Mini ITX GPU / Cooler

[dcdansk]

I'm struggling to pick a video card and quiet cooler for my build.

I want to build a dual boot High Sierra and Windows. I also want it the GPU to be as easy to configure as possible to get everything working properly on the Mac side. I'm aware of the battles online over Nvidia vs AMD but it's not clear to me which is the best choice. This site seems to favor Nvidia but others say AMD is easier to get working and Apple hasn't shipped hardware with an Nvidia in 5 years. Personally, I don't really care which one I go with but I want it to be good and fit in the Mini ITX. I've purchased Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Mini ITX Video Card, but now thinking maybe that's not the best choice to make things seamless. We obviously don't know what's going to happen in future updates but I would like to be as forward thinking in this hardware choose as possible so things just don't start breaking. The video card needs to be small enough to fit in this case and I would like at least 8GB. I'm not trying to buy a 1K GPU but comfortable spending around $600 if need be. I picked that GeForce because it fit the bill across the board and didn't seem too loud, but should I go with AMD?

Now onto coolers. It's hard to believe this has been one of the hardest decisions in building this computer. I want an AIO cooler. I know the internet is full of battles about this as well. This case says it can hold up to 140m. I was looking at the Kraken 140m but not sure if it would work well. I plan on delidding this CPU and overclocking. I couldn't care less about RGB lights so that's not part of the equation. Ultimately, I want it to keep my CPU as cold as possible, given the case, with as little noise as possible. I know throwing AIO into a Hackintosh throws other issues that I might not be thinking about because I've never tried this. Any help you can offer on what to pick to fit this bill is appreciated. I'm not trying to spend more than necessary but at close to 4K so not price sensitive to this very important piece.

Any pointers, thoughts, or comments on how to improve this before making a mistake in purchasing it greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[dcdansk]

For reference my case is "Thermaltake Core V1 Snow Edition SPCC Mini ITX Cube" if that provides any clarity on the GPU size requirements.

 

[endrus]

Although you have most of the components already I am typing these lines on my recent half-finished mini built triple boot MacOS, Win7, Ubuntu machine:

500GB Samu EVO 970 for MacOS as my primarily system
250GB Samu EVO 970 for Win10
120GB SSD for Ubuntu
5TB Seagate 2.5 BarraCuda for storage

GA-Z370N WIFI is one of the easy/best choice for mITX Hackintosh, 2x NVMe port, Native ALC1220 audio, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x DP, 6xUSB 3.0, 1xUSB-C port. Only drawback the VRAM can go hot on OC so a blow down air cooler is recommended.

Asus has a S1220A audio codec that needs a bit of fiddling to get it working. On both boards the Wifi card needs to exchanged to either DW1540 or BMC94352Z or similar card to get it working. I ordered the Broadcom from China for 22USD.

Asus has 4 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0 , 1 x Optical S/PDIF out, 5 x Audio jack(s) vs GA board. Asus is more sharpened on the RGB madness that I do not value.

My final goal is to fit my system into the lazer3D case, that temporarily set-up in an old scrapped mATX case.

I am using i5-8400 as the Lazer case is designed for 65W TDP, but can handle 95W as well and might upgrade later if I needed to. Using 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200Mhz RAM modules clocking at 3,200 MHz very stable and again the reason being 2x16GB is overpriced and hoping the prices of RAM to come down.

Lazer3D is able to take water cooling and various air cooling depending on the power source you choose DC or PSU. I went with SF450 PSU and Noctua NH-L12S and very happy so far, noise and temperature all under control.

Regarding GPU I am not fully decided yet and holding back on to the final release of Mojave to see Apple's standpoint on OpenCL vs Metal. I am not a gamer, but my system is very much usable with just the UHD630, iGPU. I am leaning towards the RX580, but LazerLZ7 has a size limitation of 186x134mm and no ITX edition for RX580.

The only application that maxed out my CPU so far was DXO PhotoLab when I threw 300 raw files on it to convert. I am still to test FCP X to see how it performs with iGPU under heavy load.

All in all what I would recommend is to start building your RIG even without GPU and see how it goes and you can always decide or exchange parts that you do not like or does not perform the way you want.

 

[dcdansk]

Although you have most of the components already I am typing these lines on my recent half-finished mini built triple boot MacOS, Win7, Ubuntu machine:

500GB Samu EVO 970 for MacOS as my primarily system
250GB Samu EVO 970 for Win10
120GB SSD for Ubuntu
5TB Seagate 2.5 BarraCuda for storage

GA-Z370N WIFI is one of the easy/best choice for mITX Hackintosh, 2x NVMe port, Native ALC1220 audio, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x DP, 6xUSB 3.0, 1xUSB-C port. Only drawback the VRAM can go hot on OC so a blow down air cooler is recommended.

Asus has a S1220A audio codec that needs a bit of fiddling to get it working. On both boards the Wifi card needs to exchanged to either DW1540 or BMC94352Z or similar card to get it working. I ordered the Broadcom from China for 22USD.

Asus has 4 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0 , 1 x Optical S/PDIF out, 5 x Audio jack(s) vs GA board. Asus is more sharpened on the RGB madness that I do not value.

My final goal is to fit my system into the lazer3D case, that temporarily set-up in an old scrapped mATX case.

I am using i5-8400 as the Lazer case is designed for 65W TDP, but can handle 95W as well and might upgrade later if I needed to. Using 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200Mhz RAM modules clocking at 3,200 MHz very stable and again the reason being 2x16GB is overpriced and hoping the prices of RAM to come down.

Lazer3D is able to take water cooling and various air cooling depending on the power source you choose DC or PSU. I went with SF450 PSU and Noctua NH-L12S and very happy so far, noise and temperature all under control.

Regarding GPU I am not fully decided yet and holding back on to the final release of Mojave to see Apple's standpoint on OpenCL vs Metal. I am not a gamer, but my system is very much usable with just the UHD630, iGPU. I am leaning towards the RX580, but Lazer LZ7 has a size limitation of 186x134mm and no ITX edition for RX580.

The only application that maxed out my CPU so far was DXO PhotoLab when I threw 300 raw files on it to convert. I am still to test FCP X to see how it performs with iGPU under heavy load.

All in all what I would recommend is to start building your RIG even without GPU and see how it goes and you can always decide or exchange parts that you do not like or does not perform the way you want.

Wow, just wow. Thank you so much! I'll give this a good read through and use it in my research efforts. I've already bought and returned multiple items now but haven't started the build so not too late. Appreciate your time and the helpful response! Have a great day.

 

[endrus]

I found a rare gem of a blog specialized on Hackintosh GPU. CHECK IT OUT, AS IT WILL GIVE YOU A GOOD DIRECTION.

Cheers,