config for video editing+audio recording - plz advise

[Ulii]

Hi everyone,

I'm completely new here. So since it's my first post, I wanna start by thanking Tony and you all for creating this great community and for spreading the knowledge.

I've got a friend who's owned a hackintosh for about 4 years now. He could not be happier with the thing. So since my 2011 MacBook Pro is letting me down for audio and video editing I decided to step into the hackintosh world myself. That poor thing really can't handle Logic and Adobe Premiere anymore and I can't wrap my head about spending 1899 EUR for a sufficient iMac configuration. So it's time for me to get into action. And I would be grateful if an experienced member could advise and review my config before I take the final step and order the hardware.

Budget: 1200 EUR maximum
Priority requirements: silent (super important for acoustic recordings), 2 HDMI ports to handle 2 screens at the same time (silently of course), powerful and fast enough to handle smoothly modern video editing, wifi for video publishing.
I'm not looking for a gaming machine as I do not game at all. It's really for my home studio and for video publishing. So reliability is really important too.
Compatible with Mac OS Sierra.

I already spent like 20hours reading, comparing, gathering information from the buyer's guide, youtube and from the forum and here's what I came up with, including all hardware and a large USB stick for installation.

Power: Corsair CS 550 Watts
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI motherboard Intel Mini ITX Socket LGA1151 package
CPU: Intel Skylake Processor Core i7-6700 / 3.4 GHz (Turbo Boost 4.0 GHz) 4 cre 8Mo RAM Socket Socket 1151
RAM: Ballistix Sport LT 16Go Kit (8Gox2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin Memory - BLS2C8G4D240FSC (White)
Cooler: Corsair CW-9060007-WW Hydro Series H60 2013 120mm High perf CPU Watercooler
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB GAMING, Silent Cooling Graphics Card
Solid State Drive: Samsung EVO 850 MZ-75E250B/EU Disk Flash SSD intern 2,5" 250 Go SATA III
HD: Seagate ST500DM002 Barracuda hard drive intern 3,5" SATA III 7200 rounds / min 500 Go
Wifi: TP-Link TL-WDN4800
Case: Corsair CC-9011075-WW Carbide Series 100R

Accessories:
Standard wired mouse and keyboard
USB stick 16G0

...for a total of 1178,11 EUR!!!!

According to the buyer's guide, it all seems quite compatible. But to be honest I'd be really happy to squeeze all I need into a 1000EUR budget.

I could maybe change the solid state drive for a Samsung Evo 850 120Go (probably enough for video editing) or a crucial Mx300 275Go and downgrade my graphic card.
What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thank you for your help.

 

[pastrychef]

1. I would not downgrade the video card. If anything, maybe consider upgrading to a higher model to help with your video editing. I don't think you would notice the differences between the different SSDs in real world situations anyway.
2. Since you have chosen a mini ITX motherboard, you will only have one PCI-e slot. This will be used by the video card. Therefore, there will be no available slots for the TP-Link wifi card. Instead, you can replace the motherboard's built-in wifi card with one that's compatible with macOS.

 

[Ulii]

Thank you, Pastrychef.

1. Would you advise a specific graphics card?

2. I had a look at some other options for a motherboard then. But I have no idea what to do since I can't find details about how many PCI-e slots the motherboards feature. I'll actually need 3 PCI-e slots I think: graphics card, a wifi card and a fire wire port (probably going for a Kalea PCI Firewire 400 on that one). If I could verify the number of slots the Asus Z170 P D3 seems OK. OR a equivalent Gigabyte GA H170 D3H

3. I might switch the cooler to a Noctua NH-U12S.

Any thought on this?
Once again I'm completely new to all of this and I would appreciate any help/useful comment.

 

[pastrychef]

1. Video card performance will improve as you go high up through the models. It's entirely dependent on your budget.

2. If you need three PCI-e slots, look for Micro ATX (aka mATX) motherboards.

3. I use a Noctua cooler myself and think very highly of them.

 

[ZDigital2015]

Hi everyone,

I'm completely new here. So since it's my first post, I wanna start by thanking Tony and you all for creating this great community and for spreading the knowledge.

I've got a friend who's owned a hackintosh for about 4 years now. He could not be happier with the thing. So since my 2011 MacBook Pro is letting me down for audio and video editing I decided to step into the hackintosh world myself. That poor thing really can't handle Logic and Adobe Premiere anymore and I can't wrap my head about spending 1899 EUR for a sufficient iMac configuration. So it's time for me to get into action. And I would be grateful if an experienced member could advise and review my config before I take the final step and order the hardware.

