i spend around $550.00 to build my hackintosh,here is the hackintosh hardware

GA-Z87MX-D3H
i5 4670K
Vengeance LP 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL11 Desktop Memory Kit
Corsair 500 Watt Modular
Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
pc case Fractal Design Core 1000

my monitor is a samsung 27 inches,i bought it used for $180.00
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for my first build i spend around $920 dollars

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K=$229.99
Motherboard: GA-Z77N-WIFI=$129.99
RAM: 16 GB1600Mhz DDR3 $86.99
Case: BitFenix Prodigy=$79.99
Power Supply: Corsair 650TX Modular=$104.99
Graphics: GeForce GTX 650=$139.99
Storage:SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD=$79.99
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler=$69.

 

Thanks for your "build" numbers and hardware you used as I am also seriously looking at building my 1st hackintosh and it's nice to know what money folks are spending and the hardware folks are using on hackintosh machines.

 

I too would pass on your friends offer at $700.

In 2009 I bought an iMac (mid 2007) for $475. It was in mint condition. Get this, an older couple bought it, unboxed it and launched Photo Booth, his picture showed up on the screen and he thought Big Brother Apple did that. They put it back in the box and promptly sold it. Lucky me, right place, right time and a nice Mac for a rather sweet price.

My point being that if you have to have a Mac you can find better prices than what your friend is offering.

If you do buy it bear in mind that the internal HD could possibly need to be replaced. Mine died right around the 5 years after buying it. From my experience you get around 5 years of life from a HD. Although I do have external HD's that are considerably older which are running just fine. Come to think of it I have a couple internal HD's that are older which are running fine as well. I backup all my main HD's every day as I have been burned with a toasted HD in the past.

I'm planning on going the hackintosh route for my next machine as I do like to have more control than Apple offers as far as upgrading your machine. From what I've read here there are plenty of folks running hackintosh machines with no problems. There is plenty of info on the net and here on them.

Good luck with whatever route you go!

 

I'm planning to build my next hackintosh to substitute my old one who's still in duty now ..

Actually I will keep some parts from the old machine to 'minimize' the budget (while at the same time try to get the best with it) like the 5yr old Case, 1 month old HDD, 1 year old Power and DVD, so the budget would be around $800 for i7 4790K, a 97X board and 32GB RAM. I think with 800 that'd be the maximum specifications I can get combined with the old parts.

If you have parts from your old PC that you can still use for the new build, it's good.