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best motherboard for USB2/3.0 compatibility and Thunderbolt support?

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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.
 
Hi Going Bald and thank for your contribute.

Even if the question that I ask may have already been answered - and I'm pretty sure it's been and it still will ;) - as I's already pointed out in this thread past answers could be or could be not right or still valid for everyone's specific need. Even if all of them are very valuably as are an importantpart of the whole knowledge in OSX86 experience.

In other words it seems to me that if the whole hack process is intrinsecly a continuos working in progress, then all the answers are partial by definition, and it's always necessary to tightly tailor the questions and the related answers not only on our own needs but also to the state of art (if any!) of the hack experience at present time.

That said, I'm doing many research on this site and elsewhere to try to collect as more infos as I can. ;)

You've got it exactly right. A Hackintosh will always be a work-in-progress, but if you stick to the buyer's guide and advice here, you minimize it. For instance when a releases a new OS update, there are trailblazers on the forums who start testing it immediately and report their successes and problems. By the time you're ready to do the update, you can check the forums and find out if it's going to work.

It's a shame that Apple doesn't have a state-of-the-art, internally expandable desktop/workstation solution right now, but I don't think a Hackintosh is what I'd choose for my introduction to the platform. On the other hand, if you don't mind putting in the time to do it right, you can build a really amazing machine.
 
Agreed (with the rest of the post too btw). Having had some experience from the Tiger days, mostly quite bad-but-usable, I spent about two months reading up on things here before I decided to go for a Hack instead of a new Mac. I then waited another month or two before I could get the right parts that I wanted. Patience is key. If you don't have the patience, the will to read and learn, and the will to accept that there will be problems, in some shape or form, don't get a Hack. Spend the dough and buy a real Mac. It's all good, but you need to accept that they are two different beasts.


Thanks!

I remember when it leaked that Apple was switching to Intel processors and folks were speculating that OS X would be able to run an PC hardware. I was intrigued by the possibility, but I really like Apple hardware, and they had a well-rounded product line back then, so it was just a curiosity to me back then. I also remember when the first hacked distro started circulating, and I was not interested at all for obvious reasons. We also got rid of our desktops in favor of laptops at the same time, so Apple's focus on mobile devices has met our needs really well. It's only recently that we decided that we needed a machine with workstation-class performance and expandability, and while I love the build quality on the Mac Pros, I felt the technology was lagging behind the market. I've kept my eye on the Hackintosh community, and so when Apple released a disappointing update to the Mac Pro this year, I built my Hack.

We still use all our other Apple machines, and when or if Apple does a real update to the Mac Pro line, I'll probably replace the Hack with one. At that point, I'll convert my Hack to a Linux server. Until then, I'm really enjoying the Hackintosh experience.
 
It's a shame that Apple doesn't have a state-of-the-art, internally expandable desktop/workstation solution right now, but I don't think a Hackintosh is what I'd choose for my introduction to the platform. On the other hand, if you don't mind putting in the time to do it right, you can build a really amazing machine.

Thanks for your contribute Felix! :)


The destiny has made its own move and last saturday's night the built-in NIC of my GA-Z68X mobo died. RIP! :silent:

So I've already ordered a GA-Z77X-UP5-TH and I'm thinking about the CPU: is it worth to buy a i7-3770K (or 3770 to save some money) or to stick to my present i7-2700K? ... :think:

btw, where are your MB 5.x screenshots? Could you be so kind to post or link them? :)
 
Thanks for your contribute Felix! :)


The destiny has made its own move and last saturday's night the built-in NIC of my GA-Z68X mobo died. RIP! :silent:

So I've already ordered a GA-Z77X-UP5-TH and I'm thinking about the CPU: is it worth to buy a i7-3770K (or 3770 to save some money) or to stick to my present i7-2700K? ... :think:

btw, where are your MB 5.x screenshots? Could you be so kind to post or link them? :)

Most folks seem to recommend against mixing Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge components, but I have no personal experience to draw from. Since the price difference isn't that much in the US between the I7-3770 and the I7-3770k, I used an I7-3770K, because I plan to overclock the machine eventually.

I followed Hacks by Alfa's guide. I linked to it in previous post.
 
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