Building an Adobe Workstation

[Bgusto]

Hi all - I'm investigating the possibility of building my first Hackintosh. Currently, I'm still nursing my 2015 rMBP along - but it simply does not have enough power any more to handle my 5D Mark IV images in Lightroom let alone 4k footage in Premiere.

NEEDS: I do a LOT of photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. I do my editing in Premiere and grading in Resolve. I want my system to handle 4k as well as possible. I want to do this right, but I don't have a ton of money to blow on it.

BUDGET: I'd like to stay roughly around $1500 (excluding an UltraFine 4k monitor).

That being said, what would you suggest as a build? I want it to last me a couple of years but have room for upgradability in the future. SSD only, but don't need a big drive. Thunderbolt is a must.

Thanks, all.

 

[trs96]

The graphics card choice is easy, GTX 980 Ti. A 32 GB kit of DDR4 ram, easy. The difficult choice, whether to build a 6 core X99 system or a 4 core Z170. Beginners usually struggle with X99 builds and have a much higher level of success with Z170. What you choose will depend upon your level of tech savvy and willingness to invest the time to learn a lot of new information. To stay under budget you'll have the best chance of doing that with a Z170/I7-6700K build. Finding a 980 Ti in new or in good condition is not a simple task. The prices have also gone up since they are out of production. You'll need to do a lot of looking to find one at a reasonable price.

If you've never built your own computer before and know very little about how macOS works I would suggest you go with a Z170/ I7-6700k build. Do some more research in User and Golden Builds to learn about what it would take to make either an X99 or Z170 system work. Only you can determine what you are ready to take on in regard to building a new CustoMac for your photo and video editing. One thing I'll guarantee you that you will gain from this, a new appreciation of what it takes for Apple to make all of their Macs and macOS work together seamlessly without the end user having to do any more than basic one click upgrades and updates of the software. It's getting a lot easier in some respects with a hackintosh, but in some ways its also gotten a lot more complicated since the advent of UEFI motherboards, the Clover bootloader and changes in the OS since El Capitan was released.

 

[Bgusto]

Thank you for all the info. So to me, it makes sense to go with a 6 core for more longevity and since I'll be working with 4k footage. Maybe I build the X99 system, but start with an install of Windows and then get into Hackintosh once I've had a little more time to learn more about how to achieve a proper install.

 

[trs96]

It's a very good idea to have a working Windows install to fall back on if your CustoMac has any issues. So yes, install Windows UEFI first. See Going Bald's UEFI dual booting guide. Then after that is running smoothly, prepare to install macOS on a separate SSD. Many create dual boot systems and use Windows just for gaming but there's no reason you can't have it as a backup OS for your editing apps.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi-on-separate-drives.198869/
Follow this guide so that you install Windows correctly for your dual boot system.

 

[Bgusto]

Ok, great. I'll be compiling a part list soon. One question; if I'm willing to wait on the Hackintosh side of things for a bit, should I get the 1070 instead of the 980? Help me understand the why behind the 980 vs the 1070. Thank you for your time!

 

[trs96]

Ok, great. I'll be compiling a part list soon. One question; if I'm willing to wait on the Hackintosh side of things for a bit, should I get the 1070 instead of the 980? Help me understand the why behind the 980 vs the 1070. Thank you for your time!

No macOS Pascal drivers for the Nvidia 1070 or 1080 have been released. Doesn't look like they ever will. The 980 Ti will work with the latest Nvidia web drivers for Sierra.

 

[Bgusto]

I'm so torn. I'd (love) to get the 1070 since the performance seems quite a bit better, but I know Hackintosh will never work with that card. Not to mention it's much cheaper!

 

[trs96]

I'm so torn. I'd (love) to get the 1070 since the performance seems quite a bit better, but I know Hackintosh will never work with that card. Not to mention it's much cheaper!

Only Nvidia can write the drivers we'd need. It's just not in the cards. I'm hoping we get Vega support by AMD and some more powerful cards than the current Polaris RX480.

 

[Bgusto]

So I guess my question is ..... (taking MacOS out of the picture for a second) - how much of a speed increase would I see using the 1070 vs the 980ti? I may be willing to sacrifice MacOS ONLY if the 1070 would notability outperform the 980ti enough.

As a review, this is a workstation for Adobe Lightroom, Premiere, Resolve, and Photoshop.

Thank you!

 

[pastrychef]

I think that performance-wise, the GTX 980 Ti and GTX 1070 are pretty close. What you lose out on with a GTX 980 Ti are the power and heat efficiencies the Pascal generation ushered in.