trs96
Moderator
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2012
- Messages
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- Motherboard
- Gigabyte B460M Aorus Pro
- CPU
- i5-10500
- Graphics
- RX 570
- Mac
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HP 8300 Elite ~ Best Selling all around Entry Level Hackintosh
I've checked the #1 best selling PC desktop list (new or used) on Amazon.com every month so far this year. The 8300 SFF model with a core i5 has always been at number one. The best refurbished price for one with 8GB of ram is $139 currently. Why is this ? Because small business owners need a fast and reliable Windows 10 Pro PC that doesn't cost a fortune. That is the primary kind of buyer. The second kind is people like you who want to run macOS and Windows without having to buy two separate computers to do so. These can run Catalina with no problems. Linux works as well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CV9G1BO/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
To make this a really great budget hackintosh, you can add another 8GB ram kit: https://www.newegg.com/p/0RN-001H-001V3?Item=9SIADRHAG10987 for $33.
Also add the Visiontek RX 560 4GB, low profile graphics card. You can then use it for gaming, video and photo editing etc. Will come in at close to $380. Less than a gaming console and it will perform as good or better. You don't waste any money on RGB lights, glass side panels and everything else that makes no difference in game performance. If you're more of a casual, occasional gamer, you don't need to spend over $850 for a fully decked out RGB bling Core i7 gaming system just to play Fortnite, CSGO, Rocket League and Overwatch.
Is small enough to fit anywhere and is relatively quiet. Also easy to add a natively supported wifi/BT card to the PCIe x1 slot.
You can run four 4K/60 Hz monitors off of this card. No PSU upgrade is needed. The cables are included and also the full height bracket if you want to put it in one of the MT HP models like the 6300 Pro or Elite 8300 MT. See pic above. The RX 560 should have support in macOS for at least 3-4 years past 2020 so it's a good investment. Build quality is solid and it's not too noisy like some fans in RX 560s.
The other great thing is that you can always upgrade to the 4 core 8 thread i7-3770 later on. Find them used for around 60-65 USD. Even less in a couple of years from now.
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