My first OSX build - Please check for compatibility! (BOBW)

[ElminsterTCOM]

Good day everyone!

The primary purpose for this build is for gaming with a secondary focus on video capturing and transcoding. I mostly capture uncompressed video in 1080p so the SanDisk Extreme should be fine. If I have any issues, I’ll let everyone know.

I plan to purchase all of the components soon, however the case I have chosen isn’t available yet. Please let me know what you think, all suggestions are welcome! Thank you in advance and thanks again trs96 for your help in creating this list!!

Case:
Fractal Design - Define XL R2
http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=111

Processor:
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128559

Video Card (MB PCIEX16 slot and PCIEX8 slot):
MSI N680GTX Twin Frozr 4GD5/OC GeForce GTX 680 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127695

SATA III Card (MB PCIEX4 slot):
HighPoint Rocket 640L PCI-Express 2.0 x4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115114

Video Capture Board (MB PCIEX1 slot):
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensity/techspecs/
(Already Own)

Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231569

Osx OS Drive (MB SATA III port 0):
SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-240G-G25 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171568

Windows 8 OS Drive (MB SATA III port 1):
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193

Video Recording Drive – Compressable Data (MB Marvell 88SE9172 chip SATA III port):
SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-480G-G25 2.5" 480GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171569

Video Transcoding Drive for Incompressible Data (High Point Rocket SATA III port):
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193

CPU Cooler:
CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181032

or

Swiftech H220 Water Cooling Kit
http://www.swiftech.com/H220.aspx

(Note: Mounted to the top of the case utilizing the 68mm space between top and motherboard in push pull configuration with 2 additional fans list below)

Additional Push Pull Fans:
GELID Solutions Slim 12 UV BLUE 120mm Case Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835705067

Additional Case Fans (or Replacement):
Thermalright TR-X-Silent-140 140mm Fan Black Retail

http://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-TR-X-Silent-140-140mm-Black-Retail/dp/B002U4Z6NA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359745599&sr=8-1&keywords=X-silent+140

Power Supply:
SeaSonic SS-1000XP 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151105

Bluetooth:
IOGEAR GBU521W6 Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875983008&Tpk=gbu521w6


Motherboard Connections:

PCIEX1_1 slot - Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro
PCIEX16 slot - MSI N680GTX GeForce GTX 680 4GB
PCIEX1_2 slot
PCIEX1_3 slot
PCIEX8 slot - MSI N680GTX GeForce GTX 680 4GB (Future or Now)
PCI slot
PCIEX4 slot - HighPoint Rocket 640L PCI-Express 2.0 x4

SATA3 Port 0 - Osx OS Drive SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-240G-G25 240GB
SATA3 Port 1 - Windows 8 OS Drive SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 256GB
SATA2 Port 2
SATA2 Port 3
SATA2 Port 4
SATA2 Port 5
mSATA Port 6
eSATA Port 7
GSATA Port 8 - Video Recording Drive SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-480G-G25 480GB

D-Sub Port
DVI-D Port
Optical S/PDIF Out connector
HDMI Port
Thunderbolt Port 1
Thunderbolt Port 2


HighPoint Rocket 640L Connections:

SATA3 Port 1 - Video Transcoding Drive SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 256GB
SATA3 Port 2
SATA3 Port 3
SATA3 Port 4


ASUS GeForce GTX 680 4GB Connections:

HDMI – Monitor 24” 1080P (Already Own)
Display Port – 27” 2560 x 1440 Monitor (Future Purchase)
DVI 1
DVI 2

(Note: In Windows 8 configured to take advantage of Virtu MVP Hybrid Graphics)


Thanks again!!!

Edit 1: Relocated Intensity Pro to PCIEX1_1 slot per DBP's recommendation
Edit 2: Changed from the Asus GTX680 4GB card to the MSI GTX680 4GB card and added the possibility for a second MSI GTX680 4GB card.
Edit 3: Bumped the power supply up a notch to a 1000W Seasonic.

 

[StickyS]

Good day everyone!

The primary purpose for this build is for gaming with a secondary focus on video capturing and transcoding. I mostly capture uncompressed video in 1080p so the SanDisk Extreme should be fine. If I have any issues, I’ll let everyone know.

I plan to purchase all of the components soon, however the case I have chosen isn’t available yet. Please let me know what you think, all suggestions are welcome! Thank you in advance and thanks again trs96 for your help in creating this list!!

