Hackbook- any pros here?

Ginzue

Last time I had a computer query, I was helped greatly with information that lead me to by my HP w2408h 24" and could not be happier. H/A, I turn to you again.

I do video editing and graphic design to make money on the side while I attend college, and am finding I REALLY need Final Cut to end my frustration with Premiere, not to mention I am a huge sucker for Motion. Reasons aside, I need a Mac, but can't afford one, and wish not to pay that kind of money for a new box, while I'm still making payments on my nice HP 9000 series 17" notebook.

Anyone here have experience with Hackbooks? My HP has 2 HD's and I would love sticking OSX on the second one so I could use its programs. A lot of guys in the industry (videography) do this, and I want to know some UNBIASED pro/cons, or maybe your experiences.

Thanks so much!

Djeet

Your best bet would be to visit hackintosh forums and find the hardware that have demonstrably worked under OSX. A LOT of hardware is not well supported. The main issues are hardware accelerated video, wifi, lan, audio, and power management. A lot of systems you might be able to get to install OSX, but with VESA video, no wifi, needing you to drop in a particular wired lan card to get internet, no audio, and no sleep/hibernate/resume or ability to shut the machine down gracefully. This, more than any licensing issue, is the most compelling reason to just buy Apple if you want to run OSX, because that slick OSX experience is lost when the hardware is not properly supported.

I'm not sure how kosher it is to discuss how to do the hackintosh thing in this forum so I'm not going to get into detail.

If it's video you're trying to do and you're not happy with Premiere you might look into Vegas Pro. Will a 9400M graphics card do the job for you? You can get a mac mini with that for under $600.

DeathPrawn

Not an answer to your question, but are computer labs an option? I know it's not the most pleasant, but both colleges I've gone to have media labs with decked-out Mac Pros for video editing.

Pheezer

There is no way to do this that isn't legally shady and we don't wanna deal with that subject at all. So this thread doesn't get to happen here. Sorry!