Sorry if this has been said but you can get a med-high spec PC gaming rig for $1000 - make a few right choices and you can run a Hackintosh and still have the PC for gaming. Tis what I do.
1st and formost i want to say that i know nothing about current mac's
BUT, as my understanding of mac's go, mac is simply a modified version of linux and as long as you purchas hardware that comes/support mac drivers, you can essentially build a PC that you can install mac os on there... need someone with a deeper understanding of mac to respond to this...
If considering the hackintosh approach, then you should understand Apple's business model.
Microsoft is fundamentally a software company. Microsoft makes a handful of peripherals, but isn't terribly bothered if you buy your peripherals elsewhere, so long as you also buy a legal license of Windows from Microsoft. Microsoft's business model is to basically tell companies, here are some industry standards, and if you make products that meet the industry standards, then they will work with Windows. The idea is that if a company makes good hard drives but no other products at all, then people can buy a hard drive from that company and it will work with Windows, no matter what other hardware they have. Or power supplies, or motherboards, or memory modules, or whatever. Microsoft actually writes a lot of Windows drivers for hardware made by other companies, to try to maintain the ideal of, you can get whatever hardware you want and it will work with Windows.
This means that, when buying parts for a computer, you have a choice of a number of different vendors to buy from for every single part. If Asus decided to charge a fortune for their motherboards, then you could just buy from Gigabyte, MSI, or AsRock instead, for example. That sort of competition drives prices down on the parts that Microsoft doesn't make their money on, which is how they like it.
On the other hand, if you don't buy a Windows license from Microsoft, then they don't make money. And that will really upset Microsoft, no matter what hardware you have. That's why Microsoft puts a lot of effort into determining whether you have a valid Windows license, and disabling part of the OS if it determines that you don't. Microsoft controls the updates that Windows needs in order to fix bugs and close security loopholes, and they can use this to check in new ways to see if your copy of Windows is legal.
Apple is different. Apple is fundamentally a hardware company. Apple makes their money on Macs when you buy hardware from them. If you get the hardware elsewhere, then Apple makes no money off of you. In this, Apple is more analogous to Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or Acer, and not to Microsoft.
Now, Apple doesn't actually build very much of their own hardware. They'll buy processors from Intel, video cards from AMD, hard drives from Samsung, and so forth. But they'll then assemble the parts and sell the pre-built computer, much like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or Acer would.
Thus, if you want to build your own Mac, then that means that Apple doesn't make money off of you. Apple controls the operating system for Macs. And they'll use that to try to sabotage your efforts at building your own Mac rather than buying from them. If a bunch of people get a hackintosh working in a particular way, then what's to stop Apple from intentionally making the next patch break that particular approach to building a hackintosh?
keeping in mind I want to buy a mac to the side for schoolwork (typing up essays/youtube/internet surfing for the most part with a lot of tabs).
You do realize that any PC you buy/build will be able to easily handle word processing, internet video, and multiple web pages. That seems like a decent chunk of money to spend on a second computer just so you can tell your friends you use a mac.
For the 10% of mac users who utilize their awesomeness effectively (video/image/audio editing) props to you. For the 90% of mac users who are college kids who need that apple logo on the back of their laptop case... well props to apple for awesome marketing.
Next computer I build will definitely be hackintosh compatible though... Windows 7 is a huge improvement, but I still love the Mac OS.
I've only done this once a while ago, and I know its not really what the OP might be looking for, but with a 1K dollar budget, I'm not sure exactly what you are going for with your Mac.. BUT... if I were the OP I might persue trying for a Virtual Machine on VMWare or something for the Mac OS, and using windows for whatever else.
Keep in mind its been a while so perhaps I'm slightly misinformed on the ease of the process nowadays when installing OS X on a virtual machine, but I would imagine it wouldn't be too far removed from installing most other kinds of installations, albeit with maybe a slight change in settings.
I'm sure you could find a handy dandy guide on doing it, and Quizzical may be able to tell you about the performance costs you may encounter with the build he created for you and running a separate OS with an allocated amount of memory, but I would say it would definitely cut down on the space from having 2 different units and buying two separate computers.
Just a thought. If you were interested in that approach I would look for an "install Mac OS X on Windows 7" on youtube or google and see what results come up. If it looks to be too much work for the OP I suppose he can switch it or contact a local tech to assist in installation and training on how to boot.
Legally, only OS X Server will run in a virtualized environment, and even then, legally, only on Apple hardware. Legally speaking, of course.
But - good idea. I intend to poke around, legally of course, and try this out myself, because I'm curious now.
As far as hardware goes for virtualization: RAM, and lots of it, you need enough for your host OS, plus however much you want to allocate to each VM you want to run simultaneously. That's really about it. CPU/disk space/everything else virtualization does a decent enough job sharing, and video doesn't get shared (virtualized video is all software emulated, only the host OS gets native access to video and most all PCI hardware devices).
*edit* - on the not-so-legal side, it doesn't really look much different than the hackintosh projects (no software updates, semi-shady ISO downloads required, limited/difficult hardware support). Doable, but not for the feint at heart, or anyone requiring a stable and up-to-date OS X platform.
Originally posted by DanMcC The words "clueless" and "Mac". Anyone laugh out loud, other than me?
You beat me to the punch.
"Clueless -> Buying a mac computer" about sums up this entire thread.
Bad idea, especially if you're doing any gaming at all. Sure, macs are good for people editing video, pictures, or audio and are great for other professional uses too but for general use or entertainment they are impractical if not inferior to PCs.
The way I see it, macs are tools, PCs are toys. If you want to get some work done, get a mac. If you want to have some fun, get a PC.
