Looking at buying new machine for Hackintosh

[jimx86]

thanks. yah, i was wondering for compatibility reasons. not concerned with speed at all. so what RAM would be best?

i'm still looking for a few motherboards that are guaranteed to work.

I sent you a PM, but I'll just post it here if anyone else has the same question:

If your motherboard supports it (even if it doesn't), I would definitely go with 1600 MHz RAM. Why? Here:

1) it can be automatically downgraded to 1333 MHz if your motherboard doesn't support it.
2) if your motherboard doesn't support it, a simple BIOS change (under the RAM profile if you have a Gigabyte board) can set it to 1600 MHz - the XMP profile.
3) it costs basically the same (if not the exact same) as 1333 MHz RAM, and therefore is a no-brainer for speed.
4) anything above 1600 (aka the next step - 2000) costs WAY too much and is just overpriced.

I notice that you're looking between an i3-i5, so my best recommendation would be the P55M-UD2 if you were on a strict budget or the P55M-UD4 if you have room in your price range. The UD4 also has ALC 889a audio which has native compatibility in the latest update of OS X.
Update: if you want the new USB3/SATA3 support, the P55A-UD3 is a good choice for the lower end i series.

Hope that helps solve your problem!

 

[Lnx2Mac]

thanks. yah, i was wondering for compatibility reasons. not concerned with speed at all. so what RAM would be best?

It's hard to define "best" unless we know your "criteria" for that...

Personally, I love the G.Skill Eco 1600@CL7, for the following reasons:
- Decently priced,
- Low-Profile gives me freedom to pick any cooler I want,
- 1.35V, so these run cooler, and for overclocking (which I don't) there's a lot of voltage headroom,
- Great support from G.Skill
Nuff said ?

BTW, take a look at my build... You'll probably like it, and can downgrade CPU & RAM...

Good Luck !
Lnx2Mac