
My 2020 Hackintosh Hardware Spec - morid1n
https://infinitediaries.net/my-2020-hackintosh-hardware-spec/
======
ng7j5d9
> Replacing an iMac also means getting rid of a perfectly good monitor.

This is the thing that absolutely friggin kills me with the Mac lineup.

As a developer I see monitors and computers as the perfect example of loose
coupling. And I've absolutely had different lifecycles for monitors and
computers in the past. My Mac mini that was once my primary desktop machine is
now a media center hooked up to a TV.

But if the Mac mini doesn't meet your needs (fast CPUS, storage bays,
whatever), and the Mac Pro doesn't fit your budget, Apple gives you a big ol'
middle finger.

I mean, I COULD buy an iMac, but then 8 years down the road when I want a new
desktop, I've got this unwieldy all-in-one where that big screen feels like
more of a hindrance than an asset.

I haven't built a Hackintosh myself, but every time I look at the desktop Mac
lineup I think about it.

~~~
FireBeyond
I just completed my first Hackintosh in many years. I have perfectly
serviceable iMac in the family room (2015, 32GB, 1TB Fusion), but wanted more.

I have a beautiful case (Corsair 570x mirror black tempered glass on 'all'
sides). 8700K, 64GB memory, 4TB of SSDs, Vega 64. Runs just as silently as you
could hope (H150 closed loop water cooling).

Like you said, Apple gives you the finger for a lot of things. I've lost track
of the number of iPhones, iPads, MBPs between my girlfriend and I (but
probably at least five each of the letters, and most of the iPhones). But I
cannot stomach, in good faith, the world's richest company charging me $1,000
for 56GB of RAM (8->64) when I could buy high end or even faster memory for
$250 for 64GB.

And, following some guides? It "just works". Continuity, Handoff, Apple Watch
unlocking, iMessage, Sidecar. Clover Configurator is awesome, and if you want
to be/feel even more native, OpenCore is even better (though requires manual
work, whereas Clover can have your system booting into macOS in 40 minutes
from building your USB).

So could I spec out a new Mac Pro that outpaces this? Sure. As could I grow
this machine (it's just been my Windows workhorse for about 18 months).

I still love Apple products, but I don't feel any particular remorse for doing
this, versus plonking down what most likely would have been $9,000 for a
similar Mac setup.

~~~
turtlebits
Until you try to update it and doesn’t boot, then spend hours researching
guides (that don’t have your exact hardware specs) on the hope you can update.

Then inevitably something doesn’t quite work properly anymore.

~~~
n42
I chuckled because that was the last experience I had with Hackintosh before I
caved and bought a real Mac (2011). But to be perfectly honest, it is the same
experience that I have been having on my 2017 MacBook Pro.

~~~
tekknik
same here. however with a legit mac you can always netboot to restore so long
as you haven’t borked the uefi firmware somehow. this obviously isn’t the case
with a hack

------
turshija
I've started building my own "budget" hackintosh yesterday actually! It is
pretty straight forward if you are purchasing components specifically for
hackintosh (instead of trying to salvage your current PC).

Here is my geekbench 4 benchmark:
[https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/15176970](https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/15176970)
(slightly better compared to new 16'' macbook with i7)

And these are components that I've bought and for which prices:

    
    
      Motherboard: ASUS TUF Z390M-PRO GAMING - 144 euro
      CPU: i5-9600K - 208 euro
      RAM: Predator 2x16gb RGB - 184 euro
      NVMe: SILICON POWER 512GB P34A80 M.2 PCIe M.2 2280 
      SP512GBP34A80M28 - 81 euro
      PSU: THERMALTAKE Smart Pro RGB 750W Bronze - 89 euro
      GPU: ASUS Radeon RX 580 4gb - 166 euro
    

I still have to see how stable this will be, and if it can replace my 2015
iMac.

Here are useful links I used: [https://github.com/alienator88/ASUS-
TUF-Z390M-Pro-Gaming-Hac...](https://github.com/alienator88/ASUS-
TUF-Z390M-Pro-Gaming-Hackintosh) Also Google: hackintosh asus tuf z390m

~~~
FireBeyond
> It is pretty straight forward if you are purchasing components specifically
> for hackintosh

Definitely this. There are "golden builds" where people have ironed out
components and steps exactly so there's barely any more pain than installing
Windows.

------
pram
I have the same, 9900k with a 5700XT. Catalina works with SIP enabled,
FileVault 2 works perfectly, etc. Been doing hackintosh since 2016.

With that said I’m pretty much done with it now that they made the 16 inch
MBP. I bought one with the i9 and 64GB of ram and the experience is way
better. I don’t need to mess around with clover or update random kexts
anymore. It gets old after awhile!

