It's more expensive if you aren't really buying a PC today to turn in to hackintosh (so using what you have), other then that it's about the same, while Apple Silicon will perform much better with same specs due to architecture, optimizations and all that.

Also I don't see much point in getting desktop at all, if you want amazing laptop, then this stuff is unbeatable, but if you are trying to make sense out of Mini vs. desktop PC, makes little to no sense. Especially if you are one of the folks who need tons of storage, RAM and whatever.

Also you can just buy used Mini and Audiogirdder it, not every machine has to have all your RAM and storage, for running few Mac plugins you can pretty much get base Mac Mini M1 for 300 bucks tops, maybe even one with more storage and RAM, people are going to sell them more and more as M5 Mini is getting closer to release.

You can go vice versa, have your current PC to hold all your hog's, Kontakt, Omnisphere, Nexus and all that stuff that needs RAM and storage and just use your Mini for DAW and everything else.

M5 Mini will most likely be 16/512 and this is the first double everything from M1, double the CPU power, RAM and storage, so maybe not the worst deal out there, offload all the hogs to PC and pretty much have best of both worlds.

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2026 at 6:14 PM

It might not be a difficult build to do with the intent of building a Hackintosh, but that would be buying all the most widely reported components which will work the best. Or just happening to be very lucky with the specific existing hardware you already have.

Would I do it? Nope. I already have a Thunderbolt hub with an ethernet port, which was expensive, so I could even deal with a base model Mini and call it a day, using an existing Win10 machine as a plugin server for Audiogridder. Otherwise, you can get an upgraded new one for about $50 more, or jump to the Pro model of the mini and it is standard, plus the additional 8GB RAM so that you are at a very comfortable 24gb.
Neither are "so expensive" compared with any PC you are going to build, maybe a tiny bit. Well worth it to not deal with the additional BS.
It’s like installing Kali on random hardware just to say it runs. You can do it, but unless you understand the tooling and have a reason, you’re not really gaining anything.

 

I'd say buy a Mac. It's no secret that Apple's slowly phasing out support for intel cpu's in MacOS, if your plan is to stick to the latest updates. That's my only take on it.

Only time I went with hackintosh was back in the days with a Rampage IV Extreme/3930k "golden" combo. Was fun times.

Anyway: I wouldn't waste my time on OpCore Simplify simply because you'll learn absolutely nothing about your own hardware down the line. They make it look simple, but all it is going to do is bloat your EFI with unwanted crap 70% of the time. Some tweaks might work, but it may halt performance. And even then, whats the point?

Making your own EFI takes at least 10 minutes if not more or less, if you follow Dortania's guide. (And if you can get "native" support with your hardware that is)

 

Last edited: Apr 21, 2026 at 8:07 PM

tahoe will be the last supporting intel processors, but for a DAW computer tere uis no real reason to use the latest OS - i would also use the oldest possible for a machine, no matter of apple or hackintosh.

 

if you are not shooting for an Apple Silicon Mac you can get one so cheap this all sounds like so much wasted effort, and probably some money too. If I wanted to build any PC, i'd want to build a PC that I was happy using as a Windows PC in a dual boot configuration. You're back to talking about real money again.

The first post says Macs are "so expensive", but all this really leads me to believe is you haven't really shopped around yet. I try to think "bang for buck" when buying something on my own dime, and I really think this isn't it.

 

Why? Total waste of Time. X86 is a dead architecture. Hackintosh is a total pain in the ass, Drivers, compatability and reliability. OK I get "I just wanna build it to revive my old machine for whatever" (I have revived some Unibody laptops with it) but why? Hackintosh had its place but Processor architecture and OS compatibility has moved on.Way too many positives productivity wise running Apple silicon. I'd rather write music than fiddle with hardware. I can see the advantages of Open Core, works well on older Laptops, mac mini's ect however, as somone on my 4th Apple Silicon machine (I have a 14" M4max Macbook Pro and a 13" M1 MAcbook Pro) It all just works. If X86 is still your thing, more power to you.