Case:
Fractal Design - Define XL R2
http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=111

Processor:
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128559

Video Card (MB PCIEX16 slot):
ASUS GTX680-DC2-4GD5 GeForce GTX 680 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121705

SATA III Card (MB PCIEX4 slot):
HighPoint Rocket 640L PCI-Express 2.0 x4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115114

Video Capture Board (MB PCIEX1 slot):
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensity/techspecs/
(Already Own)

Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231569

Osx OS Drive (MB SATA III port 0):
SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-240G-G25 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171568

Windows 8 OS Drive (MB SATA III port 1):
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193

Video Recording Drive – Compressable Data (MB Marvell 88SE9172 chip SATA III port):
SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-480G-G25 2.5" 480GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171569

Video Transcoding Drive for Incompressible Data (High Point Rocket SATA III port):
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193

CPU Cooler:
CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181032

or

Swiftech H220 Water Cooling Kit
http://www.swiftech.com/H220.aspx

(Note: Mounted to the top of the case utilizing the 68mm space between top and motherboard in push pull configuration with 2 additional fans list below)

Additional Push Pull Fans:
GELID Solutions Slim 12 UV BLUE 120mm Case Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835705067

Additional Case Fans (or Replacement):
Thermalright TR-X-Silent-140 140mm Fan Black Retail

http://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-TR-X-Silent-140-140mm-Black-Retail/dp/B002U4Z6NA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359745599&sr=8-1&keywords=X-silent+140

Power Supply:
SeaSonic SS-660XP 660W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151121

Bluetooth:
IOGEAR GBU521W6 Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875983008&Tpk=gbu521w6


Motherboard Connections:

PCIEX1_1 slot
PCIEX16 slot - ASUS GTX680-DC2-4GD5 GeForce GTX 680 4GB
PCIEX1_2 slot
PCIEX1_3 slot - Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro
PCIEX8 slot
PCIEX4 slot - HighPoint Rocket 640L PCI-Express 2.0 x4

SATA3 Port 0 - Osx OS Drive SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-240G-G25 240GB
SATA3 Port 1 - Windows 8 OS Drive SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 256GB
SATA2 Port 2
SATA2 Port 3
SATA2 Port 4
SATA2 Port 5
mSATA Port 6
eSATA Port 7
GSATA Port 8 - Video Recording Drive SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-480G-G25 480GB

D-Sub Port
DVI-D Port
Optical S/PDIF Out connector
HDMI Port
Thunderbolt Port 1
Thunderbolt Port 2


HighPoint Rocket 640L Connections:

SATA3 Port 1 - Video Transcoding Drive SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 256GB
SATA3 Port 2
SATA3 Port 3
SATA3 Port 4


ASUS GeForce GTX 680 4GB Connections:

HDMI – Monitor 24” 1080P (Already Own)
Display Port – 27” 2560 x 1440 Monitor (Future Purchase)
DVI 1
DVI 2

(Note: In Windows 8 configured to take advantage of Virtu MVP Hybrid Graphics)


Thanks again!!!

That PSU might be strainged a bit, a 750W from Corsair or Seasonic should be perfect. For the CPU cooling, the H100i and Noctua NH-D14 are very close in performance; but there are some differences. 1: The Noctua is cheaper. 2: The H100i performs better, only about 5-10C though. 3: The Noctua is MUCH quieter. 4: The Noctua has compatibility problems, but with your motherboard and ram, it should work perfectly. Basically, if you are shooting for best cooling, you would have to upgrade at least fans on the H100i to get it to be quiet enough. No idea about custom water cooling, other than it costs a ton and is very complicated. For your case, I have the R4 and I can vouch for it. Very well built, semi-modular internals, fans it comes with are silent(R4 has soundproofing, my build is inaudible at full tilt).

EDIT: If you do decide to go for water cooling afterall, the H220 is better : http://www.xcpus.com/reviews/corsair-h100i-vs-the-swiftech-h220

 

[DBP]

That PSU might be strainged a bit, a 750W from Corsair or Seasonic should be perfect.

Really? Ok a 750W gives you more wiggle-room, but I would have said a 550W PSU was probably going to be strained with that load but a 660W would be OK. Nothing wrong with having a bit more room though, especially if the GPU is overclocked.

