joan2404’s Build: Core i7 4790K - GA-Z97X-UD3H - 8GB RAM - HD 4600

[joan2404]

joan2404’s Build: Core i7 4790K - GA-Z97X-UD3H - 16GB RAM - HD 4600


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Components

GIGABYTE Gigabyte ATX DDR3 LGA 1150 SATA DIMM 6Gb/s Motherboard ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JKCHDC2/

Intel Core i7-4790K Processor Model BX80646I74790K
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KPRWAX8/

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/

Kingston HyperX FURY 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL10 DIMM - Black
(2 units)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J8E9334/

NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case CA-S340W-W1 White
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NGMIBXC/

PSU Corsair VS650 650W, 80 PLUS, 120mm
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LMBT0IO/


Already Owned

3 x Internal Hard Drive Disks (between 250GB and 1TB capacity

Hanns-G 21.5” VGA/DVI Monitor

Apple Wired Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DPF08E/

Apple Magic Mouse
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002TLTGM6/

Unknown brand USB Bluetooth 4.0 EDR


Comments

I built this computer to produce video, audio and 3D renders. My MacBook Pro does it all but struggles a little bit and gets very hot. This computer will allow me to do it much faster and quieter. Right now I’ve just purchased the needed parts to have a functional computer. In the near future I’ll add more RAM, a graphics card and I’ll swap the HDD for SSD and a NVMe drive as OS X boot drive (still thinking on that).

As I said I’m planning to do video editing (with Final Cut Pro X), audio editing (Logic Pro X), and 3D rendering (with Blender) on that machine but I'm not a professional, and I'm not editing or rendering 24/7. I have a 13" retina MacBook Pro from 2014 and does these concrete tasks but runs very hot (CPU cores max temp around 98ªC) and takes a lot of time, I don't want to end up with dead laptop in a few years, and looking at the prices of high end iMacs or Mac Pros, I decided to build a Hackintosh.

I’m not planning to overclock this cpu because I need OpenCL compute power which is provided by the graphics card, so the overclocked cpu won't make a big difference. Also, the 212 EVO cooler is great for silent operation and greater cooling capacity than stock Intel cooler, but for overclocking somehow limited. But who knows, I’ll try to apply a slight overclock and if I see an improvement in render times without stability issues, I'll overclock but getting a Noctua cooler to have lower operation temperatures.

I'll stay with the Apple Keyboard, and I'll see what happens with the Magic Mouse. It's very good for Final Cut Pro but in Blender it's not the best mouse. I have a MX Master, but I'm still learning how to take 100% profit from it.

I think that the NZXT S340 is a good budget case. It has a very clean design that goes well with Apple design philosophy.

Future upgrades
This build is still not totally complete. I'll add:
- Graphics card. Probably going with the well known R9 280X, or 380X if it is well supported in OS X (what about the upcoming 480?). Maybe I'll put 2 of them (altough I'd have to upgrade the psu). We'll see how it performs with one.


Installation
The installation of El Captitan 10.11.3 was very easy. Just follow the tonymacx86 installation guide, then select the appropriate drivers from MultiBeast (in my case, ALC 1150 and Intel Ethernet). The only thing that needed some more experience was the USB 3.0. To get it working fine I followed this guide from lewys’s: http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...-970-256gb-ssd-bcm94360cd-wifi-bluetooth.html

Overclocking:
I have just overclocked to 4,5Ghz. I tried 4,6 but the cpu needs 1,3V and the cooler is not very effective. At 4,5 GHz the max voltage of the cpu is 1,26, so the cooler can lower the temps to a confortable zone. I'll try to reaply the thermal paste (maybe I had put to little) to see if I can get stable 4,6Ghz OC with reasonable temps. This is the Geekbench result after overclocking to 4,5 and installing (finally) the SSD.
View media item 186994
Issues
- Audio issues when waking up computer from sleep. I don’t usually put the computer in sleep mode but would be great to have that functionality working well.
- I'm having some issues with the stability of Bluetooth connection. The adapter that I've was very cheap and it's outdated. I've ordered a new one, ASUS 4.0 Bluetooth that will solve that problem (I hope). SOLVED: some bluetooth adapters have a very short range of operation. Moving the adapter closer to the mouse, solved the connection stability problems.
- During the overclocking process I discovered that the temperatures of the cpu and air inside the case where higher when the computer was running OS X than when it was running Windows 10. I discovered that fans don't run at full speed in OS X. Is there a way to fix that?

