS - because Apple seems to strip features from each new version making me want to explore back older versions as well and i'm not even sure how far back that will be. Ie Final Cut Pro 7 doesn't even load anymore in 10.13 apparently. I dont know much about Mac but now know I will have to learn. I'm just trying to get a leg up on whether I should favor certain hardware for these future explorations? Such as for consumer level boards the answer seems to be "go Gigabyte mobo, Intel cpu, Nvidia gpu" from notes I took in the past because that's essentially the most compatible option. I dont remember who the next tier would be, I just remember seeing so many positive reports about Gigabyte that it stuck in my head years later.

Except now i'm wondering about an expanded look into workstation class stuff including makers who dont even make consumer stuff. I am seeing used workstation class motherboards on ebay for instance from Supermicro, Tyan, and Intel all offering dual LGA 1366 sockets (what i'm probably settling on for now until Quanta Windmill prices maybe come down) huge RAM capacity and multiple PCIe slots. On top of course of possible options for used workstations from Dell, HP, and others which aren't even ruled out either. Since i'm not locked into just hunting for one maker or model (unless I need to?) and might be jumping on a good ebay deal of whatever meets my requirements i'd rather separate makers into more and less desirable. How would those in the know rate these makers? Feel free to vote AND post specific feedback if you are familiar with the ins and outs.

Who should I consider the A list? Which makers should I specifically avoid? (in terms of difficulty of installing software/OSX especially )
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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For this topic it’s extremely specific to exact motherboards and features not a vendor, best to research the exact part numbers.

What bootloader ?
Unibeast, multibeast, chameleon, chimera , clover ?
It all matters (a lot !)
 
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Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Just buy a used Mac if you can’t afford new, very serious advise, avoid the world of pain. Also most people that have hackintosh also have a real Mac beside it which is very useful doing the hack version.
 
For this topic it’s extremely specific to exact motherboards and features not a vendor, best to research the exact part numbers.

What bootloader ?
Unibeast, multibeast, chameleon, chimera , clover ?
It all matters (a lot !)
Considering I dont even know why i'd use one over another that's a good starting point. :) Could you suggest some websites to start my learning process? The only one I remember off the top of my head is the OSx86project. Since I never built one back when I first planned to I haven't stayed up on anything but if you give me a list of "go here to get up to speed" i'll try to explore them before posting much more. (at least on the software side anyways - again this is more "what hardware should I favor if i'm hoping to play with MacOSX later"?)
 

casperghst42

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Sep 14, 2015
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In general I'm with Twice_Shy, as a longtime Mac Intel user I've tried to build an hackintosh once, and decided that it wasn't worth the effort. But if you really really want then maybe you should start here: Home | tonymacx86.com - the buyersguide list what will work, and what not. Also you'll be able to get help on the forums to get the bootloaders to work if you choose some exotic hardware.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Maybe clover is the choice for a uefi bootloader but I only dabbled in getting VM’s booting a while back so far from the best person to ask.

I have a 2017 15” MacBook Pro, wife a 12” retina MacBook and also have a Mac mini ( used to use 13” MacBook Air prior to upgrading to the current pro)
For me the hardware is as much a selling point as the OS.
Some may say a bit expensive but not bad if you compare it like for like.
 

_alex

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Jan 28, 2016
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clover is fine, on supermicro make sure you disable Super-io/the COM Ports in BIOS. when i remember right this was tricksest part, other than the ,usuall frickling' always involved.
For sound, cheap USB Adapters work, same with Bluetooth.
(i'm running x10slm-f / 1231v3 for more than a year now)
 
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In general I'm with Twice_Shy, as a longtime Mac Intel user I've tried to build an hackintosh once, and decided that it wasn't worth the effort. But if you really really want then maybe you should start here.
Thanks for the link, I forgot about that site.

I think you mean with Evan, but everything is a learning experience, and projects vary in what we decide is worth pursuing or not. :) Linux is a learning experience, ZFS is a learning experience, building from source is a learning experience. In my case I want to try to make a working Hackintosh before I just assume that I can't. The priority might drop, I might work on something else and stop trying for awhile, but I still planned to come back to it just like when I originally researched it years ago.

