First Hackintosh build for Adobe CS6 - Which Bluetooth-Adapter / Card Reader / TV-Adapter?

microdroid said:

Hey guys, I'm about to build my first Hackintosh. I don't have much money now, but I know that I'll have about 2600$ (actually 2000€ as I'm from Austria) by October (I hope Mavericks will be out by then). The Hackintosh will be used for working with Adobe CS6 (especially Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop) mainly, but also for watching TV and BluRays/DVDs. This is what I wanna get (based on July's Buyer's Guide and the Haswell Early Adopters Guide):

MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H (160€ = 210$)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3,5 GHz (300€ = 400$)
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X OC, 4GB GDDR5 (400€ = 530$)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB-Kit (250€ = 330$)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1TB (60€ = 80$)
SSD (for OS X, Windows and maybe Ubuntu plus all Adobe CS6 Apps): SanDisk Extreme 120GB (95€ = 125$)
Optical Drive: LG Electronics BH16NS40 BluRay Burner Retail (70€ = 90$)
Case: Sharkoon T28 Blue with window (60€ = 80$)
Power Supply: Sharkoon WPM600 600W (50€ = 65$)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120M (50€ = 65$)
Display: BenQ GL2460HM 24" FullHD(145€ = 190$)
Keyboard: Apple Wireless Keyboard (60€ =80$)
Mouse: Apple Magic Mouse (60€ =80$)
WiFi-Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 (35€ = 45$)

That makes a total price of 1815€ = 2408$

Those were all the parts that I'm pretty sure about. But I also need:

Bluetooth-Adapter: What would you recommend? I only need it for the Magic Mouse & Wireless Keyboard.
Card Reader: Definitely need one because I record my vids and pics with a DSLR. Again: What would you recommend?

And I also want:
TV-Adapter: Are there any internal TV-Adapters that work with OSX? Or should I just use the Elgato EyeTV DTT?


What do you guys think of my build? Is it good for working with Creative Suite? Are there any parts you would change if you were me or did I throw in anything that is not supported by OSX? Thanks in advance

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I would definitely get a bigger SSD if you plan to install 2 or 3 operating systems on it; 120GB isn't going to be enough and will cause you a lot of pain.

The recommended Bluetooth adapter in the Buyer's Guide is the IOGear GBU521 - I have it and recommend it. I'm using it with an Apple Magic Mouse, as well as occasionally with my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, and it works flawlessly.

Card reader - any generic internal card reader should work, though I recommend getting one that's good quality (I don't have any specific recommendations there). Personally, I have an external Alluratek reader(this one: http://alluratek.com/microsd-minisd-usb2-0-multi-media-card-reader), which works well.

I don't know much about TV adapters, though I don't believe there are any internal ones that are supported in Mac OS X. The Elgato EyeTV you mentioned is probably a safe bet.

nobodynose said:

I would definitely get a bigger SSD if you plan to install 2 or 3 operating systems on it; 120GB isn't going to be enough and will cause you a lot of pain.

The recommended Bluetooth adapter in the Buyer's Guide is the IOGear GBU521 - I have it and recommend it. I'm using it with an Apple Magic Mouse, as well as occasionally with my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, and it works flawlessly.

Card reader - any generic internal card reader should work, though I recommend getting one that's good quality (I don't have any specific recommendations there). Personally, I have an external Alluratek reader(this one: http://alluratek.com/microsd-minisd-usb2-0-multi-media-card-reader), which works well.

I don't know much about TV adapters, though I don't believe there are any internal ones that are supported in Mac OS X. The Elgato EyeTV you mentioned is probably a safe bet.

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Alright, so the 240GB SanDisk Extreme instead? And the IOGear GBU521. What do you think of that card reader: http://www.delock.de/produkte/F_279_3-5_91674/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en?
Suddenly we're a whole bit closer to my budget limit ^^

microdroid said:

Alright, so the 240GB SanDisk Extreme instead? And the IOGear GBU521. What do you think of that card reader: http://www.delock.de/produkte/F_279_3-5_91674/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en?
Suddenly we're a whole bit closer to my budget limit ^^

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240GB is a lot more realistic for a multi-boot system. That card reader looks OK - we don't have the Delock brand here in the US as far as I know, but it comes up a lot here on the forum, so it must be decent.

If you're looking to trim your budget, that's an awful lot for a graphics card, almost 1/4 of what you want to spend! I would think that you wouldn't necessarily need a 770 for your intended purpose. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not an expert. Just a thought.

nobodynose said:

240GB is a lot more realistic for a multi-boot system. That card reader looks OK - we don't have the Delock brand here in the US as far as I know, but it comes up a lot here on the forum, so it must be decent.

If you're looking to trim your budget, that's an awful lot for a graphics card, almost 1/4 of what you want to spend! I would think that you wouldn't necessarily need a 770 for your intended purpose. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not an expert. Just a thought.

