Confused about configuration. MB: Gigabyte or ASUS? GPU?

Hello.
My PC is very old, wanna new it. Hope to start OS X ML.

I. Motherboard.

Looked through the motherboards, thought one of 68 chipsets, but then found the Z77.
Started to look through them.
And now I'm confused:

1). Gigabyte GA-Z77P-D3
2). Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3SH
3). ASUS P8Z77-M
4). ASUS P8Z77-V LX

What to choose?

II. Else configuration.

Intel Core i5-2400 OEM
DDR3 8 Gb (2x4Gb) (1600Mhz)
Gigabyte GV-R645-1GI HD 4650 1Gb GDDR3


I think, the CPU is gonna be ok.
As for Graphics Card - not so sure.
Dont want to spend a lot of money on GPU. So, if mine is not supported, or is not running OOB, let me know (found on this forum, that I should edit some kexts?)

If the GPU is not supported - which one of the same (or near) price you recommend me?


Thank you all, guys.

blackraphe said:

Hello.
My PC is very old, wanna new it. Hope to start OS X ML.

I. Motherboard.

Looked through the motherboards, thought one of 68 chipsets, but then found the Z77.
Started to look through them.
And now I'm confused:

1). Gigabyte GA-Z77P-D3
2). Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3SH
3). ASUS P8Z77-M
4). ASUS P8Z77-V LX

What to choose?

Click to expand...

It would help if you told us what you want it to do for you and how much money you have to spend. The budget choice would be the z77-DS3H of the motherboards you listed and the gigabyte z77 boards are still the most compatible. It should be sufficient if there isn't anything particularly demanding you want the computer to do.

Going with a z77 vs a z68, basically gets you better USB3 support and the possibility of PCIe 3.0 support. Neither is that big of a deal, so if you can find a good price on a z68 mb and expense is an issue, there's not a compelling reason you have to have a z77 motherboard. Most will work with an Ivy Bridge CPU with a bios update.

blackraphe said:

II. Else configuration.

Intel Core i5-2400 OEM
DDR3 8 Gb (2x4Gb) (1600Mhz)
Gigabyte GV-R645-1GI HD 4650 1Gb GDDR3


I think, the CPU is gonna be ok.
As for Graphics Card - not so sure.
Dont want to spend a lot of money on GPU. So, if mine is not supported, or is not running OOB, let me know (found on this forum, that I should edit some kexts?)

If the GPU is not supported - which one of the same (or near) price you recommend me?

Thank you all, guys.

Click to expand...

The CPU is not unlocked, so it is more difficult to overclock. If you don't plan to overclock it, then that doesn't matter.

The graphics card you list is very old and relatively expensive. Is it something you already have or can buy at a very good price?

Hi. Thank you for quick response.


I have about $500 for the hole computer w\o case and w\o display, I have 24" BenQ G2411HD and it fits me well for now.
I don't need ultra high graphics for games. Most of all it is for internet surfing, watching live-streams, movies in full HD and Photoshop sometimes. And I always open a lot of tabs in the internet browser (20 tabs now, 11 of them - is this forum ).

Going with a z77 vs a z68, basically gets you better USB3 support and the possibility of PCIe 3.0 support. Neither is that big of a deal, so if you can find a good price on a z68 mb and expense is an issue, there's not a compelling reason you have to have a z77 motherboard. Most will work with an Ivy Bridge CPU with a bios update.

Click to expand...

You mean, that z68 will be better USB3 support, or z77?
In the store, where I'm gonna buy hardware, z68 and z77 have almost the same price - at about $115 and $120.

The CPU is not unlocked, so it is more difficult to overclock. If you don't plan to overclock it, then that doesn't matter.

Click to expand...

I've never overclocked CPU. And perhaps won't. So, it's not a big deal about that.

The graphics card you list is very old and relatively expensive. Is it something you already have or can buy at a very good price?

Click to expand...