Maybe people mean to be helpful when they say "just buy X" but that's only useful for people that have the money to do that. There's always a best way of simply paying someone else to do it, then lesser expensive but still possible (or better value) ways of doing things until you get down to a ground floor minimum. Some corners can be cut, some not. [please note - I long for the day that I can just write a check to solve problems - I fully agree for people with money and less free time that's usually worth it. That's not me right now - that me is at least 5 years off after grad school in all likelihood. Yet I need working tools before then so i'm trying to make the best of it. It's just like car repair - I hate that too, it'd be easier/better/save me a world of pain if I had $1800 for someone to do a clutch job on my $300 car. In the end I had to do it myself, but sure I had to give up hours of time to learn and not make any mistakes.]


The only recommendation I got from a friend is that "for workstation class hardware, most stuff doesnt work unless it's a close match to a Mac pro". Assuming that's true, that just lets me know to try and get close to specs from an earlier gen Mac Pro for the critical parts.

It's not the end of the world if I cant "add" Mac compatibility to my workstation buying/setup plan for this year - but if all it costs is a little extra research to buy compatible hardware, it would increase value to me, because I can easily set up a multiboot environment, and learn. I was happy with my Premiere under Win 7, but everyone else in AV tells me "get a Mac", also Final Cut Pro, send me intermediate files in ProRes 4:4:4 please, so if I can choose compatible hardware and make the install work for a few dozen extra hours research, I will. I have more free time than extra money because of the whole student living on borrowed funds thing. (though I don't have alot of free time either so if this gets dragged out a year it does - my RAIT project already is six months behind schedule too)

I already have a different consumer level (but even lower power and much less RAM) mobo I could build a Mac compatible setup around because it's already on the HCL/I bought it at the time using it as a guide/but I would much rather have workstation power so I could do real work, not just noodle.

=======

EDIT: Brief update, yes TonyMacX86 is looking like a really useful site, it might even have most of what i'm looking for. (which is what I was asking for "where to look for more info" so I can stop bugging people here for every question :) ) Are there any other really great sites dedicated to Hackintoshing that I should know about, also become active on/get onto forums on with followup questions?
 
Last edited:

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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virtualizing osx sucks. Especially under esxi!
Yeah, ugly !
If you want to make virtual OSX best to do it on apply hardware, I have a few virtual machines for different things but on a Mac so it’s easy and just works.
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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I have macOS High Sierra working 100% perfectly on an Asrock x99 OC formula w/5820K (overclocked too!)/dual RX480 cards/Samsung m.2 960 SSD and a bunch of other stuff. This drives quad 4K monitors and is lightening fast on most things. It sleeps/wakes/USB/sound/Handoff/Airdrop/Airplay etc, everything works 100%.

Using clover as the boot loader.
 

casperghst42

Member
Sep 14, 2015
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.......
I already have a different consumer level (but even lower power and much less RAM) mobo I could build a Mac compatible setup around because it's already on the HCL/I bought it at the time using it as a guide/but I would much rather have workstation power so I could do real work, not just noodle.

=======

EDIT: Brief update, yes TonyMacX86 is looking like a really useful site, it might even have most of what i'm looking for. (which is what I was asking for "where to look for more info" so I can stop bugging people here for every question :) ) Are there any other really great sites dedicated to Hackintoshing that I should know about, also become active on/get onto forums on with followup questions?

I switched to Mac because I did't really want to run Windows, and Linux on a notebook was giving me major headaches, and as my job is to solve problems, I felt I had enough problems already. My mac's simply just works. I have an MacBook Air from 2011 and this week was the first time I had to reinstall it since I got it (to get Java8 to work with Asus IPMI).

I do understand the interest to try something new, and if I had the energy I'd build a hackingtos myself - just because it's possible.
 
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SDLeary

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Aug 4, 2015
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In general I'm with Twice_Shy, as a longtime Mac Intel user I've tried to build an hackintosh once, and decided that it wasn't worth the effort. But if you really really want then maybe you should start here: Home | tonymacx86.com - the buyersguide list what will work, and what not. Also you'll be able to get help on the forums to get the bootloaders to work if you choose some exotic hardware.
And...

This is the other main Hackintosh site. Probably a little better if you end up not using Gigabyte hardware.

