While Apple’s line of mobile/desktop computers and workstations have clearly earned their place in professional editing suites, it’s clear that the products are not the most powerful and efficient on the market, nor the most economical to purchase for editing. Even with the introduction of the lower priced yet powerful Ryzen processors from AMD, Apple still lags behind when it comes to integrating faster technologies in their own computers.
To curb some people’s craving for increased power while using macOS, the vanguard Hackintosh community continues to tinker around with various custom configurations assembled on the cheap. An example of such a Hackintosh would include the Snazzy Lab’s Ryzen-mac monstrosity codenamed “Ryzentosh” showcased in the video below – a custom-built, cost-efficient desktop computer based on AMD’s latest Ryzen CPU architecture with the most recent macOS installed on board.
The core of this system is, of course, its CPU which in this build is the AMD Ryzen 1600, a powerful and very affordable six-core processor that has been praised by the PC building community for providing performance at such an economical price. For a little over 200 dollars, it’s much more affordable than Intel’s offerings while being just as productive.
In addition to the processor, Nelson has decided to complete the configuration with the following components:
- Stock Cooler that came with the Ryzen 1600 (Amazon US)
- ASRock AB350 Pro4 Motherboard (Amazon US)
- Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR4 Memory (Amazon US)
- AMD RX480 Graphics Card (B&H, Amazon US)
- Phanteks P400 Computer Case w/ Glass Panel and LED Strip (Amazon US)
- MX200 500GB Solid State Drive (Amazon US)
Regarding performance, the Ryzentosh certainly impresses. In fact, according to Nelson, the build surpasses the performance of a fully-loaded iMac Retina 5K and even the $5,000 Mac Pro in some instances. Looking at the benchmarks, the Ryzentosh does very well in multi-core scenarios, in addition to gaming thanks to the RX480 graphics.
On the downside, the build doesn’t perform that well when it comes to video editing and exporting in Final Cut Pro X. While performance in Adobe’s NLE seems to be adequate, the build suffers during editing processes in FCP X since the hardware is just not optimised with the software. As it’s well-known, Apple relies heavily on Intel’s QuickSync technology, which apparently is not found on AMD processors.
Ultimately, if you’re considering the option of creating a similar build, keep in mind that it will take a lot of tinkering to get your system to work. While the hardware assembly is similar to putting together any other PC, trying to get the macOS software to boot on non-Apple hardware will be the trickiest part since the process will require a significant amount of time and energy to get it right.
If you want to create your own Ryzen Hackintosh, Google will be your best friend to help you find websites that will walk you through the installation and troubleshooting. Additionally, you could get more comprehensive guidelines regarding installing macOS on Ryzen computer from the AMD-OSX community. Either way, it’s nice to see others uncover the potential behind Apple’s software when paired with the latest AMD hardware.
[source: Snazzy Labs]
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