My dad is stuck on mac os… he just wont be told. lol. He cannot afford to update his dual core mac mini (2012) atm but needs a performance upgrade and more importantly access to much more storage, which is maxed out in chasis as it is. i have however multiple (dual cpu) HP w.s machines (z600, dual 5670s, 24gb 1866) that can run vms and have horsepower to spare. Can i set up a mac vm running headless (in his house) then use his mac mini as the desktop client side. Would this be possible, and also would the use of the mini result in a workaround for the usual connectivity issues assosiated with Hackintosh’s ie airdrop sync etc? Could do with a ‘how to’ if poss… anyone needing music studio, broadcast and performance media system setup advice im happy to help in rtn!
Running a hackintosh VM can be done, though there are a few tricks. It may be helpful to familiarize yourself with the whole hackintosh process first so you know what you’re getting into.
One of the biggest issues is going to be OS updates which tend to break things and the pop up notifications for someone that isn’t tech savy can be difficult to navigate making the whole experience… not very mac like for those who are used to things “just working”. It will require some training for your dad to set expectations. Since I assume you will be supporting this setup, just know that any time you need to update, you may experience some frustration getting things that were working, to work again. Expect your dad to accidentally update and have things stop working.
Probably the easiest way to setup and manage a Mac VM right now is to use Unraid OS which has an excellent community and a docker container to help build the config needed. Here’s a tutorial:
Thankyou for your reply… all valid, however due to the restrictions of updating already with the older mac mini we are happy to stick with mohave on both the vm and client… that should make the potentil answer simpler. assuming we stick with mohave (for which we have current legit version to image from on the mini) and he wont be using any newer features, he largely wants to freeze the setup as is… but improve access to more hardware performance and storage… I do have limited experience with the hackingtosh build process, and am certainly able to do it, for a standalone hack its more the issue of whether we could retain airdrop etc via use of the mini as the client… further reply would be a huge help. Thankyou (excuse my spaghand…clearly meant mojave…on all previous misspelled mentions)
Airdrop can be enabled on un-supported systems, even on ethernet through a hackintosh via changing configs in the command line.
Enter to following command into Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1
Then, restart Finder by typing “killall Finder.”
brilliant …thats what i was struggling to get a straight simple answer for after trawling through mac forums…level1 community the best as always…huge respect dude thankyou
I moved this to the macos section.
Glad that your issue is solved.
True but this doesn’t really work with iPhones/Pads etc
The only way to get Airdrop Continuouity and stuff like that to work is with a BRCM WIFI card. They are something like 50 bucks. You need those 2:
I would also suggest against running OSX in a VM it doesn’t work too good. The graphics acceleration just does not work. I can help you tho. Shouldn’t be too hard to get working with Clover or preferably OpenCore
There’s even a guide on the web https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/success-hp-z600-high-sierra-installation-guide.248026/
Honestly, MacOS works better in a VM in many cases than on bare metal. Even on unsupported hardware like AMD CPUs. Its still a hackintosh though with many of the headaches that entails.
As for GPU acceleration goes, it works as well as it does on bare metal from my experience. Nvidia cards require the often buggy “web drivers” to work properly. AMD cards are a mixed bag, although some models like the RX 570 work flawlessly without any aditional software of configs out of the box.
The only real issue with graphics are going to be working remotely due to the headless nature of things. First the GPU may either need a monitor hooked up or a dongle/kvm so that it tricks the GPU into thinking a monitor is plugged in. Secondly many remote software does not have the best graphical performance to give you an exact “sitting in front of you” expirence. I’ve found No Machine is pretty decent for this.
On windows, using moonlight on Nvidia’s game streaming works well enough to game at 1080p 60fps but the mac nvidia driver doesn’t support streaming. Airplay and ARD simply have too many latency issues to use as a primary daily desktop in my opinion.
Yeah running it in a VM ain’t bad, but you’re emulating an old Core2Duo which is definitely noticable in terms of performance and using PCIe Passthrough to get video acceleration is definitely overkill 
and without it it’s not fun at all. For me it actually didn’t work to Passthrough a RX 5700 to the VM on a Ryzen machine. The GPU worked great on bare metal macOS and in a Windows/Linux VM tho. The RX 4/500 series does also suffer from the reset bug I think. The RX 5700 at least does. But on bare metal the AMD 7000 series and everything starting at the 400 series runs absolutely beautifly.
Thanks…not had chance to login in a week or so…been mad busy helping local businesses go online and setup for deliveries etc in a hope of staying open. Really appreciate the feedback guys… what ive actually done is brought an A1186 mainboard and 2 ram daughters, to transplant my 2 x5365s and 16gb fbdimms across too from the HP, next step is the psu and wiring loom then then the build…after thinking it through, i reflected on all your comments and answers and thought that, given that hes happy to stay on legacy version of osx and has tbolt 2 and firewire peripherals and no need for nvme speeds or more gpu horses than the quaddro 600 or nvs or old amd cards i can donate (whichever is best fit mainly for display outs plus a tiny bitve vram), the normal issues faced from old macs wont be a dealbreaker here, infact.
As that is the age and class of hardware he used proffesionally prior to retiring its what hes familiar with and way more horsepower than he’ll need… so. building him a true 8 core mac pro seemed to be the best option, itll interface well with his current mini, which he can then give mum for a remote working terminal and it will avoid me having to babysit it too much once all is setup. So again huge thanks for your time and consideration in replies and if i can assist anyone in rtn in anything to do with pro audio systems, av studio builds or legacy workstations please fire away.
Having looked into all options ive decided to do 2 things (firstly, and see reply to modzilla for details) have picked up cheap a1186 main and 2 daughter boards and with the addition of psu and wiring loom which i found for £30 ill have him him an 8 core mac pro build…simpler for him, less babysittong for me) Then secondly. I am going to vm off 4c/8t of my 12c/24t z600 for a delve into unraid os and use it in my studio for a vm mac, after watching the guide you posted too im convinnced it should be easy enough given that im fimaliar with running containers and multiple vms on a single bare metal multi cpu machine. i see it as a great learning excersize with a practical use for my business. Ill use the vm as a way to have access to Logic for my music studio clients who are unable to send audio stems and instead insist on sending Apple Logic only project files. So again, huge thanks and after learning the ropes of unraid for this project (whilst having dad setup on a bare metal mac in the meantime) will hopefully give me another option for his next upgrade by then being proficient enough to just let him remote into an unraid system managed from my end. Hope your staying safe and well in the cureent madness…for the first time being ‘computer janitors as wendell puts it’ and often more sociable at a distance and through an rj45 jack than in person, is hooefully keeping you all.away from the virus too…this has shown us to be the masterrace afterall… pcmr. For survival. Lol.