Here's some quick notes on how to build a cheap high-performance hackintosh. This guide is made so you can start with ~$400 and get a useful working system, then upgrade a bit at a time to arrive at a ~$1k powerful machine that will do HD/4k video color grading.
The only real disadvantage to this system over a real iMac is that it takes effort and forethought to upgrade to new versions of OS X.
Specs:
CPU: Xeon E3-1240v2 Quad-core 3.4 GHz
RAM: 32 GB
HD 1: 500 GB solid state
HD 2: 2 TB
Graphics: Geforce GT 740 SC 4 GB
Monitor: ASUS VN248H-P 23.8"
Sound: Line6 Toneport UX1
Webcam: Logitech c920
Total cost: ~$1100
There are many other ways to get a hackintosh. See here for some of them.
Prices and sources:
System: HP Z220 with Xeon CPU and 2 TB HD: ~$400 on ebay
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 32 GB DDR3 1600 MHZ kit: ~$145 new
Harddrive: Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB SSD: ~$150 new
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GT 740 4GB GDDR5: ~$120 new
Power supply: EVGA 600W bronze: ~$45 new
Power adapter: ATX 24pin to 2-port 6pin adapter for HP Z220: $6 from aliexpress.com
Monitor: ASUS VN248H-P 23.8" Slim Bezel: $130 new
Sound: Toneport UX1 (or UX2): ~$45 on ebay
Webcam: Logitech c920: ~$55 new
Total cost: ~$1100
All prices are including shipping.
One of the cool things about this system is that you get a nice working HP Z220 for under $400 that you can immediately begin using and then you simply upgrade one piece at a time as you can afford it. It should come with a keyboard and mouse. Just find a $20 monitor from a thrift store until you can afford something better. I recommend immediately ordering the power adapter as it is cheap but takes several weeks to arrive from china. I recommend getting the SSD as the first upgrade. You'll have to upgrade the power supply in order to power the graphics card.
The base of this system is an HP Z220 with the CPU specified above. You should be able to find one on ebay with a 2 TB harddrive for under $400 on ebay. Don't worry about the ram or graphics card as we won't be using them. This system has two PCI express slots.
Be aware that this system is really hacky. You have to bend or cut the metal of the case a bit to fit the graphics card and you won't be able to fit the top of the case back on with the graphics card sticking out. The BIOS will complain about a missing power supply fan when booting due to using a differen power supply and you'll have to press F1 to get it to boot (there are probably ways around this but I haven't looked into it). There is no 2.5" to 3.5" bracket included in the price list since I just used duct tape to attach the SSD to the case. If you want to use the DVD drive then you'll need an extra SATA cable.
You might want to get a better graphics card. You can probably get a much better card for another $50. I choose this one since I wanted to be sure I got a card that worked natively in OS X 10.9.5 (the latest that's easy to install on a hackintosh) and has 4 GB of ram (for use in Da Vinci Resolve). If you're willing to wade through forum posts and tweak kernel extensions then you can probably get something better for not much more money.
I choose the monitor because it is non-glossy, IPS and has a VESA mount. The only thing I don't like about it is that the mount that it comes with is kinda flimsy so unless your desk is rock solid, any little movement of the desk will make the monitor jiggle slightly. Since I intended to use a third party mount, this isn't so important.
I have no idea if it's possible to get the internal Z220 sound card working in OS X. Probably? If not then maybe one of those $4 USB audio adapters from dealextreme/ebay will work? I'd assume that they work on any modern operating system.
I got the toneport UX1 because it allows me to easily record from a guitar/bass (and comes with a whole suite of guitar effects and amplifier emulations) and has good drivers for OS X. Get the UX2 version if you need phantom power.
If you need midi then just get one of those $6 usb to midi converters from ebay. They work fine with OS X.
ToDo
- Attaching power adapter and power supply
- Taping SSD
- Bending metal and attaching graphics card
I used Niresh's 10.9 OS X distro.
Just follow this guide.
I did not have to do anything after upgrading to 10.9.5 so you should be able to skip the "Installing missing kexts" section.
DO NOT UPGRADE HWMonitor. It will break and the version installed by the Niresh distro is specially modified for hackintosh operation.
In order to get the GT 940 to work I had to disable GraphicsEnabler. You need to edit /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist and reboot. Here's mine:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Credits</key>
<string>www.Niresh.co</string>
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>y</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>n</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>npci=0x2000 dart=0 nvda_drv=1</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>2</string>
<key>UseKernelCache</key>
<string>y</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Disabling GraphicsEnabler might make any other graphics cards stop working, but if you want to use multiple graphics cards along side your GT 940 then there are other ways to get them working without GraphicsEnabler.
You need to download and install the Toneport UX1 driver from Line6. You should also be able to install a free version of Pod Farm (guitar effects).
DaVinci Resolve is free (as in beer, not as in freedom) and includes an NLE (non-linear video editor). Blender (free as in freedom) actually has a decent non-linear editor and many of the features of Adobe After Effects.
Install Deluge (free as in freedom) and see kickasstorrents and thepiratebay for the rest ;)