PC Tech Thread

Ha, ok...
I'm totally smiling too, all in good humour...

iTunes, I agree, its pretty crappy and bloated, but I'm invested in the ecosystem so kinda stuck with it. Are there better options out there?

Hackintosh, why? Because I wanted something that would communicate with my iMac and Macbook Pro with no hassles, over my wifi via my Airport Extreme and Airport express. Plus, due to the creative industry using primarily OS X I have used it for 15 years ish and very happy with it. And I fancied a challenge.

Why windows? For games, they run better and you have more available. Sadly.
W7 and 8 are horror, I like W10 (at least as much as OS X actually).

Dual booting Mac laptops is built in, pretty much, Apple made a program called Bootcamp that sets it all up for you, dead easy, no tinkering or geekerey.

My issue with PC's is that so few look nice, yep, that is a consideration for me, a very big one, computers are part of a homes furniture, no way is a big plastic black box coming anywhere near my front door.

I guess 'better' is relative. I loved ipods years ago for their ease of use and speed but hated them for their proprietary formats, folder structure, itunes and stuff like that.

I want my mp3s (not AIFFs or whatever they were defaulting their ripping to) to be in a hierarchical folder structure of my choosing not a pile of shite that renders folder and filenames irrelevant. It took my bloody ages to get my tunes on my ipod because of their shitness.

Once I have the mp3s in my chosen folder structure then almost any player will do. I use foobar2000 most of the time as it's simple and does what I want - typically use it with a crossfade plugin but that's about the extent of the 'mods'. Used to use WinAmp but that went shit I think. If you've got a pile of apple devices then it's probably not sensible to move away but I certainly didn't want to get into the situation where I'm locked in to Apple. Having mp3s in my folder order means drag and drop to my mp3 players/phones/cd burner/etc and none of the sync bullshit ipods required.

So, if you have an iMac and Macbook why do you need a Hackintosh? Why not buy another Mac? That's why I don't see the point. Maybe as a budget option but I'd just save more for a proper mac.

Win7 is great. Win 10 seems ok so far. Win8 >>>

Yeah, I know, I was seriously considering a Macbook Pro a few years ago.

My case is a huge chunk of brushed alu. Either way the box sits next to my desk.

stahp.

Shhh

Why a hack? Because as much as I love Macs aesthetics Mac users get royally fucked with GPU choice, which is obviously an issue when it comes to gaming.
My non retina plays games well at 1440p, the latest 5k ones have GPU's that are little stronger and are trying to push 5k displays so will blow up if you even launch a game.
My Hack out performs my iMac and Macbook pro (by miles) and cost £300 vs £2000.
Now I have seen you can get decent PC cases I am getting more into the idea, but a Hack, I still have a spare Apple Cinema Display that I can connect to it so it all looks nice but if they bring out a 5K one i'll be all over it as well as building a beast in that case you are looking at.
Also, I didnt really need my Hack, just got into the idea and bought the parts while I was bored at work, and fancied learning something new...

Why not have a normal PC for games?

I didnt really need my Hack

This is why I think most people build them (a few would be Mac user on budget I guess). It's why I don't have one. I thought about it when I first heard of them but I'm just not that into playing around with computers when I've spent the last 20 years working with 'em.

I used to run Mac emulation on a PC... now that was clunky.

Its hard to justify. I also wanted it wife proof. "The wife" controls is from her iPad to watch VPN protected/hidden Netflix and store torrents locally so she doesn't clog up my iMac/her Macbook with 120 GB of Sex and the City. Yeah you can do that on PC too but she has never used one (and neither had I until last year).
I felt if I was going to build a PC I might as well build one that runs OS X too. Nearly gave up halfway through but stuck with it, could have been even cheaper if I didn't want to run OS X.
Also, since I have been using Macs for work for 10 years adding a new OS into my home made no sense.
If I wasn't going to run OS X and just use it for games I would prob make it W10 only and boot straight into Steam in big picture mode.

Toying with the idea of buying an i7 4790k for my hack, should be an easy swap, but will I really notice much difference?
I know on paper its massively more powerful, but I'm not doing any video/3d stuff just media consumption/games.
Thoughts folks? Experiences?

That's not a heatsink, this is a heatsink!

Holy shitting hell. That looks amazing. really impressed. You should see the mess that is my PC insides...
Also, I really should sort out my cabling to aid airflow...

Another reason I have no qualms about paying top dorra for someone else to do it.

Setting it up is tricky as I now only have one monitor and I'm working :S

Do you do anything that requires it? A modern i3 is good enough for standard stuff. Most games work the graphics card far more than the processor.

Can't argue with that. Nice purchase. Top spec.

@aggi errm... maybe, maybe not? I am not sure, I know DayZ loves a strong CPU, I have a 950 which runs most things on pretty high (on a TV so @1080 ). Do I even need to upgrade? 8 GB of ram is enough right?

Hackintosh? Why?

Because the price difference is huge, you can build specifications which Apple doesn't allow, you can easily replace parts if they break. I've posted plenty about this before in the hackintosh thread, but it's so simple now. It's no longer the preserve of geeks. Anyone can do it. The hardest bit is putting the hardware together, but that's on about the same difficulty level as Lego.

If I bought a Mac Pro today with 16Gb of RAM, a magic mouse and a numeric keyboard - which is what my hackintosh has got - it would cost £3004, without a monitor. LOL.

My hackintosh has a decent sized SSD, a good quality case, 750ti graphics, a good quality fanless PSU - cost just over £700 all together.

Nice heat sink btw :)

Worth trying it with laptops?

THERES A HACKINTOSH THREAD!?!?!

Sure, but I've already explained my position.

Rookie.

Anyone got a spare monitor. Brand new machine I can't use because I killed my spare monitor and I have to work on this PC to pay for it. Doh!

Yes. You've contributed to it.

No more beer.

Cabling? You'd shit bricks. Non modular PSU in the smallest case possible...

Christ, you have to good a memory.
Can't find it atm though?

I've got a couple of old (4:3) ones in a storage unit in islington...you're more than welcome to either or both....

Cheers but I need it now and soon I'm going to upgrade anyway so no stress.

I have a 24inch Apple Display?