Best Motherboard + WiFi/BT Combo

[BastianAndre]

Hello everybody,

Firstly:
After years of abstinence to the hackintosh community I am excited to see how much it has grown!
It's great to see your passionate guides and the generous helpfulness in the forums.

Back to topic:
Currently I'm almost done with researching and picking parts to build my first sophisticated hackintosh in years.
Here's what I ended up with so far:

CPU: Intel i5 8600K
GPU: RX5890 (Spahire Pulse Edition)
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 16GB
SSD: Samsung EVO 850 250GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm
AIO: NZXT Kraken x62
PSU: BeQuiet Straight Power 11 CM 650W
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C

I'm still indecisive on picking a motherboard. The reason for that is that there seem to be two main approaches on incorporating WiFi and Bluethooth to a hackintosh. Beeing

1. Choosing a motherboard without integrated WiFi, thus adding a PCI-E 1x extension card. For example the TP-Link Archer T9E or fenvi FV-T919 supplemented by a USB Bluetooth Dongle. (Or even a all-in-one card like this)
   
   
2. Choosing a motherboard with integrated WiFi in order to replace it with an original Airport card from Apple (like the Broadcom BCM94360CS2 used in Macbook Airs) on a M.2 adapter. (as pastrychef did here)

Do you guys have a suggestion for what the more desirable or elegant way would be?
My goal is to have minimal to no hassle with sleep/wake, handoff and BT accessories.
Depending on the outcome I would choose between the ASUS z370-E, which has integrated WiFi (although I might need to remove or cut the I/O shroud to fit the bigger WiFi card in there), or the little WiFi-less brother ASUS z370-F.

If you have any advice or concerns regarding the ASUS feel free to leave it here. Other considerations were:
AsRock z370 Extreme 4, Gigabyte z370 aorus Ultra Gaming or on the cheaper end the Gigabyte Z370 HD3P.

I'd be excited to read any recommendations and/or experiences!

Thanks

 

[BastianAndre]

Doing further research I stumbled upon a really neat and extensive build guide for the ASUS z370-G WiFi mATX motherboard by glasgood on insanelymac (as helpful as pastrychefs guide on the G).
In the comments he also suggests to go with the original Apple Wifi card on a M.2 adapter card for "a smooth hassle free iCloud, iMessages etc", after initially going with the PCI-E combo card option mentioned above, although that seemed to be working ok either. pastrychef took a similar path.
So I think I'll go with the z370-E (WiFi) then and use its existing antenna setup, remove the Asus WiFi Go! (RTL8822BE) and pop in the M.2 adapter and piggyback a genuine Airport card (BCM94360CS2) onto it for plug & play oob experience. The I/O shroud should be easily removable.
I'm avoiding the G version a little, as it's supposed to have weaker mosfets and a poor VRM design (not sure about that), but I have enough space for a full-fledged ATX board.

Happy to hear your thoughts or just what you are using successfully.

 

[LMacintosh]

Hey Bastian did you end up changing the wifi. Just wondering since I also am using the z370-e