In the store, I buy hardware, they have a lot of cards, but expensive. I want to buy one <= $70. So the full list of the cards I can afford:


nVidia 8400GS (512 MB)
nVidia GF 210 (512 MB, 1024 MB)
nVidia GT 520 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 610 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 620 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 630 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 430 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 440 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia 6200 (512 MB)
Radeon HD 6450 (512 MB, 1024 MB, 2048 MB)
Radepn HD 6670 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)

Then it suddenly grows to $100 per card:

nVidia GTS450 (1024 MB) - $88
nVidia GeForce 7600 (512 MB) - $90
Radeon HD 7750 (1024 MB) - $94
nVidia GT640 (1024 MB) - $96

Already I have only my Radeon HD 4650 512Mb and it runs bad on 10.6.3 - what will be on Mountain Lion? No other cards in my pocket
May be some videocard that is about to what I listed here? I will try to find in another market or add $20-$30 if I can. I just don't know which one should I find and how to choose

Thank you!

blackraphe said:

I have about $500 for the hole computer with case (w\o monitor, I have 24" BenQ G2411HD and it is fits me well for now).
I don't need ultra high graphics for games. Most of all it is for internet surfing, watching live-streams, movies in full HD and Photoshop sometimes. And I always open a lot of tabs in the internet browser (20 tabs now, 11 of them - is this forum ).

Click to expand...

If you don't care about playing games and will just be using it for web browsing and watching movies or some basic Photoshop work. Then you can just simply use the built in graphics. Though you might want to upgrade to a HD4000 Ivy Bridge CPU like the 3570k. The HD4000 graphics are good enough that you don't necessarily need a graphics card.

blackraphe said:

In the store, I buy hardware, they have a lot of cards, but expensive. I want to buy one <= $70. So the full list of the cards I can afford:

nVidia 8400GS (512 MB)
nVidia GF 210 (512 MB, 1024 MB)
nVidia GT 520 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 610 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 620 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 630 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 430 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia GT 440 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)
nVidia 6200 (512 MB)
Radeon HD 6450 (512 MB, 1024 MB, 2048 MB)
Radepn HD 6670 (1024 MB, 2048 MB)

Then it suddenly grows to $100 per card:

nVidia GTS450 (1024 MB) - $88
nVidia GeForce 7600 (512 MB) - $90
Radeon HD 7750 (1024 MB) - $94
nVidia GT640 (1024 MB) - $96

Already I have only my Radeon HD 4650 512Mb and it runs bad on 10.6.3 - what will be on Mountain Lion? No other cards in my pocket
May be some videocard that is about to what I listed here? I will try to find in another market or add $20-$30 if I can. I just don't know which one should I find and how to choose

Thank you!

Click to expand...

If your budget is limited, I would suggest using the integrated graphics and picking up a graphics card only if you don't get sufficiently good performance.

None of the AMD 7XXX cards are osx compatible or are likely to ever be compatible. So you can skip those, if you want to consider an AMD card you will have to look at a 68XX or lower card.

ggeorge said:

If you don't care about playing games and will just be using it for web browsing and watching movies or some basic Photoshop work. Then you can just simply use the built in graphics. Though you might want to upgrade to a HD4000 Ivy Bridge CPU like the 3570k. The HD4000 graphics are good enough that you don't necessarily need a graphics card.

Click to expand...

1. If I don't want to overclock my CPU, it would be better for me 3570 OEM? without prefix characters? It's ~$25 cheaper.

2. Will the HD4000 graphics play full HD?

3. To sum up, it will be better to buy Gigabyte z77 (because it is more compatible with Mac OS) than ASUS (even if EFI has both motherboards) and it's better to buy CPU like 3570 with built in HD4000 graphics? Is this built in graphics good compatible with Motherboard like Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3SH?

4. What kind of graphics should I buy (that works OOB), if in future I need it? Will I reinstall OS, or it can indentify it? (My friend did that with 2500k CPU - he bought with built in graphics w\o graphics card, and then he wasn't happy with the way it (graphics) was going, so he bought a used nVidia 8800GT 512MB and he even didn't reinstall OS. It picked up the card well).

updated.

In http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/71616-first-hackintosh-need-lower-price.html <- this topic there is some statement that frighten away of buying DS3H:

Going Bald said:

assuming you mean the DS3H, you lose a pair of SATA ports driven by a Marvell chip that is unsupported i OS X anyway, a Display Port, a second LAN out, a bunch of USB3.0 that may not work and a PCI x1 slot.

Click to expand...

Maybe I understood something wrong?

