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- Nov 17, 2009
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- Motherboard
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For maximum ease of use with tonymacx86.com guides and methods, we'll be revising this buyer's guide monthly with all of our current recommendations. These might not be the only components that work, but based on our research they're the easiest and best supported options. Use these as a shopping list or as a jumping off point. Either way you'll be supporting the site by purchasing through these links, so thanks in advance!
Table of Contents
CustoMac Mini
The CustoMac Mini is a bare-bones CustoMac in a shoebox sized case featuring a H77 mini-iTX motherboard and a dual-core Ivy Bridge processor. The graphics are integrated, so there's no need for a power-hungry discrete graphics card. The case also includes a power-efficient power supply unit. Less parts, less power, less heat, less cost. Please note that the motherboard's Intel mini-PCIe card includes both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but only the bluetooth features are available under OS X. If you don't use the PCIe slot, we recommend the TP-Link PCIe card below for native Wi-Fi support. Also, there are a few native wifi-only Atheros mini-PCIe replacement card suggestions if you don't need bluetooth.
CPU | Intel Core i3-3225 | Amazon Newegg | |
Motherboard | GA-H77N-WIFI | Amazon Newegg | |
RAM | 8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Case + Power Supply | Apex MI-008 (w/ 250W Power Supply) | Amazon Newegg | |
Storage | SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Wifi Card | TP-Link PCI Express Wifi Adapter | Amazon Newegg | |
Operating System | Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | Mac App Store |
CustoMac Mini Deluxe
The CustoMac Mini "Deluxe" is a no-compromise build featuring a Z77 mini-ITX motherboard and a quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU. The BitFenix Prodigy case is a unique way of thinking about a mini-ITX system, as it's not exactly small. It's about the size of a mATX case, making room for multiple hard drives, and a full sized graphics card. The Z77 motherboard is also capable of overclocking if you use a "K" CPU, and there is even room for a water cooler for the CPU. Please note that the motherboard's Intel mini-PCIe card includes both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but only the bluetooth features are available under OS X. If you don't use the PCIe slot, we recommend the TP-Link PCIe card below for native Wi-Fi support. Also, there are a few native wifi-only Atheros mini-PCIe replacement card suggestions if you don't need bluetooth. If the BitFenix Prodigy is unavailable, we've listed some alternate cases below.
CPU | Intel Core i5 3570K Intel Core i7-3770 Intel Core i7-3770K | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Motherboard | GA-Z77N-WIFI | Amazon Newegg | |
RAM | 8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Case | BitFenix Prodigy (No Power Supply) | White Amazon Newegg Black Newegg Orange Newegg Red Newegg | |
Power Supply | Corsair 650TX Modular | Amazon Newegg | |
Graphics | GeForce GT 640 GeForce GTX 650 GeForce GTX 660 Ti GeForce GTX 670 GeForce GTX 680 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Storage | SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
CPU Cooler | Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler | Amazon Newegg | |
Operating System | Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | Mac App Store |
CustoMac Budget mATX
A powerful desktop build with budget-minded parts and no graphics card. This build contains a mATX sized motherboard, a dual or quad core CPU and Intel HD 4000 onboard graphics.
CPU | Intel Core i3-3225 Intel Core i7-3770 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Motherboard | GA-B75M-D3P (mATX) GA-Q77M-D2H (mATX) | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
RAM | 8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Case | Fractal Design Core 1000 | Amazon Newegg | |
Power Supply | Corsair 500 Watt | Amazon Newegg | |
Storage | SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
CPU Cooler | Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler | Amazon Newegg | |
Wifi Card | TP-Link PCI Express Wifi Adapter | Amazon Newegg | |
Operating System | Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | Mac App Store |
CustoMac Budget ATX
A powerful desktop build with budget-minded parts and no graphics card. This build contains a ATX sized motherboard, a dual or quad core CPU and Intel HD 4000 onboard graphics.
