Compatibility Check: Gaming/Everyday Use/Dual Boot OSX & Windows 8

[TADD3RS]

Hello Everyone,

First off, thanks to everyone's involvement here on tonymacx86.com; phenomenal resource and community! I was ecstatic to stumble across the possibility of building my own Apple compatible computer! Finally a way to achieve the beauty of Apple's software and interface with wallet-friendly (or at least more friendly than Mac prices) PC gaming power and compatibility! So, thank you in advance to all who take the time to help me wade through some of the questions and confusion that I have come across as a first time builder.

Build Overview:

All, here is what I am looking at. I am aiming for a Dual Boot computer (two SSD's), one SSD dedicated to Mountain Lion, and the other dedicated to Windows 8. I intend to use the Apple side for everyday use: web-surfing, document creation, music management (love iTunes), and the pure joy of working with the smooth interface of Apple. The Windows 8 half of my computer will be geared towards gaming, gaming, gaming! I love RTS games and want to keep up with these new awesome looking RTS releases. Not quite sure what else to do with the Windows side of my build, but it will most likely be reserved for software that is developed in the future proprietorially for PC that I just can't live without! Enough, background info, to the hardware!

Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH ATX LGA1155
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Asus GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card
Antec High Current Pro 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V
Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer
OS #1: OS X Mountain Lion (App Store DL)
OS #2: Microsoft Windows 8 OEM 64-bit
Case: Aprevia X-Dreamer 4
Keyboard: Apple Keyboard
Mouse: Have one...
Monitor:27" IPS LED CrystalPro Monitor WQHD 2560x1440

Questions and Concerns:

Okay guys, here is where my ignorance comes into play, so please bare with me. As a big picture favor, I ask whoever reviews this build, please help me make sure that everything here is compatible. I spent hours researching industry terms and hardware specs, so I think I have it all lined out, but I easily could have missed something. Secondly, I am going to list the hardware/software categories below with specific questions. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated any I am very open to other products if I can maintain (or gain) performance for lower price!

CPU: Is the CPU I selected the fastest known compatible processor for Mac OS X? Does the "K" identifier after "3770" mean that I have the ability to over-clock this processor?

Motherboard: Pretty generic feedback requested here. Please just confirm that this is a good motherboard to meet my goals listed above and that it WILL support all hardware that I have selected. Also, I want to have a wired ethernet connection, not WIFI for surfing and online gaming (its faster from what I read). I believe this motherboard has a built in 10/100/1000 card (dumb question alert), so do I need to purchase an ethernet card? Or am I already setup? If I am setup out-of-the-box for a hardline connection, how do I know that the port will be accessible with the case I chose? Is the position of the motherboard installation an industry standard that should ensure I can plug in the cable? Again, lame question, but I have zero experience with this stuff.

RAM: This subject took a little extra research. Whats enough, whats overkill, you get the idea. My understanding is that high end games do not utilize more than 4GBs, so anything over 8GB is absolutely ridiculous, correct? Back me up on the memory type, my motherboard supports DDR3-1600 type memory, so I ensured the RAM matched. From what I understand, timing is more important than anything when it comes to buying ram for gaming. I went with the lowest CAS I could find for the price (CAS 7). Is this good for my application? Also, under the specs, this serious of RAM doesn't support ECC or Buffering. No idea what that is or means; is it important for me to worry about that?

Storage: I am a huge SSD fan every since I bought my MacBook Air. I love the idea of my OS X and Windows having separate SSD's. They will be independent, organized, and hopefully lightning fast! 256GB is more than enough for each drive for me. I went with SATA 6 because I guess it writes and reads faster and SSD is really the only memory type that could take advantage of it, right? I have never had multiple permanent drives. I have tampered with external HD on earlier Windows platforms, and I always got the feeling that they were just massive USB's (huge storage after I plug in). I could move music, video, and games using my external HD. Will my two SSD's be able to communicate to share data? For instance, if I want to listen to music I downloaded from iTunes on the OS X SSD while I play an RTS on the Windows SSD, can I do that? I imagine not. I think you would have to burn a disk (usb, external HD, etc) from one SSD, shutdown and reboot in your other SSD, and then import normally. To sum up all of that crap I just said in one question, am I approaching storing media between two separate SSD's with different OS's efficiently? Would it be better/cheaper to have two 128GB SSD's installed and buy a 256GB external HD to keep media on that I want to access in both OS's?

GPU: Only question here is, did I make a good pick? From what I understand is that GeForce is Nvidia technology that many other people sell with their logo. Is their any real reason to consider EVGA over ASUS over MSI etc? Okay, I just realized I have more than one question here. Is there any significant noticeable performance from 1.02GHz and 1.12GHZ for example? How does RAM on the GPU play in to the whole equation. From what I've read, GPU based RAM has to do with the ability of the card to draw the image on different size screens. For instance, RAM on the GPU has less to do with speed rather it has to do the ability of a card to be able to keep up with rendering, correct? This kind of leads back into normal RAM; this is used for speed because its the amount of information that the processor can manage effectively?

PSU: Well, I bought the one I listed. The online reviews were stellar and it was on sale for a whopping $60.00! Had to do it. Hope you can agree!

Optical: I went for a optical drive that was pretty cheap with good reviews. I don't think I need Blu Ray, I would rather watch my Blu Ray on my huge T.V. Anyone see any reason to pounce on a pricier optical drive?