~~~
JoelTheSuperior
Do you not ever miss the added power of your hackintosh though? I have a 2017
MBP and it's a great machine but I still love having my big ridiculously
powerful desktop with three monitors for when I want that.

~~~
WaltPurvis
The new MacBook Pro is pretty powerful. I have four monitors hooked to mine
and the machine is _much_ faster than my five-year-old Hackintosh. I _could_
build a new Hackintosh that would have somewhat better performance than the
MacBook, but for me the difference is no longer worth it, so like the previous
commenter I'm probably done with building Hackintoshes for now.

~~~
JoelTheSuperior
I totally get that. In all honesty, in a rational world a MacBook is more than
enough performance for me (and it's actually what I use at work), but there's
still very much an enthusiast alive in me that loves my over the top desktop.

------
asadkn
The last hackintosh I made was in 2017 and it's still a beast. Maintenance was
relatively easy

However, the future of pain-free Hackintosh doesn't seem very likely. It's
rumored (or confirmed?) Apple will do its proprietary ARM system as MacOS
eventually moves onto that [1] (maybe not this year, but in the near future).
And then there's the T2 chip.

I have been slowly moving away from Mac in general as I have no need for it
(not a Mac/iOS developer). The alternatives are just as good or better for my
taste.

[1] [https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-mac-arm-
cpus-2020-in...](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-mac-arm-
cpus-2020-intel,38668.html)

~~~
jedieaston
We know that Apple uses x86 macOS Servers internally on commodity hardware
(from previous discussion on HN[0]). Presumably, they'll need to keep some way
of booting on machines missing the special Apple security hardware while
staying secure, so Hackintoshes will always be able to find a way, since macOS
will have to be able to boot on non-T2 systems for quite a while [1] (some
machines they sell don't even have them yet, and presuming they keep up the
8-10 years of software support, there's nothing to worry about).

[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18114712](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18114712)
[1]: [https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-computers-
apple...](https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-computers-
apple-t2-security-chip-secb7e3c7483/1/web/1)

~~~
benologist
That thread mentions Apple using a combination of linux and macOS on commodity
hardware for workloads that weren't suitable to their current hardware. If the
Mac Pro satisfies those workloads now Apple is free to make the T2 chip
mandatory.

Their own security makes a mandatory T2 chip inevitable imho - there were
dubious allegations they were using compromised motherboards in servers last
year, it wasn't true but they'll want to make it impossible.

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_If the Mac Pro satisfies those workloads now Apple is free to make the T2
chip mandatory._

I don't think even Apple can afford to buy too many of the Mac Pro. :)

In all seriousness, the Mac Pro doesn't make a good server (for most
purposes). Most servers don't need GPU, no server needs a way way overdesigned
and expensive case. Don't need the expandability. Etc.

------
mikece
What exactly would Apple lose if they offered A subscription service
($199/year? $19/month?) that allowed registered developers the right to
install macOS either on bare hardware or a VM? I can’t speak for everyone else
but the only reason I bought a MacBook Pro was for iOS development; I have to
imagine there is a number where Apple would be fine with dispensing with
making/shipping/selling/supporting the hardware and would just sell the
software. Heck, I’d be fine if it was a developer-only stripped down macOS
that only ran Xcode and tooling that required Xcode (Xamarin, Flutter, and
Ionic development and IPA compile step). Seriously: what is the harm to Apple
is allowing/selling this?

~~~
wayoutthere
It's actually not too bad to run macOS in a VM -- this is an option Apple
doesn't explicitly support, but they also realize how useful it can be for
automated testing of apps and browser compatibility. The company line is that
they only support macOS on a VM on a "legitimate" Mac, but realistically it's
not hard to find guides on how to virtualize it on a Windows host.

