Advice on components selection

Hi,

I would like to build my first Hackintosh. Could someone please review my selection of components? Thank you in advance.

I've been a Mac user since 1991, but I need upgradability, power and reasonable costs... (and I can't live with shiny monitors..)
I have no experience in building computers. I am currently working on MacBook Pro 2008 Intel Core duo 2.4 Ghz, 4Go (pre-unibody!) with DVD combo replaced by an SSD. Snow Leopard. And I would keep this machine forever but it is now slowing down... and I am not convinced by Apple's current machines.

I've pre-selected components, mostly following the tonymacX86 list (CustoMax mATX build).
I am looking for heavy duty office and design work. I often have documents open simultaneously in the following apps:
Photoshop (A3 300dpi designs), InDesign, Lightroom, Mail, Firefox/Safari, Word, Excel, iCal, Preview... everything open at the same time and continuously swapping.
NO gaming. Some video editing, but not a priority.

My priorities:
- Speedy workflow and Reactivity
- Low noise
- Mid size case
- Reliability and hassle-free as can be
- Wifi and best possible OSX functionality.
- Relatively easy Hackintosh building and setup (!) experience since it is my first time.
- Max price 1400€, but better if I can shave down to 1200€

I have selected the following (all checked on amazon.co.uk):

- GIGABYTE Mainboard GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Socket LGA11 (I have honestly no idea, it is the first one in the TonymacX86 list)
- Intel Core i7-6700K (or 6700?)
- RAM: Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin Memory - BLS2C8G4D240FSC (White) - is 16Go enough or should I go straight to 32Go?
- GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2951-KR NVIDIA VGA GTX950 Grafikkarte (PCI-e 2GB, GDDR5, HDMI, 2x DVI, DP 1 GPU)
- Fan: Be Quiet! DARK ROCK 3
- Case: Be Quiet! Silent Base 600
- PSU: BeQuiet 500 W Straight 10 Power Supply Unit
- Samsung 850 PRO 256GB (or 500GB) 2.5 inch SATA III Solid State Drive for my system and most used files (or is Samsun EVO good enough?)
- WD BLUE Desktop 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive (5400 RPM, SATA, 6Gb/SEC, 3 TB, 64MB) for cheap storage
- WiFi: TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 N900 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter

I have a Dell U2415 screen (1900x1200), and would probably consider a second screen.
I honestly have no idea whether I should include a GPU or not. If so, is the GTX950 good enough? Or else GTX960, or which?

I will be very grateful if someone can revise this and help my balance my choice, and also point out if I selected expensive components unnecessarily (Motherboard? GPU?).

Thank you, best wishes,

Alex

I would go with this motherboard: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B013GJ0LBY/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
or this one from Asus http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0126R44FG/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

That way you can get the onboard i219-V Intel LAN chip. This is vastly better than the other options. If you will use
wireless exclusively then it doesn't matter. I would personally always choose the Intel version.
A 950 should be adequate for your needs. Prices are pretty low right now too. Get the 32 GB ram kit if you are
a heavy multitasker as you mention. Get a matched kit that is on the motherboard QVL (ram support list) on the
respective website of the manufacturer. Everything else looks good to me. Sure some others will comment too.

Make sure to download your copy of El Capitan on your Macbook before it's taken off the Mac App Store later this
Fall, likely in October. After that it's not available unless you've previously downloaded it.

This build will be so much faster than your core 2 duo Macbook that you'll be in awe of the speed and power.

Be Quiet! Silent Base 600: if you like it buy it. My objections: I don't do plexiglass doors because of static. I would prefer the rear fan size be 140mm. I prefer a case that has a front grill face to allow two Noctua 120mm or two Noctua 140mmm fans be mounted for better air flow. I like a case that allows top exhaust, so one 140mm fan would be good, two 140mm fans would be better, a 220, 230 or 240mm fan would be best. Noctua fans may seem expensive but they are very quiet. Personally I don't see a need for more than two 5.25" external bays. To tell you the truth I would rather it have only one, side mounted, so that a fan on the right of it can then cool the RAM sticks.

Why did you choose this case? Reminds me of the AeroCool Aero-1000 case. I don't think that mobo needs such a big case. A midi case may be better. Even the AeroCool Aero-800 might be too much. I wouldn't install a micro-ATX mobo in a micro-ATX case though since the video card should have unobstructed air flow. If the intake fans are too close to the PSU then you will have to mount the PSU so that the intake fan pulls air from the bottom, which means cleaning the air filter once a month. I prefer installing the PSU upside down so that it pulls air from the middle of the case and exhausts it out the back.

I would go with 64GB of RAM right from the start. DDR4 2400 minimum, DDR4 2666 better and probably 3200 best (but probably only when used with an i7 doing video work).

