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My first build: ASUS vs Gigabyte vs ???

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Hey there fellow Hackers!

I'm new here and I hope you can give me some advice for my first Hackintosh compatible build.

Intro (for the curious)

I have a MacPro 4.1 (early 2009), which I was barely able to upgrade to macOS Sierra. I had to apply a workaround, however I fear that as of next major release, it will not work anymore.

I am using my Mac for audio editing, run some VMs and do application development. I am very happy with OS X and the services that Apple provides. I also use Bootcamp to play games and that's where my old machine reaches its limits. Especially because I want to go 4K.

Now I consider building a Hackintosh, because I don't want to buy another machine for 4 grant that I can not even upgrade anymore. Plus, the future of the Mac Pro is uncertain and the current model already out-dated with no update in sight. It's just not worth the money.

My Research

In the past 2 days I have done nothing else than comparing compatible hardware for my needs and reading forum posts about other users experiences. I want to build a PC with good gaming performance, where I can later on do some upgrades to run a VR headset and/or a 4K display with +60 fps.

I found the following and I need some advise especially when it comes to the MoBo and the Storage.

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K
RAM: Corsair 16GB (4x4) DDR4 3000Mhz CL15 XMP2.0

MoBo Choice #1: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7-EU Mainboard (Rev.1.0)
MoBo Choice #2: ASUS Z170 Sabertooth Mark 1

SSD Choice #1: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB SSD (M.2 NVMe)
SSD Choice #2: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD (Sata3)

Questions

Mainly I'm concerned about the MoBo. Both Choices are excellent, however I tend to the Asus Sabertooth. It seems to be of better quality and has better benchmark performance. On the other hand the Gigabyte Z170 Gaming7 seems to have more features, more user feedback, is known to work well in a hackintosh and provides two M.2 connectors.

And that's where I'm struggling, because I could run two M.2 SSDs in a RAID and would get an extreme performance increase. Is this assumption even correct, or am I missing something?

The M.2 SSDs in any case would run the Windows installation, while I would install OS X on a SATA3 SSD (probably also in a RAID). So there should be no compatibility issues in OS X. Is this also correct?

I am happy for any feedback, so that I can avoid any mistakes.
If you suggest another mainboard, just let me know and I'll do my research.

Thanks and kind regards
iVirusYx
 

Well the article is about older hardware. It also says that the Z170 chipset has built-in support for NVMe SSDs. And it's also advertised on the Gigabyte mainboard. However, I couldn't find a discussion about a working build. Anyway, OS X will be installed on a traditional SSD and Windows should run on the NVMe SSDs. I don't see a problem, except perhaps with Clover...
 
Well the article is about older hardware. It also says that the Z170 chipset has built-in support for NVMe SSDs. And it's also advertised on the Gigabyte mainboard. However, I couldn't find a discussion about a working build. Anyway, OS X will be installed on a traditional SSD and Windows should run on the NVMe SSDs. I don't see a problem, except perhaps with Clover...
Make sure Windows 10 is installed UEFI mode and Clover is on the AHCI SSD and you should be OK. See https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi-on-separate-drives.198869/
 
Thanks!

So my build should theoretically work?
Should be OK. There are never any guarantees when installing OS X on PC hardware.
 
I just read through the MoBo manuals and I just noticed that the second M.2 connector of the Gigabyte Z170 Gaming-7 MoBo disables a great amount of SATA ports.
While running two M.2 PCIe SSD in a RAID would work, the second M.2 SSD would only run on x2 instead of x4 speeds and leaving me with only the ASMedia SATA ports.

The Asus Z170 Sabretooth Mark1 has only one M.2 slot that disables two SATA ports (one SATA-Express hub), leaving me with four remaining SATA ports (where two are part of one SATA-Express hub) and 2 ASMedia SATA ports.
Additionally it shares bandwith with the PCIe_slot3, so I could do the same RAID setup on the Sabertooth, I'd just need a PCIe expansion card, while still having a lot of SATA ports available.
 
If you want to do a RAID setup I would suggest a pair of M.2 ->PCIe expansion cards in a couple of PCIe x4/x8/x16 slots instead of the onboard m.2 slots. Or look for a board that uses PCIe lanes direct to the CPU instead of SATA Express lanes through the PCH.
 
Hmmm, I think that's out of my budget and way too much for my needs (considering I'd need a MoBo with 4 direct PCIe lanes). So I have to re-consider my priorities.

I want to be able to play VR games in a later stage, so I will probably also (at some point in time) consider an SLI setup.

Considering this, I think the Samsung PRO 960 NVMe PCIe x4 SSD should be fast enough in the on-board M.2 slot.
Even if it passes through the PCH and shares lanes with the SATA controller and the PCIe slot 3.
 
@iVirusYx have you pulled the trigger on this build? I am also eyeing the ASUS Sabertooth motherboard and would love to hear your experience with it...
 
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