Building advice

[macaron35]

Hello,

I have been using Macs for over 2 decades and now considering my very first hackintosh. The fear for instability, freezes, etc made me wait a while before making the jump


At first, i wanted a regular case like a Fractal R6 but i realized it was too bulky and too much like a PC...

So i tried to plan a hackintosh based on a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift case I believe is very attractive and would look nice on my desk.


I have tried to select components that would be compatible with such build. So would you mind letting me know if all of them would work together and properly ?

thanks a lot

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift
Mobo: Gigabyte Z390 I Aorus Pro Wifi (mini-ITX due to the case)
proc: Intel Core i7 9700KF or i9 9900K
AIO watercooling: Corsair Hydro Series - H80i v2 (i wanted to go for aircooling but it seems not compatible with the case interior space)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black DDR4 2 x 16 Gb 2666 MHz CAS 16
GC: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse OC - 8 Gb
SSD: Samsung Serie 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 500 Gb
PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold SGX-650

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hello,

I have been using Macs for over 2 decades and now considering my very first hackintosh. The fear for instability, freezes, etc made me wait a while before making the jump

At first, i wanted a regular case like a Fractal R6 but i realized it was too bulky and too much like a PC...

So i tried to plan a hackintosh based on a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift case I believe is very attractive and would look nice on my desk.

I have tried to select components that would be compatible with such build. So would you mind letting me know if all of them would work together and properly ?

thanks a lot

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift
Mobo: Gigabyte Z390 I Aorus Pro Wifi (mini-ITX due to the case)
proc: Intel Core i7 9700KF or i9 9900K
AIO watercooling: Corsair Hydro Series - H80i v2 (i wanted to go for aircooling but it seems not compatible with the case interior space)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black DDR4 2 x 16 Gb 2666 MHz CAS 16
GC: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse OC - 8 Gb
SSD: Samsung Serie 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 500 Gb
PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold SGX-650

The build should be compatible with MacOS High Sierra / Mojave / Catalina.

 

[macaron35]

Hi James, thanks a lot

Do you think it will be 100% compatible or should i expect anything not to work (ie iMessage, sound or wifi...)?

If i follow the latest guide, will I encounter any freeze or should the install be smooth ?

thanks

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hi James, thanks a lot

Do you think it will be 100% compatible or should i expect anything not to work (ie iMessage, sound or wifi...)?

If i follow the latest guide, will I encounter any freeze or should the install be smooth ?

thanks

Hi there.

Good luck with your build!

The guides here will help you through everything for your components

The only thing which I spotted which gave me pause was the Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD. I believe early problems may now be solved with a firmware upgrade so it depends on which model you get. Here's some relevant reading. There's 27-pages though and I believe the problem has now been solved, or JB wouldn't recommend. Being overly-cautious I would perhaps consider a non-Plus and non-Pro model of the 970. But hey ...

Other thing ... water-cooling. Your choice obviously but I'd go air in that small environment. Someone else has built in this tall, thin case and it looks great! He went water-cooling too. But perhaps my choice is me being overly cautious again. Here's the link to his build.

Yes, all usual Apple services should run - following the relevant guides - on this build.

 

[macaron35]

thanks a lot

I have to check how to update the fimrware of this SSD at work because it seems that there is no upgrade software on Mac and I have no PC at home

 

[macaron35]

I will be adding a Samsung QVO 1 Tb SSD in sata for backup of the M.2 and time machine.
No issues with this SSD ?