Building my first Hackintosh - Some advice needed

[Maxidopoulos]

Hey guys,

After some research I am finally going to build my first Hackintosh, and I have a couple of questions regarding my hardware choices.

Most of the gear comes from the Buyer's Guide June, but I made some alterations to some components and was wondering if you guys know if they are compatible. (or if there's a better option out there)

Note: I'll be using the Hackintosh for audio production.

Here's the components I'm going with:

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Gaming 7,

CPU:
Intel® Core i7-8700K, 3,7 GHZ (4,7 GHz Turbo Boost) socket 1151 processor

GPU:
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 580 8GD5

RAM:
Ballistix 32 GB DDR4-2666 Kit Tactical Tracer RGB

CPU Cooler:
Corsair Hydro Series H150i PRO RGB water

PSU:
Corsair RM750X (2018), 750W,

CASEFANS:
3x Aerocool Shark Fan 12cm Black Edition case fan

HDD:
Samsung 860 EVO, 500 GB SSD
Seagate BarraCuda, 2 TB

CONTROLLERS:
DeLOCK FireWire PCIe Card, 1xA+2xB Port controller
GIGABYTE ALPINE RIDGE 1.0 Card controller (THUNDERBOLT)

CASE:
Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass tower- or Jonsbo RM4 Silver tower-



So my questions are:

- The buyer's guide recommends the Ballistix SPORT, but will the Tactical Tracer work as well? (It's just the RGB that I like, but it's not a vital component)
- As you might have noticed I have both a Firewire and a Thunderbolt controller (using the Hack for audio prodoction), has anyone had any experience with either of those on Hackintosh? Because I found that the Thunderbolt card needs some setup.
- For the case, I just love the Jonsbo Aestetics but I haven't really found any user experiences. Anyone here who might recommend the case? If not I'll just go with the fractal design.
- Is the CPU cooler overkill? Since the Hydro H60 was recommended.

I think this is the best build for me budget wise, it's gonna cost me around 2100 euro's (roughly 2500 dollar).

If anyone has some other suggestions or tips they'd be most welcome! Can't wait to build my first machine!

Cheers!

 

[trs96]

I would stay with the fractal design case as it will be quieter for your audio production studio.

 

[Bz16]

Hi,

The buyer's guide recommends the Ballistix SPORT, but will the Tactical Tracer work as well? (It's just the RGB that I like, but it's not a vital component)

The RAM should not cause software incompatibilities. Ballistix Tactical Tracer DDR4 did not appear on the official RAM support list of the mobo, but since they were also made by Ballistix/Micron, you could still try if you would like.

has anyone had any experience with either of those on Hackintosh?

There are numerous Firewire builds around on the forum, and some says DeLOCK 89153 works out of the box; you should be able to get it working painlessly. FYI, it appears that most people uses Syba 1394B/A cards (e.g. this golden build); another post also says that it is possible to buy Firewire cards that uses the same IC as Apple products, and that Ti chips (which DeLOCK 89153 uses) might give you latencies.
@trs96, Aorus gaming 7 does have Thunderbolt extension header, but there aren't any Thunderbolt build with Aorus gaming 7 on the forum yet. Builds that are on the forum shows that it works without problems for other Gigabyte mobos. This Golden Build uses similar setup as yours, so you could follow that as a supplemental guide.

Is the CPU cooler overkill?

If you are interested in overclocking, H150i should not be a overkill, and H60 will be not enough. Even if you do not want to overclock, H60 might be a bit risky for i7-8700K's 95W TDP; it is better to use a two-fan module than one fan, especially if you want to try overclock.
Side note: Tom's Hardware's comparison shows that H150i might not be the best cooler around, especially thermal-wise.

hope these helps.

 

[Maxidopoulos]

I would stay with the fractal design case as it will be quieter for your audio production studio.

Yeah I thought so as well. Thanks!

 

[Maxidopoulos]

Hi,

The RAM should not cause software incompatibilities. Ballistix Tactical Tracer DDR4 did not appear on the official RAM support list of the mobo, but since they were also made by Ballistix/Micron, you could still try if you would like.

