Help me spend $600

[torifile]

I've built a hackintosh before, my current i7 920 rig. It's great and all the power I need. I would like to build a more budget minded rig this time around. I want to be able to play a few games in Windows (SCII, L4D2, some other Steam titles) and I would like it to be quiet. It's going in my office so it needs to look nice, too. And I've got a 24" LED Cinema display (with the mini-DP) to hook it up to.

I don't need wireless since I've got an ethernet connection easily accessible. Any thoughts on where to start with this? I'm looking at getting the absolutely most compatible setup possible. IOW, I don't really want to have to worry about screwing my system up if I do a software update. TIA.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

How about my http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/perfect-hackintosh.html ?
Final build image: http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/06/fin ... build.html

 

[torifile]

How about my http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/perfect-hackintosh.html ?
Final build image: http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/06/fin ... build.html

The motherboard is deactivated at newegg. Have you got a replacement choice? I know that the mobo is the most important part of the process in getting a compatible OS X install, so I want to make sure I pick the right one.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

How about my http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/perfect-hackintosh.html ?
Final build image: http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/06/fin ... build.html

The motherboard is deactivated at newegg. Have you got a replacement choice? I know that the mobo is the most important part of the process in getting a compatible OS X install, so I want to make sure I pick the right one.

Any Gigabyte P55/P55A will work...
Though on some the Audio will be harder (might want to avoid ALC892), and on some the IDE won't work (those with the iTE 8213), and on some even SATA might be an issue (Marvell 9128).

For ATX, there's a nice selection from Gigabyte...
if you prefer a micro-ATX, it seems the only viable option on P55 now is the GA-P55M-UD2, which is a great board (as long as you don't overclock it).

Even an H55 would be OK, though I prefer P55 for i5/i7 builds.

 

[torifile]

How about my http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/perfect-hackintosh.html ?
Final build image: http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/06/fin ... build.html

The motherboard is deactivated at newegg. Have you got a replacement choice? I know that the mobo is the most important part of the process in getting a compatible OS X install, so I want to make sure I pick the right one.

Any Gigabyte P55/P55A will work...
Though on some the Audio will be harder (might want to avoid ALC892), and on some the IDE won't work (those with the iTE 8213), and on some even SATA might be an issue (Marvell 9128).

For ATX, there's a nice selection from Gigabyte...
if you prefer a micro-ATX, it seems the only viable option on P55 now is the GA-P55M-UD2, which is a great board (as long as you don't overclock it).

Even an H55 would be OK, though I prefer P55 for i5/i7 builds.

What about this one?

 

[Lnx2Mac]

What about this one?

Rev.1 uses the ALC888 so it will be great.
Rev.2 uses the ALC892 so it might be a bit harder to get sound working, but doable.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

torifile,

For your reference, here are the instructions from "THE tonymacx86 himself" to get audio on this board...
viewtopic.php?p=32660#p32660

 

[torifile]

How does this sound for a build?

- Gigabyte P55-UD2 ($105)
- i5 750 2.66 CPU ($195)
- Samsung Spinpoint 1TB HD ($55 - already bought)
- Radeon HD 5770 ($135)
- G.skill 4 gig kit ($85)
- BT dongle
- Samsung DVD drive ($10 - already bought)

I need a case and PSU (thinking about the Antec P180 mini). This puts me about $100 over my budget of $600. Hmm. I hope that after the new AMD cards are released on Friday, we'll see some price drops on the current crop of cards. I'm not up on nvidia's cards, so I don't know what they offer that's comparable. I'm thinking of staying with the stock cooler on the CPU since I'm not planning on OC'ing it or anything. At least not in a micro ATX case.

Thoughts about these parts?

 

[torifile]

Right now, I'm down to figuring out what video card I should get. I've got just over $100 in my budget, but I can go a little over that. The complicating factor is that I've got a 24" Apple Cinema Display (mini-DP connection) that I'd like to use.

In looking around, it looks like getting a connection to go from a male mini-DP to a DVI will be very expensive. So, it looks like I'm going to have to go with a card that has a DP connection, right? Any thoughts on the most compatible card possible?

My build list is essentially unchanged from above but I think I'm going to go with the Gigabyte P55-USB3.