~~~
jedieaston
With the ever notable exception that graphics acceleration straight up does
not exist at all in macOS in a VM. The only way to get it is to use virtIO on
a Linux box to pass through a secondary AMD card, I believe.

~~~
henryackerman
That seems to be the case.

Note that you'd have to user vt-d, in combination with vfio, not virtio. Vt-d
allows for PCIe passthrough. VirtIO is a family of paravirtualized hardware
like HDD controllers and network interfaces.

Besides the name-switchup, you're completely right.

[https://wiki.libvirt.org/page/Virtio](https://wiki.libvirt.org/page/Virtio)

[https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-
virtualizati...](https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-
virtualization-technology-for-directed-io-vt-d-enhancing-intel-platforms-for-
efficient-virtualization-of-io-devices/)

------
120photo
Upgraded my 2011 Hackintosh last year: i7-950 -> x5680 overclocked to 4.25GHz
(good enough can probably go up). Upgraded from 12GB RAM to 24GB triple
channel RAM (can upgrade to 48GB). Also upgraded from a old 1.5GB video card
to the Sapphire RX 580. It was too much of a pain to get mac OS to run with
this setup so I gave Windows 10 a try. It works great. I only use it for
photography and video work. This setup smokes my 2016 Macbook Pro. I was
considering tossing the system but a couple hundred dollars worth of upgrades
and new life to a old system.

------
gempir
I have heard good things about Hackintosh on Ryzen does anyone have more Info?

How viable is it? I'm using a 15 inch Macbook Pro but it struggles with 3
1440p monitors but my PC with a Ryzen 3800x and RTX 2080, 32gb RAM runs like a
beast on Windows.

~~~
JoelTheSuperior
I'm running a hackintosh with a Ryzen 9 3900X. The OS itself runs great. The
only thing to be aware of is whether your software will play nicely with a
non-Intel CPU. Adobe software requires patching for example, and VMware /
Parallels explicitly require VT-x and won't work with SVM.

~~~
juusto
Do you have tutorials/examples for both the installation on a Ryzen system and
the patching of Adobe systems?

~~~
mrgreenfur
The canonical guide for installation is amd-osx.com ; plenty of helpful folks
in the forums and discord.

------
rconti
> The iMac has a build-in screen which likes go bad from dust, as do the
> components inside.

First I've heard of this, but I guess it's a thing?

(I've got a 2015 iMac 5k with no such problem, but, ironically, my screen is
blue-taped in as I'm in the middle of adding a larger internal SSD)

[https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/did-you-know-about-
dust...](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/did-you-know-about-dust-problem-
in-27-imac.2122476/)

[https://hothardware.com/news/apple-class-action-lawsuit-
dirt...](https://hothardware.com/news/apple-class-action-lawsuit-dirty-
macbooks-imacs-lacking-dust-filters)

~~~
marmaduke
It's not a thing. It can happen but it's not a thing in the same way as macOS
updates disappointing are are thing.

------
jackhack
interesting list of hardware and beautiful photos, but this blogpost missing
one key item -- cost!

HOW MUCH $$$ TO BUILD THIS MONSTER of a "mac", and how does that compare to a
similarly-specified Apple product?

Without this, it feels like a collection of thinly-disguised product
placements.

~~~
morid1n
I paid around 1600 USD for everything. Counting the parts I reused from my old
hackintosh, around 2000. A similarly specced Mac Pro 8-core is around 7200
USD.

~~~
jackhack
thank you. A very useful contribution that neatly answers the question of why
anyone would go through so much trouble. I would have guessed the difference
in price was "only" a few hundred, and obviously would have been quite wrong!
I never would have guessed 3.5 times!

~~~
steve_musk
In a way this isn’t a “similarly spaced Mac” though - it’s using Xeon CPUs,
ECC RAM, server motherboard with 6 memory channels, professional GPU, etc.

The problem is if you want a Mac tower desktop they don’t offer anything with
consumer components.

------
Tepix
I think AMD offers the better bang for the buck right now and thanks to amd-
osx.com it's not that hard to build a Ryzen (including Threadripper) based
Hackintosh.

~~~
nik736
Until you need to use the Adobe Suite.

~~~
PedroBatista
So what's the problem with Adobe exactly? Is there any fix on the horizon?

~~~
JoelTheSuperior
In short, some software (Adobe included) makes use of features that are
available on Intel processors but not on AMD. Whilst both AMD and Intel _are_
x86-64 they do both have their own unique features. For example, on Intel
you've got fast memset, which doesn't exist on AMD.

~~~
PedroBatista
But Adobe apps run on Windows with AMD, which means they custom build/compile
their apps for each OS ( which is perfectly normal ) and since Apple only
deals with Intel CPU's it's understandable.

