Money data.
As the parts start arriving for the HP100 upgrade of HP1, I thought it might be instructive to compare costs for that super fast three display machine with the inexpensive HP10 dual display Hackintosh, my HP10, used mostly for stock quotes. Just for laughs I also include a MacPro in as close a configuration as I could come up with.
But first, here’s a snap of the gorgeous (!) new Gigabyte motherboard which will host Intel’s latest Core i5 CPU, replacing the older one with its Intel Core2Quad:
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard.
If that doesn’t get your pulse racing, nothing will.
What’s striking about this cost comparison is not just the silly pricing of the MacPro (not to mention its very limited capacity for upgrades) but the exceptionally low cost of HP10 whose normally clocked Core i3 CPU outperforms all but the fastest iMacs. The Core i5/i7 CPUs in iMacs are under-clocked by Apple so they only melt one day after your warranty has expired. HP100 will be twice as fast as HP1 and 50% faster than the comparable MacPro. The HP100 upgrade will add five years of life to HP1.
HP1/HP100, MacPro and HP10 costs compared.
Note also that the net cost of upgrading HP1 (Core2Quad) to HP100 (Core i5) is a mere $126. The old parts sold for a loss of 30% of original cost, incurred 30 months ago. That’s an outstanding value, helped by the excellent resale value of Intel’s older CPU.
With the mechanical difficulty of building a Hackintosh comparable to that of assembling a basic Lego toy and with the software tools freely available making hacking very simple, there has never been a better time to build the best desktop machine that (very little) money can buy. While the cheaper HP10 does not sport fancy monitors, its operating speed is perfectly fine for heavy Photoshop use and it runs exceptionally cool, all for under $1,000 with two wall mounted matte displays, easily profiled with a colorimeter.
That sum gets you the base 21″ iMac with a ghastly glossy screen which simply cannot be correctly profiled, lacking the necessary adjustments, identical operating speed and seriously compromised thermal engineering and that awful slot-loading optical drive. Finally, the HP10 has two internal HDDs and two independent Wifi systems – a plug-in dongle and a Broadcomm/AirDrop internal card, for broad redundancy So, your $1000 gets you two displays, two HDDs and two wi-fi systems, not to mention wired broadband. Without broadband, you are dead.
The iMac has one of everything and when it blows, the whole thing has to go back; once out of warranty, the melted motherboard will cost you $950 to replace, which is pointless. Finally, when funds permit, HP10’s Core i3 can be upgraded to an i5 or i7, both drop-in replacements.
Yes, desktop machines are trucks. The HP10 is the Toyota pickup and HP100 just happens to have a Ferrari V12 under the hood, at a Chevy price.