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I have decided to build a dual-boot Mac OSX86 / Windows machine, AKA Hachintosh.

First of all, I am getting more and more frustrated with the my current machine, which is understandable considering its a 5 year old Pentium 3 box – it is actually amazing I was willing to put up with that for so long.

And if I am already building my own machine, why not try to shoot for the best-in-class productivity OS?

So, for the previous months I immersed myself deeply in analysis, trying to learn both what does it mean building your own machine from scratch, plus getting a sense of putting together an OSX86 system.

Here is the result of my analysis. This represents my point of view and tradeoffs – yours might be different.

My Main Considerations

For this project, I have several requirements in mind.

• Mac OS X Compatibility – The machine must be able to fully support the latest MacOS X, with minimal hassles as possible. I don’t mind fighting it to work, but it would be very dissapointing to eventually not to use a critical feature.
• Modern Gaming Performance – I want to run modern games (under Windows) in an enjoyable framerate, good enough resolution and effects.
• Cost/Value – I am aiming for a good tradeoff between cost and value, trying to find the sweet-spot on the value curve. This is somewhat similar to what [Sharkey Extreme] are doing with their [Value PC Guide], although they place an arbitrary limitation of $1000, whereas I am just trying to minimize costs while getting as much as I can from it.
• Upgradability – One of my key assumptions is that I am not building a system that would be good enough to last for 5 years, but rather a value system that would be goof for now, with the assumption that as prices drop in the coming years, differernt parts can be replaced for incrementaly small costs.

In the following weeks I am going to detail the different aspects of the research. Stay tuned.