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8th Gen Intel Motherboard advice for PRO Hack

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Dec 31, 2013
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Huawei Matebook D
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i5-8250U
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UHD 620
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Hi guys,

I have to build a PRO machine that looks forward and can easily handle 4k Video editing and color correction both in Final cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. Both in macOS and eventually Win10.
Something that is upgradable in the years to come, that's why a 8th Gen motherboard with an i7 8700k for now.
I would like the machine to run Sierra for now as it's final.
Must have Nvme macOS boot, SSD for Win10, Thunderbolt 3 working like a breeze, Wifi, bluetooth, Giga ethernet, USB 3.1, sleep/wake.
I would very much appreciate direction for easy setup.
Thanks
 
Hi guys,

I have to build a PRO machine that looks forward and can easily handle 4k Video editing and color correction both in Final cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. Both in macOS and eventually Win10.
Something that is upgradable in the years to come, that's why a 8th Gen motherboard with an i7 8700k for now.
I would like the machine to run Sierra for now as it's final.
Must have Nvme macOS boot, SSD for Win10, Thunderbolt 3 working like a breeze, Wifi, bluetooth, Giga ethernet, USB 3.1, sleep/wake.
I would very much appreciate direction for easy setup.
Thanks

Support for 8th Gen Coffee Lake CPUs are available in High Sierra, but not in Sierra. Are you certain you want to use Sierra? Besides you want NVMe SSD so you have to use High Sierra as Sierra has no native support for NVMe SSDs.

If you are thinking about upgrading your CPU in the future without changing the motherboard, I say that is not very likely. Intel most probably will not allow the future new CPUs to be compatible with current motherboards. Think about it : the Coffee Lake CPUs use the same 1151 socket as the Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs, but they do not work in 100 and 200 series motherboards and you are required to get a Z370 motherboard (for now). Also, we don't even know if the next CPUs will still use the 1151 socket, and if not you will be required to get a new motherboard to use future CPUs.

It will be a nice gesture if the next CPUs are still compatible with Z370 motherboards, but I won't get my hopes up on that.

As to the motherboard choice, there is only ONE Z370 motherboard with Thunderbolt 3 built-in, an ASRock ITX board. No other Z370 motherboard has a Thunderbolt 3 port at present, but some of them have a Thunderbolt header which allows for the installation of a Thunderbolt 3 AIC (add-in card) like the Gigabyte GC Alpine Ridge or Asus ThunderboltEX 3. No idea whether these cards will work all the time with the motherboards, though. If you want Thunderbolt 3 onboard the only choice is that ASRock ITX board. Is this what you want?
 
Hi James, thanks for your reply!!

In relationship to Sierra or HSierra I will decide later but probably it makes more sense to use HSierra as it has some native support.
Probably my hopes to be able to use the same board for future gen of CPUs is too high, but at present I need a powerful machine, that's why an i7 8700k.

As for Thunderbolt 3 I have seen ASUS and Gigabyte mobo that have the header to accomodate for PCI thunderbolt 3 cards. The ASRock ITX board is not the board for this project as this PC needs free PCI slots, 4 memory slots, 2 M2 Nvme drives.
Do you think Thunderbolt 3 would work in those ASUS / Gigabyte boards with header?
As for the wifi and bluetooth what is the best bet? Would it be getting a macbook air wifi / bluetooth card with adapter?

Thanks for your help!
 
Hi James, thanks for your reply!!

As for Thunderbolt 3 I have seen ASUS and Gigabyte mobo that have the header to accomodate for PCI thunderbolt 3 cards. The ASRock ITX board is not the board for this project as this PC needs free PCI slots, 4 memory slots, 2 M2 Nvme drives.

Do you think Thunderbolt 3 would work in those ASUS / Gigabyte boards with header?

As for the wifi and bluetooth what is the best bet? Would it be getting a macbook air wifi / bluetooth card with adapter?

Thanks for your help!

I am not certain as I have no experience with these cards. You can try searching the forum to see if others have success using these cards with Z370 motherboards.

Check the Buyer's Guide for Wifi / Bluetooth accessories compatible with MacOS. I am interested to know why you need to use Wifi / Bluetooth on a desktop system, however.
 
wifi and bluetooth are because I want to eventually make the mac as compatible as possible.
To use imessage, wireless keyboard and mouse as I don't like cables on the desk.
wifi is less important but it comes with bluetooth.
 
As far as I know, Thunderbolt on hacks is still a bit imperfect. I think Thunderbolt devices need to be connected to Windows first before they can be used in macOS and hot plugging doesn't work.
 
thanks pastry!

I read your post about the MacBook Air wifi / bluetooth adapter. Hard to have the original one shipped to europe.
In the buyers guide under accessories I find there are 2 bluetooth 4.0 adapter that you say work.
- GMYLE Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter
- IOGear Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter

I tried with an ASUS BT400 based on the same broadcom chip and present in the bluetooth kexts but it doesn't work. I had to apply a fix on my machine (not the one I'm looking to build with this post), install modified kexts, then after sleep the adapter begins to work really bad, so I uninstalled it.
Are those two listed working flawlessly?
 
Does Thunderbolt 2 work?
Does Thunderbolt 1 work?
 
Unless the situation has changed recently, I believe that Thunderbolt 1, 2, 3 all have the same behavior on hacks.

I haven't used either of those Bluetooth adapters. I always try to use Wi-Fi/Bluetooth cards pulled from real Macs.
 
thanks for your reply!
I gave a look at your build and I'm inclined to use the same motherboard and CPU.
I read in your post that at the beginning you used a PCI WiFi / Bluetooth card. Did it work fine?
I find difficult to get shipped to Europe / Italy the MacBook Air original WiFi / Bluetooth card. I can find the adapter but not the card.
I also read that some of the Chinese shipped cards are not original and don't work correctly.
 
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