Archive for the Homebrew Hackintosh category
I have refreshed my CPU price-performance analysis, to reflect several months of price drops.
This time Ihave added new data from Xbit-labs, which benchmarked the newest 1333MHz FSB CPUs. I added to that my previous data from the March Xbit-labs benchmarks, which I posted on my previous CPU analysis post. I have included Intel CPUs only, as my current focus is builing n Intel based Hackintosh.
The main interest in the following graph is that is shows the performance of the different CPUs relative to the CPU cost (all costs are from NewEgg, November 24 2007).
Analysis
It is interesting to see that pretty soon after their introduction, the newest 1333MHz FSB CPUs (E6550 and E6750) have made it to the front of price-performance graph, and achieve the same value (performance per dollar) as the previous value champs, the E4400 and E4300.
On the dotted line, all CPUs have the same performance per dollar ratio, so the choice becomes really a matter of optimization on the overall system cost. For a medium cost system ($800 or so), I would choose the E6750, as it costs only $60 more then the E4300, but delivers much higher performance.
This is a first article in the Building My Hackintosh series. This article discusses the choice of CPU in a new PC system, with price-performance analysis and recommendations.
AMD or Intel?
When approaching a new machine build, one of the obvious decisions is the CPU manufactory - AMD or Intel. The brand will affect the motherboard directly, as motherboards are designed for a particular CPU brand and socket type.
Usually, this choice is rather simple, and would be most influenced by taste and cost optimization concerns. In my case, building an OSX86 setup introduces more constraints. Initially, only Intel CPUs were supported by OS-X - but as time passed, unofficial AMD support started to appear.
From a superficial browsing of the hardware compatibility page at the osx 86 project, although the page actually shows support for both AMD and Intel, I decided to reduce the risk and go with Intel - based on the assumption that an Intel-based Hachintosh might have less snags and will be more robust then AMD.
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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.