Comments
Sorry if this has been said but you can get a med-high spec PC gaming rig for $1000 - make a few right choices and you can run a Hackintosh and still have the PC for gaming. Tis what I do.
1st and formost i want to say that i know nothing about current mac's
BUT, as my understanding of mac's go, mac is simply a modified version of linux and as long as you purchas hardware that comes/support mac drivers, you can essentially build a PC that you can install mac os on there... need someone with a deeper understanding of mac to respond to this...
If considering the hackintosh approach, then you should understand Apple's business model.
Microsoft is fundamentally a software company. Microsoft makes a handful of peripherals, but isn't terribly bothered if you buy your peripherals elsewhere, so long as you also buy a legal license of Windows from Microsoft. Microsoft's business model is to basically tell companies, here are some industry standards, and if you make products that meet the industry standards, then they will work with Windows. The idea is that if a company makes good hard drives but no other products at all, then people can buy a hard drive from that company and it will work with Windows, no matter what other hardware they have. Or power supplies, or motherboards, or memory modules, or whatever. Microsoft actually writes a lot of Windows drivers for hardware made by other companies, to try to maintain the ideal of, you can get whatever hardware you want and it will work with Windows.
This means that, when buying parts for a computer, you have a choice of a number of different vendors to buy from for every single part. If Asus decided to charge a fortune for their motherboards, then you could just buy from Gigabyte, MSI, or AsRock instead, for example. That sort of competition drives prices down on the parts that Microsoft doesn't make their money on, which is how they like it.
On the other hand, if you don't buy a Windows license from Microsoft, then they don't make money. And that will really upset Microsoft, no matter what hardware you have. That's why Microsoft puts a lot of effort into determining whether you have a valid Windows license, and disabling part of the OS if it determines that you don't. Microsoft controls the updates that Windows needs in order to fix bugs and close security loopholes, and they can use this to check in new ways to see if your copy of Windows is legal.
Apple is different. Apple is fundamentally a hardware company. Apple makes their money on Macs when you buy hardware from them. If you get the hardware elsewhere, then Apple makes no money off of you. In this, Apple is more analogous to Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or Acer, and not to Microsoft.
Now, Apple doesn't actually build very much of their own hardware. They'll buy processors from Intel, video cards from AMD, hard drives from Samsung, and so forth. But they'll then assemble the parts and sell the pre-built computer, much like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or Acer would.
Thus, if you want to build your own Mac, then that means that Apple doesn't make money off of you. Apple controls the operating system for Macs. And they'll use that to try to sabotage your efforts at building your own Mac rather than buying from them. If a bunch of people get a hackintosh working in a particular way, then what's to stop Apple from intentionally making the next patch break that particular approach to building a hackintosh?
You do realize that any PC you buy/build will be able to easily handle word processing, internet video, and multiple web pages. That seems like a decent chunk of money to spend on a second computer just so you can tell your friends you use a mac.
For the 10% of mac users who utilize their awesomeness effectively (video/image/audio editing) props to you. For the 90% of mac users who are college kids who need that apple logo on the back of their laptop case... well props to apple for awesome marketing.
Next computer I build will definitely be hackintosh compatible though... Windows 7 is a huge improvement, but I still love the Mac OS.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
I've only done this once a while ago, and I know its not really what the OP might be looking for, but with a 1K dollar budget, I'm not sure exactly what you are going for with your Mac.. BUT... if I were the OP I might persue trying for a Virtual Machine on VMWare or something for the Mac OS, and using windows for whatever else.
Keep in mind its been a while so perhaps I'm slightly misinformed on the ease of the process nowadays when installing OS X on a virtual machine, but I would imagine it wouldn't be too far removed from installing most other kinds of installations, albeit with maybe a slight change in settings.
I'm sure you could find a handy dandy guide on doing it, and Quizzical may be able to tell you about the performance costs you may encounter with the build he created for you and running a separate OS with an allocated amount of memory, but I would say it would definitely cut down on the space from having 2 different units and buying two separate computers.
Just a thought. If you were interested in that approach I would look for an "install Mac OS X on Windows 7" on youtube or google and see what results come up. If it looks to be too much work for the OP I suppose he can switch it or contact a local tech to assist in installation and training on how to boot.
Legally, only OS X Server will run in a virtualized environment, and even then, legally, only on Apple hardware. Legally speaking, of course.
But - good idea. I intend to poke around, legally of course, and try this out myself, because I'm curious now.
As far as hardware goes for virtualization: RAM, and lots of it, you need enough for your host OS, plus however much you want to allocate to each VM you want to run simultaneously. That's really about it. CPU/disk space/everything else virtualization does a decent enough job sharing, and video doesn't get shared (virtualized video is all software emulated, only the host OS gets native access to video and most all PCI hardware devices).
*edit* - on the not-so-legal side, it doesn't really look much different than the hackintosh projects (no software updates, semi-shady ISO downloads required, limited/difficult hardware support). Doable, but not for the feint at heart, or anyone requiring a stable and up-to-date OS X platform.
"Clueless -> Buying a mac computer" about sums up this entire thread.
Bad idea, especially if you're doing any gaming at all. Sure, macs are good for people editing video, pictures, or audio and are great for other professional uses too but for general use or entertainment they are impractical if not inferior to PCs.
The way I see it, macs are tools, PCs are toys. If you want to get some work done, get a mac. If you want to have some fun, get a PC.
Clueless + Mac + WoW....
This has got to be a trap. Way too easy.
Trammies need to stop polluting the MMORPG landscape. They already have enough games in which to emote hugs and sell garbage by the banks.