What's the difference between a Mac Mini and a system unit with identical specifications?

Question

hackintosh

To be more precise, it became interesting
Is there any unique piece of hardware in the Mac Mini that can not be found anywhere else.
Those. can I stupidly assemble an absolutely identical machine with the same characteristics and put Maverick there (the fact that I am breaking the law is understandable) => iMac

Answer 1

A unique piece of hardware that distinguishes Apple hardware from any self-assembly is the EFI bootloader - it also allows you to communicate with hardware - an analogue of BIOS.
She does it faster* than the layer that she emulates in Hackintoshe. That's why hacks are usually slower than similar pieces of iron but with an apple logo.
*relevant only when using Mac OS X, if you take boot camp + Windows, then the situation becomes rather reversed.

Answer 2

SMC chip. A unique piece of iron, which is installed exclusively for Apple. I can be wrong, but it controls the backlights of the screen and so on, energy saving, and it also contains a unique device key, which is used, for example, when encrypting the file system.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Controller
But all these functions are duplicated on non-Apple hardware.
Yes, you can build an identical machine and it will work fine, the only thing that can cause problems is with the WiFi + BT module, it can be difficult to get it, usually one is chosen.
www.tonymacx86.com/441-building-customac-buyer-sg...
In violation of the law, the issue is controversial, and not everything is so simple there.
PS Anyone who will say that a hackintosh is not a poppy and all the problems because of this - spit in your face.