Audio Noob MOBO & Universal Audio Apollo other advice needed..

[ziggenpuss]

Hi all,

Okay building my first Hackintosh, also first build of a computer. Only ever used Mac since mid 90s, currently using a MacBook Pro Retina 2012, owned since new and still going strong but the beach ball creeps in here and there. Plus I have 2 Dell P2715Q 4K monitors which I've picked up off eBay. Since found they don't fully run with the graphics card of the MacBook so that coupled with the MacBook getting old I've decided to try the Hackintosh route.

My main work/job is audio based, graphics second - maybe some video at some point down the line.
So it's stability with the Universal Audio Apollo 8 which uses Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt 3 adaptor is what I'm looking for plus ease of use in keeping it all running plus a bit of future proofing.

Okay what I've purchased so far:

• Corsair 330r Titanium Case
• Corsair RM850x Power Supply
• Corsair H100i V2
• Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz

The grey area & what I'm thinking of purchasing of course please, any advise is welcome:

• 2 x 16GB RAM (Unsure of brand, used Kingston years ago..)
• GTX 1080 Ti (Should hopefully run both Dell Monitors via DisplayPort 1.2 MST - but again unsure of brand)
• Samsung 960 PRO M.2-2280 NVMe (Or the 256GB For the main drive with OS)
• Samsung 850 PRO for Sound Library

MOBO - So either ASUS Z270 or GIGABYTE Z270 and here's where I'm confused. Seen a few and think they may work but I'll need Thunderbolt 3 and possible Thunderbolt expansion card. Board needs to work with Samsung NVMe and making sure it will support DisplayPort 1.2, or will the GTX take care of that?? Confusion starts, theres gaming ones, ones with lights!!!..

Any advice, help or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

[marcosdipaolo]

Have you succeeded installing MacOS Sierra in the m.2 nvme drive?

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi all,

Okay building my first Hackintosh, also first build of a computer. Only ever used Mac since mid 90s, currently using a MacBook Pro Retina 2012, owned since new and still going strong but the beach ball creeps in here and there. Plus I have 2 Dell P2715Q 4K monitors which I've picked up off eBay. Since found they don't fully run with the graphics card of the MacBook so that coupled with the MacBook getting old I've decided to try the Hackintosh route.

My main work/job is audio based, graphics second - maybe some video at some point down the line.
So it's stability with the Universal Audio Apollo 8 which uses Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt 3 adaptor is what I'm looking for plus ease of use in keeping it all running plus a bit of future proofing.

Okay what I've purchased so far:

• Corsair 330r Titanium Case
• Corsair RM850x Power Supply
• Corsair H100i V2
• Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz

The grey area & what I'm thinking of purchasing of course please, any advise is welcome:

• 2 x 16GB RAM (Unsure of brand, used Kingston years ago..)
• GTX 1080 Ti (Should hopefully run both Dell Monitors via DisplayPort 1.2 MST - but again unsure of brand)
• Samsung 960 PRO M.2-2280 NVMe (Or the 256GB For the main drive with OS)
• Samsung 850 PRO for Sound Library

MOBO - So either ASUS Z270 or GIGABYTE Z270 and here's where I'm confused. Seen a few and think they may work but I'll need Thunderbolt 3 and possible Thunderbolt expansion card. Board needs to work with Samsung NVMe and making sure it will support DisplayPort 1.2, or will the GTX take care of that?? Confusion starts, theres gaming ones, ones with lights!!!..

Any advice, help or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

You need a motherboard with Thunderbolt 3 support? If you want the motherboard to have Thunderbolt 3 on board, for Gigabyte you have the following choices :

GA-Z270X-Gaming 9
GA-Z270X-Gaming 8
GA-Z270X-Gaming 7 (not K7)
GA-Z270X-UD5

Other motherboards may have a Thunderbolt add-in card (AIC) connector which allows you to connect a Thunderbolt 3 AIC.

 

[ziggenpuss]

Hi Jamesbond007,

Thanks for the reply, yes a bit more digging and I've gone with the GA-z270X-Gaming 9.
So hopefully the thunderbolt should be fairly stable.
Also gone with 2 x 16 gb Corsair Vengeance RAM.

Have you succeeded installing MacOS Sierra in the m.2 nvme drive?

Hi Marcosdipaolo I haven't started the build yet.. but will/is there be a problem with the m.2 nvme??