CPU | Intel Core i3-3225 Intel Core i5 3570K | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Motherboard | GA-Z77-DS3H (ATX) | Amazon Newegg | |
RAM | 8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Case | Corsair Carbide 300R | Amazon Newegg | |
Power Supply | Corsair 600 Watt | Amazon Newegg | |
Storage | SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
CPU Cooler | Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler | Amazon Newegg | |
Wifi Card | TP-Link PCI Express Wifi Adapter | Amazon Newegg | |
Operating System | Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | Mac App Store |
CustoMac Pro
These full sized ATX builds have quad-core CPUs, maxed out RAM, and lots of expandability. Well suited for any demanding uses. Each has few high-end graphics card options that work in OS X Mountain Lion.
CPU | Intel Core i5 3570K Intel Core i7-3770 Intel Core i7-3770K | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Motherboard | GA-Z77X-UP5-TH GA-Z77X-UD5H | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
RAM | 8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Case | Corsair Carbide 500R | Amazon Newegg | |
Power Supply | Corsair 650 Watt Modular | Amazon Newegg | |
Graphics Card | GeForce GT 640 GeForce GTX 650 GeForce GTX 660 Ti GeForce GTX 670 GeForce GTX 680 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Storage | SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Wifi Card | TP-Link PCI Express Wifi Adapter | Amazon Newegg | |
Operating System | Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | Mac App Store |
CustoMac Pro Socket 2011
These rigs are the most powerful single CPU systems you can build. Warning: Power Management is NOT working, and may not ever work. This means no speedstep, sleep, etc...
CPU | Intel Xeon E5 2609(4 core) Intel Xeon E5 2630(6 core) Intel Xeon E5 2640(6 core) Intel Xeon E5 2650(8 core) Intel Xeon E5 2690(8 core) Intel Core i7-3820(4 core) Intel Core i7-3930K(6 core) Intel Core i7-3960X (6 core) | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Motherboard | GA-X79-UD5 | Amazon Newegg | |
RAM | 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 32GB 1600Mhz DDR3 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Case | Corsair Graphite 600T | Amazon Newegg | |
Power Supply | Corsair 750 Watt Modular | Amazon Newegg | |
Graphics Card | GeForce GT 640 GeForce GTX 650 GeForce GTX 660 Ti GeForce GTX 670 GeForce GTX 680 | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Storage | SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD | Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg | |
Operating System | Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | Mac App Store |
Graphics Cards
One of the most important components in a custom build is the graphics card. If you're building a CustoMac, it's an especially tricky decision. Not only do you have to worry about what will be a good performer for the cost, but you also have to be informed about what is fully supported, and what is not. The following graphics card examples are all natively compatible without modifying drivers. Each gives a range of port options, install compatibility, and is known to work with minimal configuration. Furthermore, it's now possible to use multiple NVIDIA cards in tandem- dual and triple cards are enabled by default.
GeForce GT 640 PCIe-powered 900 MHz Clock for low power & quiet use. | ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg | |
GeForce GTX 650 Mid-range card with high performance. | ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg | |
GeForce GTX 660 Ti Mid to high end performance card. | ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg | |
GeForce GTX 670 Standard High end - our top recommendation. | ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg | |
GeForce GTX 670 Upgraded Higher graphics clock speed. | EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg | |
GeForce GTX 680 Standard The top end card. | ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg | |
GeForce GTX 680 Upgraded Higher graphics clock speed. | ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg |
CPUs
We recommend these specific Ivy Bridge CPUs for Socket 1155 motherboards because they feature fully working HD 4000 integrated graphics.
Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5Ghz | 4 Cores / 8 Threads, Turbo Unlocked for Overclocking | Amazon Newegg | |
Intel Core i7-3770 3.4Ghz | 4 Cores / 8 Threads, Turbo | Amazon Newegg | |
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4Ghz | 4 Cores / 4 Threads, Turbo Unlocked for Overclocking | Amazon Newegg | |
Intel Core i3-3225 3.3Ghz | 2 Cores / 4 Threads, Turbo | Amazon Newegg |
Motherboards
We recommend these specific Gigabyte 7-series motherboards because of native power management support, network, and audio. They are the most compatible with OS X and are the easiest motherboards to get up and running for first time builders.
