Hackintosh Build Guide – Why your Next Mac Should be a Hackintosh

As a full-stack developer and professional coder, having a powerful, reliable machine is critical to my workflow. Like many devs, I appreciate the Unix underpinnings, terminal, and overall design of macOS. But Apple‘s stagnant Mac lineup has left a lot to be desired for power users.

Their once-great Mac Pro hasn‘t seen a meaningful update in over 1,200 days. The only other desktop option, the iMac Pro, was released in 2017 and packs years old hardware at an eye-watering price. Even the MacBook Pro has disappointing specs for the money, limited upgradeability, and keyboard issues.

After years of frustration, I decided enough was enough. It was time to build a Hackintosh – a custom PC running macOS. And after a marathon 48-hour build session, I‘m convinced every developer needing serious horsepower should consider one. Here‘s why.

Advantages of a Hackintosh for Developers

As coders, we have some unique needs and a Hackintosh is remarkably well-suited for development work:

• Cross-Platform Flexibility: Hackintoshes can easily run macOS, Windows, and Linux, all on the same machine. For developers needing to test code and deploy to multiple OSes, this is a huge boon.

• Superior Specs: With a Hackintosh, you‘re free to choose the best hardware at each price point. Get an overclockable i9 CPU, 64GB+ of RAM, NVMe SSD, and a powerful GPU to dramatically accelerate development vs a standard Mac.

• More Bang for Buck: A Hackintosh with comparable or better specs to an iMac Pro costs a third as much. Those savings can go towards better monitors, more storage, or just your bottom line.

• Containerization and VMs: Docker in particular runs very well on a Hackintosh, making it easy to spin up containers for different projects and environments. And with ample CPU cores and RAM, running multiple VMs is a breeze.

• Easier Upgrades: As your needs evolve, it‘s dead simple to upgrade individual components in a Hackintosh. More RAM, a bigger CPU cooler, a new GPU, more storage – it‘s just a matter of swapping parts, not buying a whole new machine.

A concrete example: I was recently working on an natural language processing project involving large neural networks. Training those models on my MacBook Pro was painfully slow (over a week!) due to limited memory and CPU. Switching to the Hackintosh cut training time to under 12 hours. That‘s an enormous difference in productivity.

The Build

Let‘s get to the meat of it – the actual parts list for my build, tailored for maximum development performance:

Part	Selection	Cost
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 Designare	$269
CPU	Intel Core i9-9900K	$499
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black	$99
RAM	64GB (2x32GB) G.Skill Trident Z RGB 3200MHz	$320
GPU	AMD Radeon VII 16GB	$679
SSD (macOS)	1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe	$229
SSD (Win+Linux)	2TB Samsung 860 Evo SATA	$229
Power Supply	Corsair RM650x Fully Modular 80+ Gold	$114
Case	Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C Gunmetal	$139
Other	Wi-Fi card, case fans, cables	$100
	Total	$1975

Let‘s break down the rationale behind each component choice:

• Motherboard: The Gigabyte Z390 Designare is the foundation. It‘s known for its excellent macOS compatibility, wealth of I/O including Thunderbolt 3, and rock-solid VRMs needed for overclocking the i9. Onboard Wi-Fi, 10Gb Ethernet, and a pre-mounted I/O shield are nice touches.

• CPU: For coding, it‘s hard to beat the Intel Core i9-9900K. With 8 cores and 16 threads humming along at up to 5GHz, it absolutely chews through compiles, video encoding, 3D rendering, machine learning model training – you name it. Yes, it runs a bit toasty, but the giant Noctua dual tower cooler keeps it well under TJmax during sustained all-core loads.

• RAM: 64GB of fast 3200 MHz memory from G.Skill provides ample room for resource hungry VMs, Docker containers, massive datasets, and even the Chrome monster. I stuck with a 2x32GB kit for easy XMP and the potential to upgrade to 128GB down the line.

• GPU: While admittedly overkill for some dev work, the 16GB Radeon VII is a monster for compute intensive tasks. From applying complex filters on 42MP RAW images in Lightroom, to real-time 4K timeline scrubbing in Premiere during video edits, to accelerating renders in Blender, it never skips a beat. And that 16GB of HBM2 is a godsend for training deep neural nets.

