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I've got some ideas for a hackintosh but want some help.

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2ft7_Ninja

2ft7_Ninja

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Looking to build a high end gaming Hackintosh

I've been doing research online to build myself a nice hackintosh. I intend on using this for high quality gaming and recording, and HD video editing and rendering. I want to make sure everything is compatible with mac and if there is a fix I have to do I'd like to know. I am on a bit of a budget so $1000-$1500 is the range i want to buy in.

Here's what I'm thinking of so far:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor. ~$215 I think I'm pretty well decided on this. It's not too expensive and i hear its great for gaming. I intend on Overclocking.

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard. ~$115 I'm not to sure about the motherboard. A Z77 chipset looks good and ATX form factor looks about right. I don't know much about the manufacturers.

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card. ~$400 I've heard alot of great things about this card and am pretty set on it. I just want to make sure everything else works well with it.

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory. ~$115 Memories pretty simple and I think this is a good choice. In the future I'd maybe like to upgrade to 32GB but 16GB is fairly good in itself.

Storage:
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk. ~$130​
128GB seems like enough for me. I already have an external hard drive that has tons of room. I've been told OCZ Vertex is good quality.

Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor. ~$170 From what i can see it's a nice 1920x1080 high contrast monitor for a good price.​

Case: ??? I haven't got any good idea yet. I just want to make sure it'll have room to hold everything and keep the fan efficient.

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM ~$80 I've only heard good things about this fan. Supposedly quiet and effecient. It's big so I want to be sure it fits.

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ~$50 Liable to change. I don't have much of an idea, but would love to hear all of yours. 400W seems like a good place and its should be fairly power effecient.

If there is anything I should know in order to make a well running Hackintosh, I'd like to know.
 
2ft7_Ninja said:
I've been doing research online to build myself a nice hackintosh. I intend on using this for high quality gaming and recording, and HD video editing and rendering. I want to make sure everything is compatible with mac and if there is a fix I have to do I'd like to know. I am on a bit of a budget so $1000-$1500 is the range i want to buy in.

Here's what I'm thinking of so far:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor. ~$215 I think I'm pretty well decided on this. It's not too expensive and i hear its great for gaming. I intend on Overclocking.

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard. ~$115 I'm not to sure about the motherboard. A Z77 chipset looks good and ATX form factor looks about right. I don't know much about the manufacturers.

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card. ~$400 I've heard alot of great things about this card and am pretty set on it. I just want to make sure everything else works well with it.

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory. ~$115 Memories pretty simple and I think this is a good choice. In the future I'd maybe like to upgrade to 32GB but 16GB is fairly good in itself.

Storage:
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk. ~$130​
128GB seems like enough for me. I already have an external hard drive that has tons of room. I've been told OCZ Vertex is good quality.

Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor. ~$170 From what i can see it's a nice 1920x1080 high contrast monitor for a good price.​

Case: ??? I haven't got any good idea yet. I just want to make sure it'll have room to hold everything and keep the fan efficient.

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM ~$80 I've only heard good things about this fan. Supposedly quiet and effecient. It's big so I want to be sure it fits.

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ~$50 Liable to change. I don't have much of an idea, but would love to hear all of yours. 400W seems like a good place and its should be fairly power effecient.

If there is anything I should know in order to make a well running Hackintosh, I'd like to know.
Click to expand...

Two comments:

If you plan on overclocking, you probably want a bigger PSU - maybe 500W or so.

The ASRock motherboard should work fine, but for power management & sleep you'll need to flash a patched BIOS - see http://www.tonymacx86.com/dsdt/47397-msi-asrock-foxconn-1155-patched-bios-thread.html for more info.
 
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every uefi board except gigabyte needs that.
asrock boards also need a dsdt edit for sleep to work.
 
Just a comment about the memory, are you planning to do some media recording / editing, any programming, etc?

If yes, then your 16GB would be fine (and your 32GB future upgrade would be even better?), if it's gaming / general use then 8GB would be plenty enough.

I second the comment re: PSU upgrade particularly if overclocking.

Re: case, the Corsair 200R, 300R, 400R seems very well regarded. Cooler Master HAF 912 or 922 maybe?
 
samisnake said:
every uefi board except gigabyte needs that.
asrock boards also need a dsdt edit for sleep to work.
Click to expand...
Could you explain the dsdt edit? Sorry I'm a bit of a noob at this.
 
mrooseno said:
Just a comment about the memory, are you planning to do some media recording / editing, any programming, etc?

If yes, then your 16GB would be fine (and your 32GB future upgrade would be even better?), if it's gaming / general use then 8GB would be plenty enough.

I second the comment re: PSU upgrade particularly if overclocking.

Re: case, the Corsair 200R, 300R, 400R seems very well regarded. Cooler Master HAF 912 or 922 maybe?
Click to expand...
I do media editing. Basically 30 min youtube gaming stuff. I use a great program called Screenflow. I reccomend it to anybody. Never really thought about programming, but heck, if I get into it, knowing ill have a good system for it will be nice.

Those cases seem pretty good Corsair and Coolermaster are good names. My biggest worry is that the monster of a fan Noctua d14 is I won't be able to fit anything correctly.
 
Long shot maybe, but if you happen to be close to a microcenter or someone you know is, the 3770k can be had there for $229

http://www.microcenter.com/product/388575/Core_i7_3770K_35GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

Someone here pointed this out in another advice thread.


Your system choice looks great- should make an excellent system for video editing. I think you're exactly right to go with 2x 8GB to maximize your RAM slots.


Potential Problem:

A friend of mine recently had to ditch that very same heatsink unit because it simply wouldn't fit his motherboard. The potential problem is deceptive until you're dealing with it in real life. It's not the case- by way of CPU coolers it's actually not that tall and will fit most any ATX case height-wise (barring any excessive fan cowlings and such on the case door.)

Actually it's too squat and extremely wide because of the center fan sandwiched between the heatsinks. Likely you'd want it venting out the back of the case (which points it in the direction toward the board's back panel and over the RAM slots.) So you'll want to study the board layout carefully and see if there are possibly obstructing heatsinks on the motherboard, and especially be wary of extra tall heatsinks on RAM. In the case of having to mount parallel to the back panel, check on obstructions in that direction too.

In my friend's case, and as an example for you: using a Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH motherboard and RAM with tall heatsinks, the Noctua absolutely wouldn't fit. Mounted with the fans toward the back panel, it barely cleared the rear heatsink (which would have worked) but the tall heatsinks on the RAM were a total-no-go. The fall back of mounting it the other way was a no-go because the board's heatsink in that direction was too tall for the Noctua. In pictures of the board it looks like it's the same height, but it's slightly higher just enough to block the installation.

So check your ASRock board carefully and confirm if you can others are using this heatsink with it. I looked at the board 3-D spin around on newegg, and it looks to me like it will fit, so long as your RAM is normal height. It appears to me that the board heatsink toward the back panel is tall, but not tall enough to obstruct the Noctua. If you had to mount it the other way though, I'm pretty sure the heatsink in that direction IS too tall- but that's not generally the most desired direction for venting heat anyway.

Just a heads up, I'd hate to see anyone else run smack into the same disappointment my friend had with that heatsink. I think with the RAM you chose you'll be fine, but double-check if you can.
 
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