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5-TH | ATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI Dual Thunderbolt, Bluetooth/Wifi* | Amazon Newegg | |
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H | ATX, VGA, DP, DVI, HDMI | Amazon Newegg | |
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H | ATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI | Amazon Newegg | |
Gigabyte GA-Q77M-D2H | mATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI, DP | Amazon Newegg | |
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P | mATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI, DP | Amazon Newegg | |
Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WIFI | mini-ITX, DVI, HDMI Bluetooth/Wifi* | Amazon Newegg | |
Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI | mini-ITX, DVI, HDMI Bluetooth/Wifi* | Amazon Newegg |
*Wifi not working in OS X. Native wifi PCIe adapter listed below.
Drives
We recommend using a fast solid state drive for your system drive. Choose a 1TB or less hard drive if planning to use Chimera/Chameleon as your bootloader. Also, choose 512B format drives. 4K advanced format drives will not work with the bootloader without workarounds. Note that this is only applicable for the boot drive, whereas your storage drive can be any size. The following drive examples have been hand picked to work without issues.
SATA 6Gb/s 500GB HDD | Amazon Newegg | |
SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD | Amazon Newegg | |
SanDisk SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD | Amazon Newegg | |
SanDisk SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD | Amazon Newegg | |
SanDisk SATA 6Gb/s 480GB SSD | Amazon Newegg |
CPU Coolers
Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler | Amazon Newegg | |
Thermaltake Performer 2.0 Water Cooler | Amazon Newegg | |
Thermaltake Frio Air Cooler | Amazon Newegg |
Power Supplies
Corsair 500 Watt | Amazon Newegg | |
Corsair 600 Watt | Amazon Newegg | |
Corsair 650 Watt Modular | Amazon Newegg | |
Corsair 750 Watt Modular | Amazon Newegg |
Cases
mini-ITX | Apex MI-008 (w/ 250W Power Supply) | Amazon Newegg | |
mini-ITX | CoolerMaster Elite 120 | Amazon Newegg | |
mini-ITX | Thermaltake Element Q (w/ 200W Power Supply) | Amazon Newegg | |
mini-ITX | Silverstone Sugo SG07B (w/ 600W Power Supply) | Amazon Newegg | |
mini-ITX | BitFenix Prodigy | White Amazon Newegg Black Newegg Orange Newegg Red Newegg | |
mATX | Fractal Design Core 1000 | Amazon Newegg | |
mATX | Silverstone PS07 | Amazon Newegg | |
mATX/ATX | Corsair Carbide 200R | Amazon Newegg | |
mATX/ATX | Corsair Carbide 300R | Amazon Newegg | |
mATX/ATX | Corsair Carbide 500R | Amazon Newegg | |
ATX/E-ATX | Corsair Graphite 600T | Amazon Newegg |
Accessories
These parts are known to work well with CustoMac desktops. If planning to use Bluetooth exclusively, access to a USB keyboard is also helpful to get into the UEFI and to access the bootloader menus.
8GB USB Flash Drive | Amazon Newegg | |
Sony DVD Optical Drive | Amazon Newegg | |
LG BluRay Optical Drive | Amazon Newegg | |
Apple Wired Keyboard | Amazon | |
Apple Wireless Keyboard (Bluetooth) | Amazon | |
Logitech Wireless Keyboard K50 | Amazon | |
Logitech Wireless Mini Keyboard K60 (Bluetooth) | Amazon | |
Apple Magic Trackpad | Amazon | |
Apple Magic Mouse | Amazon | |
IOGear Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter (10.8 Mountain Lion Only - Wakes from Sleep) | Amazon Newegg | |
IOGear Bluetooth 2.1 Adapter (10.6+ - No Wake from Sleep) | Amazon Newegg | |
TP-Link PCI Express Wifi Adapter | Amazon Newegg | |
Apple Thunderbolt to Ethernet Adapter | Amazon | |
Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter | Amazon | |
Seagate GoFlex FreeAgent Thunderbolt to SATA Adapter | Amazon | |
Apple Thunderbolt Cable (2.0m) | Apple | |
Apple Thunderbolt Cable (0.5m) | Apple |
Remember, when building and configuring your own computer, it's easy to get frustrated- don't give up! There are users with similar specs here at tonymacx86.com to help you out if you get stuck.
Oh, and don't forget, if you end up buying anything, click through one of the links here. That way, you'll be supporting the site, as well as getting the best prices. Thanks in advance! Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
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