For Linux and Windows work, Nvidia‘s CUDA platform is better supported, but the open source ROCm platform has made incredible progress on the ML side with AMD. I‘ve had no issues doing ML/DL and general data science work in any OS on the VII. It‘s a remarkably flexible GPU.

On the gaming side, it‘s roughly equivalent to an RTX 2080, handling 1440p/144Hz with ease on Windows. I don‘t game much in macOS, but the titles I‘ve tried (Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Hitman, Tomb Raider) ran smoothly at high settings at 1440p.

• Storage: A fast NVMe SSD is key, so the highly regarded 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus was the obvious choice for macOS and key apps. Read speeds of 3500 MB/s and write speeds of 3300 MB/s are lightning quick, making system boots and app launches instantaneous.

For Linux, Windows, and bulk storage, a 2TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA III SSD provides an excellent balance of performance, capacity, and affordability.

I stuck with 2.5" drives initially, but am eyeing some fast PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives for a future upgrade now that macOS supports them.

• Power Supply: With an i9 and Radeon VII, a top-tier power supply is a must. I landed on the Corsair RM650x for its 80+ Gold efficiency, fully modular design, and outstanding build quality. Even under heavy loads, it‘s nearly inaudible. And that 10-year warranty provides peace of mind.

• Case: While looks are subjective, the Fractal Design Define R6 won me over with its premium build quality, sound dampened panels, modular design, and professional aesthetic. The USB-C port on the front and the additional SSD mounts behind the motherboard tray are nice touches that cleaned up my desk and interior cable routing. Excellent airflow and dual tempered glass panels to showcase the hardware are icing on the cake.

Benchmarks

All this beefy hardware looks great on paper, but how does it translate to real-world performance?

To quantify the difference, I compared the Hackintosh to my previous daily driver, a top-specced 2018 15" MacBook Pro (2.9GHz i9, 32GB RAM, Radeon Pro 560X). I also threw in my wife‘s 2020 13" MacBook Air (1.2GHz i7, 16GB RAM) for a more recent reference point on the lower end.

In Geekbench 5, the Hackintosh trounced the competition in both single and multi-core performance:

Machine	Single Core	Multi Core
Hackintosh	1371	11082
2018 15" MBP	1019	6290
2020 MBA	801	2507

Geekbench isn‘t the end-all-be-all, so I also ran some more practical dev-related benchmarks – a Xcode iOS Simulator build, an Android Studio Gradle build, and a multithreaded Rust compile:

Task	Hackintosh	2018 MBP	2020 MBA
iOS Sim Build	22 sec	95 sec	138 sec
Android Build	44 sec	110 sec	163 sec
Rust Compile	118 sec	424 sec	1122 sec

As you can see, the Hackintosh soundly beat the MBPs, completing these real-world development tasks in a fraction of the time.

It‘s a similar story on the GPU side. Here‘s a Geekbench 5 Metal GPU Compute comparison:

GPU	Hackintosh Radeon VII	5700 XT	Vega 64	2018 MBP 560X	Intel UHD 630
Metal Score	114186	76681	62268	33946	6177

The Radeon VII in the Hackintosh more than tripled the Metal score of the 560X in my old 15" MBP. That‘s an absurd generational leap. Even the midrange 5700 XT in a Hackintosh config would provide an enormous GPU Compute uplift over any standard Mac offering.

For Machine Learning in particular, the Radeon VII is incredible. Training a ResNet-50 model in TensorFlow is over 10x faster than on the MacBook Pro‘s i9 CPU thanks to the 16GB of video memory.

Honestly, the performance advantage of a properly specced Hackintosh cannot be overstated. It‘s a true game changer for development productivity.

Challenges & Considerations

Building a Hackintosh, while very doable, is inherently a tinkering endeavor – this isn‘t a retail Mac. Even with carefully selected components, you will likely need to spend a chunk of time configuring and troubleshooting to get macOS working properly. For me, that was part of the fun – like solving a puzzle – but it‘s not for everyone.

