Photo/Graphic Editing build: Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming - i7 8700K - Nvidia Quadro P4000

[ACS8754]

Photo/Graphic Editing build:
Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming - i7-8700K - Nvidia Quadro P4000​

Components

Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075RHWCBT/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813119042

Intel Core Coffee Lake i7-8700K Processor
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07598VZR8/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117827

Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 All-in-one 240mm CPU Liquid Cooling
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013WAY9UQ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186153

Sonnet Presto 10GbaseT 10Gb RJ-45 Network Card
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRELN12/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=2BH-000H-00004

PNY Technologies Nvidia Quadro P4000 Graphics Card
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06X9TNDFF/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133643

Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 64GB DDR4 2666 Memory
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJKQ5FR/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820164047

Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD (x3)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAJ412U/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W02CZ2241

Logitech K375s Wireless Keyboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5BVUGS/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE53D6772

Dell DW1830 M.2 BECM943602BAED Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JGFA50U/?tag=tonymacx86com-20


Already Owned

Cooler Master Cosmo II Case
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006P88VNE/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119252

Seasonic Snow Silent 750 Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E1RS590/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151154

Zalman Case Fans (various sizes to fill all the Cosmo II's fan spots)

Logitech M325c Wireless Party Mouse
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZYK2KJA/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

LG Blueray Burner Blu-Ray Burner

Wacom CINTIQ 27QHD Touch Pen Display (DTH2700), Add-on Wacom Color Manager Device (EODIS3-DCWA) & Ergostand (ACK411040Z)

Sony MRW-E90 XQD/SD USB External Card Reader (Needed to read XQD memory cards used in my Nikon cameras)

OS's: Windows 10 Pro, OpenSuSE Tumble weedLinux, macOS High Sierra


Comments

I've been lurking here for a while and I decided to build my first CustoMac. For this build I almost exactly duplicated Pastrychef's work here and Going Bald's Multi-Boot guide here.

What makes this build a little different than average:
1. I do professional photography, art work and retouching. Have you ever printed a picture and had the printed colors not match what's on the screen? I have to be able to map what my screen displays to what my customers presses are capable of. I built my CustoMac to replace an ageing Mac Pro (and a Linux/windows dual boot system). I needed to build a system that had a color calibrated display that supported custom color space (For this I use the Wacom CINTIQ - a display and graphic tablet combination) and a video card with 10 bit color channel in OpenGL. the Nvidia Quadro video card excel at this (10 bit channels are only supported in DirectX on the Geoforce 10-- cards).
2. I needed a 10Gb network card that works under MacOS, Linux and Windows to work with files directly on my file server. I ordered the Sonnet card before Pastrychef switched from the Solarflare 10GbE to the Gigabyte GC-AQC107 10GBase-T card.

The MacOS and Windows install was completely trouble free. Linux install went well once I discovered the additional command to send its bootloader. I won't do a step by step because I'd just be replicating what Pastrychef and Going Bald have explained much better than I am able. My process was set up bios according to the directions for installing High Sierra. Create the Efi partition. Install windows. Install all relevant windows drivers (Nvidia Quadro, Wacom, Network, Logitech). Install High Sierra (UniBeast, MultiBeast, etc.). Follow Pastrychef's post install fixes and install MacOS Drivers (Nvidia Quadro by following the Tonymac links for the Nvidia web drivers, Logitech, Wacom, Network). Install OpenSuSE Tumbleweed. For the latest versions, all MacOS and Windows drivers were downloaded from the manufacturers/designers sites i.e. Asus, Nvidia, Wacom, Logitech, Sonnet, Intel, etc. Follow Going Bald's work for editing the config.plist for Clover to show linux as well as High Sierra and Windows as boot options.

Notes for MacOS: Carefully follow Pastrychef's build like I did.

NOTE for some "UNIFYING TECHNOLOGY" Logitech wireless keyboards and mice: For new Logitech unify keyboards AND mouse installs you have to install the first OS with a wired mouse AND/OR keyboard depending on which wireless dongle you insert (although windows 10 recognizes 2, Linux and macOS don't). The wireless keyboard and mouse I chose both use logitech's "Unifying Technology" - Logitech's fancy name for using one wireless dongle for multiple devices. The problem is the keyboard and mouse each ships with its own dongle. The solution is to install the OS then use Logitech's software to pair them both to same dongle.

