Hackintosh for Video Editing (first Hackintosh ever)

[VCTRious]

Hello Guys,

Some background first. I am a print and motion designer from Germany about to quit my job for founding a own marketing agency with a friend. I am used to working on Mac since 5 years, although i am using a custom build windows at home. For my new work i decided to go with a hackintosh so i can build a strong working and gaming machine.
Programms i use most are ofc Photoshop and InDesign, but also Premiere Pro and compositing in After Effects. Right now it is not really sure what the Budget will be for the Hackintosh so i configured three different price-ranges. Most likely i will go with my Mid-Range configuration so here it is:

motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H Intel Z97 So.1150

CPU
Intel Core i7 4790K

Cooling
Corsair Hydro Series H75

RAM
32GB G.Skill TridentX DDR3-2400 DIMM CL10 Quad Kit

GPU
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Gaming G1 4096MB

SSDs
2x 250GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5"

HDD
3000GB Seagate Desktop HDD ST3000DM001 64MB 3.5"

PSU
550 Watt Corsair RM Series Modular 80+ Gold

Case
BitFenix Colossus Big-Tower RED/BLUE LED

Optical Drive
Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-ray Disc Writer SATA intern schwarz Retail

It's round about 1800€ (about 2000$) and i am buying it all in germany, so prices may vary in your country


Here are my thoughts first.
The motherboard has two ethernet slots, this makes it possible to have a direct connection to my RAID-NAS i am about to build for my marketing agency. Not required but nice to have as we will be working directly on the RAID, and the extra speed will help video-editing.

CPU K-version or not? Not sure if i am about to overclock. If, i have to via BIOS right?

Cooling for silence and durability.

I checked the QVL for the MB and found the RAM to be supported, thats good right?

GPU for Gaming, but also because Adobe utilises nvidia much better than AMD (just personal experience i made, correct me if i am wrong or not up-to-date). I read the nvidia is not supported out of the box and i have to install the drivers from nvidia. But this is something you always have to do on a Windows-PC also, so no problem right?

Two SSDs for Windows and OS-X. Will this be much harder to achieve? i mean Dual-OS.
As i heard it is better to go OSX first and than use the boot-loader right?

Will the Optical Drive be compatible?

All the remaining parts are just what i decided to have, no questions/problems there i think.



SO... i hope it is not to much at once but dont want to oversee something... i think this config will work... ofc not out of the box, but i want a configuration that will work easy.
If you have any adviced for other Hardware, always tell and don't be shy to suggest cheaper or more expensive parts if it will help me to build the hackintosh.

WOW we made it through... Thanks!

Greetings and i am really looking forward to what you guys can tell me and think about my configuration
Niki aka. VCTRious


PS: Continuity is not a requirement right now, i will have to see how i get the original Apple WIFI card anyways in germany, so this will be something for when everything else runs.

 

[Adrian B]

Hello Guys,

Some background first. I am a print and motion designer from Germany about to quit my job for founding a own marketing agency with a friend. I am used to working on Mac since 5 years, although i am using a custom build windows at home. For my new work i decided to go with a hackintosh so i can build a strong working and gaming machine.
Programms i use most are ofc Photoshop and InDesign, but also Premiere Pro and compositing in After Effects. Right now it is not really sure what the Budget will be for the Hackintosh so i configured three different price-ranges. Most likely i will go with my Mid-Range configuration so here it is:

motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H Intel Z97 So.1150

CPU
Intel Core i7 4790K

Cooling
Corsair Hydro Series H75

RAM
32GB G.Skill TridentX DDR3-2400 DIMM CL10 Quad Kit

GPU
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Gaming G1 4096MB

SSDs
2x 250GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5"

HDD
3000GB Seagate Desktop HDD ST3000DM001 64MB 3.5"

PSU
550 Watt Corsair RM Series Modular 80+ Gold

Case
BitFenix Colossus Big-Tower RED/BLUE LED

Optical Drive
Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-ray Disc Writer SATA intern schwarz Retail

It's round about 1800€ (about 2000$) and i am buying it all in germany, so prices may vary in your country

Here are my thoughts first.
The motherboard has two ethernet slots, this makes it possible to have a direct connection to my RAID-NAS i am about to build for my marketing agency. Not required but nice to have as we will be working directly on the RAID, and the extra speed will help video-editing.

Put the motherboard into the search facility and read up on the success of running both ethernet sockets in OS X. May be worth considering an additional SSD to use as a project scratch disk - something that is gaining in popularity. Check out the video forum too:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/system-usage/

CPU K-version or not? Not sure if i am about to overclock. If, i have to via BIOS right?

Cooling for silence and durability.

A lot of people will go for the larger H100i cooler and then upgrade the fans for quieter running and better cooling - video editing can create a great deal of heat within a pc case so adequate case cooling with good fresh air running into the case and then the exhaust air being removed quickly keep the temps down - and the machine will run quieter when this is done well.

I checked the QVL for the MB and found the RAM to be supported, thats good right?

Yes.

GPU for Gaming, but also because Adobe utilises nvidia much better than AMD (just personal experience i made, correct me if i am wrong or not up-to-date). I read the nvidia is not supported out of the box and i have to install the drivers from nvidia. But this is something you always have to do on a Windows-PC also, so no problem right?

