- Joined
- Aug 2, 2012
- Messages
- 23
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH
- CPU
- Intel Core I7 3770K
- Graphics
- Intel HD Graphics 4000
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hi Felix, thanks for your contribute. I guess you miserunderstand what I wrote before (due to my poor english surely, I'm sorry for that). I've never thought and/or told that here there are "unhelpful threads by which everyone pools his knowledge" . Or at least it's never been my intention. Infact the sharing of this knowledge is very valuable.
The point is that every bit and piece of this whole knowledge leads ultimately to an uncomplete puzzle in which every single build - including the golden ones - has its quircks, its pros and cons and there is no clear vision of what you can surely get from a build and what you cannot. Many of them, with the exact same pieces of hardware, lead to completely different results, provided with different version of MultiBeast, kexts, bios versions and so forth. For a complete noob, such as I am, this can be a bit erratic and chaotic.
[OT] Infact even if what I'm about to say is OT in this thread, the only one thing that I feel like to suggest to moderators of this website, is to not only give advices about the right pieces of hardware to buy, but to develop and maintain some preferred builds during the time and along the MB, bios, updates, and drivers are improved or simply changed. Maybe with a coordinator that collect all the experiences made by users on that choosen build. [end of OT]
That said, what I'm looking for is not a shortcut to have my build up and running perfectly. My aim is less ambitious and much less spoilt (as some in this 3d have thought!): I often exchange great amount of data with external hard drives connected via USB2 and recently (a bless!) USB3 ports. Thunderbolt is just an option for the future at the moment. So I need to be sure that I'll be able to transfer file like before. That's it.
This does not mean that I don't want to deal with the difficulties to build an osx86 machine... it's only that I'd like - after a learning curve - to count on a reliable result!
Actually, the Customac buyer's guide is one of the strengths of this community. I think the best process you can use is to start with one of the recommended builds and only depart from it if you have a compelling reason. The builds in the Customac guides have been thoroughly vetted and will give you the highest level of compatibility and reliability.
I know it still looks like a lot of choices, but it narrows down quickly:
HD, SSD, case & power supply - Just about any available products should work fine. The ones listed in the guide were picked because they offer really good performance for their price.
Wi-FI & Bluetooth - Just use the ones on the list. They work really well.
Processors - Any of the processors on the guide will work perfectly. Just pick one that fits your budget.
Motherboards - Here's your first real choice. Make a short list of choices based on the features you need, and then research them in the forums. There's usually one or two threads that stand out as the best source of information for that board. For instance, this thread is an excellent source for the GA-Z77X-UP5 TH. To narrow down the list, look for problems with a given motherboard that have no solution and that you can't tolerate. Overall, the motherboards work really well though.
Video Cards - The process is the same for video cards as for motherboards, but it's more work to find a video card that meets your needs and budget and that works well.
I often exchange great amount of data with external hard drives connected via USB2 and recently (a bless!) USB3 ports. Thunderbolt is just an option for the future at the moment. So I need to be sure that I'll be able to transfer file like before. That's it.
I've been using the the GA-Z77X-UP5 TH for around two months, and I haven't had any USB problems. All of my USB2 devices work as expected. I only have one USB3 device, and since it's a CF card reader, the CF card itself is the biggest performance limit. I did tests, and the reader is performing at expected speeds for the CF cards. I'm only using the Thunderbolt ports to connect a DVI monitor, so I can't tell you more about them.