SDLeary

Ninjaed! by _alex
 
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Wow ok, didn't realize the .net was different than the .org, I guess my other question is who has the most definitive of hardware compatibility lists, do they all mirror each other or do they have independant databases so that I should check them all for discussions and info?


virtualizing osx sucks. Especially under esxi!
That is possible, which is why having the option to run it native would be preferable. That said I hope to try virtualizing it too because it would solve alot of problems.



I switched to Mac because I did't really want to run Windows, and Linux on a notebook was giving me major headaches, and as my job is to solve problems, I felt I had enough problems already. My mac's simply just works. I have an MacBook Air from 2011 and this week was the first time I had to reinstall it since I got it (to get Java8 to work with Asus IPMI).

I do understand the interest to try something new, and if I had the energy I'd build a hackingtos myself - just because it's possible.
In my case it's more about a "hobby to serious" transition. I don't NEED Macintosh, but everyone else in AV says "get a Mac" so if I have one, it makes it easier to work with groups. There's also some software that's Mac only, and might even be better at the job than Windows equivalents. (4444 ProRes support for instance, not quite there in Windows)

I say it's a hobby because this isn't going to make me money to drop $2000 on an overpriced Macintosh. Yet I would still like to learn. If I could and it's not too difficult, it would be beneficial and pay for the time invested. If it's too hard it gets postponed and I work on other projects - I have plenty queued up.

I would LIKE to have a Mac for a cost of at most ~$100 extra for the OSX license (and not $1000 for hardware that only runs Mac) just to learn more about them. I dont NEED one. If I have one it would be useful and I would probably find solutions I didn't realize were better on Mac as well. EDIT: one example reason would be since Final Cut Pro 7 workflow is so similar to current Premiere, one of my exit strategies from the Adobe CC monthly payment is migrating back to something many people still love enough to STILL use (and which has updates right thru 4k compatibility available) a decade later. I hate subscription software.




And...

This is the other main Hackintosh site. Probably a little better if you end up not using Gigabyte hardware.
I remember that one but thanks for the reminder. I'm still curious if there's any other places I should get accounts on, or go pick brains - especially if there's some other corner of the Mac net that talks of hardware compatibility I wont find in those places. Because the official lists are sparser than i'd like esp for workstation class gear.
 

Churchill

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Jan 6, 2016
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gigabyte. That's what apple uses as a vendor.

I have a hackintosh ready to go as I was using it as my main workstation for years until I switched to Dual xeons. i7/16GB RAM, gigabyte something or other, nice white OSX case.

Can part with it if you are interested.
 
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Terry Kennedy

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virtualizing osx sucks. Especially under esxi!
I needed to compile a utility program on various platforms (Windows / Linux / FreeBSD / Mac OS X) and wasn't going to spend the $ / wait for a "real" Mac. So I installed OS X under VMware on my Windows 7 system (an old Dell Optiplex 960) and it worked without any problems. In fact, I even updated from OS X 10.8 to 10.13.3 just by going to the App Store and clicking on "Updates". I used "VMware Unlocker 2.1.1.rar".

I have no idea how fast / slow it is compared with a real Mac, but it was completely painless to set up (and I'd never used OS X before).

 
gigabyte. That's what apple uses as a vendor.

I have a hackintosh ready to go as I was using it as my main workstation for years until I switched to Dual xeons.
So thats why there's so many gigabyte boards listed as supported... are their workstation boards every bit as good as Tyan/Supermicro/Intel in peoples opinion?

Thanks for the offer, but I think i'm set on my LGA 1366 build idea IF I can make it work because I want to multiboot it and have buckets of RAM for the other configurations. (64-128GB+)


On the subject of Mac forums, I made accounts on TonyMac (which sounds ULTRA ULTRA hostile to virtualization?!? someone banned for their first post which simply had evidence they were using a virtualized session!??!) and OSx86project which is InsanelyMac now I guess, and am trying to make one on osx86.NET although i'm having captcha problems.

Are there any other "go to" places or forums worth getting involved in, specifically concerning "Mac on Intel" functionality? (I'm sure i'll be interested in general Mac sites if/when I have a working Mac up, this is just to get me from selecting/buying hardware thru install thru troubleshooting)