Quote:
Originally Posted by PuffyCash_Megan
I was so happy with my Quad core G5 that I probably would buy another mac, it lasted about 6 years then the processor died and it just wasn't worth fixing. PCs are better price Vs quality, but a mac is a dream to use  |
The Mac hardware is irrelevant. The components are all made by the same manufacturers that make PC parts.
Motherboards: Apple specific (Same way HP motherboards are) but last time i checked, made by FoxConn, who also makes PC motherboards. Same capacitors and components.
CPUs: Intel - Same exact CPU's found in Macs are found in PCs (or servers if using Xeon).
GPU: Intel/Nvidia/ATI - Same as above.
Ram - Same as above.
HDD/SSD -Same as above.
The only actual difference between PC hardware and Mac hardware is the firmware in some cases. Otherwise, it's exactly the same. There isn't some "special" bin of components, capacitors, or other parts that are only available to Mac.
I spent about $1,200 when i bought this system:
Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WIFI
Intel core i7 3770k - oh look, I can overclock. Macs can't.
Gainward Nvidia Geforce GTX 660 Ti Phantom
16GB DDR3
3x SSD's, 1 platter HDD
Bitfenix Prodigy Case, Black.
Clover UEFI Bootloader, my Hack works like a real Mac. Including the recovery partition, restoring from Time Machine, iCloud, Find My Mac, etc. Updates without breaking anything whatsoever.
Full CPU power management, speed step, etc.
Full GPU power management and performance.
There are a whole 5 steps that need to be taken to get it up and running fully.
1. Install OS X, obviously.
2. Install Clover UEFI Bootloader.
3. Extract DSDT and patch it with motherboard specific patches, made by people greater than me heh.
4. Generate a SSDT for speed stepping using script made by people greater than me.
5. Inject RealtekRTL81xx.kext and FakeSMC.kext and patch AppleHDA.kext at boot time. No kexts installed to S/L/E, so nothing broken after updates.
5 steps and what, an hour or so of setup time? I'll take that and the $1,500-2,000 I saved any day of the week.
As I said in another thread talking about Macs, it takes me less time to install OS X than it does to install any flavor of Windows.
I can also setup and install OS X to raid (0 or 1), fusion, etc., just like Macs can. In fact, the only thing I can't do is take it to Apple when something goes wrong. Which, being that I know exactly what is in my system and how it works, I would never need to anyway. If something dies and is no longer under warranty, I can simply replace it. I can also upgrade at will. Good luck replacing or upgrading anything in that new Diaper Genie Pro.
Oh and before anyone says the highest Mac Pro is better than my system because of the dual CPUs... I had a dual Xeon system before this one identical to the Mac Pro dual Xeon, and while it certainly had more processing capacity, it loses in actual processing power for most things.
As far as the operating system war goes, that I'll leave to the end user. Use what works best for you. OS X simply works best for my needs because it gives me everything I need - for the most part - from windows as well as Linux. Sure, I could install windows then run linux in a VM, which i used to do, but why bother when I get the best of both world from OS X.
Last but not least, for those who want to build their own Hack Pro but don't know where to start:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/393-buildi...ober-2013.html