Thanks.

blackraphe said:

In http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/71616-first-hackintosh-need-lower-price.html <- this topic there is some statement that frighten away of buying DS3H:



Maybe I understood something wrong?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

The comment was in regards to what the OP would lose if he went with the DS3H instead of the UD5. Both are good boards, but he was trying to reduce the cost of his build.
If you don't care about overclocking and don't care about trying to get audio over HDMI and are willing to use an inexpensive gfx card like an ASUS GT520 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121475 ) or a Gigabyte GT520 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125407) then you don't need to be as careful in your selection of a CPU.

Thank you for the videocard example.

Does videocards nVidia GT 520 ASUS differ from Gigabyte?

Was looking through the forum (always useful) and found:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...uild-ga-h77-ds3h-i5-2500k-gt-520-g5-ca-3.html

Like this configuration.

Based on that I think about three configurations:

1. ~$400
2. ~$380
3. ~$430
+ PSU $50 + CPU Cooler Thermaltake Contac 21 = $21

So... now I have 1 day to choose between these 3 configs.
While choosing, I'll look through the forum about GT520.

Hope these configs will be MacOS compatible.

blackraphe said:

1. If I don't want to overclock my CPU, it would be better for me 3570 OEM? without prefix characters? It's ~$25 cheaper.

Click to expand...

Yes. It will work just as well.

blackraphe said:

2. Will the HD4000 graphics play full HD?

Click to expand...

Playing back full HD is not a demanding task by current standards. You don't need a graphics card to do this any more.

blackraphe said:

3. To sum up, it will be better to buy Gigabyte z77 (because it is more compatible with Mac OS) than ASUS (even if EFI has both motherboards) and it's better to buy CPU like 3570 with built in HD4000 graphics? Is this built in graphics good compatible with Motherboard like Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3SH?

Click to expand...

Built in graphics are determined by the processor not the motherboard, the only thing the motherboard affects in terms of graphics is the ports available for use.

blackraphe said:

4. What kind of graphics should I buy (that works OOB), if in future I need it? Will I reinstall OS, or it can indentify it? (My friend did that with 2500k CPU - he bought with built in graphics w\o graphics card, and then he wasn't happy with the way it (graphics) was going, so he bought a used nVidia 8800GT 512MB and he even didn't reinstall OS. It picked up the card well).

Click to expand...

You would need to be more specific about what he was unhappy about. The integrated graphics basically suck for playing games and they don't offer GPU acceleration for apps that can benefit from it, but for browsing web pages or watching videos, they should be more than adequate.

However, if you are trying to do multiple things on the computer at the same time, then you are more likely to run into cases where the graphics performance is inadequate. Since the CPU has to do both the other tasks and process the video.

Again the main thing you need a graphics card for is playing games. If you want to play games, a $50-$75 graphics card is not usually going to be a great improvement. You really need to spend more like $150+ for a good card.

But the resolution of your monitor and how "pretty" you want the graphics to look are the strongest factors in what you need. If you are willing to run a game at lower resolution and without lots of special effects and anti-aliasing, then you can use a much less powerful card. Remember if you double the resolution, you increase the number of pixels by four times.

Also if you don't buy a graphics card for 6 months then what's available and "best" is likely to have changed.

blackraphe said:

In http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/71616-first-hackintosh-need-lower-price.html <- this topic there is some statement that frighten away of buying DS3H:

Click to expand...

Look, the question you need to ask is

"Does this do what I need it to do?"

If it does, then get it. If it doesn't then don't worry about it.

Going Bald's comments are about the UD3 board that the original poster was interested in, NOT the DS3H. He was saying that the OTHER board had these useless features. NOT that these were problems with the DS3H

ggeorge said:

Look, the question you need to ask is

"Does this do what I need it to do?"

Click to expand...

I will think of it

ggeorge said:

Going Bald's comments are about the UD3 board that the original poster was interested in, NOT the DS3H. He was saying that the OTHER board had these useless features. NOT that these were problems with the DS3H

Click to expand...

I understood that post was a comparison of two cards. Thank you!

ggeorge said:

Yes. It will work just as well.

Click to expand...

No it won't if he is going to use onboard graphics. The 3570K is the only ivy i5 with HD4000 graphics at the moment.

Any other i5 will do as long as you use a discrete graphics card.

There is no difference between the GT520's other than the manufacturer and the shape of the heat sink. Basically the same reference card.