i7 4790k 4.0GHz - New Hackintosh

[rptech1402]

Hey Guys,

I was considering buying a iMac 27, but then noticed that Intel has released a 4Ghz Chip (4790k) and as I'm also a big Flight Sim Geek i thought this would be very beneficial to my gaming experience and overall speed my computer up.

This is my Current Rig:

Rig 1:

CPU: i5 3470 3.2GHz
MOB: GA-H61MA-D3V
RAM:Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 1600MHz CL9 DDR3
GFX: EVGA GTX 560 TI SC 1024MB GDDR5New Rig:

New Rig
CPU: i7 4790K 4.0GHz
MOB: GA-Z87M-D3H
RAM:Corsair Vengeance Pro Blue 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
GFX: EVGA GTX 780 SC 3GB GDDR5 or XFX R9 290X 4GB GDDR5

My main job involves working from home as a web designer and need this setup to be as stable as a rock.

What are your guys thought do you think it will work or would i be better paying the £1890 For a iMac.

Cheers

Ross

 

[trs96]

If you want to over-clock your CPU and do your own maintenance and repairs then the
CustoMac is the choice for you. The GTX 780 will also outperform any graphics you can
get configured in a custom ordered iMac.

If you just want an easy to setup and use iMac with no hassles updating software then go with the iMac. You would also have to add the cost of 3 years of Apple Care to the cost of the iMac. If anything were to go wrong after the first year and you didn't have it, the repairs get really expensive for an iMac.

If I were a professionally trained Apple Tech and could do it myself I would get the iMac but since
I'm not, I build my own PCs and am happy to be able to run OS X on them. As far as stability is concerned it depends on how well you build and configure your PC-Mac. I would definitely go with
either Crucial or G.Skill ram for the build in place of the Corsair if you want to avoid freezes and
instability.

 

[thomasjudge]

You'll probably want to review other posts as well,
the safest bet is to go with a build & method
that other people have tried that works
(known good) The one caveat that catches
my eye is that on Amazon they say that
the 4790K is not compatible with Z87
boards, only Z97. You probably want
to verify if that is true, and if it is, if you
are comfortable going with a Z97 board build,
there seem to still be some compatibility
issues there.

Good Luck!! Keep us posted!

 

[thomasjudge]

Well of course I may have spoke too soon - it looks
like Gigabyte has added that CPU to the support
list for some of their Z87 boards including the
GA-Z87M-D3H - so you should be good to go!
again, let us know how it goes
Something along these lines is probably
what I'll build next too..

 

[Detosx]

Edit - trs96's comments about working on iMacs are sensible, despite what I say below I want to reiterate that I wouldn't recommend people disassemble iMacs; if anything goes wrong, the Apple main boards are expensive to replace. The glass screen of my 2010 iMac was a doodle to remove, being held on by magnets but I find the newer iMac glass cover screen is glued in and a bit of a pain to remove.

-----

Short and long answer. Short, it sounds like you want a computer for your work; you said you need rock solid stability, presumably from the get go. Though you can build a hackintosh and get to that place, with perhaps the occasional frustration that is, these days, usually easily resolved, the iMac works out of the box and the screen it comes with is superb. If you don't need a killer spec, overclocked Haswell refresh K-series CPU, motherboard with M.2 SSD and SATA E and perhaps even Thunderbolt, a great gaming graphics card, all of which might or might not be overkill for your needs, the stunning looking iMac might be your best choice, especially if you have clients visit. It's hard to budget in how much that iMac case/screen are worth to you. Now onto the long answer, because I own a 27" iMac and have some thoughts, re servicing and Apple Care.

I very much agree with most of what trs96 said and even though I found replacing my 2010 iMac's noisy Seagate hard drive and fitting an SSD straightforward, following an iFixit guide on Youtube, being particularly careful with the screen's ribbon cables and being sure to fit the same manufacturer of hard drive as my model came with, so that the specific heat sensor HD cable plug fitted, I would still get Apple care, which I did. I was going to get Apple to replace the noisy Seagate HD but for a long time they wouldn't acknowledge the unsettling deep-rumble sound from the HD and users with that Seagate model were loosing faith with Apple on the forums, until, several years later, Apple finally did the right thing and sent out recall emails. I had read about some people getting their iMacs back with dings in the metal case, presumably from time-pressed technicians, so, seeing that it was straightforward, and because I wanted to fit a larger capacity Seagate hard drive anyway and also an SSD, I did it myself. The reason to get Apple Care for the iMac, whether considered straightforward or a bit of a pain to work in, is that the components inside, even if you source them via ebay, are often frighteningly expensive. I thought about upgrading the graphics card but when I when I read up on people who had done that with my particular model, and then looked at the price of the graphic card... no way was I going to do that. Similarly, I considered upgrading my i5 cpu to an i7 that had been found to work but again the expense of that CPU was... a polite word would be 'daunting'. I appreciate it is hard to compare something of the aesthetic beauty of an iMac with an ugly plastic and cheap spray paint job of a desktop PC, but even so, the cost of replacement parts is sobering, so I would factor in Apple Care. Plus, my 2010 iMac gets very hot. For whatever reason, I resent buying a third-party fan control app and it's an iMac, I didn't get it to endure fan noise. These days, I just use it as a screen for my Hackintosh/Ubuntu/Windows PC. The screen is still stunning, relatively speaking, screen and case both.

