First Hack Advice

[deepthought23]

Hey All,

I only found out about Hackintoshs in the summer of last year, and they completely intrigued me.

I need to upgrade my trusty iMac mid 2011 as its well over worked and is slowing down my workflow significantly. Once the price of the new MBP was released and with the extra £500 added on top due to the struggling pound (I live in the UK). My hand has kind of been forced into building a hack, and to be honest, I am very excited about it!!

I have never built a PC before, but I am a tinkerer in all things, so my inner geek is awoken and I am ready to go.

I have been a little obsessed with reading this forum, but there are some things that I need clarification on, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Firstly, when I see people saying iMac 14,1 or Mac Pro 3,1 what does that mean in reference to the hardware I select?

Secondly, how does this hardware list look? I mainly use my Mac for the Adobe sweet, design. But my firm is beginning to make more films and I need more power. I mainly use Final Cut Pro X, but I am willing to move to Premier, just need the impetus. I have read a lot about the performance of different graphics cards with FCPX, but considering I am using
AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB on my iMac at the moment, I think with the graphics card I have selected I will feel like I am completely reborn regards to speed, especially more so if I do in fact migrate to premiere!! Is there anything on the below list that isn't compatible, or going to make my life too difficult as a first timer??

Core i7 6700k
Gigabyte GA-710X-Designare ATX
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX2.0 Gaming 4GB
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32 GB Kit (16BG x 2) DDR4 2400
Corsair RM650x Power Supply
Corsair CW-9060007-WW All-In-One Liquid Cooler
Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB (For Sierra) and a 250 GB (for WIn10)
Corsair CC9011014-WW Carbide 300R Case
TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 N900 Dual Band Wireless PCI Express

Thirdly, I want to make a dual boot, is it best to do that with two separate SDD or should I partition and have on one. Is there a guide for a dual boot that can help me make that decision?

Finally, is this all a little bit of overkill???


Thanks all,

 

[carpark11]

You defiantly need two drives if you want an easy life!!

 

[nobodynose]

I have never built a PC before, but I am a tinkerer in all things, so my inner geek is awoken and I am ready to go.

I suggest taking a look at some step-by-step guides for putting the hardware together since this will be your first time. Here are a few:

• http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Computer
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/2987...-a-pc-a-step-by-step-comprehensive-guide.html
• http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-build-a-computer/3/
• http://lifehacker.com/5827491/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-lesson-3-building-the-computer

Firstly, when I see people saying iMac 14,1 or Mac Pro 3,1 what does that mean in reference to the hardware I select?

That is the model identifier for the hardware - Apple code uses those codes to refer to a specific "generation" of computer. For example, "iMac14,1" refers to the "iMac Core i5 2.7 21.5-Inch (Late 2013)". See http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/mac-specs-by-machine-model-machine-id.html for a complete list.

Secondly, how does this hardware list look?

It looks good to me. It's a good idea to check the specific part number of the RAM you plan to buy against Gigabyte's Qualified Vendors List for your motherboard, to be absolutely sure it will work.

Thirdly, I want to make a dual boot, is it best to do that with two separate SDD or should I partition and have on one. Is there a guide for a dual boot that can help me make that decision?

Yes, make your life simpler and use separate SSD's for each OS. There's an entire subforum here on multi-booting.

 

[deepthought23]

Thank you soooooo much for your feedback. Invaluable!!

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through all of the links you posted, and feel like I am ready.

Buying my hardware this weekend, and will be building next weekend, fingers crossed.

Will let you know how it goes.

All the best

I suggest taking a look at some step-by-step guides for putting the hardware together since this will be your first time. Here are a few:

• http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Computer
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/2987...-a-pc-a-step-by-step-comprehensive-guide.html
• http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-build-a-computer/3/
• http://lifehacker.com/5827491/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-lesson-3-building-the-computer

That is the model identifier for the hardware - Apple code uses those codes to refer to a specific "generation" of computer. For example, "iMac14,1" refers to the "iMac Core i5 2.7 21.5-Inch (Late 2013)". See http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/mac-specs-by-machine-model-machine-id.html for a complete list.


It looks good to me. It's a good idea to check the specific part number of the RAM you plan to buy against Gigabyte's Qualified Vendors List for your motherboard, to be absolutely sure it will work.



Yes, make your life simpler and use separate SSD's for each OS. There's an entire subforum here on multi-booting.

 

[nobodynose]

Thank you soooooo much for your feedback. Invaluable!!

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through all of the links you posted, and feel like I am ready.

Buying my hardware this weekend, and will be building next weekend, fingers crossed.

Will let you know how it goes.

All the best

You're very welcome - good luck and have fun!