Maybe it would be better to check for CPU capabilities at runtime and have a
more portable app, but what do I know, obviously Adobe PMs will not pay the
cost just so some mutts can run hackintosh.

~~~
JoelTheSuperior
My understanding is it's actually a limitation of the Intel C++ compiler they
use but I can't confirm this. On Windows it bakes in some conditionals to
check if the CPU is GenuineIntel before doing some things, on macOS it doesn't
bother.

------
bitxbit
It would be nice if Apple opened up OS X a bit. I _know_ that goes against
brand principle etc but they also lost a lot of ground back to Windows in the
past five years.

I used OS X from launch but switched to Windows three years ago because it was
simply a better package for me. Cloud computing has pretty much eliminated the
need/preference for OS X.

~~~
nik736
They should release an ATX "Mac Board", one version with an Intel socket and
one with an AMD socket for like $499-$599 USD. It would sell so well and they
would still earn so much money.

~~~
gempir
They make their money selling you overpriced hardware. This won't happen. Well
maybe it would but then every part of the ATX Mac Board would also be sold by
Apple and third party RAM etc would never be allowed.

~~~
Koshkin
Right. Plus, it would only take Apple to start using a custom firmware to only
allow hardware that is exclusive to Apple’s computers.

------
this_is_not_you
Would have been curious to see a price comparison between the build and a Mac
Pro with the same specs.

~~~
morid1n
This build cost me around 1600 USD (I moved over a few parts from the old
hackintosh (2x HDD, WiFi card, GPU). So around 2000 with those. I already had
the two monitors (for many years now) too.

~~~
morid1n
A Mac Pro with the 8-core CPU, 48GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, the Promise bay
for 2x HDDs runs around 7200 USD.

~~~
alkonaut
Perhaps the closest comparison is to throw in a 5K screen making it (say)
$2500 with the Hackintosh and compare with an iMac (Non-Pro) with 64Gb non-
ECC. It’s around half the cost, plus you get to keep the screen.

------
rickyc091
Haven't made a Hackintosh in a while, OpenCore is new to me. Does anyone know
if Messages, Apple Store, etc. work or do you still have to hack it with a
real serial?

~~~
JoelTheSuperior
You still need a real serial but you can generate one pretty easily. Just need
to check on Apple's website if it validates.

I have my PC with an AMD Ryzen 3900X running with macOS with working iMessage
/ App Store etc.

------
mskalski
In my case I'm running macos in kvm VM on my home server based on SuperMicro
X10SDV-6C-TLN4F. Seems to work ok but with some exceptions. First is the
graphic card which I pass through to VM, it is geforce gtx 1060 and
unfortunelty it limits me to use only high sierra, which seems to be the last
version of macos for which nvidia web drivers are available. Both video and
sound goes through hdmi cable connected to my tv. Other is network card, if
you are ok using kvm emulated nic like e1000-82545em then you are set, if you
are trying to pass physical interface, or sr-iov vf you may have to deal with
bunch of kexts or flashing NIC eeprom to been seen as a card supported by
drivers like the one provided by smalltree.

If someone want to try, here is with what I started
[https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM](https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-
Simple-KVM)

~~~
ngcc_hk
Surprise. Would try it with my intel nuc Ubuntu tmr.

------
cheunste
Interesting. I actually started buying components to build a new hackintosh to
replace my old El Captain one from 2013. Man, I can't believe how far SSDs
have come. My current SSD is only 250 GB and now you can get a 1TB SSD for
like 150 USD

------
khalilravanna
Kind of off-topic but can anyone weigh in on how a 2019 (2020?) Macbook Air
fares for programming? Specifically frontend programming: running VSC, maybe a
couple frontend build watch tasks, and a node server. Currently using a 2017
13" MBP and I assume it'd have similar performance?

At this point in my career I spend most of my days running around in meetings
so if I'm doing programming I'll usually do it on my desktop. My laptop ends
up being a glorified note-taking machine with only light frontend programming
so I'm really optimizing for portability. Interested to hear some thoughts
from fellow engineers with the newest Macbook Air.

~~~
morid1n
1\. I’d wait for the new keyboards first. The Airs and 13-inch Pros still have
the faulty ones.

2\. I’d get a low-spec MBP13 or MBP14, whatever comes out next.

~~~
khalilravanna
The keyboard is a fair point. I had mistakenly assumed they fixed them with
the recent update but there they are on the list of models with free keyboard
replacements.

As for 2, I already have an MBP13 2017 and I want something even more
portable. That was why I was interested to hear people’s experiences
programming with it’s lower spec CPU.

