2 builds - specific questions about fan, case, and power sup

[cfries]

Hello ALL!

I'm planning my first builds ever (2 of them), and I am very excited at the prospect of creating my own hackintoshes.

I am building one hackintosh for myself. I do not do any gaming. I run some demanding statistical software, and do some occasional video editing as a hobby.

I am building a very similar hackintosh for my husband, which is way overkill for his needs, but I'm hoping it will last him a very long time. He plays some basic video games (nothing that needs a lot of power), and low key web-surfing etc.

Here are my shopping lists based on info I have gleaned from this forum ...

My awesome Hackintosh
CPU: i5-760
Motherboard: GA-P55M-UD4
graphics card: EVGA GeForce GT 240 550MHZ 1GB 3.4GHZ DDR5 PCI-E HDMI DVI-I VGA
RAM: G.SKILL ECO Series DDR3 1600MHz (PC3-12800) 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
DVD drive: Sony Optiarc (AD-7260S-0B)
case: not sure yet
fan: Scythe Mugen 2 perhaps
power supply: OCZ 500W (http://www.ncix.com/products/index....0MXSP&manufacture=OCZ Technology&promoid=1048) OR Corsair 400W (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33357&vpn=CMPSU-400CX&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1048)

Husband's not as awesome, but still pretty great Hackintosh
same as mine except...
graphics card: XFX GeForce GT 240 550MHZ 512MB 3.4GHZ GDDR5 HDMI DVI VGA PCI-E
RAM: waiting for a good sale.... (2x1GB)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
case: not sure yet
fan: none


QUESTIONS

Any red flags?

FAN: Do I need to buy a fan for my build? I don't care if it's noisy. If I do buy one it will be the Scythe Mugen 2, based on recommendations on this forum.

CASE: How can I tell ahead of time if everything is going to fit into a case okay? I'm not sure what to look for in a case. Any suggestions?

POWER SUPPLY: The two power supplies I have listed are on sale for the same price. Which would you pick? Is that enough power?


Thanks so much for your insight! This forum is such a wealth of information.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

QUESTIONS

Any red flags?

All looks good !

FAN: Do I need to buy a fan for my build? I don't care if it's noisy. If I do buy one it will be the Scythe Mugen 2, based on recommendations on this forum.

If you don't care about the noise, then you can skip the fan, and use the Intel Stock Cooler.
Personally, I don't stand its noise, so I got the Mugen-2.
Anyway, if you do pick the Mugen-2, I can guarantee you it's gonna be a great stress-saver...

CASE: How can I tell ahead of time if everything is going to fit into a case okay? I'm not sure what to look for in a case. Any suggestions?

If you plan on getting a Mugen-2, pick a case which is at least 8" wide.
I'm very happy wih my Antec Sonata Designer 500 (and it includes a great 500W PSU - almost identical to the VX450W).

POWER SUPPLY: The two power supplies I have listed are on sale for the same price. Which would you pick? Is that enough power?

I don't like much the OCZs. Corsair are great and have great warranty and service too.
I'd go for a Corsair VX450W, a bit more expensive, but worth it if you plan to upgrade your builds in the future.

As these are your first builds, I'd suggest you to take a look at my blog http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/ for detailed build instructions (it's a very similar build) as well as installation notes.

Good Luck !
Lnx2Mac

 

[cfries]

Thanks so much for the input Lnx2Mac! I have looked at your blog and plan on using it as I attempt my builds. It looks like it will help a lot.

Also, I'm reconsidering the CPU and motherboard for the second build. The i5-760 is really overkill for my husband's needs, so I'm thinking of downgrading to the i3-530 to save some money. I know there isn't as much support out there for the i3s, but it looks like some people have made it work.

Question: For the i3-530 what motherboard would you recommend? The ones I've seen used on here are the GA-H55M-UD2H, and the GA-H55N-USB3 (this is the one tony is currently working on).

Thanks!!

 

[tonymacx86]

Thanks so much for the input Lnx2Mac! I have looked at your blog and plan on using it as I attempt my builds. It looks like it will help a lot.

Also, I'm reconsidering the CPU and motherboard for the second build. The i5-760 is really overkill for my husband's needs, so I'm thinking of downgrading to the i3-530 to save some money. I know there isn't as much support out there for the i3s, but it looks like some people have made it work.

Question: For the i3-530 what motherboard would you recommend? The ones I've seen used on here are the GA-H55M-UD2H, and the GA-H55N-USB3 (this is the one tony is currently working on).

Thanks!!

The i3-530 is really nice- and fast. Benchmarks actually stack up quite well to the i5-750, because of the Hyperthreading. 1/2 the cost, but 1/2 the cores.

As far as mobo goes, you'll want to stay clear of the H55N-USB3 if you want to use any PCI cards- no slots- it only has 1 PCIe lane as well. Also, the Realtek 8111E ethernet and ALC 892 audio chips are too new to be supported yet by our drivers. Needs to be run in 32 bit mode for the official Realtek ethernet driver, and VoodooHDA for partial sound compatibility (analog only I believe).

 

[Lnx2Mac]

Thanks so much for the input Lnx2Mac! I have looked at your blog and plan on using it as I attempt my builds. It looks like it will help a lot.

Also, I'm reconsidering the CPU and motherboard for the second build. The i5-760 is really overkill for my husband's needs, so I'm thinking of downgrading to the i3-530 to save some money.

Yeah, been there too... But the i3 wasn't available at that time...
That's how Mrs. Lnx2Mac got her i5-750 + P55M-UD4 (I preferred spending a bit more, and having almost identical builds for maintainability)

I know there isn't as much support out there for the i3s, but it looks like some people have made it work.

Question: For the i3-530 what motherboard would you recommend? The ones I've seen used on here are the GA-H55M-UD2H, and the GA-H55N-USB3 (this is the one tony is currently working on).

My NAS & MythTV Backend run on a GA-H55M-S2H + i3-530... But it's on Linux only... No OSX.

Search the forum, I saw several success stories with it (as long as you don't use the Integrated GPU).

Good Luck !
Lnx2Mac

 

[cfries]

I'm looking now also at the GA-P55M-UD2. I can get it for the same price as the GA-H55M-UD2H, and I think the P55 line is better than the H55 line right? Especially since I will not be using the integrated graphics?

My one concern is that on the gigabyte website it says that the P55-UD2 supports i7 and i5 processors, but doesn't mention i3 processors? Should I be concerned about that?