Is a hackintosh as stable as a real Mac ?

Is a Hackintosh as stable as a real Mac ?

Yes it can but, it all depends on how its configured and built. Hackintosh is not for the end user who wants to buy a computer, plug it in and start surfing / computing, as its name implies, its hacking the Apple OS to run on non Apple hardware. Is this legal ?, that is open to debate and opinion and will not be covered here.

Hackintosh can be just as stable as a real Mac if you take the time and do some research. Not all hardware will work and laptops will be allot harder to get working, some laptops and desktops will not work at all but the good news is there is a wiki to look up hardware and even installation guides. Still, hackintosh is not for the non computer tech person, its more for someone who likes the Mac OS experience and likes to tinker with hardware and software. The term Hacker in this context refers to someone who enjoys getting the OS and hardware to work and not someone who hacks into banks or secure systems for illegal purposes.

The best representation of a stable Hackintosh would be my system, below is the hardware list.

Gigabyte EP 58X-USB3 Motherboard
Intel i7-950 3.10Ghz CPU
12GB (3x4) 1600 DDR3 memory
ATI Radeon 5870 1GB Video Card

The above list is the most important part of the hackintosh, Hard disks, DVD drives, power supply and cases are generic and anything new will work. I install Linux first and do some system testing before installing OS X to confirm all is good and working. What makes a hackintosh unstable is cheap parts, mixing memory sticks or using cheap power supply's, this will create an unstable Hackintosh just as it would a Windows PC.

Install process, this is how easy it is to install. you will need a Retail version of Snow Leopard $29

Download Boot CD and Install package
Boot PC with Boot CD
insert Snow Leopard DVD and hit F5
Install Snow Leopard
reboot PC with Boot CD
Install latest OS X update (in my case it was 10.6.6 Combo update) do not restart PC
Run installer package and select appropriate configuration items and reboot after removing Boot CD

You are now greeted by OS X running on your PC, make some config changes, maybe fix or tweak some setting hear and there and you are ready to start enjoying Hackintosh.

Everything that I posted in my blog is available by using Google and doing some research, directing you to every link and process will take the fun out of it but if you want a walkthrough guide email me or check out some of the relevant forums.