Choosing a motherboard for building a first Hachintosh

[darkodelta]

Ok so I decided to build myself a hachintosh. I have already put a pre-ordered on new Intel Core i7-3770K, Kingston HyperX limited edition RAM and several more components.
Now I come to a dilemma when choosing a motherboard.

I have set on two models, (side note this is gonna be more of a test build latter on I'll be upgrading but this is for now) :
MSI Z77A-G43 and
GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H .
Thanks in advance.

 

[Mate94]

Why can't you understand that these motherboards haven't got any user experience...
I don't recommend either of them. Wait for the new Apple machines with the support for Ivy Bridge CPUs and for tony with the new CustoMac Builds.

 

[magnumjoe]

I agree with Mate

I would suggest one of the Gigabyte z68 boards. I have the GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3, but there are many other choices as well.

If you'd rather go for a Z77 board go for it, just saying there's not much support at this current time.

 

[darkodelta]

Well I'm more then willing to experiment, have some money and time on my hands so why not.
And I was waiting for Ivy Bridge, and by the time i7-3770K arrives to the market Apple might put out new iMac's and Macbooks and if i7-3770K does not work I'll use one of SB i5's or i7's that I have laying around.
Z77 is definitely what I'm gonna use.
O and by the way I'm engineer, and kinda experience hacker so not a noob.

 

[samisnake]

that gigabyte board has via audio and atheros lan. you dont want it.

the msi has realtek lan/realtek audio, so its fine.

the msi will work fine. essentially its no different to past 1155 msi boards
wfj has been testing out a z77 msi board, and he has found it works fine (still ironing out a couple wrinkles with it)
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=58163

however, be aware that that while all mobo makers are now using uefi, all brands except gigabyte need to use either speedstepper OR a modified bios for native power management.
this thread describes it
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=54196

 

[darkodelta]

Not really caring about power management.
My computer is constantly on during the day and shut down during night so sleep/hibernate or and power mode is not anything that concerns me.

 

[samisnake]

its not hard to achieve it, but the fact that you have to use a modded bios or patch a kext is enough to put some people off.
guess youre not one of those people

 

[wfj]

Well I'm more then willing to experiment, have some money and time on my hands so why not.
And I was waiting for Ivy Bridge, and by the time i7-3770K arrives to the market Apple might put out new iMac's and Macbooks and if i7-3770K does not work I'll use one of SB i5's or i7's that I have laying around.
Z77 is definitely what I'm gonna use.
O and by the way I'm engineer, and kinda experience hacker so not a noob.

Sounds like you're a good candidate to proceed. It was quite simple to get basic functionality on my MSI board with a sandy bridge cpu. The only thing I haven't tackled is sound but that should be easier with the G43 board since it has 892 audio. PM me if you need any help.

 

[Coupz]

Z77 is definitely what I'm gonna use.

Just my interest: why do you want to have definitely Z77? Is there any special technology that you want a Z77?

My UD3H-B3 has fully ivy bridge support and pcie 3.0 too.


Just want to know why everyone is going crazy with Ivy Bridge and Z77.

 

[wfj]

Z77 is definitely what I'm gonna use.

Just my interest: why do you want to have definitely Z77? Is there any special technology that you want a Z77?

My UD3H-B3 has fully ivy bridge support and pcie 3.0 too.


Just want to know why everyone is going crazy with Ivy Bridge and Z77.

Basically, Z68 is a year old now and why not get the latest tech. Also, I think many of us just like to experiment and try to figure things out. Somebody has to try these things out...otherwise, how will any progress be made?