CustomacATX Budget & GPU Option

[jarrah]

Hi guys,

Both my current computers have died of old age. Looking to build a hackintosh based on the recommended specs for the CustoMacATX Budget. It will be used predominantly for Photoshop work. The only changes I'm hoping to make are the addition of an M.2 drive (PCIe/AHCI seems the way to go), and I can't find a GT 740 video card locally. Does anyone know if the on-board graphics are OS X compatible natively? If so, I could always shop around for the graphics card after I had the build up and running. Unless this would cause dramas down the line? I may also substitute the RAM for some Kingston HyperX Fury Black (16gb). I'm guessing that shouldn't cause any issues? It'll be my first build, as I want to stay with OS X and also keen to learn more about how everything actually works and while I like the OS, I don't like the company or their prices. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Build:
Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
TP-Link TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter
Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case

 

[Fl0r!an]

OS X has drivers for Skylake graphics, but they're still buggy. I think Sierra added some graphical glitches, and sleep/wake is still broken. Best release for using HD 530 should be 10.11.6.

If used GPUs are not an issue, you could also look for Kepler-based Nvidia GPUs. Most of them are working perfectly fine in OS X without any tweaks or drivers.

 

[jarrah]

Thank you Fl0r!an. I hadn't actually considered looking for a used/2nd hand part. I'll have a look about and see if I can find one. Most of the similar cards price and performance-wise seem to have moved to Maxwell from Kepler. I noticed on the recommendations page that the GPU's are all either EVGA or Gigabyte, is there any issue with Asus branded cards such as:
ASUS - GTX750TI-PH-2GD5
ASUS GeForce GTX 750 Ti (Base:1020MHz,Boost:1085MHz), 2048MB (5400MHz) GDDR5, PCI-E 3.0, VGA, Dual DVI, HDMI

Looking into the SSD's as well, I can get the Intel - SSDPEKKW256G7X1 Intel 256GB SSD, 600P Series, m.2 (PCIE), Read up to 1570 MB/s, Write Up to 540MB/s, 3D TLC NAND
for the same price as the Samsung 850 Pro, but again it's not listed under the recommendations and just wondering if there would be compatibility issues there? Or if the higher read speed would be limited somehow? Stork's builds seems to use the Samsung 950's and I could maybe just bite the bullet and spend the extra going that way.

Anyway, thanks again for your help!

 

[trs96]

You can use the Intel SSD with no problem. Generally there are no restrictions with SSD brand. That Asus 750 Ti though, has had some problems with the HDMI port when running OS X or macOS as it is now called. You could use the Strix version of the Asus branded 750 Ti but the 950 is probably a better value right now.

 

[jarrah]

Thanks a lot trs96. Do the brand issues extend to RAM choices too then? Agin I notice it's all Crucial branded not Corsair or Kingston or anything.

 

[pastrychef]

Do your research on NVMe M.2 SSDs on hackintoshes before making the purchase.

 

[trs96]

Thanks a lot trs96. Do the brand issues extend to RAM choices too then? Agin I notice it's all Crucial branded not Corsair or Kingston or anything.

You don't have to use Crucial for the ram to work but you should check the Gigabyte QVL on their website. That will tell you if they have confirmed the ram works with that specific motherboard or not.

 

[Fl0r!an]

@jarrah: Don't get the Asus 750Ti, some ports will be dead in OS X.

The Intel SSD seems to be NVMe, so you'll need to use a 3rd party driver (or patches to Apples NVMe driver) to get it working. Personally I wouldn't want to do this with my boot drive.

 

[jarrah]

Thanks a lot for the responses guys.

I've been looking through the forums at m2's as boot drives and anything NVMe does seem to be an additional pain. As I'm not that competent with how it all works, I agree that using one for boot drive probably isn't for me.

From what I've read there are the 3 types of m2 drive. Am I correct that the AHCI variants are supported without 3rd party drivers/patches? I did read on here that there is a difference in model number between NVMe and the AHCI. Failing that I can always just go SATA for my first build and save some money while making life easier for myself.

 

[pastrychef]

From what I've read there are the 3 types of m2 drive. Am I correct that the AHCI variants are supported without 3rd party drivers/patches?

Correct. Using an AHCI M.2 SSD is as easy as using a standard SSD.