MultiBeast Configuration

Benchmarks




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[CyCLoBoT]

After switching to iMac 14,2 profile and using Codec Commander, sound is working perfectly fine after sleep. You may want to give that a try. Try using just the codec first and if it still doesn't work, maybe try switching the profile as well.

 

[Ni6htWalker]

already build a hackintosh with the GA-Z97X-UD3H some months ago,but now im going to install el capitan,thank you for the USB 3 tip.

 

[VroepVroep]

Looks good! Three quetions arose to my mind:
1. Why limit the system to 8GB memory? 16GB won't cost you that much more, and with 8 gigs your system will be bottlenecked in Blender and the likes, even if you're not professional.
2. A GPU would've drastically improved performance in blender, and maybe even Final Cut (Not sure if we get GPU rendering on a Hackintosh, anyone?)
3. And since you're not going with a GPU, did you think about opting for mini/micro-ATX? Your case has a lot of unused space inside, your components could've easily fit inside a lot smaller case, while still retaining proper airflow.

 

[piropeople13]

Hello Joan, nice build.

I think I may do something similar for a hackintosh build for my sister, she wants it for FCPX and Premiere. Ill probably build the same system, except i'll add the TP-Link PCIe wifi card in the buyer's guide and use the crucial ballistix tactical 32gb of ram.

With the same mobo and proc do you think I will have the same luck (and usb 3 issue) as you?

Also would adding a 740gt help premiere at all? I don't really want to go with a video card that can't plug and play.

Edit: Any chance we could get a pic of the inside? I would like to see how your cables are routed

 

[miK.]

Great build and setup.

What speakers are those?

 

[joan2404]

Hello Joan, nice build.

I think I may do something similar for a hackintosh build for my sister, she wants it for FCPX and Premiere. Ill probably build the same system, except i'll add the TP-Link PCIe wifi card in the buyer's guide and use the crucial ballistix tactical 32gb of ram.

With the same mobo and proc do you think I will have the same luck (and usb 3 issue) as you?

Also would adding a 740gt help premiere at all? I don't really want to go with a video card that can't plug and play.

Edit: Any chance we could get a pic of the inside? I would like to see how your cables are routed

I forgot to put a section with "future upgrades". Updated now


About the 8Gb of RAM, for what I do is enough but it's true that with Blender, the OS starts to use virtual disk. But with rendering, as the best setting to render an image with CPU is by blocks of the smallest size possible (8x8 pixels) doesn't cause issues.

I'll add a GPU, AMD based to render and improve performance of FCPX. I've read on these forum people with dual R9 280X experiencing a very good performance. Right now, render in Blender Cycles with an AMD gpu on OS X is not possible, but works with windows (so i'll use blender in windows until amd cards are supported for render in os x).

The case is big so I can upgrade, put dual graphics if I want. I could have chosen a smaller motherboard that costed less than half of the one that I have but I wouldn't have the option of 2 gpus. Also I really like this case and it'll look great on its final location.

 

[joan2404]

Hello Joan, nice build.

I think I may do something similar for a hackintosh build for my sister, she wants it for FCPX and Premiere. Ill probably build the same system, except i'll add the TP-Link PCIe wifi card in the buyer's guide and use the crucial ballistix tactical 32gb of ram.

With the same mobo and proc do you think I will have the same luck (and usb 3 issue) as you?

Also would adding a 740gt help premiere at all? I don't really want to go with a video card that can't plug and play.

Edit: Any chance we could get a pic of the inside? I would like to see how your cables are routed

I'm shure that you'll be able to install OS X using this motherboard, I found it easier than installing some Linux distributions. About the usb 3 issue I'm afraid that yes, you'll have that issue. But the solution is not very difficult to apply and if you have some difficulties, this is why this forum exists.
About the 740gt, if it's compatible with premiere it'll speed everything, from editing to export the final video. But Nvidia cards are not the best with FCPX.

I'll post a detailed picture of the inside, but right now and for some days I'll be lots of km away of that computer.

 

[joan2404]

Great build and setup.

What speakers are those?

Thanks! The speakers freatured in the setup are the Altec Lansing Expressionist Plus. They sound great and loud and have a minimalistic design, but for me they have too much white noise coming from the amplifier, it's audible when nothing is playing at about 25% of the volume or louder.

 

[editorajit]

I have same config. After installing El Capitan, I have no audio output. Please guide me