Motherboard Connections:

PCIEX1_1 slot
PCIEX16 slot - ASUS GTX680-DC2-4GD5 GeForce GTX 680 4GB
PCIEX1_2 slot
PCIEX1_3 slot - Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro
PCIEX8 slot
PCIEX4 slot - HighPoint Rocket 640L PCI-Express 2.0 x4

I would be tempted to put the Blackmagic card in PCIEX1_1 (above the GPU) instead of in _3. The more space you have below the GPU the easier it will be to feed air into its fans, and there should be room up there for the Intensity Pro even with an NH-D14 cooler. I don't know if it helps, but there are photos of my Z77X-UP5 TH card layout in a recent update to my lammergeier build post.

SATA3 Port 0 - Osx OS Drive SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-240G-G25 240GB
SATA3 Port 1 - Windows 8 OS Drive SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 256GB
SATA2 Port 2
SATA2 Port 3
SATA2 Port 4
SATA2 Port 5
mSATA Port 6
eSATA Port 7
GSATA Port 8 - Video Recording Drive SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-480G-G25 480GB

Just ignore that mSATA port entirely, as using it disables SATA2 port 5.

I see you're trying to put each SSD on its own 6 Gbps port. This should work well, with a few caveats.
You should load the "3rd Party SATA" kext in Multibeast to enable the Marvell ports, but that means that anything hooked up to the motherboard's eSATA port would probably be treated as non-hotswap (without eject functionality). But that should be fine, as the Marvell controller only has a single PCIe v2 lane for both ports (thus you will probably find the chip tops out around 500 MB/s even if an SSD connected to it could go faster).
If you wanted eSATA ports at some stage you could add a Rocket 644L card into the PCIEX8 slot.

Of course, you should ask yourself if the Windows 8 drive needs to be that fast. Will it only be for gaming? Getting a cheaper drive and/or putting it on one of the SATA2 ports would probably have minimal effect on Windows boot/operation times, and bugger-all on gaming performance.
Don't hesitate to put SSDs on the SATA2 ports: even 300 MB/s (before striping) is a respectable speed. And HDDs which can do up to 200 MB/s these days are not to be sneezed at either for storing project files.

 

[StickyS]

Of course, you should ask yourself if the Windows 8 drive needs to be that fast. Will it only be for gaming? Getting a cheaper drive and/or putting it on one of the SATA2 ports would probably have minimal effect on Windows boot/operation times, and bugger-all on gaming performance.
Don't hesitate to put SSDs on the SATA2 ports: even 300 MB/s (before striping) is a respectable speed. And HDDs which can do up to 200 MB/s these days are not to be sneezed at either for storing project files.

*Cringes* TCOM, you're going to be using WINDOWS 8 to game??? WHY? I died a little inside when you said this =/...Windows 8 is for tablets and phones, I'd go with Windows 7 for gaming...$130.

 

[ElminsterTCOM]

That PSU might be strainged a bit, a 750W from Corsair or Seasonic should be perfect. For the CPU cooling, the H100i and Noctua NH-D14 are very close in performance; but there are some differences. 1: The Noctua is cheaper. 2: The H100i performs better, only about 5-10C though. 3: The Noctua is MUCH quieter. 4: The Noctua has compatibility problems, but with your motherboard and ram, it should work perfectly. Basically, if you are shooting for best cooling, you would have to upgrade at least fans on the H100i to get it to be quiet enough. No idea about custom water cooling, other than it costs a ton and is very complicated. For your case, I have the R4 and I can vouch for it. Very well built, semi-modular internals, fans it comes with are silent(R4 has soundproofing, my build is inaudible at full tilt).

EDIT: If you do decide to go for water cooling afterall, the H220 is better : http://www.xcpus.com/reviews/corsair-h100i-vs-the-swiftech-h220

I was actually leaning towards the H220 for a number of reasons. But mostly because it is user serviceable and I can add to it if I ever decide to toy with water cooling other components.

My brother actually pointed this out to me as well that I might want to go with a bit more power on the PSU. What doo you think about the next step up?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151120

 

[ElminsterTCOM]

Really? Ok a 750W gives you more wiggle-room, but I would have said a 550W PSU was probably going to be strained with that load but a 660W would be OK. Nothing wrong with having a bit more room though, especially if the GPU is overclocked.


I would be tempted to put the Blackmagic card in PCIEX1_1 (above the GPU) instead of in _3. The more space you have below the GPU the easier it will be to feed air into its fans, and there should be room up there for the Intensity Pro even with an NH-D14 cooler. I don't know if it helps, but there are photos of my Z77X-UP5 TH card layout in a recent update to my lammergeier build post.


Just ignore that mSATA port entirely, as using it disables SATA2 port 5.

