- Joined
- Feb 4, 2010
- Messages
- 29
- Motherboard
- ASRock H110M-STX
- CPU
- i7 7700
- Graphics
- Intel HD Graphics 630
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hey Tony and all members of the forum!
I was contemplating building a hybrid Hackintosh/Win7 machine for weeks last month. During my search, I found this website and it solidified my decision to move forward with it. I mean, what could be better than having a reliable source to help your through all of Apple's attempts at breaking a Hackintosh build? This was always what kept me from doing it before. I'm a 4-year Mac convert and I'll never go completely back - obviously we need to keep Windows for SOME things (like a "bag of hurt" for example) but I'll be a Mac-head for life. I have 2 Mac Minis, a first-gen MacBook Pro and a Dell Mini 9 all running Snow Leopard. All of these are great computers, but simply don't pack enough punch for some of the things I want to do. And we all know that a MacPro is too expensive for the average wallet.
So with all that being said, I've decided to mostly mirror Tony's build to help ensure future compatibility with his updates. But I can't decide on a video card. I really don't want to spend more than $100 on a video card, in fact I'd like to keep it closer to $75. Here's what the rest of my build will consist of:
. 1 Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I7860 - Retail
. 2 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
. 1 GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
. 1 COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3 500W ATX12V V2.3 Power Supply
. G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK - Retail
. SUPER TALENT INTAIN1MCR All-in-one Card Reader - Retail
. LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD±R DVD Burner - Retail
. ASUS USB-BT21 USB 2.0 Mini Bluetooth Dongle - Retail
The video card I was considering:
EVGA 01G-P3-N959-TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Retail
I'm going to use this mostly as a generic desktop computer - web browsing, e-mail, iTunes and iPhoto - but I also do a lot of video encoding. I have an HD camcorder that I occasionally like to edit movies from in iMovie, and my poor MBP barely gets along doing that now. I also encode a lot of DVDs and HD streams with Handbrake. I rarely play games, so tons of graphics power isn't a concern - I don't think. However, I am going to do a dual-monitor setup - they gave me two at work and now I'm hooked on having all that extra "space." haha.
So basically, if you guys could recommend a video card, that'd be great. I read in another post that I should be concerned about DDR2 vs. DDR3 memory on the video card, but I'm wondering if my lack of gameplay will make this a real issue. Also, if you see any other components that should be changed, please feel free! I have purchased some of this hardware already (mobo, CPU, hard drives, PSU) because there was special pricing on them, and I'm going to buy the rest in my next order.
Looking forward to hearing back from you experts!! Thanks in advance.
I was contemplating building a hybrid Hackintosh/Win7 machine for weeks last month. During my search, I found this website and it solidified my decision to move forward with it. I mean, what could be better than having a reliable source to help your through all of Apple's attempts at breaking a Hackintosh build? This was always what kept me from doing it before. I'm a 4-year Mac convert and I'll never go completely back - obviously we need to keep Windows for SOME things (like a "bag of hurt" for example) but I'll be a Mac-head for life. I have 2 Mac Minis, a first-gen MacBook Pro and a Dell Mini 9 all running Snow Leopard. All of these are great computers, but simply don't pack enough punch for some of the things I want to do. And we all know that a MacPro is too expensive for the average wallet.
So with all that being said, I've decided to mostly mirror Tony's build to help ensure future compatibility with his updates. But I can't decide on a video card. I really don't want to spend more than $100 on a video card, in fact I'd like to keep it closer to $75. Here's what the rest of my build will consist of:
. 1 Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I7860 - Retail
. 2 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
. 1 GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
. 1 COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3 500W ATX12V V2.3 Power Supply
. G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK - Retail
. SUPER TALENT INTAIN1MCR All-in-one Card Reader - Retail
. LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD±R DVD Burner - Retail
. ASUS USB-BT21 USB 2.0 Mini Bluetooth Dongle - Retail
The video card I was considering:
EVGA 01G-P3-N959-TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Retail
I'm going to use this mostly as a generic desktop computer - web browsing, e-mail, iTunes and iPhoto - but I also do a lot of video encoding. I have an HD camcorder that I occasionally like to edit movies from in iMovie, and my poor MBP barely gets along doing that now. I also encode a lot of DVDs and HD streams with Handbrake. I rarely play games, so tons of graphics power isn't a concern - I don't think. However, I am going to do a dual-monitor setup - they gave me two at work and now I'm hooked on having all that extra "space." haha.
So basically, if you guys could recommend a video card, that'd be great. I read in another post that I should be concerned about DDR2 vs. DDR3 memory on the video card, but I'm wondering if my lack of gameplay will make this a real issue. Also, if you see any other components that should be changed, please feel free! I have purchased some of this hardware already (mobo, CPU, hard drives, PSU) because there was special pricing on them, and I'm going to buy the rest in my next order.
Looking forward to hearing back from you experts!! Thanks in advance.