Is it illegal to build your Hackintosh?

I really wanted to buy one Mac Pro, but it is too expensive. I heard that you can add your RAM, and build a Mac computer, or a Hackintosh, that acts like a Mac Pro but costs less than $3000. Is that a violation?

iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 9.2.1, White Gold

Posted on May 3, 2016 9:38 AM

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Posted on May 3, 2016 9:43 AM

http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx107.pdf

The grants set forth in this License do not permit you to, and you agree not to, install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to enable others to do so.



Apple may choose to legally prosecute you if you do.

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May 3, 2016 9:43 AM in response to iOSAndroidRebel

http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx107.pdf

The grants set forth in this License do not permit you to, and you agree not to, install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to enable others to do so.



Apple may choose to legally prosecute you if you do.

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May 3, 2016 9:43 AM in response to iOSAndroidRebel

The license agreement for Mac OS X requires genuine Mac hardware.


So yes, running MacOS on non-Apple Hardware is illegal.


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There are many more less expensive models of Macs that can run Windows (at extra cost for the Windows license).


The silver Tower Mac Pro models from 2009 and later are still very good computers today, and are affordable and readily available on the Used Market. They are the more traditional design with PCIe slots and drive bays as well. Many owners of these would buy the same or similar models today, if they were available as new.

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May 3, 2016 10:04 AM in response to iOSAndroidRebel

The Mac Pro dark cylinder contains TWO high-end graphics cards, one of which is reserved for GPU computing without any interruptions from screen servicing. It has a potentially large memory with Error Correction (single-bit RAM errors are corrected on the fly with no slowdown). It can accommodate some very fast multiple processors.


It is all set up in a compact chassis that manages to contain, power, and cool all this Hardware with very minimal fan noise. Its nearest competitor with similar specs is so loud it is only suitable for a machine-room.


It is a Final Cut -X Beast, and could be an After effects beast as well if Adobe ever managed to write some of the code they promised to write when it was first issued.

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May 4, 2016 2:43 AM in response to iOSAndroidRebel

iOSAndroidRebel wrote:


I have enough money to buy the Mac Pro, but I meant that it is more expensive than the Mac I am building, which has higher specs.


If you buy a secondhand 'classic' Mac Pro preferably a 2010 model then you can upgrade various items in it to build a very capable Mac almost as fast as the 'new' Mac Pro.


You can fit an SSD drive - preferably a PCIe card type in a PCIe card adapter, you can fit a newer much more powerful video card, you can even upgrade the CPU chips to a certain extent and you can fit up to 128GB of RAM although that much is overkill for most people. It will of course run the very latest OS X 10.11 i.e. El Capitan.


As such it will be more than capable of running Xcode and FinalCut Pro X.


If you will only be using Final Cut Pro X and not Adobe equivalents e.g. After Effects and Premier then an AMD card is the best choice, if your going to be mainly using Adobe software than an Nvidia card is the better choice. In fact as the classic Mac Pro can use an Nvidia card unlike the new Mac Pro it could even end up being better than a new Mac Pro for Adobe software use.


Depending on how mad you go with upgrades a secondhand classic Mac Pro even with upgrades would likely cost no more than a Hackintosh and certainly less than a new Mac Pro. It would of course be perfectly legal to run OS X on it and even Windows 10.


The classic Mac Pro can run a 4K monitor if you get a suitable AMD or Nvidia video card. If you get an Nvidia GTX 970 or GTX 980 it can even run a 5K monitor!

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Is it illegal to build your Hackintosh?

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