Note on Linux: For Z370/Coffee Lake motherboard you want a very recent kernel even then their is no on CPU graphics unless you use the 'i915.alpha_support=1' boot flag on kernel 4.13 and 4.14 or update to the beta/release candidate 4.15 kernel line even though version 4.10 and 4.13 made upgrades to kaby Lake/Coffee Lake specific code respectively. If your kernel is really really old, Z370 boards won't boot even with a supported graphics card. I prefer OpenSuSE's distribution, I opted for the Tumbleweed branch over the Leap branch because it installs version 4.14.15. Ubuntu is another good distribution for including the latest stable kernel at the time each release is packaged.

SUMMARY

What Works
As far as I can tell everything.

What Does Not Work
I think everything works.

NOW I HAVE A GRAPHIC EDITING POWERHOUSE!

 

[NoLooseEnds]

Great write up. I'm considering copying this build.

Do you use any other display other than the Cintiq? And did you consider thunderbolt 3 (and/or usb-c)?

 

[ACS8754]

I only run the Cintiq for display. If money were no object, I'd run a separate re-calibrate-able 4K display -- Eizo, the big name in precision displays for video/photography/print art work makes one.
The Quadro can drive most displays, it depends on what you need. For gaming, web surfing, word processing etc. a consumer screen that uses TN technology is fine. Next step up is an IPS technology based screen that comes calibrated from the factory to sRGB/Adobe sRGB - there are a lot of those. After that comes a re-calibrate-able for sRGB/Adobe sRGB -- NEC makes the least expensive I've seen at about $1,500. Lastly comes those that can be calibrated to custom color space. My Wacom Cintiq 27QHD touch ran me about $2,400 and that's pricey enough for me. It's 27 inch 2.5K display is adequate for anything I need to do.
The Ergostand is nice so I can easily have it in the traditional monitor position or flat on the table to use the pen for art work.
I need re-calibrate-able to run quality control for anything I do that is being run on a press. It makes retouching/editing/art work a what you see is what you get proposition.

 

[ACS8754]

And did you consider thunderbolt 3 (and/or usb-c)?

As of yet there are no re-calibrate-able thunderbolt or USB-C displays I know of. Right now they are all didirectional communications Displayport 1.3 or 1.4 (I forget which) or bidirectional HDMI.

 

[Heinrich]

Could you say what photo editing software you use?

I'm considering what to do for my next photo/video editor. I use Capture One and FCPX. If I edited in Davinci Resolve, the Quadro would be a straightforward choice.

 

[ACS8754]

I primarily use (90% of my photo work) Capture one for developing and Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud for editing. I have a few other tools (10% of my work) such as Nikon specific tools I use and Corel Painter for artistic photo manipulation.
My decision on the Quadro was driven by color management. Wacom's Color Manager software and device work seamlessly with the Quadro and Capture One and Photoshop CC. It was a fool proof way to edit in calibrated to the same exact color space various presses can print. The display side of my build was driven entirely by color management issues. If you don't need to do complex color management (or some other specific graphic pursuit), I think Something along the lines of an NVidia 1070 and NEC wide-gamut display would be my choice.

 

[phrozenpenguin]

Have you tried multi monitors off the Quadro?

 

[Heinrich]

I primarily use (90% of my photo work) Capture one for developing and Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud for editing. I have a few other tools (10% of my work) such as Nikon specific tools I use and Corel Painter for artistic photo manipulation.
My decision on the Quadro was driven by color management. Wacom's Color Manager software and device work seamlessly with the Quadro and Capture One and Photoshop CC. It was a fool proof way to edit in calibrated to the same exact color space various presses can print. The display side of my build was driven entirely by color management issues. If you don't need to do complex color management (or some other specific graphic pursuit), I think Something along the lines of an NVidia 1070 and NEC wide-gamut display would be my choice.

That's very helpful to read. As I don't require the degree of color management rigor as you do, my 27" NEC along with my current cards suffice. But I do now know how to take it to the next level!

 

[ACS8754]

Have you tried multi monitors off the Quadro?

Because you asked I did hook up a second monitor to see how it works. It works well like any other modern Nvidia card with multi monitors. I'm switching back to a single display - I find the second one distracting, but it does work as expected.

 

[Forasteiro22]

Hi, Nice post!

Do you know if this motherboard (https://www.newegg.com/global/it/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813145046) works without the LAN and Bluetooth boards on your list?

I'm trying to build a compact machine and this motherboard already have all (Bluetooth, WiFi, LAN), but I don't if is compatible w/ all functionalities!

Thanks!