I see you're trying to put each SSD on its own 6 Gbps port. This should work well, with a few caveats.
You should load the "3rd Party SATA" kext in Multibeast to enable the Marvell ports, but that means that anything hooked up to the motherboard's eSATA port would probably be treated as non-hotswap (without eject functionality). But that should be fine, as the Marvell controller only has a single PCIe v2 lane for both ports (thus you will probably find the chip tops out around 500 MB/s even if an SSD connected to it could go faster).
If you wanted eSATA ports at some stage you could add a Rocket 644L card into the PCIEX8 slot.

Of course, you should ask yourself if the Windows 8 drive needs to be that fast. Will it only be for gaming? Getting a cheaper drive and/or putting it on one of the SATA2 ports would probably have minimal effect on Windows boot/operation times, and bugger-all on gaming performance.
Don't hesitate to put SSDs on the SATA2 ports: even 300 MB/s (before striping) is a respectable speed. And HDDs which can do up to 200 MB/s these days are not to be sneezed at either for storing project files.

My brother actually just suggest to me to slightly bump up the PSU as well. I was thinking that sine I wasn't using any physical drives that this would be ok. But he said knowing me, I'll have a raid in there eventually! lol

Gotcha! The Blackmagic card will go in slot 1, I'll update my first post to reflect that! And I will definitely take a look at your build. But I am really set on a liquid cooler this time around since my current system just suffered the infamous AM2 socket failure with the stock air cooler!

mSATA port has just been ignored along with the eSATA port since I never plan on using it. That's why I got Thunderbolt, right?

I have two motives for such a fast drive for the windows drive. The first being that I do a lot of work in Matlab and it insists on constantly caching to the os drive so I am hoping that this will speed things up. The second reason is purely to one up my brother.. ;-) Anyhow, I actually have a server for storing everything once it has been encoded.

Thank you!!

 

[StickyS]

I was actually leaning towards the H220 for a number of reasons. But mostly because it is user serviceable and I can add to it if I ever decide to toy with water cooling other components.

My brother actually pointed this out to me as well that I might want to go with a bit more power on the PSU. What doo you think about the next step up?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151120

Im not an expert on PSU's with regards to efficiency, but I've heard it makes a minor difference between all 80 Pluses. I have the Seasonic X-850, and everything works perfectly. The X-750 is something like $30 cheaper than the 760 Platinum, so IDK, your decision. I can vouch for Seasonic.

And why again are you doing with Windows 8 OVER Windows 7? I know you've said you wanted to game, but this would be to the 7's advantage...

 

[ElminsterTCOM]

*Cringes* TCOM, you're going to be using WINDOWS 8 to game??? WHY? I died a little inside when you said this =/...Windows 8 is for tablets and phones, I'd go with Windows 7 for gaming...$130.

hehehehehe!! No worries, I actually have a windows 7 license for this build to fall back on. I figured I'd give Windows 8 a shot since I was able to get a copy through work for $10.

 

[ElminsterTCOM]

Im not an expert on PSU's with regards to efficiency, but I've heard it makes a minor difference between all 80 Pluses. I have the Seasonic X-850, and everything works perfectly. The X-750 is something like $30 cheaper than the 760 Platinum, so IDK, your decision. I can vouch for Seasonic.

And why again are you doing with Windows 8 OVER Windows 7? I know you've said you wanted to game, but this would be to the 7's advantage...

I was looking for a very good PSU. I currently have one that I purchased when CompUSA closed up. I think it's a cooler master? I'd have to check the box. But it was loud and I wanted something relatively quiet. The reviews said this was a very quiet model. I have never used Seasonic, so it is nice to have someone back that choice up.

Thanks again for all of your help!

 

[DBP]

I have two motives for such a fast drive for the windows drive. The first being that I do a lot of work in Matlab and it insists on constantly caching to the os drive so I am hoping that this will speed things up. The second reason is purely to one up my brother.. ;-)

There can be a difference between sustained throughput (MB/s) and I/O operations/second ("IOPS"). Even though a SATA2 port is restricted to 300 MB/s, if the workload is lots of transactions the same SSD can perform similarly on a SATA2 and a SATA3 port. Anyway, this all comes down to you having the flexibility to possibly move the Windows drive to a SATA2 port if you need another SATA3 device accessible within OS X without having to put in the 640L card. I wouldn't be surprised if the Samsung 840 Pro on a SATA2 port would still be blindingly fast for your Windows application.

However, if you're going to buy the 640L anyway it doesn't really matter.