It's becoming common knowledge you can hack a netbook to run Mac OS X. But just how does it compete with a real Mac? Tech blog AppleDifferent ran in-depth benchmarks and found an MSI Wind Hackintosh performs on par with a 4-year-old iBook G4.
Well, sort of. The hacked Wind was generally speedier in real-world tasks: It booted up OS X and launched programs faster. But processor-intensive tasks like converting an iTunes track or unzipping a folder took about the same amount of time as they did on an iBook.
You might think — bleh, an iBook? But the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor in netbooks is designed to be a low-powered, energy-efficient CPU made for a budget device. And to me, real-world performance is more important with netbooks in particular, because you'll only be running processor-intensive tasks occasionally. What do you think?
Benchmark Results [AppleDifferent via Liliputing]
See Also:
- Gadget Lab Video: Running OS X on a Netbook
- OS X Running on Lenovo Netbook
- Cheap, Easy-to-Mod NetBooks Are a Hacker's Paradise
- Apple Still Oblivious to Netbook Opportunity
- It Lives! Gadget Lab's Netbook Running OS X Leopard
- Hackintosh Update: Installing a New Wireless Card
- Gadget Lab Hackintosh: Now With Added Sound Output
- Sound Output Enabled on Hackintosh Eee PCs
- Tablet Hackintosh on Dell Netbook
- Gadget Lab Catches a Second MSI Wind
- Run Mac OS X on an Eee PC
- Hack of the Clones: Why Apple Can't Stop the Copies
Image: AppleDifferent
