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Custom mini Mac Pro (for Sierra and above)

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Joined
Nov 19, 2016
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8
Motherboard
GIGABYTE Mainboard GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Socket LGA11
CPU
Intel Core i7-6700K
Graphics
EVGA 04G-P4-2989-KR GF GTX 980 HYDRO 4GB DDR5
Hi all.
I just registered my account here after I had been lurking here on-again off-again for a couple of years.
I had considered building a Hackintosh for quite some years but never had the need... nor the patience to really go through with it. The last couple of years and especially the abysmal 2016 year of Apple product releases now really pushed me over the edge. Early 2017 I want to attempt to build my first Hackintosh. I had my eyes on a Bitfenix Prodigy M for a number of years now... as it is pretty much a mini Mac Pro in appearance. Reading through the forums here and doign some other research I think I have an idea of what I wanna build. Some comments and/or advice would still be hugely appreciated as I have basically zero expierence with Hackintoshes.

My current plan is to build it like this:

Case: BitFenix Prodigy M White
Logicboard: GIGABYTE Mainboard GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Socket LGA11
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K
GPU: I can borrow an NVIDIA 560, I want to wait until Pascal or Polaris are fully supported, paying a lot for older hardware seems like a stupid idea imho.
PSU: Corsair CP-9020092-EU RM750X
RAM: Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit
SSD: some 1TB SSD, maybe a SanDisk Ultra II SSD 960GB, maybe some other model... not really relevant I guess?!
CPU Cooler: Corsair CW-9060015-WW
Wifi/BT: PC/Hackintosh - Apple Broadcom Bcm94360cd - 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC + Bluetooth 4.0 (from osxwifi.com)
Wifi/BT: from ebay: http://www.ebay.de/itm/Broadcom-BCM...303557?hash=item2a67b15dc5:g:EGUAAOSwHJhXNCZ8
TB3: GIGABYTE ALPINE RIDGE 1.0 Thunderbolt™ 3 Card, Controller (as soon as it is confirmed working, otherwise I'll skip it)

The above setup would run around €1350 tax incl..
Not a cheap build... but seems pretty fair considering it's performance.

So... what do you guys think? Anything I should reconsider? Did I forget anything? Anything that's not a good idea? etc. etc. :D


There's also a spreadsheet I maintain online in order to keep track of everything including prices and alterntive hardware, you can take at look at it here: https://www.icloud.com/numbers/05RnH30EgID2dBwB6ypJsAPdw#Hackintosh_Mac_Pro


Edited PSU as per recommendation.
Looked elsewhere for Apple Broadcom Adapter... from ebay it's a lot cheaper... but whether it is safe to buy there or not still needs to be determined :/
 
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Looks like you've done some good research and planning. Couple of things that I would change. Instead of the Corsair CX model of PSU I would go with the newer RMx 750 version. Price should be comparable. I would also purchase the Fenvi PCI-e wireless card adapter and a BCM94360CD and assemble those myself. Should work well and also save some Euros too.
 
Thanks for the note... unfortunately I'm not in the market just yet... (probably early next year...) and I live in Germany... so I can't really order from ncix...
But still thanks! How'd you know!
I happen to come across your post a few days ago and your build is something very similar to what I want to put together so I've started slowly buying the pieces. I got the same mobo. Will also probably get it all done some time next year. I'm a noob though so I'm still not sure about a bunch of other parts.
 
I happen to come across your post a few days ago and your build is something very similar to what I want to put together so I've started slowly buying the pieces. I got the same mobo. Will also probably get it all done some time next year. I'm a noob though so I'm still not sure about a bunch of other parts.
I can totally see this. Been a Windows user as a kid until around 2005, Mac user ever since (I occasionally have to use Windows and just keep checking it out for fun...). Back in the days I only ever build my own PCs... but that is about it when it comes to my experience with doing such things. Ofc... back then there were more issues with drivers and getting your RAID to work and everything... but still... this is a whole different thing. I have to say though, that I believe that if you pick the right components then with Multi- and Unibeast it won't be so hard to get everything going.
Only thing that's not gonna work though... aggressive updating! No more jumping on dev-betas as soon as they are released... other than that... it's gonna be mostly smooth sailing I'd guess...
 
Yea I think right now theres enough information online for anyone with half a brain to be able to do it. I'll follow this post here hopefully you update it. I might make one of my own too for advice .
 
Yea I think right now theres enough information online for anyone with half a brain to be able to do it. I'll follow this post here hopefully you update it. I might make one of my own too for advice .
If I really decide to build it, I'm planning to actually document every step of it and make it available, too.
 
Hey man, was wondering if you started your build yet ? Im doing something similar and bought a few parts but am not sure about a few things was wondering if you could give some advice.
 
Hey man, was wondering if you started your build yet ? Im doing something similar and bought a few parts but am not sure about a few things was wondering if you could give some advice.
I actually haven't. No. Everything is kind of like on hold and delayed right now. Especially since I might really need a notebook rather than any desktop based computer. It'll sadly take a couple more months before I can actually tell what I need... and then I might see to it...
As of right now... I, sadly, cannot help you though :(
 
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