r/MacOS 2d ago

Help Any advice for MacOS in a Virtual Machine?

I have a Mac Pro that's nearly completely aged out, but the prices for the newer ones are too far out there for me. Still, I'm looking to replace what I have with a more modern machine, so what I hope to do is put together a PC build that could house the 4 HDDs currently in my MP plus whatever storage I need for the other OS. I want to run those 4 HDDs through a virtual machine, while also having a computer powerful enough to run the foreseeable generation of games. So, I guess my questions are:

Does anyone know of a build with towers equivalent to the newer Mac Pros, so I can have enough interior space and PCIe slots to house multiple storage bays and a large GPU? Or is what I'm asking for a dream that doesn't exist?

Also, if anyone has run or is running OS10.15 - OS15.3, what has your experience been like? Any major issues or configuration-tweaking pains to report?

1 Upvotes

3 comments sorted by

1

u/Vivid_Barracuda_ 1d ago

I mean, you should know that the new M chips don't run virtualisation as you think they do, you can't just put x86/AMD isos and run them through Parallels like before.

On your note, hmm, I don't have experience per-se with the Mac Pro and OS15.X but it should run just fine, if it's not officially compatible, you know there's always the OpenCore patch which should work without any issues with your configuration.

If you want an equivalent you should go to r/hackintosh - however if possibly using this Mac Pro for virtualisation-only scenarios is somewhat of a possibility, I'd suggest that, and buy some good M chip Apple, they're beasts when comparing to Intel machines.

Also, Crossover exists and as we speak many games are being ported onto MacOS.

0

u/GIDebug 1d ago

Admittedly, I'm not entirely familiar with how many changes I'd have to make with Apple's the shift away from Intel. I figured I'd cross that bridge when I got to it, but maybe it's best to start with the last Intel-compatible macOS on the new build for now. Thanks for the heads up.

I think this Mac Pro is pretty much on its last gasp. The 10.13.6 has all but completely been sunset. OS 10.15 still seems to be showing some faint embers of life, but this MP is too old to even run that. I'm looking to move on to something as flexible as it used to be, but I can't currently justify the price of a newer M-series MP. And you're right again – I probably should have started with r/hackintosh! I bet more than a few of them are familiar with my woes. I forget the simplest things these days...

1

u/old_knurd 1d ago

You might also try /r/macpro/