OS's: Im still trying to get a handle on the installation process that I am going to have to deal with after I build this toy. Is buying Mountain Lion off the app store even a usable media to install on a different computer (maybe put it on a usb)? Or do I need to buy a disk copy somewhere? Do I get the disk copy at Apple Store, say, in the mall? As for Windows 8, is OEM the way to go? From what I've read, OEM is essentially a one-time install on the computer you choose, while Professional can be load on multiple computers, correct?

Expansion Cards: Noob question, do I need a to buy a sound card? Or does one of the other very expensive components I am buying have the capability of mixing sound?

Monitor: Very excited to get the MonoPrice listed above. Reviews are great and it is comparable to the high resolution 27" monitors that Apple offers for less than half the price! I will update the community on its performance after this build is complete!

Case/Accecories: This is the last topic, that's right, the last topic! Thank you for hanging in there with me and helping me through this process. Anyways, the only thing that I am really worried about here is cooling. Does my case, CPU, and GPU have enough cooling capacity from the stock configuration to protect themselves? The last thing I want is for this investment to be destroyed by an overheat scenario. The case advertises 4 fans stock. Noise is not a concern for me now. Maybe later if I feel the stock fans are just to noisy to be comfortable, but at this point my only real question is whether or not I should invest in additional fans?

Again, thanks in advance to all those who have taken the time to look over and offer feedback on my build! Can't wait to get the ball rolling!

- TADD3RS

 

[Going Bald]

Build Overview:
Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH ATX LGA1155
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Asus GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card
Antec High Current Pro 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V
Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer
OS #1: OS X Mountain Lion (App Store DL)
OS #2: Microsoft Windows 8 OEM 64-bit
Case: Aprevia X-Dreamer 4
Keyboard: Apple Keyboard
Mouse: Have one...
Monitor:27" IPS LED CrystalPro Monitor WQHD 2560x1440

parts look good - all compatible, although I am not sure is the Lite-on supports sleep or not. Search is your friend there.

Questions and Concerns:

CPU: Is the CPU I selected the fastest known compatible processor for Mac OS X? Does the "K" identifier after "3770" mean that I have the ability to over-clock this processor?

Yes

Motherboard

There are several builds in the User Builds / Golden Builds forums using this board. It will do fine, just remember the Thunderbolt port does not support hot swap at this time.

RAM:

This will work fine. Don't know about the max used in gaming as I do not game, but would think the more RAM the better for processing power. Since the CPU doesn't support ECC (you need a Xeon CPU for this) don't worry about it.

Storage:

SSD for Win8 and another for OS X is best way to do it. As for shared storage, as long as you do not have any files larger than 4Gb, a platter drive formatted MBR and FAT32 will share files easily between OS X and Windows.

GPU: Only question here is, did I make a good pick?

Probably. Personally, I prefer EVGA, but ASUS is good, too. You might want to look at the User Builds forum to see what other people have installed and maybe also look at the recommended gfx cards in the April 2013 recommended parts.

PSU: Well, I bought the one I listed. The online reviews were stellar and it was on sale for a whopping $60.00! Had to do it. Hope you can agree!

Any Gold rated name brand PSU will do just fine

Optical: I went for a optical drive that was pretty cheap with good reviews. I don't think I need Blu Ray, I would rather watch my Blu Ray on my huge T.V. Anyone see any reason to pounce on a pricier optical drive?

Is sleep important to you? Here again, the User Builds forum is the place to look to see what others have used. The recommended brands are the Sony Optiarc and Pioneer as they are known to support sleep

OS's: Im still trying to get a handle on the installation process that I am going to have to deal with after I build this toy. Is buying Mountain Lion off the app store even a usable media to install on a different computer (maybe put it on a usb)? Or do I need to buy a disk copy somewhere? Do I get the disk copy at Apple Store, say, in the mall? As for Windows 8, is OEM the way to go? From what I've read, OEM is essentially a one-time install on the computer you choose, while Professional can be load on multiple computers, correct?

Buying ML from the app store is the only way to get it. You need access to a Mac to log in to the app store and purchase/download the Install OS X Mountian Lion app. Then you use UniBeast to create your USB installer - http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html
For Win8, the difference between OEM/Builders version and retail version is the lack of a manual or any instructions - OEM is a single disc with nothing else. You can install from any DVD multiple times, but you are limited to a single computer by the activation and software agreement. Pro is the same as the Home version - install on a single computer.
For install methods see http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/96000-guide-mountain-lion-windows-8-a.html

Expansion Cards: Noob question, do I need a to buy a sound card? Or does one of the other very expensive components I am buying have the capability of mixing sound?

No, onboard audio is sufficient for most. OTOH, if you are an audiophile you might want one anyway. Finding drivers for it in OS X may be a challenge.

Monitor: Very excited to get the MonoPrice listed above. Reviews are great and it is comparable to the high resolution 27" monitors that Apple offers for less than half the price! I will update the community on its performance after this build is complete!

Should do fine.

Case/Accecories: This is the last topic, that's right, the last topic! Thank you for hanging in there with me and helping me through this process. Anyways, the only thing that I am really worried about here is cooling. Does my case, CPU, and GPU have enough cooling capacity from the stock configuration to protect themselves? The last thing I want is for this investment to be destroyed by an overheat scenario. The case advertises 4 fans stock. Noise is not a concern for me now. Maybe later if I feel the stock fans are just to noisy to be comfortable, but at this point my only real question is whether or not I should invest in additional fans?

Stock fans in the case and the stock fan that comes with the CPU if you buy the box version will work OK if you do not overclock. Once you start to overclock you will definitely want to get a good CPU cooler. Personally, I prefer an air cooler, but many use the liquid coolers and have good results.