I won't do water cooling, preferring Noctua heat sinks, like the Noctua NH-U14S, which doesn't interfere with the RAM sticks and which can be mounted with two fans in a push-pull configuration, if you're over clocking the CPU.

Me, personally, I would never do a micro-ATX mobo. I want the extra PCI-E slots, even if I never need to insert a PCI-E X4 NVME or NIC card. But if my NIC dies I would rather install an Intel NIC card than have to replace the whole mobo. Last week I replaced two mobos at work for that very reason. (Replacing laptop mobos is worse, though - I just wish that people would stop jamming USB sticks into the NIC connector...) When selecting a micro-ATX mobo look at the space between the RAM fingers and where the video card would end. If it's too close then you will probably have problems getting access to the memory sticks. The same goes for a heat sink that is so large that it covers the RAM sticks - then you'd have to remove the CPU heat sink to upgrade, remove and install RAM.

I would get a Haswell Certified 80+ Gold 650W PSU, minimum.

The i7-6700K is the better processor because it's base speed is 4.0GHZ. No over clocking is necessary. But you want a Z170 board so that you can run faster RAM.

and I can't live with shiny monitors..

Click to expand...

Do you mean a glossy bezel or a glass screen? I can't stand matte screens. I love glass. Movies and videos look better on a glass screen, IMO. But lots of guys prefer matte screens. Nothing wrong with that. How they can put up with IPS light bleed is beyond me, though. At least with a glass screen it is minimised.

Thank you for your help, kiiroaka.


As I said I am very inexperienced with component choice.
I want to be sure not to do crucial mistakes, and that installing OSX will be as smooth as Hackintosh can be.

I might go with the Aero-800 case, it is cheap.
I also saw this: NZXT CA-S340W-B1 Source 340 Midi-Tower Case that gets very good reviews on amazon.

I will probably follow your advice and go with the Noctua NH-U14S. Although I am not intending to over clock.


I will also go for 650W PSU as advised.
Is this good: Corsair CP-9020098-UK VS Series VS650 ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Power Supply Unit, UK - 650W
I also saw this EVGA 650 W G2 GOLD 80+ Modular PC Power Supply Unit , but it's quite expensive.

Not sure on the motherboard though, trs96 recommended Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H, but it gets poor reviews on amazon, with people receiving defective units. Do you think it is ok? or should I go with Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5

Screen: I mean glass screen. I can't stand glass screen, they're like a mirror. Tastes and colours... ;-)

Thank you trs96

The motherboard you linked to received very mixed review on amazon. So I am a bit puzzled.
I just want a good mATX motherboard to build a compact machine with i7 6700k - the one that will cause least issues to set up the system. Then I only need two SATA bays, and I can live with HDMI, VGA, DVI.
I will put a GTX950 so no issue with display resolution, as I understand.
I might want to use thunderbolt in the future.

I am only using Wifi, sometimes bluetooth to connect with the phone when home wifi is down.

Would you still suggest https://www.amazon.de/dp/B013GJ0LBY/?tag=tonymacx8603-21 ?

Re El Captain, thanks for the Advice. It is currently downloading.

Obviously, I am a hardware neophyte - never built a machine. So I appreciate your help very much.

trs96 said:

I would go with this motherboard: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B013GJ0LBY/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
or this one from Asus http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0126R44FG/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

That way you can get the onboard i219-V Intel LAN chip. This is vastly better than the other options. If you will use
wireless exclusively then it doesn't matter. I would personally always choose the Intel version.
A 950 should be adequate for your needs. Prices are pretty low right now too. Get the 32 GB ram kit if you are
a heavy multitasker as you mention. Get a matched kit that is on the motherboard QVL (ram support list) on the
respective website of the manufacturer. Everything else looks good to me. Sure some others will comment too.

Make sure to download your copy of El Capitan on your Macbook before it's taken off the Mac App Store later this
Fall, likely in October. After that it's not available unless you've previously downloaded it.

This build will be so much faster than your core 2 duo Macbook that you'll be in awe of the speed and power.[/QUOTE

Click to expand...

You don't have to worry about a few negative Amazon reviews. Some people just love to complain to get attention. Sure there may be some people that get a defective board from the factory. The majority that do get a perfectly working board usually don't write a review so the results are skewed. Also take a look at the Asus, that one has similar specs and will allow you to overclock a 6700K later on when the system seems older and slower years from now. Also helps the resale value down the road. There are not a lot of really good mATX cases out there but you can certainly build in a moderate size ATX case with a mATX motherboard. You will then use just one PCI-e x1 slot for your combo wifi/BT card. If you don't have sound cards and such then mATX will meet your needs for a single graphics card. For Photoshop and Lightroom the I7 is your most important part. Well worth spending the money on that CPU.

Your going with a micro-ATX mobo is too limiting, imo.

