Advice Welcomed on this Build!

[housebaroquen]

Hey guys, this build will be purposed as a video editing solution (mostly for FCPX and Adobe After Effects), and will also double as an audio mixing rig (the DAW used will be Logic Pro 9). Most of these parts I already have from a previous Windows build (those parts are denoted by an asterisk). All of your opinions and criticisms are welcomed, as I do not want to drop any more money

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770k

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16Gb DDR3

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3

*Graphics: Gigabyte HD 6850

*SSD: Crucial M4 256Gb

Third-Party SATA: ASM1061 (IOCrest SATA III 2-port PCI-Express Controller Card)

*WiFi: D-Link DWA-556

PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series 650W (TX 650)

Case: Rosewill Challenger

 

[Koalaman]

Looks good to me, don't know about that PCI controller though.

 

[housebaroquen]

Yeah I understand your concern there, I've been reading up on everything for the ASM1061, and it looks like I'm going to put the graphics card in my x16 slot (running at x8) and my SATA controller in my other x16 slot (running at x16). The SSD write and read speeds are more of a priority to me than the extra graphics capability since I'm not really gaming on it; mostly color correction and basic graphics in Final Cut Pro X and After Effects.

My biggest concern is for the DWA 556 because of the reported trouble with it, although in the Wiki page it says it works OOB. I have seen a few people on this forum using it in their Mountain Lion build successfully, so I'm pretty confident it will work on mine.

 

[Albertsw]

Get an ivy bridge board.

 

[housebaroquen]

Get an ivy bridge board.

Very VERY good point that I should have caught! I was going to update the BIOS to run an Ivy Bridge, but you can't exactly use the BIOS without a processor in the socket. Since I don't have a spare LGA 1155 processor lying around, and the motherboard is already on its way, I'm just going to get the i7 2700k Sandy Bridge instead, since the difference in performance from a 3770k to 2700k is not really that noticeable unless you're using the integrated graphics, which I am not. Thanks!

So, here is the updated list:


CPU: Intel Core i7 2700k Sandy Bridge

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16Gb DDR3

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3

Graphics: Gigabyte HD 6850

SSD: Crucial M4 256Gb

Third-Party SATA: ASM1061 (IOCrest SATA III 2-port PCI-Express Controller Card)

WiFi: D-Link DWA-556

PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series 650W (TX 650)

Case: Rosewill Challenger

 

[Dil83]

The ASM1061 chipset SATA III controller card will work just fine, I use one. You do realize that motherboard has 2 x Intel 6 Series SATA 6Gb/s ports which will perform much better than the ASM1061. It also has 2 x Marvell 88SE9172 SATA 6Gb/s ports which will perform comparably to the ASM1061 controller card.

Unless you need more than 4 SATA 6Gb/s ports, I don't think the ASM1061 SATA card is necessary.

If you're going to be using your SSD as your boot drive (I assume you are) you should DEFINITELY use the Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports. The performance vs the ASMedia or Marvell SATA is much better.

Dil83

 

[housebaroquen]

If you're going to be using your SSD as your boot drive (I assume you are) you should DEFINITELY use the Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports. The performance vs the ASMedia or Marvell SATA is much better.

Thanks! I should have read up on that...I thought my motherboard only included the Marvell controllers (which it seems some people have slow write and read speeds with), but if I can leave open the x16 slot for the graphics card instead of the SATA controller, I'll be an even happier camper!

 

[Koalaman]

Not sure about that particular board, but mine doesn't require a CPU to flash the bios, only power. And are you going to overclock? If not, just go for the non-k version of the i7.

 

[housebaroquen]

Not sure about that particular board, but mine doesn't require a CPU to flash the bios, only power. And are you going to overclock? If not, just go for the non-k version of the i7.

I will be overclocking, and I have the cooling situation under control. Yeah, I'm just going to play it safe with the 2700k and not do any BIOS updates, just since this is my first hackintosh build. But thanks for the input KoalaMan, you've been a great help!

 

[Koalaman]

I will be overclocking, and I have the cooling situation under control. Yeah, I'm just going to play it safe with the 2700k and not do any BIOS updates, just since this is my first hackintosh build. But thanks for the input KoalaMan, you've been a great help!

No Problem.