First-Time Build: Hackintosh for Video Editing

[thebartok]

Hello hackintosh world! I spent over an hour on a post already before accidentally losing it...let's see if I can get the gist of it here again. I am very much a noob when it comes to the building of computers, and especially with putting together a hackintosh. I am currently using a Mac G5 from mid-2006. I bought my machine and not two months later Apple made the switch to Intel-based chips To make a long story short I have seen support for my PPC go by the wayside in the past few years and it is restricting my ability to keep up with the rest of the world. Simple things like Firefox and Netflix require an Intel chip, as do all the latest editing platforms. I'm tired of feeling trapped by these restrictions so I feel it's finally time to upgrade to a better way of life. Of course I am finding the entry-level Mac Pros far too expensive for my liking, so I decided to venture into the world of the Hackintosh.

I've been reading up on tonymac's Customac build, as well as following NoFilmSchool's advice. I've finally put together a rough list of components that I'd like to use. Before I post them though I should mention how I intend to use this computer. As stated in the title, this will primarily be a video editing machine. I plan on using FCP, Motion, and Adobe CS6 (PPro, AE, Photoshop, etc.). I will also be using this for everyday computing. I do not plan on doing any gaming at this point, but if I do I would categorize it as "casual gaming." The biggest roadblock I have hit in the planning stage involves the video card. I'm leaning toward the GTX-570, but could go up to the GTX-670. From my understanding the GTX-670 has been optimized for gamers and may not be ideal for my intended uses. If anyone could clarify this I would be very grateful. Another must-have for me (or at least a "really-want") is a very quiet machine. My G5 has always been quite noisy...I can hear the mechanics of the fans rather than just air moving through. So quiet operation is a must.

There are a couple things I'm looking for regarding feedback on my list here. First off I want to be sure I haven't included any components that incompatible with OSX ML or any of the software I have listed. Second, if anyone has any suggestions for components that are better suited for my needs they would be greatly appreciated. Of course any suggestions that might help reduce the cost are welcome as well

So here we go with my components list so far:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545)
or Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5-TH (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128559)
Right now I'm leaning toward the UP5-TH as many folks seem to have had a fairly easy time getting this board ready to go. Currently, however, I do not have any Thunderbolt devices and am unsure if the $60 price difference is worth it.

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 6 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501)
I don't plan on doing any overclocking, but for $20 more I like having the option should I change my mind later.

CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065)
I might not actually need this, but I feel better having it. Plus it should help with lowering the overall sound, no?

GPU: I haven't officially decided on one yet. I strongly leaning toward the Nvidia GTX-570 as I believe it will perform well for the tasks I have, but I'm not sure if jumping up to the Nvidia GTX-670 wouldn't be a wise choice as well. Another issue I have regarding the GPU is which version to go with. EVGA seems well-regarded for its warranty, though their prices are a bit higher. I also noticed that each seller seems to have a handful of different models. Can anyone suggest a GTX-570 that balances price, performance, and hopefully quiet operation?

PSU: SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC PSU
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095)
I don't really know a whole lot about PSUs, but this one seemed well rated. Please let me know if I should jump up to a 750W or if you know of a very reliable PSU.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CML16GX3M2A1600C10)
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233280)
I was also looking at the G.Skill X Series Ripjaws 16GB F3-1600C9D-16GXM, which has a slightly faster timing score but costs $15 more.

SSD: SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163)
I'm considering jumping up to the 256GB version if it might give better performance, but the extra cost will likely keep it to 128GB.

HDD: Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533)
I haven't had one fail, but I am worried that my current one might be noisy. Who else makes great, reliable HDDs?

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204)
I know the Sony Optiarcs are recommended, but it seems these will work just as well. True?

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl w/ USB 3.0 ATX Mid Tower Silent PC Computer Case
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352020)
This has the looks and quietness I desire. One thing that might cause me to pass on this one however is that it only has two 5.25" bays. I had been planning on installing a DVD-RW drive and hopefully a blu-ray drive in the future, but I'm not sure if I would regret not having space for a card reader or some other device that uses those bays. The alternative case I am looking at is the Corsair Obisidian 550D, which has fewer I/O spots in front but does carry more 5.25 bays. Some reviews I have seen have questioned the sturdiness and quality of the doors and side panels, saying that they can be somewhat difficult to deal with. If anyone has an opinion on either of these cases I'd love to hear them. I know a lot of people who have the Fractal enjoy it very much...but is it worth losing out on some extra 5.25 bays?

