Buying advice on chosen Hardware appreciated :thumbup:

[DevilisM]

Hi People,

After not gaming for a long time, my interest has been rekindled by, for example, previews of Starfield.
To play games, I need a new system.

The hardware I have in mind is:

• Intel Core i5 13600K - Processor3.5 GHz (5.1 GHz) - 14 core 6P+8E - 20 threads - 24 MB cache - LGA1700 Socket
• Gigabyte Z790 GAMING X AX - MotherboardATX - Socket LGA1700 - Intel Z790 - DDR5 - Realtek Audio CODEC - Realtek 2.5G LAN
• Corsair Vengeance - MemoryDDR5 - 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB - 288-PIN - 5600 MHz / PC5-44800 - CL36 - 1.25V - XMP 3.0
• ASRock AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16G OC - Videocard 16GB GDDR6 - PCIe 4.0 - 1x HDMI 2.1 VRR - 3x DisplayPort 1.4
• Powercolor Fighter AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB GDDR6 - PCIe 4.0 - 1x HDMI 2.1 - 3x DisplayPort 1.4
• Corsair RM1000e v2 - Power supplyATX12V 3.0, EPS12V 2.92 - 80 Plus Gold - 1000 Watt - Modulair - PCIe 5.0 - Zero RPM Fan Mode
• Cooler Master Hyper 622 Halo Black - CPU Cooler

Initially, I only intended to play games like Call of Duty, Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 with this system.
But since my 2015 iMac broke down a few days ago, I thought I might as well turn it into a hackintosh and use it to replace my iMac.

I wasn't able to run OS Ventura on it anyway and want to be able to make use of it.

My question therefore to you fine people would be, Is there any hardware, I should replace with something else in order to have a smooth build?

By the way, there are two graphic cards in the list, because I can't make up my mind on one of them.

So happens to be, I bought an Asus DUAL RTX2060 O6G EVO on the 9th of august which now is of no use for this system as it isn't compatible.
If anyone is interested in it, let me know, and we'll come up with a good price for both of us ;-)

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi People,

After not gaming for a long time, my interest has been rekindled by, for example, previews of Starfield.
To play games, I need a new system.

The hardware I have in mind is:

• Intel Core i5 13600K - Processor3.5 GHz (5.1 GHz) - 14 core 6P+8E - 20 threads - 24 MB cache - LGA1700 Socket
• Gigabyte Z790 GAMING X AX - MotherboardATX - Socket LGA1700 - Intel Z790 - DDR5 - Realtek Audio CODEC - Realtek 2.5G LAN
• Corsair Vengeance - MemoryDDR5 - 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB - 288-PIN - 5600 MHz / PC5-44800 - CL36 - 1.25V - XMP 3.0
• ASRock AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16G OC - Videocard 16GB GDDR6 - PCIe 4.0 - 1x HDMI 2.1 VRR - 3x DisplayPort 1.4
• Powercolor Fighter AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB GDDR6 - PCIe 4.0 - 1x HDMI 2.1 - 3x DisplayPort 1.4
• Corsair RM1000e v2 - Power supplyATX12V 3.0, EPS12V 2.92 - 80 Plus Gold - 1000 Watt - Modulair - PCIe 5.0 - Zero RPM Fan Mode
• Cooler Master Hyper 622 Halo Black - CPU Cooler

Initially, I only intended to play games like Call of Duty, Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 with this system.
But since my 2015 iMac broke down a few days ago, I thought I might as well turn it into a hackintosh and use it to replace my iMac.

I wasn't able to run OS Ventura on it anyway and want to be able to make use of it.

My question therefore to you fine people would be, Is there any hardware, I should replace with something else in order to have a smooth build?

By the way, there are two graphic cards in the list, because I can't make up my mind on one of them.

So happens to be, I bought an Asus DUAL RTX2060 O6G EVO on the 9th of august which now is of no use for this system as it isn't compatible.
If anyone is interested in it, let me know, and we'll come up with a good price for both of us ;-)

The RX 6700 XT is NOT supported on MacOS. The RX 6800 XT is. So choose the 6800.

And as you are already aware the RTX 2060 is not supported on MacOS either.

Be prepared to spend time reading and experimenting on how to use OpenCore to install Ventura on your hardware once you get it.

Since you intend to play Starfield on it, you will want to install Windows as well. In that case you should get at least two separate SSDs, one for each OS. It is quite a bit easier to install and manage MacOS and Windows on separate disks. You might also need a third disk (HDD / SSD) as additional storage.

 

[DevilisM]

The RX 6700 XT is NOT supported on MacOS. The RX 6800 XT is. So choose the 6800.

And as you are already aware the RTX 2060 is not supported on MacOS either.

Be prepared to spend time reading and experimenting on how to use OpenCore to install Ventura on your hardware once you get it.

Since you intend to play Starfield on it, you will want to install Windows as well. In that case you should get at least two separate SSDs, one for each OS. It is quite a bit easier to install and manage MacOS and Windows on separate disks. You might also need a third disk (HDD / SSD) as additional storage.

Thanks for your reply Jamesbond007,

I'll get the RX 68000 XT than.

Yeah, I was thinking the same on keeping it separate.
Which windows would you recommend when it comes to gaming, windows 10 or 11?

I left windows behind me as main OS in 2006 after using it from 3.11 to windows 2000 and only used Windows 7 for gaming until 2016 or so. Installed Windows 10 a month ago on my old Haswell system and I must say, I'm surprised about the lack of changes in windows.

 

[Jamesbond007]

Which windows would you recommend when it comes to gaming, windows 10 or 11?

I left windows behind me as main OS in 2006 after using it from 3.11 to windows 2000 and only used Windows 7 for gaming until 2016 or so. Installed Windows 10 a month ago on my old Haswell system and I must say, I'm surprised about the lack of changes in windows.

Visually Windows 7 and Windows 10 may not be too different, but behind the scenes many things have changed. The one thing I hate most about Windows 10 and 11 is the lack of ability to disable automatic updates in the GUI. By default you are to accept any and all updates from Microsoft and if the updates cause any problems you are on your own.

Supposedly Windows 11 has better support for Intel Alder Lake (12th generation) and Raptor Lake (13th generation) hardware (like your proposed machine). If you are into gaming now or in the future perhaps Windows 11 is the way to go for you. But personally given a choice between Windows 10 and 11 I will use 10.

Perhaps you should try a fresh install of 11 and see for yourself if you are comfortable with it.

I personally still run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 alongside Windows 10 1809 LTSC on my Windows PCs. I hope I will never have to deal with Windows 11 myself.

 

[DevilisM]

Thanks for the detailed answer, Jamesbond007.

I didn't know it wasn't possible to turn off auto updates.
That is truly a lack of insight from Microsoft.

At first, I thought about switching completely to Windows, since my iMac no longer works. But after a day of looking at Windows, I can no longer go back to what, in my opinion, is a very ugly system.

Graphically, it's a bit like "Once you go Mac, you never go back"

Of course, it is for gaming, THE operating system.

Today I put together my new system, and I'm going to install Windows 11 to see if I like it better than Windows 10. I actually hope that Windows 11 looks a little better.