$4500+ Build! Dual 1080ti + Asus z270 maximus extreme + 7700k + corsair dominator! Opinions needed!

[chedda7]

I don't have a deep knowledge about what specific components work/don't work (new to hackintosh), but hopefully someone who does will chime in.

Are you mostly going with that motherboard for the water cooling? If so, it might be easier to go with a known motherboard and add a water block.

 

[HitenNainaney]

I don't have a deep knowledge about what specific components work/don't work (new to hackintosh), but hopefully someone who does will chime in.

Are you mostly going with that motherboard for the water cooling? If so, it might be easier to go with a known motherboard and add a water block.

A few reasons why i'm going for Asus:

- I only recently realized ive got a friend working at the distributor here in the Middle East, so i'm getting a great discount.
- The Thunderbolt port.
- and lastly - how gorgeous it looks.

 

[nunziantimo]

I would make some changes. I think you can get cheaper mobo and rams, and get the same performances. I don't know the issue though with that mobo.

BUT I will suggest you NOT to buy the monitor. I have a Dell UP2715K myself, and with macOS is a pain in the ass. The 5K works, but it has a mouse pointer bug, so from time to time you have to enable/disable the screensaver (I have an hot angle and it takes me 2 secs, but still annoying). To get 5K you have to boot, than power cycle the monitor (shut down and turn on).
So just buy a cheaper 4K monitor (maybe 32") and go with it, without hassle. With 5k you don't have boot POST neither. Maybe the new drivers from nVidia will fix the pointer bug, but the power cycling will stay always I think.

Other than that, I think that the SLI support on macOS is nearly absent. But I don't know.

Also the Samsung 960 Evo/Pro will not work otb, but you will get a bit of hassle.

It seems that you're only getting the most expensive stuff you can find. With cheaper mother board, cheaper RAM, with 1x1080ti, going with 850 Evo/Pro instead of 960, you will save around 1.5K with the same performances and less hassle on macOS

EDIT: The SSHD also is quite useless with a 500gb SSD, because it will be no faster than a regular HD if used for storage. If you knew how SSHD worked, you will get that it is a simple HD, with a small SSD in it, used for cache. If you has you SO or most used softwares on it, is very nice because the file you use the most will be cached, and the write/read speed for them will be like an SSD. If you has a lot of files on it, and you access them very randomly (as you will, because SO and softwares will be on your samsung) you will get the same speed as normal HD. SO go cheap with a 4TB drive for the same price. Or maybe 2x2TB

 

[chedda7]

Other than that, I think that the SLI support on macOS is nearly absent. But I don't know.

I believe you are correct, for things like gaming. I believe that for rendering or compute tasks it can take advantage of both, depending on software.

 

[HitenNainaney]

BUT I will suggest you NOT to buy the monitor. I have a Dell UP2715K myself, and with macOS is a pain in the ass. The 5K works, but it has a mouse pointer bug, so from time to time you have to enable/disable the screensaver (I have an hot angle and it takes me 2 secs, but still annoying). To get 5K you have to boot, than power cycle the monitor (shut down and turn on).
So just buy a cheaper 4K monitor (maybe 32") and go with it, without hassle. With 5k you don't have boot POST neither. Maybe the new drivers from nVidia will fix the pointer bug, but the power cycling will stay always I think.

Thanks - I wasn't aware that the dell is such a pain. Do other users who have chosen this monitor face the same issues as well?

What 4k monitors would you recommend? anything 27" and higher is preferable.

Other than that, I think that the SLI support on MacOS is nearly absent. But I don't know.

Thats correct - SLI support on MacOS isn't there. I've got no intentions to use the SLI bridge provided with the motherboard - not for the momentat leastt.

It seems that you're only getting the most expensive stuff you can find. With cheaper mother board, cheaper RAM, with 1x1080ti, going with 850 Evo/Pro instead of 960, you will save around 1.5K with the same performances and less hassle on macOS

I'm skipping the 960's like you recommended and changing my storage setup (More on that below)

Regarding the RAM - what RAM would you recommend? The vengeance series from corsair ?

EDIT: The SSHD also is quite useless with a 500gb SSD, because it will be no faster than a regular HD if used for storage. If you knew how SSHD worked, you will get that it is a simple HD, with a small SSD in it, used for cache. If you has you SO or most used softwares on it, is very nice because the file you use the most will be cached, and the write/read speed for them will be like an SSD. If you has a lot of files on it, and you access them very randomly (as you will, because SO and softwares will be on your samsung) you will get the same speed as normal HD. SO go cheap with a 4TB drive for the same price. Or maybe 2x2TB

I'll opt for regular HD's in this case. and a 1 tb ssd. Switch it around that way. So i can have my most used applications - Photoshop, illustrator, cinema4d, octane render, aftereffects in the ssd & the remaing HD's for storage.

 

[nunziantimo]

Yep, we owner of the Dell have this issue. With El Capitan the mouse pointer bug was absent, it appeared on Sierra. We are waiting for a fix by nVidia.

For the monitor I would go with Asus PA329Q, also because you told you can have a discount on Asus products. The price tag is 1.5k, but you can get it around 1.2k in Eu. With your special discount, it's around the same price than others.
It is a fantastic monitor, will work without hassle, and the 32" will get you a LOT of workspace. 100% sRGB, 99.5% Adobe RGB, 10 bit, a lot of candy

I think any decent ram will work, just find a good cost/mhz/cl brand and go with it, the prices vary a lot from different countries.

For the SSD maybe it's better 2x500GB, one with your SO and softwares, one with your projects, that you can move to the HD when finished. So if there is a failure, you will not lose everything.

 

[HitenNainaney]

For the monitor I would go with Asus PA329Q, also because you told you can have a discount on Asus products. The price tag is 1.5k, but you can get it around 1.2k in Eu. With your special discount, it's around the same price than others.
It is a fantastic monitor, will work without hassle, and the 32" will get you a LOT of workspace. 100% sRGB, 99.5% Adobe RGB, 10 bit, a lot of candy

For some odd reason - the PA329Q is for over $1850 here -_- - Any other alternatives ?

For the SSD maybe it's better 2x500GB, one with your SO and softwares, one with your projects, that you can move to the HD when finished. So if there is a failure, you will not lose everything.

Thats a good idea! I'm going to do just that.

Thanks again mate!

 

[JustTweeting]

Oh that case is gorgeous!!

But based on the tech specs I've read, it can only support E-atx motherboards upto 264mm wide and the Maximus ix extreme is 272mm.

Is that margin enough to make it not fit ?

Is there another case similar to this that you would recommend?

Cheers!

I would recommend the Bequiet Dark Base Pro 900.

 

[MissCatD]

I haven't tried it myself, but I could have sworn the Intel 7th Gen Intel Core Desktop Processor i7-7700K isn't currently compatible with OS X Sierra, otherwise it's what I would have preferred to build my new tower around.

 

[HitenNainaney]

You're right - but there's a way to trick the os by A FakeID and there have been a lot of builds using that trickery. Sorry if I've gotten the terminology wrong >< still new at this whole hackintosh thing