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A non-P55 motherboard recommendation? (for my other PC)

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flyingturtle

flyingturtle

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I built a nice i5 750 Hackintosh computer via the wonderful info on this site.

However I scavenged parts from my E8400 Core2Duo machine, and I'm thinking of upgrading that to a Hackintosh as well.

What Gigabyte motherboards do you recommend for good Hackintosh compatibility for the older intel chips, like my Wolfendale E8400?

I did some researching and these boards seemed popular:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P
GA-G41M-ES2L
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L (although I hear only revision 1 of this board has better MacOS compatiblye as it has the realtek chip for ethernet, while Rev. 2 does not).

I don't need anything fancy, although firewire would be nice but not a must. Just something very compatible with Hackintosh/MacOS Snow Leopard.

I've got a ABIT IP35-PRO motherboard already but it looks like it'll be a hassle to make it into a hackintosh, at least not as easy as a Gigabyte motherboard.
 
It is better to have revision 1 for all of those boards. Only revision 1 has Realtek for those boards, but you can by a pci card for cheap which should solve the problem: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156139


From what I've read they all seam to work fine its really just price, and spec comparison. If you are going for the easiest fastest solution and a $60 difference isn't a big deal I recommend you get the ep45-ud3p. The ep45-ud3p has firewire and the lifehacker guide is about as easy as it gets. If price is a big deal get the g31m-es2l its only $50.
 
Thats a good observation but it seems the lifehacker people haven't gotten it to work. I think newegg is selling revision 2.0 or gigabytes site must be wrong.

The motherboard has onboard Ethernet, naturally, but this particular board has some problems with onboard in the Hackintosh world. Luckily, Ethernet cards are extremely cheap
Click to expand...

http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-bu ... -to-finish
 
In case you go with the G31M-ES2L, I can confirm it being the easiest setup ever, as my old system used this board. If you do decide to go with this board follow this. http://www.infinitemac.com/f57/guide-re ... 31m-t3672/

I had rev2 and I never got my ethernet working. Just bought a card for a few bucks instead.

Edit: If you plan on OCing that E8400, the G31M has an FSB wall of around 340-350.
 
Thanks for the replies all (I'm still open to suggestions as I'm still saving up funds, buying my i5 build and spending money on 3TB of HDs got me broke and I still need to buy a videocard for my E8400 computer).

Jocelyn84, did you try over-clocking your CPU on the G31M? If so, how fast did you get it?

Jocelyn84 said:
In case you go with the G31M-ES2L, I can confirm it being the easiest setup ever, as my old system used this board. If you do decide to go with this board follow this. http://www.infinitemac.com/f57/guide-re ... 31m-t3672/

I had rev2 and I never got my ethernet working. Just bought a card for a few bucks instead.

Edit: If you plan on OCing that E8400, the G31M has an FSB wall of around 340-350.
Click to expand...
 
I had an E7500 2.93 (266 FSB x 11) that I got up to about 3.5Ghz (350 FSB x 10). Its a budget board that really wasn't meant for overclocking. It's just not going to hit over that 350 wall even with an E8XXX (Base 333 FSB). There are some threads over on the Gigabyte forums (Tweaktown) about people not even being able to hit past 333, some others over @ overclock.net and elsewhere showing people using similar chips to mine, who couldn't even hit 300. :( I know the board shows "Revolution energy saving design with Easy Energy Saver technology to FSB 1600 (O.C.)" (400FSB) under the specs on the website, but I have seen some of the greatest OCers from some of the greatest OC sites struggle to get over 350 FSB on this board. Personally, I think it all has to do with the NB running VERY hot and from what I've read, the above also applies to the G41M as well.

If you just want an HPTC or something, grab the G31M-ES2L. If you'd like to have a very nice overclockable board, then get a GA-EP45-UD3P.
 
Thanks Jocelyn84. Some good info there for me to absorb. I'll check out that Gigabyte Tweaktown site as well. I'll probably go cheap and get the cheaper board, although I might be able to snag a GA-EP45-UD3P for $100, if the person has not sold it. I'll also have to read up on over-clocking, as I haven't done that in years and summer gets hot here so I haven't pursued it much as I'm always afraid of frying my CPU, but I"m sure i can get a 3rd part cooler for it or something.
 
Great topic, as I wanted to build a cheap Hackintosh for 10.6.2 and thought about a GA-G31M-ES2L or used GA-P35-DS3L.
Could I also use the newer GA-G41M-ES2L? It is even a bit cheaper. ;)

CPU, memory, harddisk is uncritical and doesn't matter.
And I have a spare 9400GT as graphics card, which should do.
 
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GA-P55-USB3 |  i5 760 |  Radeon R9 280x
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