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Guess you're probably right. Needn't be a 770. But I need a decent one, Premiere and especially After Effects require a pretty good graphics card. How about the 760? Would save me about 100-150€ = 130-200$ and definitely be good enough. (I thought of that one: http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=913&lang=en it's about 240€ = 320$)
I don't wanna get a cheaper processor because rendering videos requires an awful lot of CPU performance, and the better the CPU, the shorter the rendering times.
And I once worked on a friend's PC who has the i7-4770K, 16GB of RAM and the GTX 680. Gotta say, it was awesome working with that one, except Illustrator once got stuck exporting a vector graphic (non-pixel image with huge size). We found out it was because of the RAM, and as I work with those vector graphics a lot, I decided that I definitely need 32GB of RAM.

So with the 760 instead of the 770, we're down at 1780€ = 2350$, but still without a TV-Card. But I'm not sure if I wanna get it with the computer, maybe better set it up first and then look for a TV-Card.
Guess I could even take a 2TB HDD now, would probably be worth the money.

Lol I just had a look at Apple's website, my build is 350$ cheaper than the iMac 27" with the 3,2GHz basic configuration, but it has 4x as much RAM, a way better processor and a better graphics card ^^

microdroid said:

Guess you're probably right. Needn't be a 770. But I need a decent one, Premiere and especially After Effects require a pretty good graphics card. How about the 760? Would save me about 100-150€ = 130-200$ and definitely be good enough. (I thought of that one: http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=913&lang=en it's about 240€ = 320$)
I don't wanna get a cheaper processor because rendering videos requires an awful lot of CPU performance, and the better the CPU, the shorter the rendering times.
And I once worked on a friend's PC who has the i7-4770K, 16GB of RAM and the GTX 680. Gotta say, it was awesome working with that one, except Illustrator once got stuck exporting a vector graphic (non-pixel image with huge size). We found out it was because of the RAM, and as I work with those vector graphics a lot, I decided that I definitely need 32GB of RAM.

So with the 760 instead of the 770, we're down at 1780€ = 2350$, but still without a TV-Card. But I'm not sure if I wanna get it with the computer, maybe better set it up first and then look for a TV-Card.
Guess I could even take a 2TB HDD now, would probably be worth the money.

Lol I just had a look at Apple's website, my build is 350$ cheaper than the iMac 27" with the 3,2GHz basic configuration, but it has 4x as much RAM, a way better processor and a better graphics card ^^

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I agree, for your purposes don't skimp on the CPU and RAM. Sounds like you have a good plan there. Good luck with your build!

Hopefully there's OSX support for the newer Haswell hardware. (I know nothing about it yet).

I'd recommend if possible consider multiple SSD's rather than one. (IE: get two 128GB SSDs rather than one 256GB). You can do multiple OS's on the same drive, but I find it's a lot easier to keep Windows and OSX separated, plus you get the benefit of added redundancy.

Keep in mind OSX doesn't have native BluRay playback support- but there is third party software for OSX.

If possible, consider a USB 3.0 card reader rather than 2.0 if you're transferring a lot of files often. I've had good results from multiple brands of USB card readers and OSX.

TV card: with OSX, this is more complicated than with Windows. There's no internal PCI tuners for OSX (that I know of) as most Macs don't have PCI slots, so you'll need to look at external tuners. (usually USB or Network)

I use a network tuner with my Macs and PCs, and highly recommend that route. Mine is the HDHomerun, attaches via ethernet to my router, shares cable and broadcast TV to all computers and mobile devices on my home network. Software I use in OSX is Elgato's EyeTV. I would recommend the same, but I don't know for sure about using an HDHomerun outside the USA.

I would recommend to check out the tuners sold on Elgato's site, and find what works in your country. http://www.elgato.com/en/eyetv/tunerfinder

Keep in mind, all tuners that I know of for OSX are external devices. Luckily, most also seem to work with Windows as well.

I got another 2 questions:

1. Is there anything I need to care about when I choose the RAM?

2. Is there anything new about Snow Leopard on Haswell?

microdroid said:

I got another 2 questions:

1. Is there anything I need to care about when I choose the RAM?

2. Is there anything new about Snow Leopard on Haswell?

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For the RAM, make sure you get the low profile kit for the clearance under the CPU cooler.

You will probably never see Snow Leopard on Haswell - it was never updated for Ivy and 10.6.8 is probably going to be the last rev you see.

Going Bald said:

For the RAM, make sure you get the low profile kit for the clearance under the CPU cooler.

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OK, guess I'm gonna go for that RAM Kit: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-Profile-DDR3-1600-BLS4C8G3D1609ES2LX0/dp/B00A14ZUJ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379624204&sr=8-1&keywords=BLS4C8G3D1609ES2LX0

Going Bald said:

You will probably never see Snow Leopard on Haswell - it was never updated for Ivy and 10.6.8 is probably going to be the last rev you see.

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Stork said:

tonymacx86 is testing a way to try to use Snow Leopard on a Haswell built to get to the MAS to purchase and download OS X, but it's not ready for prime time, yet. If you can wait a couple of weeks, you can try the Snow Leopard route using tonymacx86's update guide.

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You know anything about that?