Build Questions - new to Mac & Hackintosh

[9littlebees]

Hi all, first time poster.

I'm looking to start building my first Hackintosh. My system isn't the newest and I can't really afford to spend any more on it, but from a couple of hours reading some of the forum posts, it looks like it should work (with some manual fixes for the mobo). Here's my system:

• Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme6
• CPU: Intel i5 4690K
• Graphics Card: MSI GTX 970 Gaming
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 (4x4GB)
• PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W (modular)
• Hard Drive 1: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD via SATA3 (for OS X)
• Hard Drive 2: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD via SATA3 (for Win10)
• Hard Drive 3: Hectron X1 Series 60GB SSD via SATA3 (for Ubuntu, not currently installed)
• Hard Drive 4: OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD via SATA3 (for Windows game installs)
• Hard Drive 5: Western Digital Black 1TB HDD via SATA3 (for shared data - formatted as NTFS and nearly full - lots of photos)
• Optical: LiteOn IHAS624-32 24x DVD-RW via SATA
• Case: Fractal Design Define R3

So I have a few questions I'm hoping you can help with:

1. What is the recommended version of OS X for my system? I'd love to run El Capitan, but is my older CPU/mobo combo better off with an older version like Yosemite?
2. How can I get my hands on a "legitimate" copy of OS X? I don't have access to a Mac, I've never owned one. I can see someone selling a UniBeast El Capitan USB stick for £30 ($40) on eBay, but I'm reluctant to pay someone for a "fake".
3. Will I be able to access my shared data NTFS drive in OS X, or should I reformat? There are some files that are >4GB, so FAT32 isn't really an option. When I dual-booted Win7 / Ubuntu in the past, Ubuntu could read / write to NTFS, so I'm hoping OS X can, too...
4. Anything else to do with my build that I should know?

Thanks very much for your help!

 

[nobodynose]

Hi all, first time poster.

I'm looking to start building my first Hackintosh. My system isn't the newest and I can't really afford to spend any more on it, but from a couple of hours reading some of the forum posts, it looks like it should work (with some manual fixes for the mobo). Here's my system:
...

So I have a few questions I'm hoping you can help with:

1. What is the recommended version of OS X for my system? I'd love to run El Capitan, but is my older CPU/mobo combo better off with an older version like Yosemite?
2. How can I get my hands on a "legitimate" copy of OS X? I don't have access to a Mac, I've never owned one. I can see someone selling a UniBeast El Capitan USB stick for £30 ($40) on eBay, but I'm reluctant to pay someone for a "fake".
3. Will I be able to access my shared data NTFS drive in OS X, or should I reformat? There are some files that are >4GB, so FAT32 isn't really an option. When I dual-booted Win7 / Ubuntu in the past, Ubuntu could read / write to NTFS, so I'm hoping OS X can, too...
4. Anything else to do with my build that I should know?

Thanks very much for your help!

1. You can easily run El Capitan - your system isn't *that* old, and Haswell is well-supported in El Capitan (I'm on a Haswell system myself).
2. Can you get access to a family member or friend's Mac (or hackintosh) long enough to download OS X from the App Store and create a Unibeast USB installer? Or perhaps use one at a university or library? Please don't buy a Unibeast installer from eBay and please don't discuss it here.
3. You will be able to mount the shared NTFS drive read-only in OS X. If you need to be able to write to it, there are two third-party software packages I know of to add read-write capability to OS X's NTFS filesystem: Tuxera NTFS (http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/) and Paragon NTFS (https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/). Both are inexpensive (US $20 - 30); I believe (but am not certain) that Tuxera is the better of the two products.
4. After installing (using the standard Installation Guide), you will need to install the Nvidia alternate graphics drivers to get full resolution & acceleration from your GTX 970, since Apple doesn't support the Maxwell-based GPUs.

 

[9littlebees]

1. You can easily run El Capitan - your system isn't *that* old, and Haswell is well-supported in El Capitan (I'm on a Haswell system myself).
2. Can you get access to a family member or friend's Mac (or hackintosh) long enough to download OS X from the App Store and create a Unibeast USB installer? Or perhaps use one at a university or library? Please don't buy a Unibeast installer from eBay and please don't discuss it here.
3. You will be able to mount the shared NTFS drive read-only in OS X. If you need to be able to write to it, there are two third-party software packages I know of to add read-write capability to OS X's NTFS filesystem: Tuxera NTFS (http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/) and Paragon NTFS (https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/). Both are inexpensive (US $20 - 30); I believe (but am not certain) that Tuxera is the better of the two products.
4. After installing (using the standard Installation Guide), you will need to install the Nvidia alternate graphics drivers to get full resolution & acceleration from your GTX 970, since Apple doesn't support the Maxwell-based GPUs.

Thanks very much for the reply, nobodynose. Understood about point 2, I'll start asking around.

In terms of NTFS support, how do people normally handle shared data folders? Is there a file format that people tend to use for this purpose across Windows / OS X / Linux?

 

[nobodynose]

FAT32 is pretty much universal, but as you noted there is that pesky 4GB file size limit.

NTFS works OOB with Linux (and Windows, of course), but requires additional software for R/W support with OS X.

ExFAT works OOB with OS X (and Windows), but requires additional (though free) software (FUSE) for Linux.

Hope that helps.

 

[9littlebees]

ExFAT works OOB with OS X (and Windows), but requires additional (though free) software (FUSE) for Linux.

Ah, excellent, I'll look into ExFAT now, hadn't heard of it! I haven't 100% decided on installing Linux on this machine yet (I have a Linux notebook), so that sounds like the best option.

 

[kiiroaka]

With that much data you may also want to get a BD burner to archive all those photos, along with doing a DVD a day until you have backed up all 1TB. That would take you about 250 days, no? So, at the very least get a caddy and image the data onto another 1TB HDD, then pack it accordingly and put it in a safe.

 

[9littlebees]

With that much data you may also want to get a BD burner to archive all those photos, along with doing a DVD a day until you have backed up all 1TB. That would take you about 250 days, no? So, at the very least get a caddy and image the data onto another 1TB HDD, then pack it accordingly and put it in a safe.

Thanks for the advice kiiroaka. I already do regular backups to 2 external HDDs, plus I have a paid CrashPlan service. I really need to go through my backlog of RAW images and delete a bunch first then I will probably end up archiving the older "keepers" onto DVD / BD at some stage when time permits and funds allow. For now, I simply backup everything.

 

[trs96]

Thanks very much for the reply, nobodynose. Understood about point 2, I'll start asking around.

The other option you've got is to buy the retail Snow Leopard DVD from Apple for $19.99 and install that on your Haswell hardware first. Use the iBoot Haswell app to burn a boot CD. Should work with your hardware.

 

[9littlebees]

The other option you've got is to buy the retail Snow Leopard DVD from Apple for $19.99 and install that on your Haswell hardware first. Use the iBoot Haswell app to burn a boot CD. Should work with your hardware.

Ah, thanks for that, I had only looked on Amazon / eBay for official copies, and the ones available didn't look legit. In the end, I found a friend with a Mac, but it's good to know I can buy a legitimate copy direct from Apple for only £15.