First Hackintosh / Self-Built Computer Advice

[natewinck]

Hello everyone!

I'm in the process of buying the components for a Hackintosh. This is the first time I've ever built a computer, so I've been getting a lot of advice from PC-building friends. I've been able to get the list to this point and I'd love any advice or pointers that you might have, especially on things that I might be overkilling without knowing it.

Just so you know what I do, I am a digital artist who uses Blender and Photoshop every day. I do everything in Blender from modeling to animating to rendering, which means that I need a good graphics card and a good CPU. I've had a Mac Pro (2006) 2.66 GHz for about 7 years, so I figured it's about time to upgrade.

I've been following the CustoMac Pro list, and here's what I've got so far:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-OC LGA 1150
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 DUAL SuperClocked 4GB
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750 G 80
Cooling: CORSAIR Hydro Series H55 Quiet Edition Water
Firewire: StarTech 3 Port
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB
Case: Fractal Design Define R4

This site is super full of great advice, so I'm really happy I found this. Thank you for your advice!

 

[trs96]

Welcome to the forum Nate,

I'm not familiar with Blender but for Photoshop that 770 card would be overkill. You could also
do fine with one of the lower cost Z87 boards unless you're a pro overclocker and really need
all those bells and whistles to bump up the cpu clock. Otherwise it all looks very good, you'll
get plenty of room for expansion vie PCI-E with an ATX motherboard.

 

[natewinck]

Thanks trs96! Haha, well I know Blender will use every bit of the power in the GPU, so I can find solace in that .

I am certainly not a pro overclocker, though I'm sure my friends would love to make it go faster for me. So would one of these boards work better:
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128592&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=4902415&SID=
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128593&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=4902415&SID= (this one is actually more expensive)

The one thing that I kept looking at (other than the fact that none of these boards have Firewire built in) was how many expansion slots they had.

-Nate

 

[trs96]

Either of those will work. If you don't need dual LAN but could benefit from 2 eSata onboard
connections, go with the UD3H. Spend the money you'll save on more ram or whatever else
you'll need. Both of those will also work for a modest overclock. I always prefer to get a longer
usable life out of a CPU than a few 100 MHz faster clock speed. Best of luck on your build.
Let us know if we can help with installation after it's built.