~~~
_bxg1
I haven't used an Air for development, but I do know that its power supply is
30w instead of the MBP's 100w. That's a big difference. Beyond the CPU's
official specs, I'd bet some throttling happens there.

That said, I recently upgraded to a new MBP because my 2013 MBP had gotten
really laggy for certain things, particularly the web (and the inspector,
etc.). This was weird, because on pure-compute tasks it still did pretty okay.
But basic sites like Twitter were visibly laggy, and the Chrome debugger was
like mud.

I did some research and ended up concluding that it came down to the
integrated GPU. The processor itself was still significantly faster than a
brand-new Air, based on benchmarks, but integrated GPUs have made huge strides
in the past 5 years (and web pages have gotten significantly heavier) and I
guess that has a more noticeable impact on basic tasks than the CPU does.

Anyway. If you're only doing the occasional, light web dev then I would guess
you'll be fine. It'll be noticeably slower than your 2017 MBP, but probably
still passable.

------
archi42
Oh, I did expect a higher geekbench score TBH: My dual Xeon 2687W (v1) with
128GB DDR3 (2*4 channel) gives me 830 SC and 6000/10000 MC (1/2 CPUs). And
that's with thermal limitation due 1U cooling solution. OS is Arch Linux on
nvme with spectre&other mitigations disabled (compute node).

Omitting disks, that system cost me just a little bit more than your mainboard
;-) Of course two dozen 40mm/7k rpm fans and 480W peak power draw (no GPU!)
are quite a tradeoff.

[https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/1046367](https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/1046367)

------
a012
I've been working on a Hackintosh build since last 2 years, but since I don't
need a video rig and/or compiling work horse, I reduced my self to a Intel NUC
with Clearlinux OS. I'm getting familiar with Rawtherapee and Darktable
workflow (instead of Capture One) since I'm a weekend photographer. Clearlinux
has most of my needs, so I'm happy with it at the moment.

~~~
120photo
RawTherapee is great. I also use Digikam. Linux is great but I needed
Photoshop (GIMP is not there yet). There are also a handful of mac OS apps
without replacements. I upgraded my Hackintosh build and for a while had Arch
Linux running on it. Runs great, but ended up running Windows 10 to get my
Photoshop fix.

------
laurent123456
> this is probably the last time I’m building this sort of computer, before
> MacOS is locked down forever

Any info on how they will lock it down?

~~~
hivacruz
Switch from Intel to their own ARM CPUs will hit the Hackintosh community
really hard.

~~~
Koshkin
The could have done this, if they wanted to, with their own motherboard.

------
_def
Is it worth it building a Hackintosh? Are there any downsides comparing to
Apple hardware? (in terms of using OSX)

~~~
prophet_
I spent a lot of time setting up Hackintoshes and, in the end, I always ended
up asking myself: why did I bother doing all this?

The time you have to spend maintaining it can amount to a lot. In my case, the
machine would always feel sort of unstable with random freezes, etc. You just
never really know 100% what's going on behind the scenes, it could be the
wrong kext, or the wrong graphics card, or the wrong os patch, the wrong iso
used, etc.

If you have plenty of time to play with it, I would say go for it. But if you
just need your machine to do work and cannot afford having a computer that may
suddenly stop working (and requiring a lot of time to get it going again),
just save your time/money and buy an actual apple device.

The idea of having a fast and custom made computer running macOS is pretty
enticing, but it's a lot more time consuming/intricate than one would like to
admit.

~~~
nottorp
You need to buy hardware specifically for hackintoshing. Don't just buy
whatever's in fashion and try to make Mac OS fit.

If you do that it's mostly hassle free. Never had freezes, had stuff like
sound not working when coming back from sleep (which i solved by switching to
usb audio).

Of course, then something will come along and fuck you up, like Apple dropping
nvidia drivers completely. Which is solved by getting an AMD video card. Admit
it, it was time you upgraded the video card anyway :)

~~~
tokamak-teapot
I bought specific hardware,

HP 6300 SFF: $35 NVidia GT 710: $30 16GB of DDR3: $60 Cheap 256GB SSD: $30

More than fast enough for me. Everything works: iMessage, iCloud, etc. No
crashes, no freezes, no audio issues. It started on High Sierra and is on
Mojave now. Installation straightforward, though it requires concentration as
you read the instructions - and no cheating.

~~~
sixothree
I was gifted an HP 6300 and was astonished by how easy they are to Hackintosh.
The 6300 & 8300 can be had on ebay for $75-150.

[https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-hp-6300-pro-
hp-8300...](https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-hp-6300-pro-
hp-8300-elite-a-100-percent-working-and-easily-affordable-customac.224812/)

I added this graphics card:

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B7YMBFC/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B7YMBFC/)

I even get HDMI audio support.

