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Final Check On Parts List For First Hackintosh

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Feb 28, 2015
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32
Motherboard
GA-H97M-D3H
CPU
Intel i5-4690
Graphics
EVGA GTX 960 SSC
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Classic Mac
  1. 0
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
First post! I've been lurking on here for a while studying and researching and learning, and now I have enough money saved up to finally take the plunge! I wanted to post my proposed build on here and see if anybody might have any suggestions or corrections before I spend the money. This computer will be a dual-boot between OS X for a media workstation (lots of audio and some basic-ish video) and Windows for gaming. In addition to my first Hackintosh, this is also my first computer build. Parts list:

Fractal Design Core 1300
Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H
Intel i5-4690 (non-K)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2x8GB)
EVGA GTX 960 SSC
2x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
BitFenix Spectre Pro 140mm PWM
BitFenix Spectre Pro 120mm PWM
Corsair RM450

1) I'm not too concerned with onboard audio. As this is an audio workstation, I have an external USB sound card (M-Audio MobilePre MkII) that runs full-time. Later on I plan to add a FireWire PCIe card for a better audio interface.

2) My primary concern is the power supply. A couple friends of mine who are both experienced builders recommend I don't go lower than 500W for a build that includes a discrete graphics card, but NVIDIA recommends 400W for the 960, and another online source estimates this build to use a maximum of 312W. What do you guys think?

Any and all tips appreciated!
 
Greetings GuitarGuy and welcome to the Hackintosh experienced ;)

A couple of years ago I was in the same boat your were in, very excited about building my very first Hackintosh. I'm sure you'll do well and you're in good company here with fellow hackintosh'ers.

Regarding the power supply, I would go with your friends advice and stick with at least a 500w power supply to power all your components efficiently. If your looking for an affordable solution I just bought a new EVGA 500w power supply over at Amazon for about $40 and is prime shipping for one of my new builds I'm working on.

I wish you best of luck in your new build!
 
Thanks for the input! For the 80+ Gold and for the "silent operation" 0rpm state, I'll step up to the RM550.
 
One other thing you may want to consider depending on your budget/how many PCIe (or PCI) devices you may want to add in the future:

- Consider another Gigabyte board, with PCIe slots instead of PCI. In my opinion, PCI is dead for most expansion cards (at least performance-wise). If you're not dead-set to stick with Micro ATX, the GA-H97-D3H might be a good option for you, with pretty good reviews on NE:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128712

Even though it has some PCI slots, it also has a couple PCIe X1's and a PCIe x16 2.0 to go with 1 3.0.
It's only about $12 more than the board you're looking at, but you would of coarse have to step up to one of Fractal's ATX cases since the 1100 will support Micro/Mini ITX only.
 
Yeah, I'm right there with you on the PCI ports. I really think Gigabyte could stop using them. Unfortunately I do have a size limit for the case, so ATX isn't an option. I should be okay though because as the plan stands right now, I will only need two PCIe ports for one GPU and a FireWire card. (Plans can change of course, but hey, I do the best I can.)
 
I just placed the order. I will keep posted on my progress!
 
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