Best of Both World's Build: Core i7-3770k - GA-Z77X-UD5 - 16GB RAM - 670 GTX

[JustinDew]

Best of Both World's Build: Core i7-3770k - GA-Z77X-UD5H - 16GB RAM - 670 GTX

JustinDew's Build: Core i7-3770k - GA-Z77X-UD5H - 670 GTX

Components

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H Motherboard - $180 Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R21JK4/

Intel Core i7-3770k Quad-Core Processor- $320 Amazon (Overclocked to 4.5mhz rock stable 32c Idle 65-70 Full Load)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SZ0EOW/

Corsair 16gb DDR3 Memory - $50 Ebay

Gigabyte GV-N670OC-2GD GeForce GTX 670 Video Card- $350 Ebay

2-Samsung 830 128 GB SSD Hard Drives $180 Newegg I believe(One for OSX and one for Windows 7)

4-Western Digital Green 1 TB SATA Hard Drives- $120 Ebay (All Four Formatted in exFat for use with both operating systems)

FSM-270YG LED 27" Monitor- $180 (This is one of those Korean monitors on ebay that run a resolution of 2560x1440 I scored this one for $180 because I was all set to return it because it had some very small pixels out on the left side not even visible from more then 8" away. However i had purchased the pixel perfect version. So the seller offered me a deep discount if I held onto it.)

Corsair 650D Case- $150 On Ebay New

Corsair H100- $100 Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051U7HMS/

Silverstone 5.25 Slim DVD Converter - $20 Amazon (Matches the 650D case perfectly looks much better then a semi black optical drive.)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007C1KPQY/

Toshiba TS-T633 Slim DVD Drive-$40 Ebay (Paid to much for it however I wasn't willing to wait for it to ship from china.)

Corsair AX750 Power Supply- $150 (Could have gone with a cheaper power supply but I wanted something that was fully modular and from a reliable company plus all of the wires even under the sleeving our entirely black.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PJ6QWE/

TP-Link 450Mbps Dual Band Wireless N PCI-E Adapter- $40 (This thing is super fast and worked without any issues. This is one of the big issues I have always had with hackintoshes and even wireless adapters in general for macs unless you go with apple products they never seemed to work well.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GMPZ0A/


Total Cost- $1880 Unless I missed something


Comments

So I have been needing to upgrade my old iMac 7,1 for quite some time as I do a lot of simply video editing and a ton of graphic/web work. It was simply bogged down on a constant basis. I was waiting for the computer to complete tasks all to often. I was just about to pull the trigger on purchasing a mac pro when I stumbled across the tonymacx86 site. So glad I did as the part I missed the most about my pc day was the ability to customize and build a computer exactly the way I wanted. The price definitely didn't hurt either =)

Everything works perfectly right now with the exception of the things I knew wouldn't work which was bluetooth and built in wifi. However I don't use bluetooth and my wifi is being handled by the added pci card. I know some have had issues with usb 3.0 and the front audio jacks working no issues here. I also love that gigabyte includes a 3.5" usb 3.0 adapter. I was able to mount it inside my case and run my front connectors which don't have a motherboard header straight to those connections. Which keeps me from having to snake the cords from the front out the back of the case and connecting them to my ports on the back. Which I think was just silly to begin with.

Installation was a breeze followed the tonymacx86 guide and everything went smoothly. Did a search on the forum for the best multibeast settings and I was up and running. Only issue I ran into was getting the bootloader to load up right. I simply had to change the boot load order which I had mistakenly confused with the boot device order. I was even able to create my own custom boot menu to match the theme of my new machine. Love the fact that I can dual boot into windows 7 for gaming.

I am going to end up replacing the side window with a laser etched acrylic of a similar design so I can run some lighting that will emit through the acrylic. Also considering one of the Rat9 mouses just not sure if it is worth spending $100 on a mouse. Not sure about a gaming mouth with design work either however with the increased dpi it might actually work well.

 

[HacKDo]

Congratulations ! I have the same MB but my front audio and USB 3,0 do not seem to be working. I have done only some preliminary tests but haven't been able to make them work up to now. I do not have any USB 3.0 device, but I have been trying my USB 2.0 - thumbdrives and keyboard/mouse, to no avail. What about the USB 3.0 front ports, to which USB header did you connect it to ( _1, _2 , _3 ) ? Your front audio , you did plug it in the HD Audio header on the MB right?

Could you post your multibeast settings?