Budget: 1200 EUR maximum
Priority requirements: silent (super important for acoustic recordings), 2 HDMI ports to handle 2 screens at the same time (silently of course), powerful and fast enough to handle smoothly modern video editing, wifi for video publishing.
I'm not looking for a gaming machine as I do not game at all. It's really for my home studio and for video publishing. So reliability is really important too.
Compatible with Mac OS Sierra.

I already spent like 20hours reading, comparing, gathering information from the buyer's guide, youtube and from the forum and here's what I came up with, including all hardware and a large USB stick for installation.

Power: Corsair CS 550 Watts
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI motherboard Intel Mini ITX Socket LGA1151 package
CPU: Intel Skylake Processor Core i7-6700 / 3.4 GHz (Turbo Boost 4.0 GHz) 4 cre 8Mo RAM Socket Socket 1151
RAM: Ballistix Sport LT 16Go Kit (8Gox2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin Memory - BLS2C8G4D240FSC (White)
Cooler: Corsair CW-9060007-WW Hydro Series H60 2013 120mm High perf CPU Watercooler
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB GAMING, Silent Cooling Graphics Card
Solid State Drive: Samsung EVO 850 MZ-75E250B/EU Disk Flash SSD intern 2,5" 250 Go SATA III
HD: Seagate ST500DM002 Barracuda hard drive intern 3,5" SATA III 7200 rounds / min 500 Go
Wifi: TP-Link TL-WDN4800
Case: Corsair CC-9011075-WW Carbide Series 100R

Accessories:
Standard wired mouse and keyboard
USB stick 16G0

...for a total of 1178,11 EUR!!!!

According to the buyer's guide, it all seems quite compatible. But to be honest I'd be really happy to squeeze all I need into a 1000EUR budget.

I could maybe change the solid state drive for a Samsung Evo 850 120Go (probably enough for video editing) or a crucial Mx300 275Go and downgrade my graphic card.
What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thank you for your help.

Here are my thoughts as I've just purchased all the components for my first Hackintosh and all of this is VERY fresh in my mind. I'll try to be mindful that you're in Europe and pricing can be vastly different than here in the States. I purchased most of my equipment from New Egg and spent time waiting for items to go on sale or that had rebates. This list isn't a rehash, but does contain a few parts I considered and/or may have bought. Also, you didn't specify whether 1080p or 4K editing was the goal of this build. At your price point, you're probably limited to 1080p.

Power: Corsair RM550x - slightly higher spec, fully modular...may not be that important to your build
Case: NZXT S340 - Again, slightly above spec, 2-2.5" HDD trays and 2-3.5" HDD trays, white or black
CPU: Core i5 6500 - 4 core, no HT, but 3.2GHz clock speed and $100 cheaper than the Core i7 6700
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-Gaming 3 or GA-H170-D3HP you don't have K-series CPUs spec'd, so there's no need for a Z170 chipset, plus you get two M.2 slots for the future, PCIe X16 for the GPU as well as a PCIe x4 slot for a Thunderbolt card later, if you need it. Also, PCIe slots for the wireless card and a FireWire card. Also, 4 DRAM slots get you to 64GB in the future. I've seen the Gaming 3 selling for bargain basement price on NewEgg $84.99 USD w/ $10 USD rebate. Last item, ALC1150 audio with DAC-up USB ports on the back for DA I/O. The D3HP gives you a USB-C port, but no DAC-up audio.
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, why do you need liquid cooling? You're not overclocking...should save you some money there. Noctua's great and all, but they are expensive.
Graphics: Pastry Chef is correct, in that you should move up to a GTX960 w/ 4GB, if possible. Vendors are trying to make way for the GTX1050 and 1050Ti and 1060 cards, so it may be possible to find a GTX 960 on sale. EVGA is always a good bet and they're selling online with mail-in rebate.
DRAM: I ended up with G.Skill Ripsaws Series V, but the ones you listed seem fine. I think DDR4-2400 is a good idea, if by some stroke of luck we're able to put Kaby Lake CPUs in the 170-Series chipsets as is rumored. KL supports DDR4-2400 natively.
Solid State drive: I just bought a Samsung 850 EVO for my build, so no suggestion there, other than get at least the 250GB, unless you can get a good deal on a Toshiba/OCZ TR150, which I've heard good things about and are generally cheaper
HDD: Whatever your preferred brand is...
Wireless: TP-Link Archer T9E AC1900, if you have an 802.11-AC access point.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to figure out the total end cost for the above, but I think the GA-H170-Gaming 3 or the D3HP would give you a lot more bang for the buck than the GA-Z170N-WIFI, and certainly more expansion. Hope this helps.

 

[kiiroaka]

I would never go with an ITX mobo for video editing. I'd go with an ATX board that has all PCI-E slots, an Intel NIC, AC1150 audio codec, and then fill it with 64GB of DDR4 3200 to match the i7 6700K mem controller. Which means a "Z" board since it will allow you to set the RAM speed in the BIOS. "Z" boards typically go for $100 - $300 (like the top of the line ASUS Gene mobos.)

