Last week Apple refreshed their iMac range for the first time in two years but is the new 2019 iMac worth the hefty price tag? Or would you be better off building a Hackintosh that you can easily upgrade in the future?
If you are like a lot of video content creators, you are either currently shooting and editing in 4K or you are thinking about it. With the refresh of the iMac lineup in 2019 you now have a choice to upgrade.
Unfortunately, you will have to spend quite a bit for that 4k video editing computer you have been dreaming about. Sure you can upgrade up to 64 GB of ram yourself, to save a little money but if you want to upgrade the CPU or GPU or go from a regular hard drive to a SSD you will have to do that when you order your iMac.
In this article, we will have a look at the cost of a comparable Hackintosh build and see if it is a significant enough savings to warrant building your own computer instead of buying a new 2019 iMac. Let’s start by looking at the price of a 27 Inch 5K Imac equipped with a Intel i9 8 core processor, 64 GB’s ram, Radeon Pro 580X GPU, 500 GB SSD which will cost you roughly $3,799.00 before tax.
A comparable Hackintosh build with a more color accurate 4k display like the BenQ SW 271 covering more of the Adobe RGB color spectrum will cost you roughly $3000. If you want to save even more you can get a lower cost monitor and still have the same processing power for close to $2500.
Now of course there is the time you will have to spend ordering the various parts and building it yourself. Along with the time it takes for you to figure out how to install Mac OS and getting it up and running. If running Mac OS is a priority and having the ability to easily upgrade your components in the future, as well as having the added bonus of saving money.
Then a Hackintosh is definitely worth considering as long as you are willing to spend the time getting it up and running and maintaining it. Let me know in the comments below, if you would rather buy a new 2019 iMac or try building a Hackintosh yourself to save some money.
I own 2010 imac for around 9 years already. Recently I feel like purchase a new one and I am think about New imac 2019 or Hackintosh.
I did a price comparison as below:
Hackintosh: i9 9900k, Gigabyte Z390 DESIGNARE, SAPPHIRE Radeon RX580, DDR4 32G, Samsung 970 PRO NVMe 512G/M.2 PCIe, Samsung 860 EVO 500G, Fractal Design R6, LEADEX 750W, Eisbaer LT360,
The Hackintosh price is around $1,950 NOT include 5k display.
And 2019 imac spec: i9 9900k, DDR4 40G, Radeon Pro 580X, 512 SSD, Intel 660p 1T
The 2019 imac price is $3,025
The price difference is $1,075.
But I still need a monitor for Hackintosh ,so I check LG 27MD5KB-B UltraFine 27" and the price is $1,399.
So that make Hackintosh total 3,349 which is more than imac 2019 $3,025
SO I think I am still go to imac 2019.
I just really don’t understand apple’s upgrade costs, the cost of storage or ram is approx twice the cost of the actual parts, and since if you upgrade yourself you could sell the original parts to offset the upgrade cost- it’s a shame apples baseline specs are somewhat underwhelming, the cost of the iMac is mostly the screen, so all I ever wanted was an iMac or a MacBook Pro without the screen, a Mac mini with a built in gpu. I’ve been on the hackintosh for a while and yes it is a nightmare, but then so is spending 3k on an iMac, when I have all the parts already for pc gaming etc
I'm amazed at all the commenters who seem to think people are only interested in building Hackintoshes because they love macs. There are cases where only a Mac will run the software needed and no "love for Macs" is even remotely involved. I know, I know, "that's just impossible" I can hear you gasp. But it's true. I know because it's true for me.