Thanks!

 

[JustinDew]

Congratulations ! I have the same MB but my front audio and USB 3,0 do not seem to be working. I have done only some preliminary tests but haven't been able to make them work up to now. I do not have any USB 3.0 device, but I have been trying my USB 2.0 - thumbdrives and keyboard/mouse, to no avail. What about the USB 3.0 front ports, to which USB header did you connect it to ( _1, _2 , _3 ) ? Your front audio , you did plug it in the HD Audio header on the MB right?

Could you post your multibeast settings?

Thanks!

I wouldl post my multibeast settings however they are an exact copy of these http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html.

Make sure you take a look at this for the correct bios settings http://www.tonymacx86.com/99-quick-guide-configuring-uefi-gigabyte-s-7-series-lga-1155-boards.html

Also make sure you are using the most recent bios I think mine is F8 which may or may not be the most recent version however I am not willing to change anything at this point because it is all working great. However I know many have said if you got one with an older bios you may run into issues.

I just tested a usb device on my front usb 3.0 ports and they are working regardless of what version usb they are. My usb 3.0 ports in the back are also working fine. I have my front ports plugged into the 3rd usb 3.0 header. My front audio is plugged into the hd audio port on the mobo. I built this just like I would any other computer. I really didn't expect it to go so smoothly. Let me know if I can be of any other help.

 

[HacKDo]

I followed very closely what were in these 2 guides. There are mixed results when checking the threads, for some MB's everything is fine and for some others there is that issue with USB 3.0 and front audio. As far as I know, there exists 1 revision of that board. And before doing my setup I updated to F14 Bios.
Hope to have more time next week-end to explore other threads and check and tests my hardware and software configurations.

One additional question, did you specify a particukar system definition in MultiBeast? I did not specify any, as tonymac's guide does not do either.

 

[JustinDew]

Hmm maybe that is whats up give it a try I specified the system definition of a mac pro 3,1. Everything seems to work great. I did have one issue where my computer would freeze up for a few seconds when awaking from sleep however once I installed cuda for my graphics card it all went away. I know cuda shouldn't have anything to do with it but in my case it fixed the problem.

 

[Griffypantd]

How are you enjoying Win7 gaming on the 27" WQHD display?
Which games are you playing?
Are you running them at 2560x1440?
How well does the 670 GTX drive those resolutions?

I'm trying to decide if it is worth the monitor & GPU costs to build around one of those Korean 2560x1440 displays or not.

 

[JustinDew]

How are you enjoying Win7 gaming on the 27" WQHD display?
Which games are you playing?
Are you running them at 2560x1440?
How well does the 670 GTX drive those resolutions?

I'm trying to decide if it is worth the monitor & GPU costs to build around one of those Korean 2560x1440 displays or not.

I have never really been a huge gamer so the one draw back that most hardcore gamers complain about doesn't really effect me as I don't even notice it. Which is the max refresh rate which is 60hz on these monitors. I have been playing witcher 2, battlefield 3, batman arkham city, and a few others all at 2560x1440 and they look beautiful I have been running at the highest settings on all of them. They all seem to be running nice and smooth I don't notice any frame rate jumps. However this is all single player gaming. I could imagine multiplayer might take a bit of a toll on performance. The 670 GTX seems to handle everything I throw at it. I am extremely pleased with my performance the graphics are simply amazing compared to the likes of a ps3.

 

[Lockstock]

did anyone ever track down if there is 1 version of this mother board, or 2 versions (1 having usb and audio front port issues)..?

I'm in the market for a new mobo so trying to ensure i end up with a hackintosh compatible system. I'll be going basically the same route as you with a dual boot system (minus dedicated graphics), So if it's cool I might pm you if I run into trouble.

cheers,
Jake

 

[Syther101]

How's the exFAT drives working for you in this may I ask. Just got my hack back up and running on it's own dedicated SSD with Windows 8 also being on it's own SSD. My problem is now I used to have a separate 500gb storage drive for Windows and I want to try and share it with OS x.

I have heard exFAT can be unreliable and slow but at the same time I have heard it can be fine while searching this site and other fourms.

So yeah just wondering how you're experience has been so far. Ow and nice build btw

 

[dawsman]

I've used exFAT format on my Macs (and now my Hackintosh) for shared data storage ever since it's been supported (Snow Leopard onwards) and never had an issue. I access the data via OSX, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

I highly recommend it.