I don't do Seagate drives and I would not spend the extra money on SSDs, preferring to save the $200 - $250 by going with a $50 1TB/64MB Cache/7200RPM WD "Blue" drive. Later on when I have some spare cash I'd then install at least a 512GB SSD. Sure, it may seem slower than an SSD, but soon all SSD prices will plummet when NVME becomes the standard.

Are you sure you want to try Sierra? At the present time audio is the big problem, with many not being able to get audio working correctly. Then there's Seri - she's MIC sensitive, meaning that "she" will always be listening. You may end up turning her off if her noise cancellation algorithm is not good enough, or you may end up using headphones instead of speakers so that she doesn't act up - in which case make sure that you do not sing along...

Christmas is around the corner and you may miss on some serious savings. Our Thanksgiving holiday ends with "Black Friday" deals and then extra sales extend to after Christmas (all prices are marked up leading up to Christmas and marked down back to normal so that the store can advertise a sale.)

Since it's an i7 you will need to buy a heatsink. May I suggest the Notua NH-U14S? It should cost about $75 but it should be very quiet. (The fan that comes with it typically costs about $22 - $25, separately.) You (rhetorical) don't buy an i7 6700K to over clcok it, you buy it because it's base clock is 4.0GHZ, which means that the cache and mem controller are also running at that speed.

I only do Seasonic PSUs. A nice 650W Seasonic PSU should prove reliable and quiet. The PSU has to be Haswell Certified to be able to come out of Deep Sleep.

Don't go crazy buying an expensive case. You could buy a $50 case and fill it up with Noctua quiet fans for the same price as you'd pay for an expensive ITX case.

The problem with water coolers is that many times the pump gets very noisy as the CPU gets hotter and hotter. You WILL be able to hear it pumping. Especially in an airflow restricted ITX case.

Do this, do a Google search for something like "Corsair H60 versus Noctua NH-U14S Review"....

http://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Noctua-NH-D15-OC-Load-Temperatures.jpg

IMO, if you're going to go water and get a great cooler you will be looking at about $200. Like the Swift tech units.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835203017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181060
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA85V4FP4234

Always start with the negative reviews and work you way up will looking at the Star Rating spread.

Of course, if you do go with an ITX then AIO is probably the way to go. Just make sure that you get a great case.

 

[Ulii]

Thank you all of you for the useful input. I read and checked all of this information.

I switched to a ATX mobo, changed the cooler and went for a different PSU.

ZDigital2015, thank you for the detailed build. I've checked it. By the way, it's mainly for 1080p editing. But I don't want to feel restrained later down the line. At this point, 4k is still developing but hasn't yet become the standard. But I tend to try to go for a 4 year time with this build.

Components :

Power Supply: Seasonic M12II-620W
Mobo: Asus Z170-P Carte Mère Intel Z170 ATX Socket 1151
RAM: Ballistix Sport LT 16Go Kit (8Gox2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin Memory - BLS2C8G4D240FSC (White)
CPU: Intel Skylake Processor Core i7-6700K 4.0 GHz
Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
SSD: Samsung EVO 850 MZ-75E250B/EU Disk Flash SSD intern 2,5" 250 Go SATA III Noir
HD: Seagate ST500DM002 Barracuda harddrive intern 3,5" SATA III 7200 rounds / min 500 Go
Graphics: Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
Wifi unit: TP-Link TL-WDN4800
Firewire port: PCI FIREWIRE 400 https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00RORBQNW/?tag=tonymacx8607-21
Case: Corsair CC-9011075-WW Carbide Series 100R
Mouse/Keyboard Standard wired mouse and keyboard
USB for installation: USB stick 16G0

And it's still under 1200EUR!

Thank you Kiiroaka for the food for the mind about Sierra and ordering after Black Friday. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I want to wait that long. End of November would push my enterprise 2 months down the line. That's quite long. Plus since I order on European retailing networks, I'm not even sure if this might be of any influence for my buys.

About Sierra: Despite still working under Mac OS X 10.7.5, I can't seem to download El Capitan for free. Instead I'm offered Sierra! :/ So I'm left with that only option.

In any case, thank you again for your help again.

 

[pastrychef]

In my opinion, this new build looks much better.

 

[Ulii]

...and I forgot to mention I upgraded the graphics card.

One last question though... It's my first build. Do I need more accessories for the build than this? For instance thermic glue for the processor, specific screwdrivers, PCI accessories... ???

 

[pastrychef]

The Noctua cooler will come with thermal compound.

A standard philips screwdriver should be enough to put everything together.