Building Hackintosh for the first time!

[wearelike]

hey guys!

wanna build a hackintosh system, got a budget of 2000 up to 2500usd.
i have no clue what works best together so i'd be grateful for any advice on this.

requirements:

- 8 or 12 core intel cpu
- 16 or 32gb ram
- 2gb gddr5 gpu (preferably with CUDA technology)
- 80gb ssd startup disk
- 2tb 7200 rpm hdd

one more thing.. i could get an apple mac pro g5 case, is it possible to throw all that stuff in there as i'd love to use the hdd and ram slides!?

big thanks in advance!
wrlk

 

[samisnake]

there isnt an intel cpu with 8 or 12 cores.
there are quads with ht (4 cores, 8 threads), and hexes with ht (6c/12t).
the only way you are going to get 8 or 12 physical cores is if you get a 1336 dual cpu mobo.

if you decide to stick to 1 cpu, the most youll get is 6cores from an i7 970/980/990 on a 1366 board

on 1155 board (sandy bridge cpus), the highest you can get atm is the 2600k (lets not even bother mentioning the 2700k) with 4cores/8threads.
the sandy bridge architecture competes with the high end nehalem i7 cpus. what that means is that you can get similar performance on say a i7 2600k as you would on a 1366 i7 costing twice as much, or more.


to make your decision more difficult, the most ram you can fit atm on an 1155 board is 16gb, whereas with 1366 you can fit 24gb (using 4gb sticks).


something to note is that 1366 is being replaced with a new socket and cpu, socket 2011 and the sandybridge-e cpus.
1155 cpus are going to be replaced in march 2012 by ivy bridge. ivy bridge will work in current boards, whereas 1366 will have no further upgrade options aka its a dead platform.


as for the g5 case, check out the customisation forum

 

[wearelike]

at first, thanks a lot for the fast and very detailed reply!

yeah my bad, should've explained myself better.. of course i meant having a dual socket mobo with either 2 quads or hexes.. what mobos are there, I just can't find any 1366 dual socket ones..?

so do you think it'd be worth it getting a 1366 dual socket mobo and 2 hexes cpus with 24gb of ram or you think it's definitely worth the wait for the new 2011 sandybridge-e cpus, the quad core ivy-bridge cpu's respectively?
and for the compatibility.. is it hard to get all the right components working together flawlessly? especially when it comes to the gpu i need the cuda stuff to work properly for after effects/nuke use..

i really need a reliable machine for motion graphics/3d animation/film editing so this decision is quite crucial for me. what would you recommend? thing is, i need a ready-to-use machine by the end of the year for a motion project lined up in january..

thanks again!

 

[samisnake]

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.a ... amily&sw=5

people have successfully done builds using that board.
there was a thread somewhere on here, cant find it.

two things to note:
1. you can only use xeon cpus.
2. this could end up being very expensive.


here are your options as i see them.

1. get a dual socket 1366 board and get 2 4 or 6 core xeons.
2. wait for sandy bridge-e and the socket 2011 x79 boards. this is the true successor to 1366. should be coming this month or something like that, however no dual socket boards YET. evga is working on one. note: you may have to wait for apple to implement these chips before there is full support. how long that will take, your guess.
3. get a 2600k and a z68 board. will be limited to one cpu and 16gb of ram. upgrade path in 6 months to ivy bridge (die shrunk sandy bridge)


problem you have is this.
if you go 1366, youll wish you waited for 2011.
if you wait for 2011, you might not be able to use it by january.
if you go 1155, you wont have the ability to dual cpus

the 'sensible' approach would be to try your hand at an 1155 system first, mainly because it is alot cheaper, but its also something for you to sink your teeth into.

 

[wearelike]

all that sounds pretty reasonable!
i think i'll go for the 1155 option / intel i7 2600k quad core and switch to a dual socket system once the ivy bridge cpus / 2011 dual socket boards are out.
do you think i'm gonna have troubles with the rest of the hardware when going for the upgrade option next year? and for the 1155/i7 2600k option, could you give me recommendations on what sort of mainboard/cpu/ram/gpu i should buy? manufacturer, model..? as i said, cuda tech would be good for graphics.. that'd be great as i really have no idea what components to buy..

thanks so much! your support is incredibly helpful!

 

[samisnake]

just to clear something up, ivy bridge cpus are going to be for 1155 boards, at least at first.

the cpus coming out on the 2011 mobos are sandy bridge-e.
once the dual socket 2011 mobos come out, youll most likely need to use the xeon versions of the sandy bridge-e cpus, much like the dual 1366 boards use xeons.
http://www.guru3d.com/news/intel-xeon-e ... -schedule/

im not 100% on this, but afaik you have to have ddr3 ecc ram with dual xeon setups. not sure if thats still the case, so a little google research will help you, but the ddr3 ram youll be using on the 1155 system will be non-ecc and wont work with the 2011 dual xeon system.

for ram for the 1155 system, just go for any well known brand. ddr3 is cheap atm, so take your pick.
i recommend corsair xms3, but any other brands like geil, ocz, crucial, kingston etc are just as good.

cpu, you are looking at the 2600k. 4 cores, 8 threads. can overclock that to around 5ghz if you get a nice cooler, for an additional bump in performance.

motherboard, stick with gigabyte for ease of installation/support. something like the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4-B3 would do you nicely.

for the graphics card, im not so much into nvidia cards, what works what doesnt etc.
if you want cuda though, your looking at 4xx/5xx nvidia cards or the new quadro.

 

[wearelike]

alright... so my way will be 1155 single cpu quad core at first and as i've understood when ivy bridge cpus are out i can just get one for the 1155 board for a start. but when switching to a dual socket 2011 board i also need to change to a 2011 socket sandy bridge-e cpu. is that correct now?

and for the xeon option.. are xeon cpus really good ones and are they worth the money? i guess for a 2011 xeon setup i have to wait quite a while as well!?

is there any other gpus you'd prefer compared to the nvidia?
thanks again!!

 

[samisnake]

yep, thats your upgrade paths.


xeons are usually very similar to their consumer counterparts.

the differences are that you get access to ecc ram, as well as being able to use 2 cpus at the same time.
when using 2 xeons, you also have access to 2 memory controllers, which allows you to double the amount of ram you could have fitted with only 1 cpu.


if you want to take advantage of cuda, you are stuck with nvidia

 

[wearelike]

hmm.. does that mean that hypothetically, I could soon build a setup with a dual socket mobo and 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2690 8-core/16thread cpus, or any other cpu within this series!? if possible, does that really mean that I'd have 32 threads up and running!?

 

[samisnake]

yep. they arent cheap though