There are numerous Firewire builds around on the forum, and some says DeLOCK 89153 works out of the box; you should be able to get it working painlessly. FYI, it appears that most people uses Syba 1394B/A cards (e.g. this golden build); another post also says that it is possible to buy Firewire cards that uses the same IC as Apple products, and that Ti chips (which DeLOCK 89153 uses) might give you latencies.
@trs96, Aorus gaming 7 does have Thunderbolt extension header, but there aren't any Thunderbolt build with Aorus gaming 7 on the forum yet. Builds that are on the forum shows that it works without problems for other Gigabyte mobos. This Golden Build uses similar setup as yours, so you could follow that as a supplemental guide.

If you are interested in overclocking, H150i should not be a overkill, and H60 will be not enough. Even if you do not want to overclock, H60 might be a bit risky for i7-8700K's 95W TDP; it is better to use a two-fan module than one fan, especially if you want to try overclock.
Side note: Tom's Hardware's comparison shows that H150i might not be the best cooler around, especially thermal-wise.

hope these helps.

Great advice man! I'm going to check out that Golden Build Thread since it's exactly what I need. I can't believe I didn't find it before. Maybe I just overlooked it.

I did some more research on cooling and found that the Dark Rock should be fine for my needs. It's even super quiet. Which is my priority.

Thanks so far, I'll post here what I got in the end.

Cheers

 

[Maxidopoulos]

Alright so I think I got the jist of it. I'm pretty certain I'm going with the following:

Motherboard
GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS ULTRA GAMING WIFI (rev. 1.0), socket 1151

CPU
Intel® Core i7-8700K, 3,7 GHZ (4,7 GHz Turbo Boost)

CPU Cooler
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3

RAM
G.Skill 32 GB DDR4-3000 Quad-Kit werkgeheugen F4-3000C15Q-32GTZR, Trident Z RGB, XMP

GPU
GIGABYTE AORUS Radeon RX580 8G (rev. 1.0)

CASE
Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass tower-

PSU
Corsair RM750X (2018), 750W, 750 Watt

HDD
Samsung 860 EVO, 1 TB SSD MZ-N6E1T0BW, M.2, V-
Seagate BarraCuda, 1 TB x 2

PCI
GIGABYTE ALPINE RIDGE 1.0 Card controller Thunderbolt

I'm skipping the FireWire for now, since I'll be going to Thunderbolt in a few weeks with an UAD interface. But if I decide to add one later, I'll be taking your advice Bz16 and go with the Syba 1394B/A.

What you guys think?

 

[Bz16]

That looks fine! I can see that you used a lot of the same part from the golden build; that ought to reduce the hassle. The PSU should be beefy enough even if you overclock.

But if I decide to add one later, I'll be taking your advice Bz16 and go with the Syba 1394B/A.

Some more researching later and it appears that the Syba card and the DeLOCK card uses the same chip; they are all from Ti, and Syba clearly stated that their card uses a PCI bridge instead of having native PCIe support. So, they should be equivalent. Just figure out do you want to try the Startech Firewire card thelostswede recommended(https://www.newegg.com/global/nl/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815158091), or do you want to save some money. I am not sure what the price of Syba cards will be in Netherlands though; the Startech card might just be a bit more expensive than your original choice if you count the shipping from US.

 

[Maxidopoulos]

That looks fine! I can see that you used a lot of the same part from the golden build; that ought to reduce the hassle. The PSU should be beefy enough even if you overclock.

Some more researching later and it appears that the Syba card and the DeLOCK card uses the same chip; they are all from Ti, and Syba clearly stated that their card uses a PCI bridge instead of having native PCIe support. So, they should be equivalent. Just figure out do you want to try the Startech Firewire card thelostswede recommended(https://www.newegg.com/global/nl/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815158091), or do you want to save some money. I am not sure what the price of Syba cards will be in Netherlands though; the Startech card might just be a bit more expensive than your original choice if you count the shipping from US.

See, the thing is. I used to build pc's back in the days, but as of right now I lack the proper skills to assemble this beast. Hence the reason I'm ordering at Alternate. You can just select which parts you want in the PC builder and they will assemble it for you. So I'm kind of stuck with the gear they have to offer. Ofcourse it's easy for me to add components at a later stage, but they really have to be either working OOB or with minimal hassle. The syba cards, unfortunatly, are not available on Alternate so I should order it from Amazon and insert it later. But as you said, maybe the DeLock card will suffice.

And yes, I used a lot of components from the golden build, should be less hassle I suppose.

Thanks for the awesome advice.

I'll be ordering the parts next week. I'll write up my installation process!