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Building a Budget Haswell Build: How Low Can You Go?

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Thanks for the info! So this GA-H81N mini-itx mobo, I'm seeing it has no optical out. Should I be able to get the audio portion of the HDMI signal working? I've briefly read here that this has been worked out by others but I haven't had a chance to read up on that yet. Would it be safer to have an optical out in the case that HDMI audio isn't there? Playing movies will be the main reason for this build. I'm guessing Apple TV connection will have the audio working through that, but what about with Blu Rays? That will be coming directly from the machine.


If you want to have optical out you can pay a little more for the H87N-Wifi, if you can still find
one for sale. If not go with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128721 and a Haswell Core I3 CPU with HD 4600.

HDMI audio is easiest to get working when you use a CPU with HD 4600 and one of these Haswell
mini-itx boards. Don't know how well it would work with the gfx card you have chosen to use.

Do some more searching there if you decide to go with the H81N board. Personally I would skip the GT610 altogether and get a Haswell I3 cpu with integrated HD4600. Since no Mac has or ever will
use the Celeron you want it's never a sure thing to work with future versions of OS X.

It's always a good idea to have on chip graphics that work. You will need an HD4600 cpu to enable Airplay as well if that is important for you.

Another option is to get an I3-4160 at Newegg for $110.
The Celeron plus GT 610 combo costs about $85 so this is a very competitive price.

You would then use Rehabman's fix for the HD4400 graphics. Which can be found here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/...ics-fix-full-support-alternate-cpus-os-x.html
 
If you want to have optical out you can pay a little more for the H87N-Wifi, if you can still find
one for sale. If not go with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128721 and a Haswell Core I3 CPU with HD 4600.

HDMI audio is easiest to get working when you use a CPU with HD 4600 and one of these Haswell
mini-itx boards. Don't know how well it would work with the gfx card you have chosen to use.

Do some more searching there if you decide to go with the H81N board. Personally I would skip the GT610 altogether and get a Haswell I3 cpu with integrated HD4600. Since no Mac has or ever will
use the Celeron you want it's never a sure thing to work with future versions of OS X.

It's always a good idea to have on chip graphics that work. You will need an HD4600 cpu to enable Airplay as well if that is important for you.

Another option is to get an I3-4160 at Newegg for $110 using this promo code. EMCAPPK44
The Celeron plus GT 610 combo costs about $85 so this is a very competitive price.

You would then use Rehabman's fix for the HD4400 graphics. Which can be found here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/...ics-fix-full-support-alternate-cpus-os-x.html


Thanks man, that seems to be the best solution, and I follow your logic. Wouldn't make sense to overcomplicate things with the GeForce 610 and the G1840 and not even be sure of getting HDMI support.

That I3-4160 is $99 at Microcenter so I will put that on hold and I can probably try to negotiate for the bundle discount they do, $40 off, thought I didn't see a great variety of ITX boards. Is that processor from one of the older buyer's guides? Just to see if I can narrow down other choices to pair it with? Or is that H87N a good choice?

The only thing that kinda stinks is the price increase. I have the G1840, and the GEforce 610 for $74, the mobo was going to be another $70 or so. $144 in didn't seem bad at all but maybe cheap isn't worth the aggravation here, plus the lack of future-proofing.

Many thanks for your suggestions.
 
If you are going to buy from Microcenter it looks like your only m-itx choice will be the
H97N-Wifi. You can also get a good price on that. It will be a good match for the I3-4160.

For your initial install of OS X you will need working graphics of some form so you may have to
use a compatible gfx card for the install. Or you can just connect your new drive up to your older
Z77 system and install Yosemite that way.

Then apply Rehabman's kext and the string to the org.chameleon.plist that is required for HD4400 to work.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/...ics-fix-full-support-alternate-cpus-os-x.html
 
Thank you again sir, for pointing me in the right direction. When I asked the salesman at microcenter about the bundle, he gave me the board for $59 after a $40 bundle discount and $20 rebate. Amazing deal. So for $160 (what I was going to spend on the other gear) I now have a better graphics solution.

Also, great idea on getting everything loaded through my other set up. Now to find some more pieces.
 
You got a great deal there. H97N-Wifi usually costs over $100 and the I3-4160 about
$120 so you got 60 bucks off retail on new hardware with a warranty to boot :thumbup:

Let us know how your build goes and write up a user build if you get a chance.
 

You may ask, why not go with a cheaper CPU? The answer is, the lower end CPU graphics don't work in OS X; you need to buy a graphics card in addition to the above components if you use a Haswell CPU without Intel HD 4600 integrated graphics. We priced out using the cheapest $60 Pentium CPU and a $30 graphics card. When the dust settles, you can shave about $60 off of the price, making the CheapoMac less than $300. However, you get an inferior graphics solution such as the Fermi-based NVIDIA GeForce 610. In the end, using the integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics with the low end Core i3-4330 is the best bang for the buck.

Can you spec out an even cheaper compatible Haswell Build? Post your build here. :)


Yeah, the lower CPU IGPUs don't work but.... Nothin works without a PSU!!
And what about the case?
 
Should we try to start this thread with a Skylake build when officially supported? It could be pretty interesting, I am planning to buy a GA-B150M-D3H and an i3 6100 if supported, it could be cheap and very usable :)
 
Should we try to start this thread with a Skylake build when officially supported? It could be pretty interesting, I am planning to buy a GA-B150M-D3H and an i3 6100 if supported, it could be cheap and very usable :)


I am quite sure that once there is proper support and good availability of suitable hardware that a similar thread will be created for those looking for good working alternatives to some of the higher spec main boards.
 
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