- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
- Messages
- 27
- Motherboard
- Dell
- CPU
- Core 2 Duo
- Graphics
- NVidia
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Good day everyone!
I am in the planning stages of my very first Mac OS build. I have been building Windows based systems for over 20 years now so my questions will be more from the side of compatibility and ease of configuring. I have been reading this forum for over a year now and based on what I had learned from all of you, I had successfully installed the Snow Leopard DVD on my old Dell XPS M1530. The whole reason I decided to experiment with Mac OS is because my wife and I are both iPhone/iPad users and my wife has been asking me for a Macbook Air for some time now. I told her I needed to learn the OS so I can answer her usage questions before buying otherwise I'd probably end up in the dog house!
After installing the OS on my Dell, I was very surprised to find that I actually preferred Mac OS over windows. So my plan was to purchase and iMac when the new models came out. Unfortunately, Apples decision to significantly limit their configuration options has forced me into designing my own build and so here I am asking for all of your help.
As my header states, I am in need of a system that will have no issue running any sort of game at the highest of settings. In addition, I do a lot of editing and recording of uncompressed video using a Black Magic Intensity Pro board. I then edit the video using a couple software packages, mostly Adobe Premier. And then I encode the video to .h264 for distribution. I am not sure if the Intensity Pro card has drivers for Mac OS, so I will also be installing Windows 8 on this system as well (for gaming also).
Processor:
I am pretty much set on an Intel i7-3770K
Motherboard:
Normally I would use an ASUS board, but I would like this to be as easy of an install as possible so I have picked 2 different Gigabyte boards. If everything works out of the box with the exception of any wireless card that may come with the MB, that would be great! My first choice is the GA-Z77X-UP5 TH since this has dual Thunderbolt ports for future proofing. My only issue with the board is that it only has 3 internal SATA III ports and I do not see any recommended add on boards for SATA III that are known to be compatible with Mac OS. If you could recommend one, that would pretty much lock me in on this board. Also, I haven't seen any details anywhere for how difficult it is to get the Thunderbolt ports working in Mac OS? My fallback board is the GA-Z77X-UD5H. I am assuming that everything works on these boards including audio, networking, USB 3 and on board video?
Memory:
I was planning on maxing the board out with G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9Q-32GXM
Video Card:
This will be a gaming rig first and the video encoding/editing will be a secondary function, so I really don't want a Quadro card. I would really like to use the ASUS GTX690-4GD5, however I have not seen any details anywhere as to how difficult it is to get working. I have seen posts of people having success with a GTX690, but not this specific card. So if anyone can chime in on what is involved in getting this card to work and how much functionality I will get in Mac OS, that would be helpful! If it works, but I don't get full functionality I might jump to windows when needed or I will step back to the ASUS GTX680-DC2-4GD5 unless there are any objections to that one. If there are then I was thinking of the GIGABYTE GV-N680OC-4GD.
Hard Drives:
I was planning on only using SSD's in this system in the following configuration: 250 GB for Mac OS, 250 GB for Win 8, up to 1 TB for uncompressed video recording and 250 GB drive to encode to. My question stems from only Sandisk drives being recommended, however I will need a drive that works well with incompressible data and currently that would be the Samsung 840 PRO for my encoding drive. Any SSD that uses a Sandforce controller has very poor performance when writing incompressible data, i.e. the Sandisk drives that are recommended. Would this lead to compatibility issues with Mac OS or does pretty much any SSD work?
I currently have a case, power supply and monitor (although a nice 27" 2560 x 1440 display would be nice!) to use and I do not believe there is any impact on Mac OS for those devices. I plan on installing Mountain Lion for this build and will purchase that from the App store on my Snow Leopard Install. Any advice on this build is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
I am in the planning stages of my very first Mac OS build. I have been building Windows based systems for over 20 years now so my questions will be more from the side of compatibility and ease of configuring. I have been reading this forum for over a year now and based on what I had learned from all of you, I had successfully installed the Snow Leopard DVD on my old Dell XPS M1530. The whole reason I decided to experiment with Mac OS is because my wife and I are both iPhone/iPad users and my wife has been asking me for a Macbook Air for some time now. I told her I needed to learn the OS so I can answer her usage questions before buying otherwise I'd probably end up in the dog house!
After installing the OS on my Dell, I was very surprised to find that I actually preferred Mac OS over windows. So my plan was to purchase and iMac when the new models came out. Unfortunately, Apples decision to significantly limit their configuration options has forced me into designing my own build and so here I am asking for all of your help.
As my header states, I am in need of a system that will have no issue running any sort of game at the highest of settings. In addition, I do a lot of editing and recording of uncompressed video using a Black Magic Intensity Pro board. I then edit the video using a couple software packages, mostly Adobe Premier. And then I encode the video to .h264 for distribution. I am not sure if the Intensity Pro card has drivers for Mac OS, so I will also be installing Windows 8 on this system as well (for gaming also).
Processor:
I am pretty much set on an Intel i7-3770K
Motherboard:
Normally I would use an ASUS board, but I would like this to be as easy of an install as possible so I have picked 2 different Gigabyte boards. If everything works out of the box with the exception of any wireless card that may come with the MB, that would be great! My first choice is the GA-Z77X-UP5 TH since this has dual Thunderbolt ports for future proofing. My only issue with the board is that it only has 3 internal SATA III ports and I do not see any recommended add on boards for SATA III that are known to be compatible with Mac OS. If you could recommend one, that would pretty much lock me in on this board. Also, I haven't seen any details anywhere for how difficult it is to get the Thunderbolt ports working in Mac OS? My fallback board is the GA-Z77X-UD5H. I am assuming that everything works on these boards including audio, networking, USB 3 and on board video?
Memory:
I was planning on maxing the board out with G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9Q-32GXM
Video Card:
This will be a gaming rig first and the video encoding/editing will be a secondary function, so I really don't want a Quadro card. I would really like to use the ASUS GTX690-4GD5, however I have not seen any details anywhere as to how difficult it is to get working. I have seen posts of people having success with a GTX690, but not this specific card. So if anyone can chime in on what is involved in getting this card to work and how much functionality I will get in Mac OS, that would be helpful! If it works, but I don't get full functionality I might jump to windows when needed or I will step back to the ASUS GTX680-DC2-4GD5 unless there are any objections to that one. If there are then I was thinking of the GIGABYTE GV-N680OC-4GD.
Hard Drives:
I was planning on only using SSD's in this system in the following configuration: 250 GB for Mac OS, 250 GB for Win 8, up to 1 TB for uncompressed video recording and 250 GB drive to encode to. My question stems from only Sandisk drives being recommended, however I will need a drive that works well with incompressible data and currently that would be the Samsung 840 PRO for my encoding drive. Any SSD that uses a Sandforce controller has very poor performance when writing incompressible data, i.e. the Sandisk drives that are recommended. Would this lead to compatibility issues with Mac OS or does pretty much any SSD work?
I currently have a case, power supply and monitor (although a nice 27" 2560 x 1440 display would be nice!) to use and I do not believe there is any impact on Mac OS for those devices. I plan on installing Mountain Lion for this build and will purchase that from the App store on my Snow Leopard Install. Any advice on this build is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