Correct - install OS X using the onboard HD4600 graphics then download and activate the nVidia drivers or use nv_disable=1 as a boot flag until the drivers are installed. This boot flag disables Apples own older nVidia drivers from loading and conflicting with the newer unsupported hardware that you are using preventing an inevitable kernel (driver) panic.

Two SSDs for Windows and OS-X. Will this be much harder to achieve? i mean Dual-OS.
As i heard it is better to go OSX first and than use the boot-loader right?

Two SSDs to keep the operating systems completely separate is the best way to go. If you wish to use the UniBeast/ MultiBeast method to install OS X then read up on multi booting OS X with Windows.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/other-operating-systems/

You may decide that for your work use that a device like this may be good for only one operating system at a time.
http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00QJ7ILU4/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

Will the Optical Drive be compatible?

It will work as an optical drive - however the Asus models seem to prevent a machine from going to sleep in OS X. If this is important to you then there are better alternatives.

PS: Continuity is not a requirement right now, i will have to see how i get the original Apple WIFI card anyways in germany, so this will be something for when everything else runs.

There are plenty of German hackintosh sites that may help with getting the exact models required.

 

[VCTRious]

Put the motherboard into the search facility and read up on the success of running both ethernet sockets in OS X. May be worth considering an additional SSD to use as a project scratch disk - something that is gaining in popularity. Check out the video forum too:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/system-usage/

Thanks, i will look that up!
also the extra SSD will help ofc. At first i will go with one HDD for my project files and maybe MediaCache, and ofc all the stuff that does not need Backup all the time. But it is something i am thinking about for the future to get some bottlenecks eliminated with the SSD if required.

A lot of people will go for the larger H100i cooler and then upgrade the fans for quieter running and better cooling - video editing can create a great deal of heat within a pc case so adequate case cooling with good fresh air running into the case and then the exhaust air being removed quickly keep the temps down - and the machine will run quieter when this is done well.

Yeah good idea actually, bigger fans, lower speed, less noise.. i will consider it!
Also i will upgrade my case with more silence fans. Did not mention them because it's not important for first installation

Correct - install OS X using the onboard HD4600 graphics then download and activate the nVidia drivers or use nv_disable=1 as a boot flag until the drivers are installed. This boot flag disables Apples own older nVidia drivers from loading and conflicting with the newer unsupported hardware that you are using preventing an inevitable kernel (driver) panic.

This is something not belonging here, but there do i set the boot flags?

Two SSDs to keep the operating systems completely separate is the best way to go. If you wish to use the UniBeast/ MultiBeast method to install OS X then read up on multi booting OS X with Windows.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/other-operating-systems/

You may decide that for your work use that a device like this may be good for only one operating system at a time.
http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00QJ7ILU4/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

This means if i want to play games and need the full potential of my machine i can swap the SSD and use my Windows SSD. Do i have to change something in the BIOS before i can boot up? But it is in consideration. Installation would be much simpler because i dont have to run a Bootloader for Win and OSX right? And Windows will be installed as usual.

It will work as an optical drive - however the Asus models seem to prevent a machine from going to sleep in OS X. If this is important to you then there are better alternatives.

okay, good to know! Sleep/Wake would be nice... Did not know that. What are my alternatives? Actually i am not really sure if i even need a optical drive... but IF there is somebody who wants a DVD or even a Blu-Ray i can burn it for them... Or is it more intelligent to go with a external Blu-Ray Burner/Reader? Are there any Problems that could occur? OFC i always have the possibilty to switch to my Windows, Plug in the external burner and go from there.

There are plenty of German hackintosh sites that may help with getting the exact models required.

Thanks, i will look it up there

and thanks for all the Thoughts!

There is a question coming up right now..
The 3TB HDD will be used on both operating Systems as Data storage for applications and setups and stuff... I will make two 1.5TB partitions from it. I guess i would have to use different file format systems right? Or is there a possibility to use both partitions on both systems?

 

[pjjj]

This has been said many times before, but in case you missed it....

Video editing software is usually optimized for one type of GPU. If you use Adobe, the nVidia cards are great. If you use FCPX, it's optimized for AMD chips.

Many people have posted benchmarks and reviews of FCPX. Mid-range AMD cards perform much faster than a top-of-the-line nVidia GPUs. For everything else, especially games, such a nVidia card would vastly outperform the AMD, but FCPX is the exception.

No matter how much you may love nVidia's very high performance hardware, the unescapable truth is Apple wrote & optimized FCPX for AMD GPUs, specifically the ones in their "trash can" MacPro.

 

[VCTRious]

This has been said many times before, but in case you missed it....

Video editing software is usually optimized for one type of GPU. If you use Adobe, the nVidia cards are great. If you use FCPX, it's optimized for AMD chips.

Many people have posted benchmarks and reviews of FCPX. Mid-range AMD cards perform much faster than a top-of-the-line nVidia GPUs. For everything else, especially games, such a nVidia card would vastly outperform the AMD, but FCPX is the exception.

No matter how much you may love nVidia's very high performance hardware, the unescapable truth is Apple wrote & optimized FCPX for AMD GPUs, specifically the ones in their "trash can" MacPro.

Thank you very much for that insight! Did not know that. But i am not working with FCPX, so looks like nvidia is the way to go for me

Also explaines why the Mac Pros we use at work have dual AMD cards and not nvidia.. and we work on Adobe only.

 

[VCTRious]

if you want to know how it all turned out, here is some update:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/178563-kind-successful-ga-z97x-ud5h-i74790k-gtx-980-a.html