Last minute advice for 1st timer (see any potential problems with these?)

[Baldavenger]

Greetings one and all. I'm about to dive balls deep into previously uncharted territory, and build myself a lovely new Hackintosh. After much deliberation (and persistent hesitation) I decided to take the plunge, so I now please ask of you who have the time and inclination to review my tentative choices for my first build. All and any feedback will be greatly appreciated.




CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor


CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.7 CFM Liquid


Motherboard: Asus X99-DELUXE/U3.1 ATX LGA2011-3


Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666


Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 SSD x 2


Storage: Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive


Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB


Case: Corsair 780T ATX Full Tower Case


Power Supply: Corsair RMx 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX

I/O Card: Asus Thunderbolt 2 Ports PCI Card

The primary intended use for the machine will be for DaVinci Resolve (amongst other video and photography related work).

See any potential issues arising from that lot? I'm more than willing to put the required time and effort into making my Hackintosh fully functional, but it would be hugely helpful if any of the choices were 'black-flagged' before I make the error of ordering the wrong parts.

Many thanks!

 

[blueridgedog]

Why would you go with an X99 system for your first build even with the warning posted on the Buyer's Guide page? Ideally for your first build, you would mirror the hardware listed in the buyers guide as you are likely to get success.

 

[Baldavenger]

That's a good point, and one I can't can't answer with any real degree of veracity. I have seen other builds posted featuring both the x99 motherboard and i7-5930K CPU, though neither of which are listed in the recommended section. I appreciate it will probably be more difficult to get working, but even though it is my first build I'm willing to try. I believe the x99 Deluxe has a Thunderbolt connection that will enable the PCI card to work (hopefully).

Like a lot of other people before me, I'm giving Hackintosh a go as I want a more powerful set-up that can be upgraded in the future. I've been solely mac based for 10 years now and want to stay with OS X. I've run Win 7 in Bootcamp fairly successfully on my iMac, so I'm not totally averse to Windows. In fact, I hope to install 2 Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSDs, with OS X on one, and Win 10 on the other. This is the ideal scenario if I can get it all to work. I also hope to add a second Titan X at some stage in the near future, leaving me with what should be a pretty powerful and somewhat future-proof set-up.

Are there anymore thoughts on this? Please feel free to comment and share your opinion as this is a conversation that could make a big difference to whether I can make it all work or not.

Thanks again.

 

[blueridgedog]

I understand. My post is not tinted with judgement. I am building a new rig now myself, but going with the 97 chipset. I fully understand if you financially can go with the 99 and want to get as much future proofing as you can.

My only advice then would be to go through the success threads in the El Capitan Desktop Success forum and pick out a 99 chipset build that works to your liking and target that hardware. I have seen some 99 chipset owners encounter problems that at present can not be overcome.

 

[Baldavenger]

Thanks again for the heads up. I'll check out those threads you suggested. I'd be happy to settle for Yosemite, but if El Capitan is a viable option then of course I'll go for it. Much research awaits

 

[Baldavenger]

After first installing Win 10 on the other M.2 SSD (and settling on a decent configuration and overclock), I had a good go at compiling my first Hackintosh. It's exactly 7 days now since I started and I reckon I've put together a fairly stable build. A lot of hard work, swearing, and many many hours, but the challenge was worth it.

By far the two biggest pains were audio and Thunderbolt. I finally managed to get multichannel HD audio via HDMI and Displayport today, and Thunderbolt works with my Blackmagic I/O boxes and my Belkin Thunderbolt dock. I still can't get my iMac to be recognised as a Thunderbolt Display, but for now that can wait. Everything else works like a charm. I can boot into either OSX (El Capitan 10.11.2) or Win 10 in a matter of seconds from the Clover boot screen.

I followed most of the advice found in this post:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...capitan-10-11-2-clover-guide-100-working.html

Plus I gathered more useful information here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-...amsung-4k-asus-x99-e-ws-clover-efi-sm951.html

I've included a zip file of my Clover folder, along with the two kexts I used for audio.

It's a nice looking and powerful rig, and with a few more tweaks here and there it'll be even better.

 

[Baldavenger]

Managed to tweak performance (disabling EIST helped):

 

[Baldavenger]

I flashed the GPU to add overclock settings so that OS X can interpret them. Clock boost went from 1190 to 1291, and Memory went from 1750 to 1950.

 

[kiiroaka]

I flashed the GPU to add overclock settings so that OS X can interpret them.

How?

 

[Baldavenger]

How?

I followed the instructions in this video:

After doing so both Win 10 and El Capitan registered the additional boost, and I no longer need to use MSI Afterburner (which I initially used to establish a stable overclock).