 

[trs96]

@rptech

Out of personal curiosity I looked at the USA Apple site and priced out a very high spec iMac
that is currently available. Not sure if these prices are the same in the UK but here goes.

Click to enlarge screenshot

With a 512 GB SSD boot drive and 32 GB of ram plus the GTX 780M the iMac comes to $3600
and the sales tax would add $200 making it just over $3800. Upgrading the ram and storage
(to a 512 GB SSD) adds $1100 to the cost of the iMac. I then loaded a cart at Newegg
with what I would buy with the same specs including a Dell 27" IPS monitor. The total price is
just under $2000 USD. I already have an ATX case and 650W Gold rated PSU that I could use
in the build, assuming you would too. The cost at Newegg comes in at $1,975 shipped with no sales
tax in my state, which is also less than the iMac would be if you went to the effort to upgrade the
ram and hard drive in it yourself. Something that Apple strongly discourages you to do. It's a real PITA
to remove the glass front of the monitor. You need suction cups and special tools and you can possibly
do some irreparable damage to the monitor itself. It's certainly not a 10 minute job like it is in a mid
tower ATX desktop PC.

Newegg Hardware Prices:


If you even budget in a case, PSU, Magic Mouse and BT wireless Apple keyboard, that would only be 300 dollars (or less) extra, making the total $2,300, or about $1,500 less than the I7-4771 iMac.
So it looks like the savings could really be significant but you would of course spend a lot more time building your own system and installing OS X and time is valuable too.

I think that the biggest advantage of using a Customac is the superior cooling options you would have if overclocking the CPU and/or graphics card so that you could do the graphics intensive flight sim and gaming and still keep your hardware cool enough that it doesn't die a premature death. So I'd certainly either add a good liquid cooler or quite a few more Noctua case fans to keep things from
getting too hot in the case. Will be interesting to see how hot these new I7-4790K's will get when
they are overclocked beyond 4.2 4.5 GHz. Intel was supposed to have used solder instead of thermal paste between the CPU die and IHS on these to keep them from over-heating when overclocked.

 

[Asus-Freak]

... Will be interesting to see how hot these new I7-4790K's will get when
they are overclocked beyond 4.2 GHz. Intel was supposed to have used solder instead of thermal paste between the CPU die and IHS on these to keep them from over-heating when overclocked.

4.2 is not an OC. 4790k base clock is 4.0 with turbo @ 4.4. From what's available thus far on the hardware sites it looks like 4.6 to 4.7 is easily obtainable and 4.8 with a little voltage bump and good cooling...

 

[trs96]

4.2 is not an OC. 4790k base clock is 4.0 with turbo @ 4.4. From what's available thus far on the hardware sites it looks like 4.6 to 4.7 is easily obtainable and 4.8 with a little voltage bump and good cooling...

Thanks for the correction. Looks like the Haswell Refresh I7-4790K has a very high ceiling. That's a lot
of performance out of a 339 dollar quad core cpu. Glad that I haven't bought the 4770K before this
became available.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/intel-cpus/1400300/intel-core-i7-4790k-review
This reviewer says that it's what the 4770K should have been.

 

[Asus-Freak]

Thanks for the correction. Looks like the Haswell Refresh I7-4790K has a very high ceiling. That's a lot
of performance out of a 339 dollar quad core cpu. Glad that I haven't bought the 4770K before this
became available.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/intel-cpus/1400300/intel-core-i7-4790k-review
This reviewer says that it's what the 4770K should have been.

Yep, it's what reviewers do... lol. I've got a 4790k coming Monday, we'll see how it stacks up to my 4770K. Regards

 

[rptech1402]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all your awesome replies. I agree with all of you with your views on iMac / CustomMac.

However @Detosx hit the nail on the head. The builders have just finished building an extension onto my garage so i can now move my work from the home into a purpose built property at the back of the house. I've also just purchased 2x foscam-fi9828w and have a reputable alarm installation company coming to kit it all out for added security.

Anyways back to the Mac / Hack @Destosx is right with this new office I will be able to entertain customers / guests and want it to look aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Here is a quick spec of what I'm probably going to order within the next week when i finish a new contract.



I will also be upgrading to 32GBs my self as it's much cheaper than apple.

I'm also going to be adding a 8TB NASBOX which will remain inside my house so my cameras can record to it and should anything unfortunate happen i.e.(Theft / Burglary) I've still got all my data, I'm just trying to find a decent 1000mbps nas box.


All the best

---
Ross