~~~
tokamak-teapot
Does that graphics card work with the little PSU in the 6300? I have the SFF.
Not sure if it even has a power cable to feed it. And is it noisy?

~~~
sixothree
It's a low profile card and I don't remember it needing any power being
plugged in. To be fair, I think this card is overpriced for whatever
performance you would get out of it. That is especially considering I only use
it for 2d acceleration. But I needed the card because I could not get
displayport from the motherboard working - I suspect it is the particular CPU.
Regardless, my entire outlay for this machine was the price of the graphics
card.

It is fairly quiet, but I've never heard it really ramp up.

I do vaugely remember the card NOT coming with the shorter edge connect (metal
L bracket thingy). Need to look back there and see what I have going on.

------
jtwaleson
I want to test Safari in a CI pipeline because a lot of our customers are
using it, and the only way to do so seems to be by running a Mac. We can test
Firefox and Chrome perfectly via docker containers. Should we build a
hackintosh and connect it to our AWS VPC? Any tips?

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_Should we build a hackintosh and connect it to our AWS VPC?_

Are you in a country with a laissez-faire legal system? What you are asking,
in a commercial context, is whether or not you should violate your MacOS
license agreement. At least by USA legal rules, anyway.

I've never heard of Apple litigating over this, but it's something that
businesses try to stay away from.

IMO hackintoshes are for hobbyists.

~~~
jtwaleson
Hm, definitely not in a loose legal system, so hackintosh is not an option.
Then the most affordable way is to either run a (used) Mac on-prem or use a
SaaS solution for browser testing.

I'm frustrated by how much more difficult this is from running Linux or even
Windows on ec2.

------
Snelius
Is it a dual boot box with macos and windows? Or do you use two boxes? Then
how u do switch between with one keyboard/mouse? What kind of kvm or so?

~~~
morid1n
Dual boot. Two SSDSs.

------
ir77
with all the mention of "getting the right components" what's a reference
website where i can learn how to build my own system?

~~~
agilebyte
[https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/building-a-
customac-h...](https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/building-a-customac-
hackintosh-the-ultimate-buyers-guide/)

tonymacx86 has a list of supported components and has suggested builds as
well. Been around for years.

~~~
ir77
thank you

------
unnouinceput
Quote: "The SSD is more than fast enought for my needs. Funny thing is that
it’s even faster under Windows (3.5 GBps read and 3.3 GBps write)." Also OP is
showing ~2.5 Gbps in an image.

Funny thing, I run my Macs in virtual machines (VMWare), and the speed is
identical to Windows (host OS), while all other OS'es (Linux / BSD / other
Windows') show slower speed. I wonder why.

~~~
SloopJon
I thought you could only run Mac VMs on a Mac host. Has that changed, or did
you hack VMware somehow?

Our automation group has a couple of maxed out trash cans just for Mac VMs.
The IT department probably can't wait to replace them with the new rackmounts.

~~~
unnouinceput
As other said it, there is unlocker for VMWare which allows you to have Mac OS
as option when creating a new virtual machine.

As for hacking VMWare I got my hands on a official Mountain Lion image years
ago, directly from Apple, which I used to copy/upgrade into new VM each time a
new Mac OS was released. I have lying around cca 15 VM's with different
flavors of Mac OS each, all tests for various projects for my clients.

------
signa11
tangential: i am _seriously_ considering getting an eizo monitor for personal
(non-gaming) use, and was wondering if anyone here can chime in with some
personal experience. a bit hesitant given the price tag. thanks !

------
anotheryou
and the price?

~~~
morid1n
See one my of other comments please.

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oauea
Can someone explain why you would want to run an operating system that
actively tries to prevent you from running it?

