Building Hackintosh from a 08MacPro

[08MacPro]

Hi Everyone.

a newbie here. I've watched youtube videos and read this forum for 3 days. getting a bit dizzy and a bit confused. Too many things to learn and memorize. I hope you can guide me into a right track and choose a right motherboard.

Things I would like to confirm: Things Hackintosh can't:

- I read somewhere on using a Touch Pad, it said something about pressure-sentivity of a touch pad can't be achieved with Hackintosh or just a particular machine.
- onboard wifi, Bluetooth, and audio mic motherboard (meaning the motherboard i am looking for has to have at least 4 PCIe slots)
- for power supply, how to choose the right power? is it always the bigger the better?


my background on computer: I used to use 3/486 machine and then switched to Mac. I have Upgraded RAM, Changed HHD to SSD for my 2008 Mac Pro. that's all. 2 weeks ago, it died and today I finally took out the motherboard.

My goal here is to turn my 08 (i guess, so many version) old MacPro to a Hackintosh. It will do heavy work load of photo retouching and tether shooting, internet, watch movies. dual boot. keep the case as stock looking as possible

Must have:
- keep the original front panel working (the best I've seen so far, everything works except for the mic)
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ro-build-using-an-original-mac-pro-case-parts
- keep a new power supply into original area and use the same old plug hole
- try not to cut the case or as little as possible
- Fast connect for tether shooting (wire and wifi)
- Photo retouching (meaning using Wacom Intuos, photoshop, Lightroom and Capture one)
- Screen calibration ( haven't heard much member talk about calibration here)
- wireless keyboard and touchpad and mouse ( I hate wires )
- Wifi and LAN connections.
- 32G of RAM (expandable to 64G)
- dual screens ( my old nec 3090wqxi and a 4k+ in the future)
- m2 slots for OS Raid 1
- keep the original drive bay
- able to put in at least 4 SSD or (4SSD + 2 SSD/HHD)internally( Ive seen people put 2 SSD into each drive tray )
- USB 2.0, 3.0 and up connection
- BT, HDMI & firewire
- run Siera

nice to have:
- able to use my old graphic card Nidiva Radeon HD 2600XT ( I guess) and screen NEC 3090wqxi for now.
- occasionally watch online movies, and blue ray movies.
- Dual boot systems

Hope that not too much to have with a Hackintosh.
I am thinking to get z270 Maximus IX to fit in my case
any suggestions are welcomed and Please let me know what I can and cannot do on building a Hackintosh and things i have to expect and consider before buying.
Thanks for your input and time.

 

[pastrychef]

Things I would like to confirm: Things Hackintosh can't:

- I read somewhere on using a Touch Pad, it said something about pressure-sentivity of a touch pad can't be achieved with Hackintosh or just a particular machine.
- onboard wifi, Bluetooth, and audio mic motherboard (meaning the motherboard i am looking for has to have at least 4 PCIe slots)
- for power supply, how to choose the right power? is it always the bigger the better?

Sounds like you were reading about some laptop hackintosh trackpad issue. When using Apple Magic Trackpad or Magic Trackpad 2, all their features are fully functional.
Use a Wifi/Bluetooth card that is used in real Macs will help ensure compatibility. In the case of Z170 motherboards, ALC1150 audio is working fine for just about all the cases I've read about.
A power supply that's big enough to power all your components is enough. However, I personally like a bit of extra headroom... Also, on "active" power supplies, having an oversized power supply can help keep the power supply's fan off more often since it won't be stressed, so yes, I feel bigger is better.

Must have:
- keep the original front panel working (the best I've seen so far, everything works except for the mic)
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ro-build-using-an-original-mac-pro-case-parts
- keep a new power supply into original area and use the same old plug hole
- try not to cut the case or as little as possible
- Fast connect for tether shooting (wire and wifi)
- Photo retouching (meaning using Wacom Intuos, photoshop, Lightroom and Capture one)
- Screen calibration ( haven't heard much member talk about calibration here)
- wireless keyboard and touchpad and mouse ( I hate wires )
- Wifi and LAN connections.
- 32G of RAM (expandable to 64G)
- dual screens ( my old nec 3090wqxi and a 4k+ in the future)
- m2 slots for OS Raid 1
- keep the original drive bay
- able to put in at least 4 SSD or (4SSD + 2 SSD/HHD)internally( Ive seen people put 2 SSD into each drive tray )
- USB 2.0, 3.0 and up connection
- BT, HDMI & firewire
- run Siera

Take a look at the Case Mods section of the forum and see what others have done to make use of old Apple cases. I don't know how well the models have managed to maintain usability of the original optical and hard drive bays. You'll have to do some digging. But honestly, by today's standards, there are much simpler tool-less hot swap bays than the Mac Pros' drive sleds.

You can add as many drives as you like. If the motherboards' built-in SATA ports are not enough, you can always add more via PCI-e cards.

It looks like a Z170 system will meet all your needs.

There's no built-in hardware RAID 1 for M.2 on any of the Skylake motherboards that I've seen. Using Apple's software RAID may complicate your setup. If all you want is redundancy, it will probably be much easier to set up a good backup method.

nice to have:
- able to use my old graphic card Nidiva Radeon HD 2600XT ( I guess) and screen NEC 3090wqxi for now.
- occasionally watch online movies, and blue ray movies.
- Dual boot systems

Hope that not too much to have with a Hackintosh.
I am thinking to get z270 Maximus IX to fit in my case
any suggestions are welcomed and Please let me know what I can and cannot do on building a Hackintosh and things i have to expect and consider before buying.
Thanks for your input and time.
View attachment 238051

The Radeon HD 2600XT is an ATI card. I don't know if Sierra even supports that anymore. Typically, Nvidia video cards are a bit easier to get working right on a hackintosh.

Watching movies and blu-ray discs just require the right software. A properly set up hackintosh system should run any Mac software just as they run on real Macs.

Dual or triple boot is never a problem. These components are mean to run Windows and Linus, after all...

The Kaby Lake (née Z270) are pretty much working well already, but they are still quite new and you may encounter a few more issues than on a Z170 system. Also, until Apple releases a computer that uses a Kaby Lake CPU, you won't have 100% power management and your system will most likely not have sleep functionality.

 

[08MacPro]

thanks for your input, pastrychef. i will look into it.
so using wacom is not an issue at all.

 

[pastrychef]

Wacom tablets or Cintiq shouldn't be any problem.

 

[08MacPro]

thanks for the fast respond. once again.
one more question. I took out the drive from the MACPRO and Plugged it to a MACBOOK, I could boot from there. My question is, if i build a Hackintosh, I can plug that old drive and it will be ready to run?

 

[pastrychef]

I did this when I transitioned from my MacPro5,1 to my hackintosh.

1. Pulled drive from Mac Pro and plugged it in to hackintosh.
2. Booted in to an already working hackintosh install.
3. Installed Clover boot loader and required kexts using MultiBeast on to the old Mac Pro drive.
4. Done.

Disclaimer:
Of course, you should make a backup of your original Mac Pro drive before attempting this. This worked for me and may not work for everyone.

Keep in mind that you need to be running at least El Capitan or Sierra because Z170 and Z270 won't work with previous versions.