Case for this hackMac?

Hi,

First of all, thank you to Tony and this wonderful community! I am grateful to find a resource to help with my upgrade.

I am planning to build a machine to replace my old Mac Pro to get with the times. It's still running snow leopard!

I will use this workstation primarily for vfx/graphics but also some audio projects (ableton). I would like to have thunderbolt working since so many peripherals use that these days.

Here are the components I am looking at - this is based on a few different builds I saw on here, so I think this would all work. Choosing a case, though, is a bit bewildering, I'm not sure how to tell which cases would work with this setup. And also, having never assembled a pc before, I don't know about extra hardware I may need like mounting brackets.

ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero Z270 LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 USB 3.1 ATX Motherboard
OR
GIGABYTE AORUS GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Extended ATX Motherboards - Intel

Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Quad-Core 4.2 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80677I77700K Desktop Processor

Ballistix Sport LT 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Desktop Memory Model BLS4K16G4D240FSE

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMP Extreme Core 11GB GDDR5X 352-bit Gaming Graphics Card VR Ready 16+2 Power Phase Freeze Fan Stop IceStorm Cooling Spectra Lighting ZT-P10810F-10P

SAMSUNG 850 EVO M.2 2280 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-N5E1T0BW

DEEPCOOL Gamer Storm MAELSTROM 240T Liquid CPU Cooling System For LGA2011 2011 V3

TP-LINK TL-WN881ND Wireless N300 PCI Express Adapter, 300 Mbps, w/ WPS Button, IEEE 802.1b/g/n, 64 / 128-bit WEP, WPA / WPA2, Plug & Play in Windows

ORICO Tool Free 3.5 inch SATA to 5.25 Stainless Bracket HDD Frame Mobile Rack Internal HDD Case CD-ROM Space Internal Hard Driver Mounting Bracket Adapter -Black
or
Coboc 3.5FP-U3-20PSPL2 Dual Ports USB 3.0 to 20pin Header 3.5" Floppy Bay Internal Bracket Front Panel - 3.5"tray USB 3.0 20pin to 2 Ports Type A Female

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2, 80+ GOLD 850W, Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode, 10 Year Warranty, Includes FREE Power On Self Tester Power Supply 220-G2-0850-XR

ASUS Model ThunderboltEX 3 Expansion Card for ASUS Z170 and X99 Motherboards

Will this work? Is there anything you'd change? Which cases will fit this stuff? The smaller the better. Any recommendations or tips before I take the plunge?

Many thanks!

To clarify a bit, I'm not sure if I need the Gigabyte MoBo, or if that's overkill and I'd be better off with the ROG plus the Thunderbolt expansion card? I probably don't need that WiFi PCI either since I have a working wifi modem.

Also, would Intel Core i7 8700K 6-Core 3.7GHz work? Anyone tried that one?

Macocopeli said:

To clarify a bit, I'm not sure if I need the Gigabyte MoBo, or if that's overkill and I'd be better off with the ROG plus the Thunderbolt expansion card? I probably don't need that WiFi PCI either since I have a working wifi modem.

Also, would Intel Core i7 8700K 6-Core 3.7GHz work? Anyone tried that one?

Click to expand...

The proposed build seems to be compatible.

The Gigabyte motherboard already has a Thunderbolt 3 port. So if you go with this board you may not need that Asus Thunderbolt 3 card.

If you want to save some cost while still wanting Thunderbolt 3 you may consider the Gigabyte GA-Z270X-UD5 or the GA-Z270X-Gaming 7, both of which has a Thunderbolt 3 port.

The Core i7 8700K will not work with Z270 motherboards and you will need a Z370 motherboard. Besides since it is newly released it has no native support in MacOS. It will require more efforts to get it to work, if it works at all.

Thank you James Bond! Is it a better idea to use a motherboard with built in thunderbolt, rather than an expansion card? Does that impact compatibility? I will stick to the 7700k I think, I don't want to get too experimental!

Still researching so things may evolve further, but thank you so much for the input.

Macocopeli said:

Thank you James Bond! Is it a better idea to use a motherboard with built in thunderbolt, rather than an expansion card? Does that impact compatibility? I will stick to the 7700k I think, I don't want to get too experimental!

Still researching so things may evolve further, but thank you so much for the input.

Click to expand...

I believe it is better to use a motherboard with built-in Thunderbolt rather than an expansion card, as there is no way to know if the expansion card works with the motherboard you have bought, in MacOS.