[jwr]

I used Hackintosh machines in the past. The problem with those is that after you've invested lots of time and effort, you end up with a machine that doesn't work, but performs that task extremely fast and is relatively cheap.

This article is actually great, because it paints a very realisting picture of the experience. Most hackintosh fans fail to mention that your machine might not wake up from sleep, so you either run it 24/7 or shut down fully and wait ages for it to boot afterwards. Or that you'll get weird networking problems. Or that your video card driver will crash every once in a while, taking your whole machine down with it. Or that you can't click "update" next to an OS update and usually need to manually go through the process of waiting, then reading the forums scanning for people's experiences, then moving various kexts out of the way and patching them back in after the upgrade.

Yes, I realize there are many people with a nearly flawless experience. But not everyone can get one.

In my case, I decided it definitely wasn't worth it and bought a real Mac Pro. Couldn't be happier, especially as 3 years ago it wasn't easy to build a machine with 32GB of RAM. Net result: yes, it was expensive, but it works.

[Goopplesoft]

Building a hackintosh is all about selective hardware (similar to the Apple experience). Generally if you use one of the tested builds like the ones listed here http://www.tonymacx86.com/375-building-customac-buyer-s-guid... you should have a pleasurable apple like experience with the cost savings and fun of building it yourself.

[adamors]

> Building a hackintosh is all about selective hardware

Exactly. I bought hardware based on one of these lists and had no issues with my Hackintosh since building it (almost 1 year ago). Also, the build took about the same time as any computer would. I think I had to install one driver post-install, but that's all the 'hassle' I've experienced.

And researching what hardware works well with OS X doesn't take more than 5 minutes since people compile lists and/or entire build guides for every version of the OS.

[hackerboos]

I built a Hackintosh in 2011 using hardware that was recommended on Tonymacx86 as being 'highly compatible'. The problem as you say is it doesn't just 'work'. The machine sometimes randomly restarts, which is unacceptable and every update required repatching audio drivers to work.

If you can deal with this then do it since you will save a lot of money. But sometimes the stability of the real thing is worth the price.

[lostlogin]

> Expensive but it works. This seems to be the case all too often for me. The cheap solution so often turns out to be a stop-gap before the expensive and final solution. It might be sign of old age but I'm skipping the cheap stopgap quite often now days.

[bbrks]

I started realising this last year at the ripe old age of 20.

Sure, there's a bigger upfront cost. But you'll quickly save money once you realise you'd end up buying the expensive widget two years down the line anyway out of frustration.

[lostlogin]

It's more the time saving than the dollar saving I'm interested in these days. I regularly have this argument with people about media PCs. I don't touch the AppleTV, just hit play. It's been reliable for 3 years. Sure, their systems are amazing, but they take about a day of maintenance every 3 months to keep functional. Buy the tool you need the moment you need it. And I get to have shiny new tools this way.

[cytzol]

Actually, a media PC is the one time where it's ok to tinker around and build something esoteric. Sure, you might need to fix it every three months, but who really needs a media centre? The worst that happens is that you have to watch TV on your computer instead.

Work computers, though, need to be rock-solid.

[singlow]

As long as you are the only one in your house that watches movies - or everyone who does is just as much of a geek. If you have less technophilic spouse or children, you want it to work, and to be easy to operate. Otherwise you will have to operate it for them and fix it promptly every time it breaks.

[jessedhillon]

I would just suggest you look at Plex. I feel the same way after being burned out on HTPC projects. But the killer feature still missing on Appletv is streaming media files stored elsewhere on the network, which Plex does beautifully. And still manages to have a gorgeous UI (using Google TV version)

[lostlogin]

How do you mean? I just watched Breaking Bad which is on my laptop via the AppleTV.

[jessedhillon]

Ah maybe I'm not familiar with the current capabilities of AppleTV. With Plex I get to have cover art, libraries, and a nicely organized interface to my media library which I can navigate with my remote alone.