BUILD ADVICE x99 i7 5820k GTX 970 Questions about PSU and MoBo

[Snail]

So I'm looking to build a rig mostly for video editing (Premiere Pro/ After Effects), but also for gaming on a Duelboot windows (GTA V I have been waiting for you). I have mostly decided on my parts, but I do have one or two doubts and was hoping someone here might be able to help answer some of them.

After trawling all over the internet for the last month or two I have come up with this for my build:

Intel Core i7 5820k Haswell E Processor
Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4
4GB Geforce GTX 970 OC WF3
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2400 RAM
Fractal R5 Case
Corsair Hydro Series H100i CPU Cooler
Samsung 850 evo 500GB SSD (Yosemite drive for duel boot)
Crucial MX100 250GB SSD (Windows drive)
Corsair Silent Series 550W

So my primary concerns for this rig are performance, upgradability and silence. I'll be looking to add another GTX 970 in future (perhaps in a year or two), to provide more CUDA cores for editing and also for dem sweet graphics in games (on windows). How much help do SLI GPUS actually provide for OSX and how easy is it to get to work?

Regarding the power supply, I know 550w wont be enough if I add another GPU and I've considered getting an 850w version of the same one (for 25% more), but I've also heard (on LinusTechTips youtube) that if your PSU is too powerful then it just consumes unnecessary power. Should I stick to the 550w for now and just get a new one in future when I upgrade my GPU, or should I just get the 850 now? Or is there perhaps another make of PSU I could go for? (I do quite like the idea of a very silent rig)

My other concern is the MoBo itself. I have seen a quite a few success builds of the gigabyte x99 UD4 and it seems like it's not too difficult to get OSX to run on it, however it doesn't have the greatest ratings on other sites. Is it perhaps worth the extra money and trouble and investing in an Asus x99 board and if so what are the actual benefits over a gigabyte board?

Thanks for any advice anyone can give

An sorry if I've asked any stupid questions - I really have done as much research as possible and am just one click away from ordering this beauty

Snail.

 

[Kazbah]

4GB Geforce GTX 970 OC WF3

Do your self a favor and get MSI Gaming 4G ... especially if you plan on to overclock or go SLI

How much help do SLI GPUS actually provide for OSX and how easy is it to get to work?

None, SLI is not supported in OS X. You can still set it up as SLI, OS X will simply ignore it and it will function as expected under Windows

Should I stick to the 550w for now and just get a new one in future when I upgrade my GPU, or should I just get the 850 now?

Really this is up to you, now knowing you cannot SLI in OS X ....

Is it perhaps worth the extra money and trouble and investing in an Asus x99 board and if so what are the actual benefits over a gigabyte board?

The actual difficulty is the X99 chipset because Apple does not use it there are extra steps to take to get it working ( of which i am no expert )

 

[Snail]

Thanks for your reply!

Do your self a favor and get MSI Gaming 4G ... especially if you plan on to overclock or go SLI

One of my biggest concerns is getting it all too work and I know the x99 isn't fully supported yet, so I was aiming to follow other build guides as close possible. The few I've seen were all using the gigabyte windforce cards, but the MSI version does sound interesting, it seems like it's quieter, slightly smaller and has a lot of good reviews too, can I ask how easy it was to get to work?

I suppose I should really be asking someone who has got the MSI card to work on a new x99 board tho..

None, SLI is not supported in OS X. You can still set it up as SLI, OS X will simply ignore it and it will function as expected under Windows

And thanks for letting me know about SLI, I actually forgot that I read SLI isn't supported in OSX, but you can use two GPU's still. I guess what I really want to know is if you get the benefit of the extra CUDA cores, specifically for editing.

I did find a forum here which ended in three people asking the same question lol, no one answered them tho... here's the link http://www.tonymacx86.com/desktop-compatibility/86889-nvidia-sli-hackintosh-3.html

oh well..

 

[Kazbah]

can I ask how easy it was to get to work?

Install nividia web drivers, reboot, done
Those drivers are keyed to kernel versions so you should not apply OS Updates until new drivers have been released

I suppose I should really be asking someone who has got the MSI card to work on a new x99 board tho..

what I really want to know is if you get the benefit of the extra CUDA cores, specifically for editing

Q: Does CUDA support multiple graphics cards in one system?
Yes. Applications can distribute work across multiple GPUs. This is not done automatically, however, so the application has complete control.