Bernard Newnham
Forum Replies Created
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Don’t know how to edit these posts, perhaps the update will fix it. Should read –
“…..so I purpose build a Hackintosh, using a KVM switch – actually two – for dual monitors.”
A disadvantage of trying to follow TonyMac recommended builds is that things change very quickly, and the ones you see on the website are likely to have been superceded by the time you get to them. My experience from years ago suggests that it probably doesn’t matter that much – pick a motherboard, processor and memory to suit the budget.
Bernie
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When I had my Hackintoshes, I used https://www.tonymacx86.com/ for ever updated current info.
Although they recommend specific builds, I didn’t have those parts and just went ahead with what I had. The first one was just my PC – I set it up so that if an external drive running MacOS was powered it would be a Mac, and if not it was a PC. After a while I found I needed both at the same time, so I purpose build a Hackintosh using a KVM switch – actually two, for dual monitors.
Bernie
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Yes. Having done the research now, I know lots more about Optane, M2, and NVMe.
I have another laptop running Linux Lubuntu, and my main desktop, just re-motherboarded, both with standard SSDs as boot drives. I shall probably buy an SSD for the new laptop, and M2 NVMe for the desktop. I don’t need to use 4k video – I could run the classes I teach now in SD – but I do want to run fairly complex things in DaVinci.
Also – what the hell – I want to find out how well NVMe works, and a WD Blue NVMe 500GB SSD is only £70.
I seem to have gone off-topic Mac-wise, but then I’ve done that in real life too.
Bernie
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My new laptop has Intel Optane, whatever that is. Sounds good and wasn’t expensive.
I’ve just gutted my main machine and put in a new motherboard, processor and RAM, mainly because the old stuff didn’t want to run complex DaVinci Fusion stuff in real time, even with a very reasonable GTX 960Ti. This new kit must go faster, as the motherboard has little blue LEDs all over it, and the memory is called Corsair Vengeance, which has extra metal bits. It also has M2 slots, but whether to populate them I don’t know yet.
Bernie
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Ah, I see. Sort of Lamborghini class memory. I’m sure it must come in very useful.
Bernie
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I see a Samsung 4TB SSD is $692 on Amazon
B
Bernie
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As Bill says, it’s all about productivity – and paying the mortgage, sending your kids to school, etc. In the US, you unlucky people, paying your medical bills. Thank God for the NHS, I’ve used it a good bit in the past few years.
Anyway – productivity, and profit. You need the cheapest gear that will do the job effectively, in this case editing. Long ago I used to spec this sort of thing for the BBC. Customer loyalty – or drinking someone’s Kool Aid – wasn’t part of the equation in any way at all. I bought a G4 on a BBC budget because FCP was the best editing system ever.
Some people have to do lots of editing on a laptop to earn a crust. I have, but it’s something I really don’t enjoy. I want two big screens, a decent sound system, a comfy chair. Already I’ve started the desired spec. How much will I pay for the comfy chair? As little as possible, provided it does its job. Who will make it? Who cares? How much am I going to pay for the magic box on the floor here that allows me to create art – or just hang a few shots together? As little as possible in order to get the job done. Clients don’t give a stuff about what gear you have, any more that what car you drive.
So what kind of magic box do I want? If I was making feature films, a reasonably fancy one – but I would want to spec it myself, and probably build it too. A pretty box wouldn’t be part of the deal. If I’m not making feature films, and I’m not, I don’t need something that will run 8k with effects in real time, so I can cut the price I pay considerably. If I build, or have built, an appropriate pc, I can have an infinite choice of components to fit whatever spec level I need at the time. If I was starting from scratch the software would be Resolve, quite obviously, because it’s a class act in rapid development, and free. Don’t care about the operating system as long as it works – I’ve used lots of them. A pretty box still isn’t part of the deal.
It’s 25 years since I first built a pc . It’s easy, like doing Lego, and the results are very very reliable. Since the first ones were for our production unit at the BBC, and we were turning out two half hour arts shows a week on a tiny budget, they needed to be.
So – I would have thought that anyone in business who want to make a profit, really doesn’t care who makes the gear, only that it does the required job. I passed through the Apple world as an independent a few years ago now – a G4 and two successive Hackintoshes. From standing on the outside it’s a prohibitive small world, with big walls, like some religious cults. Why pay for some massively over-specced pc in a fancy box running a different operating system (with no CUDA), when you can have whatever you want tomorrow, or the day after, probably for rather less money?
As Bill says, it’s about productivity, and profit. I look forward to the first buyer of this machine coming on here telling us how amazing it is – of course it is, it must be because you paid a fortune for it.
Bernie
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Just a mile down the road here they make the McLaren Senna –
Performance
0-100KPH (62MPH) 2.8s
0-200KPH (124MPH) 6.8s
0-300KPH (186MPH) 17.5sEngine
Type V8
Technology Twin-Turbo
McLaren M840TR 3,994CC
Power 800PS (789BHP)
Torque 800NM (590LB FT)It’s jolly pretty, very high spec, and if I get rid of my house and live on the street I could afford one. But actually, I drive a Toyota Avensis, which does the jobs required of it. I can’t think of anyone (maybe a Pixar render farm?) actually needing this new Mac, except as a boy’s toy (mine is bigger than yours). And Pixar might not be interested as it has no CUDA. So in the wider world, what’s it for?
Bernie
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The uni I was working for till last year has huge classrooms with hundreds of PCs. The network has a jukebox system so that different groups can load appropriate software – surveying, pharmacy, CAD, graphics, newspaper systems, etc etc. In the media area they’ve licensed all of Adobe – they hadn’t when I left tried Resolve. The system allows for maximum flexibility with their resources, and of course most software runs on PCs, which they buy bought from various manufacturers. There were a few Macs in the library. Don’t know why.
It’s all about money.
Bernie
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No wonder Apple is the richest company in the world. I wonder what the profit margin on your machine was?
Bernie