Apple clearly doesn't want to support third party hardware and from what I've
heard, you have to live in constant fear of updates.

~~~
nordsieck
> Can someone explain why you would want to run an operating system that
> actively tries to prevent you from running it?

If you're a developer, OS X is great.

Windows is a second class citizen if you aren't using Visual Studio.

Linux is great - it's basically your deployment environment - but you often
have to mess around with it a bit.

OS X is 90-95% of the benefit of Linux, but it _just works_ ™. If you want to
get work done, that's a pretty good feature.

The trouble is that, if you want to run a desktop, there are basically no good
options. Mac Mini is very limited, same with the iMac. The Mac Pro is not
limited, but it supports such enormous expansion that the base config is
extremely expensive, while not being very performant.

~~~
adgasf
A Hackintosh does not just work. It requires far more upkeep than a Linux
system.

I certainly wouldn't do it again!

~~~
mantap
You have to think of a hackintosh like an android phone. You might get OS
updates or not but mostly whatever OS version it starts with will stay on it
for life. You will certainly not be able to update immediately. For some
people that's fine, for others who are dependant on Xcode which needs constant
OS updates, it's not fine. Really depends on your use case.

~~~
legooolas
> ...like an android phone. You might get OS updates or not but mostly
> whatever OS version it starts with will stay on it for life.

Not all Android phones are like that -- what are you buying which doesn't get
any OS updates?

~~~
mantap
Obviously android phones get OS updates. Hackintoshes also get OS updates. But
in either case there's never a guarantee unless you buy a current gen
flagship. If you buy an iPhone you will consistently get updates for up to 5
years. Android is more of a "best effort" kind of deal. Maybe they will update
your phone this year. Maybe not. Who knows?

------
brobot182
I have almost the exact same setup as you: same CPU cooler, same CPU, and the
pro WiFi version of the Z390. However, when I’m doing a long-running clean
build that uses the 16 logical cores, the temperature for each core gets up to
80 C. Any thoughts why that would be?

~~~
Macha
Is your environment 10C higher than OP's? Most reviews compare coolers in
terms of the temperature increase over background temperature to control for
this.

80C for a 9900k under sustained high load would not concern or surprise me.
It's a high end power hungry CPU. 100C is the cutoff temperature so maybe more
cooling might help it turbo more but I doubt you even get throttling at 80C.

------
hootbootscoot
you are only prolonging their foul empire, lol...

I mean I get you (pity and understand) if you are stuck in Logic or Final Cut
Pro land with no painless way out, welcome to the state/reality of proprietary
media production workstation software lockin, which is arguably nearly as
tight of a lockin as obscure scientific instrumentation and machine control
driver lockin etc... "yeah, you'll need a working install of NT4.0"

------
keyle
Mac mini too expensive? I'm not sure. Also I've ran some benchmarks against my
friend's hackintosh and smoked it.

I mean read his specs, it's not cheap at all. Fractal cases are not cheap, and
the RTX 580 that he will upgrade once he gets to Catalina? Right, that's
cheap.

Those little mac minis are beasts if you ask me. Mine is called minibeef ;)

I've added an eGPU to it and it's powerhouse for all of my work, in spades.

Edit: my geekbench score is 5547 single and 23621 multi, that seems to be much
higher than the posted specs.

~~~
nik736
The Mac Mini has no integrated GPU and is dead because of this reason. Why
would I buy such an elegant device if I have to hook an ugly eGPU case.

~~~
chrisseaton
> The Mac Mini has no integrated GPU

They do - they use Intel UHD Graphics 630, which is an Intel GT integrated GPU
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Graphics_Technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Graphics_Technology).

How did you think they were running the display? They can't squeeze a tiny
discrete graphics card in there!

~~~
nik736
Yes, I know, and the iGPU is complete dogshit. Why would I spend 2k+ on a
device that is completely limited by it's GPU. It is not even able to run
scaled 4k screens properly.

And regarding the size: Who cares? It's not a portable device, so make it a
bit bigger and no one cares but is happy that the hardware is better.

~~~
chrisseaton
> Yes, I know

Lol you said it didn't have one a second ago!

~~~
diffeomorphism
No, he said that it does not have a (worthwhile) GPU _inside_ the case and
made the unfortunate word choice "integrated". Hence the need for an eGPU.

Your interpretation of what he/she wrote makes no sense for any non-server
hardware. If it can show something on the screen it obviously has a GPU (it
just might be garbage).

~~~
chrisseaton
An 'integrated' GPU is one on the processor die, not one inside the case.

~~~
diffeomorphism
Hence why I said unfortunate word choice.

