In order to move away from the Mac, one of the many items one must do is get hardware to replace the Mac. Fortunately, when you come to terms with actually moving away, you end up having A LOT of options to pick from, including custom-building a system.
I havenāt really done a good job at keeping up with tech outside of Appleās offerings, and wow was I shocked with whatās out there! The amount of power you can get from a custom-built machine vs what Apple offers is such a vast delta! Another vast delta is the price of all of this. I configured a great custom system for ~$800. (I already had a monitor, keyboard and mouse.)
Existing Peripherals
Monitors
Thereās a ton of options out here too. The first constraint is your budget, the next constraint is your OSās support for high-DPI resolutions.
I have a professional-grade monitor, a NEC MultiSync P242W. Iāve had it for years at this point. It was a pricey panel, but I really canāt say how happy I have been with this monitor. Many people like to make fun of how thick my monitor is, but the image is so stunning. Its resolution is 1920x1200, so not a high-DPI monitor. The MacBook Pro I was using at the time I bought this monitor only supported 4k at 30hz, which was unacceptable to me.
The closest monitor you can get to mine today is the NEC P243W.
Keyboards
I used to be a fan of Appleās keyboards until they started giving me an RSI at 24 years old. I switched to a Microsoft Sculpt keyboard and havenāt looked back. Once you get used to the split keyboard layout, itās great and probably the best thing you can do for your wrists.
The closest sculpt keyboard you can get to mine, today is this.
Mice
I recently moved back to a wired mouse. Iām not sure exactly what was going on, but the bluetooth Apple Magic Mouse I was using would lag incredibly hard any time I was performing a large file transfer over WIFI or even to a USB-3 hard drive.
This is the mouse I am currently using.
Finding New Hardware
Custom-building a machine is not overly difficult if you have a general understanding of what goes into a computer.
Youāll need at least the following things: * PC case * Logic board/main board/motherboard * Power Supply Unit (PSU) * CPU Processor * RAM * HD/SSD * GPU (or a CPU bundled with an integrated graphics chipset)
CPU Processors
Thereās old blue-n-white/Intel, but right now, AMDās Ryzen processor lineup is hot. Some mid-range Ryzen processors are outperforming the high-end workstation processors in Appleās new Mac Pro system.
Mainboards
My personal opinion is that itās a good idea to get a very powerful and capable main board for your build, even if itās maybe even the most expensive part in the whole kit. Youāll want to be able to swap in new processors and add additional RAM and graphics cards and the like in the years coming. Thereās no reason that you shouldnāt figure on getting ten years out of your main board, so make it a good one!
Cases
Many gamers do not care much about their PC case. They will argue that the money spent on a fancier case is better spent on getting extra parts to boost your machineās performance. Coming from using Macs for almost two-decades, I disagree. Most PC cases are hideous, but there are a few great, aesthetic options for cases out there too.
One of my favorites Iāve found is from Phanteks. [https://www.phanteksusa.com/collections/evolv-series/products/phanteks-evolv-x-silver](https://www.phanteksusa.com/collections/evolv-series/products/phanteks-evolv-x-silver
If youāre into something more whimsical or desire something Mac-like, thereās always this knock-off Mac Pro case, the Dune Pro.
Picking PC Parts
Without further ado, here is how I configured my custom-build PC.
CPU Case: NZXT H510 - $70
I got this case without knowing about the Phanteks and Dune Pro cases. Itās okay, but itās like cheap sheet metal with a gaudy glass window on the side. Itās not a bad case by any means, but it doesn't have a premium Apple-like feel to it. Iām a little disappointed, but it works for now.
Mainboard: ASUS Prime X570 - $240
Again, I splurged on this logic board. I think it really was the most expensive part in this whole build. Things I like about this main board are itās white and silver heat sinks and port covers and that it supports up to 128 GB of RAM. Thereās a lot of other great features on it too, like M.2 SSD slots and LED control (if youāre into that).
PSU: Corsair RM550x - $90
I decided to go full-modular on the PSU just because I wanted something that was the most-configurable in the event that I change cases or reuse this PSU in another way in the future. 550W is plenty for this system Iām building. You can cut the cost a bit by going half-modular.
CPU Processor: RYZEN 5 3400G - $160
I have had several friends tell me how great AMDās Ryzen chips are. I can say that the hype is REAL! I love this processor. It feels so so so much faster than the Intel chip in my Mac mini. Another great thing about this chip is that it comes with an integrated graphics chip, which could come in handy if running on an esoteric Linux distro without great support for discrete graphics cards.
RAM: V-Color Prism, 8GB - $38
Since Iām not yet using this system as my main system, Iām only putting 8 GB of RAM in it. A friend linked me to these modules. Theyāre pretty cheap and also have RGB LEDs on them. Iāll get more eventually.
HD/SSD
I already had an unused 128 GB SSD sitting around.
GPU: Radeon 580 - $130
A great secret one of my friends gave me is that you can get some really decent used GPUs on eBay. I picked up an MSI Armor Radeon 580 card at a great price. Just search eBay for the card youāre looking for. Maybe a Radeon 580? Maybe an NVIDIA 1060?
Putting it All Together
Hardware
I donāt have much to add here. Just follow the instructions in the packaging to get everything put together. I do have some photos of the build.
Software
I was able to install Ubuntu immediately without a hitch. The performance of Ubuntu on this hardware is great, especially compared to my Mac mini (which has two more processor cores and twice as much RAM). I canāt believe how slow and latent macOS feels these days.
I also installed HaikuOS.
HaikuOS is a little more esoteric of an operating system and I had some trouble getting the OS to boot on my hardware.
Booting the Haiku live desktop via USB3 was spotty until very recently with some great progress made by Mr Waddlesplash. At the time though it was not working for me. I know that USB3 support has actually been an issue on many platforms, not just Linux or Haiku. macOS has even had some issues with USB3 devices. As Mr Waddlesplash explained, the USB3 spec is very large and difficult to implement.
An alternate install method is booting the live desktop from a USB 2 flash drive, which solves a lot of problems. Unfortunately this didn't work for me either.
I finally got Haiku installed and running on my custom rig by putting the SSD into an older machine, booting the live desktop and installing the OS on to the SSD, then putting the SSD into my custom box. I am happy to report that Haiku boots and damn is it fast!
Conclusionā¦
Iām not completely ready to move off of macOS, but step by step Iām getting there. I really canāt imagine buying a new Mac today. The hardware options are incredibly pricey and limited. Itās always been this way I suppose, but Macs used to be a lot more special than they are now.
Itās incredibly obvious to me now how, 1) over-priced, 2) under-powered, 3) wasteful Macās have become. I put together a completely modular system for $800 that outperforms a Mac mini that originally cost $1600. It feels so nice to know that I can upgrade the processor without, say, having to throw away my monitor. If you are buying new Macintosh hardware today, what are you doing???