I apologize if this is a bit long-winded, but I wanted to let you know where I was coming from with each component so it might be easier if you have some suggestions that might better fit what I need to do. Also, please let me know if I missed anything of importance in this build. I'm fairly confident that everything will be compatible as I didn't really stray from any of the recommended builds, but let me know what you think. Clearly the GPU is where I need the most assistance. Anyway, my goal is to get the plan nailed down and take advantage of any Black Friday deals I see. With any luck I'll have a fully operational beast of a hack by Christmas!

Thanks for taking the time to read through all of this...I feel better having some knowledgeable experts checking things out before I dive into this mess!

 

[Going Bald]

Is sleep important to you? The Optiarc is known to work with sleep, one of the reasons it is recommended.
In Blu-Ray, the Pioneer BDR-207DBK is another drive known to work with sleep.

 

[miv79]

Regarding your motherboard choices. I was in a similar position and went for UP5 TH myself despite not having any thunderbolt devices. The real reason I chose that board is it has Gigabytes newer ultra durable 5 tech. To cut a long story short this basically means the board has an improved power stage and should in theory run a tiny bit cooler. Cooler = less fans/slower fan-speed which might just help a little with your noise requirements.

As you mentioned, like others I've found the UP5 to be pretty straightforward to get working - bearing in mind I had never even owned a 'pc' before let alone built one so that must say something about the ease of setup with this board. (And of course the great work done by people on this forum!)

I've had no issues with the 660Ti in Premiere and AE (managed to get CUDA working in both) - what I can't really say is how well it performs except to say that for me at least performance in AE and Premier is great - my last computer was a late 2006 iMac so anything is going to be a major step up from that!

Anyway, hope there's something useful there in my ramblings! Good luck with your build.

 

[thebartok]

Is sleep important to you? The Optiarc is known to work with sleep, one of the reasons it is recommended.
In Blu-Ray, the Pioneer BDR-207DBK is another drive known to work with sleep.

Will this interfere with all sleep functions or just auto-sleep. Whenever I use sleep I do so manually. I saw some other builds in this forum using the ASUS drive, but I don't remember seeing a discussion of sleep issues. The main reason I was looking at the ASUS over the Sony was that it looked like Sony is dropping this line of drives, so I'm not sure how much support there would be for it in the future. But if my plan is to be as close to 100% as possible, the Optiarc sounds like the way to go.

Miv79: Thanks for the info regarding the UP5, that is something to consider. It sounds like we're at the same level as far as expertise, so it gives me confidence that if I follow the directions carefully I should have very little trouble getting set up. It sounds like we're both coming from older machines as well, so no matter what GPU I use it'll blow the old system out of the water. I'm still looking at the GTX 570 for its larger bandwidth and supposedly better handling of 3D calculations (still not 100% what that means but my understanding is the GTX 570 is better optimized for the editing world.) With all the back and forth I've been doing though it seems like I should just close my eyes and pick one because I'm sure to be pleased with the results!

 

[mjmm88]

Miv79: Thanks for the info regarding the UP5, that is something to consider. It sounds like we're at the same level as far as expertise, so it gives me confidence that if I follow the directions carefully I should have very little trouble getting set up. It sounds like we're both coming from older machines as well, so no matter what GPU I use it'll blow the old system out of the water. I'm still looking at the GTX 570 for its larger bandwidth and supposedly better handling of 3D calculations (still not 100% what that means but my understanding is the GTX 570 is better optimized for the editing world.) With all the back and forth I've been doing though it seems like I should just close my eyes and pick one because I'm sure to be pleased with the results!

I dont know if the gtx 570 has support with hackintosh, I say this pretty much daily and nobody who knows the answer posts in the threads im asking the question in. so before you buy the gtx570 make sure it will work with the hackintosh. the 6xx works great especially the gtx680, if you run windows (this might get flamed, but it will be much smoother than a hackintosh for video editing) and the 570 will work plus it has more cuda than the 6xx series but iuno if you will notice the difference.

