Mac OSX on a PC for recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter BeniRose
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BeniRose

BeniRose

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I have an extra 4 year old tower that was pretty decent for it's time, so I was thinking of putting OSX on it and using it as my studio desktop. I'm currently running Logic 8 on a macbook, so it wouldn't be too much of a downgrade, if any. However, I found out the processor doesn't meet the specs for running OSX, and the motherboard won't run a dual-core (which I may as well get since I'm upgrading the processor anyways, and which Logic probably needs to function properly) so I'm going to need to update the mobo and the processor. I can probably do this for 100-150 bucks, which is still a good 1900 less than a mac pro! But I was wondering if anyone had any experience running OSX on a PC they were using for recording or if anyone had any reason why this would be a bad idea. I can't imagine there would be any problems as long as all the drivers are native, which I believe everything that OSx86 has published is.

Thoughts, comments? It'd be really nice to have a computer dedicated for my studio, and it'd look a lot more impressive to clients than a macbook.
 
Call me crazy, but I think you can only run OSX safely on a Macintosh.
 
You crazy! Ever since mac went to the Intel chip, you've been able to run OSX on PCs safely depending on your hardware configuration. The most important thing is that the processor has certain instruction sets, but I imagine since everything's x86 now, the only part that won't be quite as "safe" would be certain drivers, like your video, USB, or Firewire ports, which is why I'm wondering if it's worth it. I figure 100 bucks is worth giving a shot to having a decent tower, and if it doesn't work out, I'll have a pretty good Windows box for the 5 times out of the year I need one of those! :D

Do a google search on OSx86 for some more information on it. It's an open source project though, so they like to make it as difficult as possible to find and information, as most open source projects seem to do.
 
Yeah, I actually have that bookmarked already :)

I'm just curious if anyone else had built a hackintosh and is using it for recording or knows a good reason why it won't work very well.
 
Guess I'm a little out of date on PC based Intel/OSX compatibility. Probably since I'm still on a PPC.
 
I'm purely speculating, but my concern would be less about CPU instructions and more about drivers for the chipset and the peripherals (drive controllers, everything). If all that was native and solid (especially firewire, assuming you're planning to use a firewire interface), then why not?

[edit: I misread your original post - I don't know why I thought you were talking about CPU instructions. Maybe the X86 instruction set came to mind]

Being a licensing nerd, I guess I should recommend that you read the Logic license carefully to make sure it's not restricted to mac hardware. Unlikely, I suppose, but that's why they call it small print :)
 
antichef said:
I'm purely speculating, but my concern would be less about CPU instructions and more about drivers for the chipset and the peripherals (drive controllers, everything). If all that was native and solid (especially firewire, assuming you're planning to use a firewire interface), then why not?

[edit: I misread your original post - I don't know why I thought you were talking about CPU instructions. Maybe the X86 instruction set came to mind]

Being a licensing nerd, I guess I should recommend that you read the Logic license carefully to make sure it's not restricted to mac hardware. Unlikely, I suppose, but that's why they call it small print :)
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Actually, you were right when you said CPU instructions, while x86 is the instruction set, it has to have SSE3 extension to the instruction set in order to run OSx well (and SSE2 to run it at all).

I think the liscensing for OSX says to only run it on their hardware, but a) that violates anti-trust laws, and b) I don't care :D

I wouldn't care if Logic said the same either.
 
If you want to run a mac fulltime to record on why not just buy a used one? Because from what I've heard running osx on a non mac doesn't give you the greatest results.
 
Running OSX on a PC works just fine. If fact Apple is suing Pystar for doing just that.


http://store.psystar.com/

I left a 40 GB partion on my hard drive for OSX - I just haven't had time to get around to loading it yet. And I have a copy of OS X 10.4 that I legally bought from Apple.

Sonar 4.04 PE is running just fine under XP
 
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I guess the real question is: how much time do you want to spend troubleshooting, versus how much time do you want to spend making music?

Using OSX on PC will mean that absolutely no one will be able to give you support, i.e. any software or hardware manufacturers whose equipment you might be using.

You might be able to get the software running, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. You have to deal with hard drives, audio interfaces, midi interfaces, drivers, etc. None of which will be designed for your computer configuration.

Again, it comes down to: do you want to make music or do you want to geek around with your computer.
 
RD423 said:
If you want to run a mac fulltime to record on why not just buy a used one? Because from what I've heard running osx on a non mac doesn't give you the greatest results.
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I can't afford to buy a used one right now. I'm running it fine on my macbook, this was just more of an experimentation thing and I posted to see if anyone else had done it. Maybe I'll be the pioneer!! Also, I have a spare PC to do it with, I just need to upgrade the mobo and processor, which is 150 at most, still extremely cheap compared to the grand it would cost for a used mac pro (if I'm lucky!)

I think I'm gonna give it a shot once I get a new job and have some money to put into the thing. I've been looking for 5 weeks, so this is probably very low on my list of priorities right now!
 
BeniRose said:
I'm running it fine on my macbook
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Sorry for asking a lot of questions but if you have a macbook, you are using a mac, does it really matter if it's on a desktop or laptop? Just trying to see the reasoning behind this.
 
i hate doin this cos it looks cheeky,,but

BeniRose said:
It'd be really nice to have a computer dedicated for my studio, and it'd look a lot more impressive to clients than a macbook.
Click to expand...

i suppose asthetics is a good enough reason,,,but i wouldn't want to run a macbook as a full time daw...in terms of performance and temperatures.
 
Since you can't buy OSX in a box like you can buy Windows Vista or Windows XP you can't run OSX on a PC.

Unless you had at one time bought a Mac and got the discs for it that had the operating system on it.

I venture to say it's probably illegal to do that anyway. And like the one fellow said you're probably not gonna get any support or help and will probably encounter lots of incompatabilities.

Stick with Vanilla or Chocolate. Don't mix the two.
 
ok,,,"probably" isn't a nice word...

you WILL NOT get ANY support from apple if you use osx and don't own a mac.


you WILL NOT run into all sorts of compatibility issues.....IF you are using compatible hardware........

YOU WILL have compatibiliy issues.........IF you try to run it on incompatible hardware........
(where you go to find the difference is not for me to suggest)

and YOU CAN go out and buy a retail osx leopard disk in a shop.

hope that helps :)
 
SonicAlbert said:
I guess the real question is: how much time do you want to spend troubleshooting, versus how much time do you want to spend making music?

Using OSX on PC will mean that absolutely no one will be able to give you support, i.e. any software or hardware manufacturers whose equipment you might be using.
Click to expand...

i spend less time troubleshooting now on osx than i did on xp,,

your support statement is true,,,,however,i'd MUCH rather rely on the support of existing forums, than a manufacturers customer support line..

i genuinely don't believe i've ever reached a productive outcome from phoning a legitimate customer help line.....i think it's primarily a language barrier thing :P
 
Well if you have all compatible hardware then maybe you could go for it. Wouldn't work for me. My sound card isn't even supported.

Not to mention you will have to re-buy your software so it's OSX software if it's not already.
 
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