First Build - AE/3D/Video rig

[jcrowel1]

Hi Everybody,
Just recently made the decision to go Hackintosh, and have been on this site constantly.

I do After Effects work and Cinema 4d (hopefully MAYA in the near future) work in addition to FCP7/X and Avid editing.

Here's my planned rig:

CPU: i7 2600k, $315

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
Needs here: FW for an audio interface, eSATA for an external RAID 0 drive. Is it wiser to get a different mobo and buy cards for those things?

GRAPHICS: Probably a GTX 570

RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3. Consider buying two sticks of 8gb to leave two bays for upgrade to 32 in the future. Probably worth the extra $20, no?

CASE: Corsair Carbide Series 400R, $100

SSD: Planning on a 240/256GB drive for boot with an added windows partition. I have very little data, and all of my video stuff will go on the external eSATA drive.
I'm not sure I understand the different connections, so will this MOBO be able to support basically whichever SSD I buy? And is the dual-boot from the same drive advisable?

When adding in the other little bits, the whole thing comes to almost $1300...I'd like to pare that down, so if anyone has any recs on where I might see only marginal declines for major savings, I'd love to hear it!

 

[jcrowel1]

Any thoughts, anyone? I'm a little concerned about the two 8gb sticks of RAM...are there issues with installation from not having a 4gb stick?

Thanks,
Justin

 

[wfj]

Hi Everybody,
Just recently made the decision to go Hackintosh, and have been on this site constantly.

I do After Effects work and Cinema 4d (hopefully MAYA in the near future) work in addition to FCP7/X and Avid editing.

Here's my planned rig:

CPU: i7 2600k, $315

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
Needs here: FW for an audio interface, eSATA for an external RAID 0 drive. Is it wiser to get a different mobo and buy cards for those things?

GRAPHICS: Probably a GTX 570

RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3. Consider buying two sticks of 8gb to leave two bays for upgrade to 32 in the future. Probably worth the extra $20, no?

CASE: Corsair Carbide Series 400R, $100

SSD: Planning on a 240/256GB drive for boot with an added windows partition. I have very little data, and all of my video stuff will go on the external eSATA drive.
I'm not sure I understand the different connections, so will this MOBO be able to support basically whichever SSD I buy? And is the dual-boot from the same drive advisable?

When adding in the other little bits, the whole thing comes to almost $1300...I'd like to pare that down, so if anyone has any recs on where I might see only marginal declines for major savings, I'd love to hear it!

You probably won't need all the features on the UD4 and can save some by going with a less expensive model that still has eSATA. Firewire can be flaky with the onboard chip so it's better to get a separate FW card with a texas instruments chip. Link:

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=45039

There is no problem installing Lion with more than 4gb of ram.

Just about any ssd will work. Here is a good resource:

http://www.storagereview.com/best_drives

Generally, it's best to have separate drives for dual boot but it can be done on a single disk.

 

[Cyber66]

I have 4*8GB Corsair installed without any problems, super fast system for AE!

 

[jcrowel1]

Those were exactly the responses I needed! Thank you both so much!
-Justin

 

[jcrowel1]

Trying to make the decision between the GIGABYTE GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 and the GA-Z68XP-UD3R. It seems the only difference is the exist of a pair of PCI slots. How likely am I to need them?

 

[wfj]

Trying to make the decision between the GIGABYTE GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 and the GA-Z68XP-UD3R. It seems the only difference is the exist of a pair of PCI slots. How likely am I to need them?

The mx is pretty much impossible to find right now in retail distribution...

 

[jcrowel1]

I see it here and on a bunch of other sites, but I suppose it doesn't mean it's in stock? http://www.buy.com/prod/gigabyte-ga-z68 ... 67595.html

 

[wfj]

I see it here and on a bunch of other sites, but I suppose it doesn't mean it's in stock? http://www.buy.com/prod/gigabyte-ga-z68 ... 67595.html

That is the ma not the mx.

 

[jcrowel1]

Oh whoops, pardon me.

I suppose I'll be going with the other one, then!