 

[thebartok]

I see on the CustoMac page the GTX 570 is not among the recommended cards. The 560ti and the 6xx series are there, however. The other site that I've been looking at (NoFilmSchool) actually recommends the GTX 570 for the video editing community, with a benchmark from Davinci Resolve showing it slightly outperforming the GTX 680. They haven't reported any difficulties with that card that I have seen, so it seems to be a safe choice.

As far as finalizing some other components I decided to go with the UP5-TH board and the recommended Sony Optiarc DVD drive. I believe it is $18.99 on Newegg right now with free shipping.

Does anyone have any comments about the other components? Anyone prefer the Fractal Design Define R4 case to the Corsair Obsidian 550D? Any recommendations for a reliable PSU, and should I make the jump to 750W? I hope to be taking the plunge in the next couple weeks!

 

[nickdale]

Hey - how are you getting on with this?

I too am looking to build a kick-ass machine for video editing - I do 1080p and 4K editing so need something hefty... Thunderbolt too of course. My main concern is processor... do I go with a quad-core i7 which seems to be the most popular choice for the Hacks.. or is it possible to use more multiple cores, such as seen in the current Mac Pro's? ... not sure if this is an option for Hacks?

The graphics card is also a question.. nVidia seems a no brainer, but nofilmschool do say the 570 is a better card for premiere, but they also say there are better cards out there but they are more expensive... but what are they?

Any one got any (more) advice?

Thanks,

Nick (the hopeless noob!)

 

[Going Bald]

The graphics card is also a question.. nVidia seems a no brainer, but nofilmschool do say the 570 is a better card for premiere, but they also say there are better cards out there but they are more expensive... but what are they?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=quadro+4000&x=0&y=0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=quadro+5000&x=0&y=0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133347&Tpk=quadro%206000

or, if you already have a Mac Pro and want to upgrade the gfx - http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/quadro-K5000-mac-uk.html

 

[thebartok]

I'm more of an amateur at this point when it comes to editing, so those Quadros are beyond what I need (and of course what I'd like to pay!)
I'm still eyeballing the 570 with the 2.5GB ram, as it should be a good compromise between price and performance.

As far as the total build goes I've decided to postpone it for a little while. If I purchased everything now it would take a couple weeks before I would be ready to assemble anything. I'll be leaving town in mid-December, so I don't think I'd have sufficient time to build and test everything and still be able to send anything back in the 30 day return period. So it looks like I'll be making the purchase around New Year's. I'm hoping there are some decent after Christmas deals I can take advantage of.

I don't know any solid details regarding the CPU, but the CustoMac Buyer's Guide lists some socket 2011 options, some of which feature 6 cores. It sounds like power management is a no-go on these, but it seems to be the strong workstation type setup. I would check the forum to see who has had success with the socket 2011 build.

 

[thebartok]

Ok, so after a few minor setbacks I finally jumped in and purchased most of what I need. One problem I ran into is that I was out of town when Newegg had a great price on the Fractal Design R4 Black case ($80 and free shipping). When I finally got to a place where I could order it and know it wouldn't arrive to the house before I did, the case was out of stock, and shortly afterward put on the discontinued list. I just purchased one from J&R for $105 with free shipping.

Another big item I needed also became discontinued while I was away. It is now all but impossible to get my hands on the EVGA GTX 570 2.5GB card. Now I've been struggling to figure out where to go from here. Most of the other 570's out there have recently gone out of stock (one went out of stock between the time I added it to the shopping cart and the time I went to check out). I'm more and more hesitant to move to the GTX 670 because the prices are so high and the lower video intensive capabilities. Then my brother told me to check out the 560ti 448s, as they perform nearly identical to the 570s. As much as I hate to compromise on a large purchase where I want everything to be perfect, I'm thinking I might make the move to the Gigabyte GTX 560 ti 448 for $240 and save up for the next generation when maybe Nvidia will bring a sense of balance back to the GeForce.

So my question is how compatible is the 560ti 448 series with ML? Am I going to be able to get this card up and running out of the box? Are there any specific settings I will have to use when installing?

It was tough spending the money to buy what I have already, and it should all be delivered in a week or two. I'm excited to build this system. This is the last item left to purchase and I don't want it to end up up being a bust. Any and all help is appreciated!