Some issues I ran into during my build:

• RAM Instability: My initial choice of RAM wasn‘t on the QVL for the motherboard. Memtest found errors and the system would freeze randomly, even at stock. Swapping to the G.Skill b-die kit resolved it.

• GPU Compatibility: 5700 XT support was pretty broken for macOS until very recently. The Radeon VII works out of the box.

• Windows (un)Bootable Drive: Windows refused to install, giving a cryptic "Drive is not bootable" error. Turns out I needed to switch the SATA mode in BIOS from AHCI to RAID. Annoying, but a quick fix.

• USB Mapping: I/O shield USB 3.1 ports and the USB-C header weren‘t working at first. I had to build a custom SSDT in MaciASL to get them recognized.

In each case, Google, the tonymacx86 forums, and the /r/hackintosh subreddit were invaluable resources. The Hackintosh community is incredibly knowledgeable and always willing to help.

All told, I probably spent 10-15 hours building and troubleshooting to get macOS stable and performing optimally. That‘s certainly longer than setting up a retail Mac, but also far less than the 300+ hours it‘d take to earn the extra cash for an equivalent Mac Pro or iMac Pro. For me, the DIY route was absolutely worth it.

Upgrades & Alternatives

One of the beauties of a custom build is that it‘s never really finished – there‘s always room for improvement and expansion. Looking ahead, I‘m excited to upgrade to a Comet Lake or Rocket Lake chip when those are out later this year. Bumping up to a 10-core i9-10900K or even a 12-core Zen 3 Ryzen 9 4900X would provide a nice IPC and multicore performance boost.

On the GPU side, I have my eye on Navi 2X "Big Navi", which should bring a huge compute bump and ray tracing support. If Apple is still putting ancient Polaris GPUs in the $6000 Mac Pro come November, it‘ll be even more embarrassing.

Those are just my choices though – the wonderful thing about a Hackintosh is that it can be whatever you want it or need it to be for your personal workload. Here are a few other excellent options for different budgets and use cases:

<$1000 General Dev Build:

• i5-10600K
• Asus Prime Z490-A
• 32GB DDR4-3200
• Radeon RX 580
• 512GB NVMe + 2TB HDD
• be quiet! Pure Rock 2
• Corsair 275R Airflow Case
• $950

~$1500 Video/3D Build:

• R9 3900X
• Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite
• 64GB DDR4-3600
• Radeon 5700 XT
• 1TB NVMe + 4TB HDD
• Scythe FUMA 2
• Lian Li Lancool II Mesh
• $1450

$2500+ ML/DL Powerhouse:

• i9-10980XE or R9 3950X
• ASUS Rampage VI Extreme Encore
• 128GB DDR4-3600
• Radeon VII
• 2x2TB NVMe + 10TB HDD
• NZXT Kraken X72
• Phanteks Enthoo 719
• $2600+

No matter your needs or budget, there‘s a Hackintosh configuration that can likely outperform Apple‘s offerings at each price point. It just takes some research, planning, and elbow grease to make it happen.

Closing Thoughts

Building a Hackintosh has been an incredibly rewarding experience. From the initial research to watching macOS boot for the first time, to finally using a machine perfectly tailored to my development workflow – the feeling of satisfaction is unparalleled.

It‘s not for everyone, and there are inherent risks and instabilities you wouldn‘t face with a standard Mac. But for developers and power users willing to roll up their sleeves, the benefits are clear: better performance, more flexibility, and tremendous bang for buck.

If you‘ve been frustrated by the stagnant specs and inflated prices of Apple‘s recent machines, I wholeheartedly recommend exploring the Hackintosh route. It‘s easier than ever to build a machine that rivals or exceeds the best Apple hardware, all while maintaining access to macOS.

The Hackintoshing resources I linked earlier are a great place to start, and the community is welcoming to newcomers. And of course, feel free to reach out with any questions.

Here‘s to taking the Mac back into our own hands and building the machines we‘ve always wanted. Happy Hackintoshing!