High end Hackintosh

I'm new to the idea of building a Hackintosh but want to seriously consider it for my next system. I work in video production and have come to a stand still with my current Mac pro due to the fact that I can't upgrade my graphics card. I really like the idea of building a much faster up-gradable system on Mac OS. What I need a little help solving is the correct components for the fastest system I can possibly build. I see the list for a mac pro but it seems that's not necessarily the best graphics card. Could I potentially pick anything on the entire list here and it will work?

I'd like to run Avid, Adobe products, and Cinema 4D. I'm hoping to get a graphics card I can run Octane on.

Thanks in advance for any help on this. Please understand this would be my fist build. I'm confident I can do it I just want to make sure I do enough research before getting started.

Thanks.

Don L

Here's what I'm considering.
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Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 ATX DDR4 Motherboards (GA-Z170X-UD3 Ultra)

Intel Core i7 6700K 4.00 GHz Unlocked Quad Core Skylake Desktop Processor, Socket LGA 1151 [BX80662I76700K]

Corsair Hydro Series High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H60

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB GAMING, Silent Cooling Graphics Card 06G-P4-4990-KR

Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit (16GBx4) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin - BLS4K16G4D240FSB (Gray)

Crucial MX300 2TB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive - CT2050MX300SSD1

Seagate 2TB BarraCuda SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive

Corsair RMx Series, RM650x, 650W, Fully Modular Power Supply, 80+ Gold Certified

Corsair Carbide Series Black 300R Mid-Tower Computer Case

Asus ThunderboltEX II/DUAL Thunderbolt Adapter THUNDERBOLTEX II DUAL

TP-Link Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter (TL-WDN4800)

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I'm curious if I need anything else for bluetooth to work as well. I have plenty of accessories keyboard mouse and such, but I may want a new monitor since I'm replacing an iMac with dual screens. I have a RAID drive setup connected via Thunderbolt so I'm hoping that Thunderbolt card works fine.

Any suggestions ideas?

Thanks.

DonL

One more thing. I was thinking of using El Capitan instead of Sierra due to applications that do not fully support Sierra yet.

Hi,
CPU Motherboard Memory, for video production, you make a good choice i think.

All other hardware i can help you,

Idea:

About system disk and working ==> NVMe Pcie SSD ???

About CPU Cooling ==> read test Watercooling VS very good Air cooling
(i read watter pump is not silent as a large fan at low RPM) ???

Sorry for my ignorance but the system disk you mentioned, NVMe Pcie SSD, is that another brand listed on some other site or something? Are you saying that's a better model?

For the cooling does anyone have any other suggestions. I read that water cooling is best or better than air. If it's not totally silent that's ok.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...rst-pcie-m-2-nvme-ssd-is-an-absolute-monster/

I use Air fan cooling can't hear the fan
sorry it's in french but you can see the bench report
http://www.tomshardware.fr/articles/test-comparatif-ventirad-CPU,2-35-5.html

most important, about air or water :

denis.fr said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...rst-pcie-m-2-nvme-ssd-is-an-absolute-monster/

I use Air fan cooling can't hear the fan
sorry it's in french but you can see the bench report
http://www.tomshardware.fr/articles/test-comparatif-ventirad-CPU,2-35-5.html

most important, about air or water :

Click to expand...

I can see why the air cooling fan is a better choice from that video. Thanks for sharing that.

I think everything else is a go. The only thing I'm curious about now is the Bluetooth options. Does anyone have any suggestions for adding Bluetooth? Maybe there's a compatible wifi/bluetooth card out there. I did a little research and found a few articles but I'm still not totally sure what model to buy for this configuration.

Thanks for the help so far.

DonL

an example:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...igabyte-z170x-ud5-th-i7-6700k-gtx-980.206750/

Why you need bluetooth

denis.fr said:

an example:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...igabyte-z170x-ud5-th-i7-6700k-gtx-980.206750/

Why you need bluetooth

Click to expand...

I need bluetooth for my mouse/keyboard. I guess it's not a necessity. I use a tablet sometimes as well. But I can connect them via USB is necessary. It's not a deal breaker.


Your Build looks good. I actually need Thunberbolt 2. I have a bunch of Thunderbolt drives. I don't know if Thuunderbolt 3 is even compatible yet with Mac but I'm sure they'll make a PCI card for it most likely if it becomes necessary. It looks like my setup is going to come to about $2600 for everything. That's about $6k less than anything Apple makes. That's really amazing if it all works as everyone on this site seems to say.

The only other thing I'm curious about is if I should go with Sierra or El Capitan. I don't think all the software I have is officially compatible with Sierra but it should be rather soon. Since it's more difficult to get the Hackintosh upgraded maybe I should think about Sierra? Any ideas on that?


DonL

Hey DonL. For Octane you might want to consider a full sized case. I just built a system with a z170 mobo and the 6700k. Then I put in 3x 980 Ti. I can fit all 3 because I went for the full size case. In my previous mid sized case I'm only able to fit 2 because the power supply is in the way. I was really happy to see that MacOS can handle 3 GPUs for CUDA without any special setup. I'm using 10.11.6 currently and getting an Octane Bench score of 385. -Dave