Since you're going with a midi case you can install an ATX mobo in it easily. For example, my Antec 302 case is 513mm x 229mm x 471mm. I have a full size ATX mobo in it. Your Be Quiet! Silent Base 600 case is 495mm x 230mm x 493mm. It can accept an ATX mobo easily, too.

As far as wireless goes, even a little m.2 wi-fi card can have limitations. You could hook up a wireless PCI-E card easily enough. I don't know the specifications for the wireless m.2 card that works with OSX (I'll assume N150 or N300 speeds) but you can probably get an N900, N1300, etc. for under $100. I don't know if they'll work with OSX but chances are they'll be more powerful than a little card inside the case. Obviously the wi-fi reception will only be as good as the transmitter, so the better your access point the better the reception. You could also install a wire-less receiver using the USB3.0 port in the back.

Same goes for Thunderbolt, although PCI and PCI-E Thunderbolt cards could get expensive. The flip side is that mobos with Thunderbolt are more expensive and have been mostly relegated to the Z97 board (the majority are probably micro-ATX or ITX boards, too); you'll have to wait for the next set of mobos, that support Kabylake processors, to once again have Thunderbolt, hopefully at more affordable prices. Or you could just buy the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme, now. Do you pay $500 for a motherboard with Thunderbolt (hopefully it also has wireless wi-fi (which, again, may need to be replaced with a Broadcom card)) or do you buy a $150 mobo and a $200 Thunderbolt card? Do you pay $250 for an ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero or $300 for an ASUS Z-170 Deluxe because they have wi-fi, or do you pay $150 for a mobo and then add a $100 wi-fi card? Again, you can always upgrade the PCI-E card to a faster, stronger, more reliable connection card.

I will assume that the reason why you're thinking of going with the micro-ATX board is because of the wireless capability. But the Gigabyte boards, as far as I know, only have wireless with 2 RAM slots, so you're limiting yourself. And once you get it you will probably need to spend another $50 for a wireless card that works, a Broadcom, iirc. Me, I would buy a full size ATX board and then see what PCI-E wireless cards work with OSX. The Asus PCE-AC68 PCIe AC-1900 card goes for under $100 and works with OSX. The particulars I do not know (what kext files are necessary, settings, etc.) It can do about 1300 Mbps.

Me, I would put together a rock solid PC using an ATX mobo with 6 PCI-E slots (with an on-board Intel NIC, AC1150 codec and minimal ASMedia controller "interference" (certain SATA ports get disabled when an m.2 card is installed, for example)), using the built-in graphics (hopefully you have a monitor that has DL-DVI or DP inputs), then install the video card and get that going, lastly I would install the Wi-Fi PCI-E card; all the while using a long Ethernet cable, if necessary, to download any files I need as I go along.

If you want a nice compact mATX case, have a look at the Silverstone KL06, TJ08, or PS07. I'm personally using a KL06 and think it's quite nice. Excellent air flow, small footprint, enough room for a good number of drives (I have three 3.5" and two 2.5").

+1 for the KL06 I would consider that or if you need a lower price and good quality the Fractal Design Core 1500 is one of the better choices for a smallish mATX case. It can usually be bought on sale for 50-60 USD. I've purchased both the Define Mini (mATX) case and the huge Define R4 ATX case and they are both extremely well built and made to last for the long haul. The only thing I don't like about the R4 is that the side panels weigh about 7 pounds each. A hassle to take off and put back on. If only they'd made them with hinges. The panels on the Core 1500 are much lighter and manageable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352041

Thank you everyone for your time. Ok, so based on feedbacks, I've completely reviewed my selection, following advice to go ATX rather than mATX. Also including better PSU and cooler.

Can you please tell me if this makes sense, or which issues may arise:

• Mobo: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming (apparently very good value for money, and I like that it has DVI, HDMI and Display Port)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 6700K Processor
• GPU: EVGA NVIDIA GTX 950 SuperClock 2 GB Pci-E
• CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D15S
• PSU: Corsair CP-9020091-UK RM650X 650 W ATX/EPS
• RAM: Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin Memory - BLS2C8G4D240FSC
• SSD for system: Samsung 850 PRO 256 GB 2.5 inch SATA III Solid State Drive
• HD: WD BLUE Desktop 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive (SATA, 6Gb/SEC, 3 TB, 64MB)
• Case: Corsair CC-9011014-WW Carbide Series 300R Mid-Tower ATX Performance
• Wifi: TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 N900 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter

Three questions:
- Do you know a more compact case that is good and suitable for all this?
- Will I need more fans? The case has one 140mm for intake (front) and one 120mm for exhaust (back), and apprently very good airflow.
- Will the 5400rpm HD be really slow to access? Should I get several 1To 7200 rather than one 3To 5400 ?