I’ve been using a Hack Pro for several months with OpenCore. It took a bit to learn my way through the docs as they were not terribly clear when I started but once I was up and running it was nice.
I was largely happy with it, as the machine was extremely fast and very, very quiet. I also had FileVault running too along with SIP. However, the main issues I had were stability - these machines are generally nowhere near as stable as a regular Mac as there are many small issues which over time can become big (restarting on wake from sleep, unreliable internet, disconnecting from iCloud, etc).
Depending on your use case, these may not be an issue. However, Opencore was vastly better than Clover and if you want to try this I’d start there first.
My OpenCore-based Hackintosh has been rock solid with the sole exceptions of Sidecar (iPad as an additional monitor) Apple Watch Unlock, which sometimes work and sometimes doesn’t. I currently do not care enough to put much effort into it. Everything else works perfectly: iMessages, AirDrop, iCloud, etc.
This is not to discredit the parent comment, but rather to stress the importance of choosing your parts for maximum Hackintosh compatibility.
I built my PC to be a Hackintosh. I choose the build parts that were most compatible. Trying to Hackintosh arbitrary PC builds is above my tolerance threshold.
If you don’t want to mess with your Hackintosh all the time, go this route. If you don’t want to have to mess with your Hackintosh at all, buy a Mac.
Right now, I'd say become familiar with the /r/hackintosh subreddit and it's accompanying Discord. You can suss together a "golden" build there.
I specifically recommending avoiding anything on tonymacx86 across the board. One, their methods involve a lot of ill-advised hacks and two, their hardware builds often lag and are specced with the aforementioned hacks in mind.
The tl;dr version of parts selection:
- Get a non-oddball Intel CPU, such as a 9700K or whatever,
- An AMD GPU (an TX 580 or 5700XT),
- A Z370 or Z390 motherboard from a reputable manufacturer, such as ASUS or Gigabyte.
- A fast NVMe SSD, because that's what macOS expects these days.
- For AirDrop and certain other macOS features, you'll need a well-supported BT/wifi card.
When I built my system, I specced an 8700K, an ASUS Z390-I Gaming, a Sapphire RX 580 Nitro+, and a Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD. I had to swap out the mini-m.2 intel-based wifi card from the motherboard and installed a Dell DW1560 and that was a little annoying, ut it's a one-and-done thing. And dang has my system worked great.
You mean OpenCore is not as stable? Hackintoshes in general have become really stable, at least on the "recommended" hardware from sites like TonyMacx86.
I've had a Clover Hack Pro as my primary workstation for at least 4 years now -- and it's more stable than my 2018 Macbook Air.
It's more that any hackintosh isn't perfect, and you'll notice some glaring flaws.
For me, it restarted on wake about 15% of the time. But every time that happened, it was always jarring. In addition, I would occasionally get some crazy graphic glitches which required a force restart (I was using the internal graphics on an i9 chip, so it should have been perfectly stable - but wasn't).
However, iCloud worked perfectly (along with handoff, copy/paste between devices, etc.). But in the back of my mind I knew that I was running a machine that had code not from apple on it, and that would always be a small but real risk.
I bought a Mac mini i7 1tb and dropped 64gb of ram in it. I get practically the same performance for the same price in parts, plus a T2 security chip. The only price I've paid is slightly more noise under load, which happens infrequently.
If I had it to do again, I would have gone with the Mac mini instead, but it was a good learning experience and taught me a lot about the lower levels of the system.
My main workstation was a hackintosh back in 2012 and I remember it was extremely stable for my use. Did not use iCloud nor Wake from sleep though, and it was pre SIP (OS X Lion).
I was largely happy with it, as the machine was extremely fast and very, very quiet. I also had FileVault running too along with SIP. However, the main issues I had were stability - these machines are generally nowhere near as stable as a regular Mac as there are many small issues which over time can become big (restarting on wake from sleep, unreliable internet, disconnecting from iCloud, etc).
Depending on your use case, these may not be an issue. However, Opencore was vastly better than Clover and if you want to try this I’d start there first.