N00b New System Advice Needed

[BigJ]

Hi Guys,

Hoping you can give me some feedback please:

I am looking to build a customac for my wife who loves macs, but is in need of a much better gaming system than her current macbook pro 17in.

So I've put together what I think is a reasonable spec from the buying guide, but would love some feedback:



1. Memory.... What speed memory is this? 1800mhz? if so.... can I use faster memory?]
2. Is this the best video card / bang for buck combo? Why is there no recommendation for an AMD R9 (as in the iMac) and there's nothing but Nvidia cards?
3. The aim of the system is gaming and some every day tasks
4. I'd like it to run as native as possible, so that OS X will run as stable as possible... Can anyone recommend any other changes to make the system faster yet more stable out the box?
5. To select a case.....will all the mother boards and video cards fit all the cases?
6. Any motherboards with build in thunderbolt?
7. I currently have a thunderbolt display (Apple Cinema) i'd like to continue to use.... Do you think it will work? The video card GTX760 doesn't seem to have thunderbolt.... Where do I plug the thunderbolt display into? the video card, the mobo, or the thunderbolt port on an addon card?

Many thanks in advance and if someone has a very stable, but powerful gaming rig recommendation that they know works pretty much out the box, I'd be really greatful for a share.

 

[BigJ]

Bump for help please )

 

[wfj]

Hi Guys,

Hoping you can give me some feedback please:

I am looking to build a customac for my wife who loves macs, but is in need of a much better gaming system than her current macbook pro 17in.

So I've put together what I think is a reasonable spec from the buying guide, but would love some feedback:

View attachment 114260

1. Memory.... What speed memory is this? 1800mhz? if so.... can I use faster memory?]
2. Is this the best video card / bang for buck combo? Why is there no recommendation for an AMD R9 (as in the iMac) and there's nothing but Nvidia cards?
3. The aim of the system is gaming and some every day tasks
4. I'd like it to run as native as possible, so that OS X will run as stable as possible... Can anyone recommend any other changes to make the system faster yet more stable out the box?
5. To select a case.....will all the mother boards and video cards fit all the cases?
6. Any motherboards with build in thunderbolt?
7. I currently have a thunderbolt display (Apple Cinema) i'd like to continue to use.... Do you think it will work? The video card GTX760 doesn't seem to have thunderbolt.... Where do I plug the thunderbolt display into? the video card, the mobo, or the thunderbolt port on an addon card?

Many thanks in advance and if someone has a very stable, but powerful gaming rig recommendation that they know works pretty much out the box, I'd be really greatful for a share.

1. DDR3 memory speed has very little effect on performance with current intel based systems. 1600MHZ would be fine or you can run 1866 or 2133.
2. There are people using AMD R9 cards. I don't have any personal experience with them but if you search the forums you can get more info. Lately there have been some killer deals on GTX 780 and 780ti cards. I picked up my 780ti for $330.
3. Ok
4. All your part selections look OK except for the case. You've selected an ATX motherboard and a micro ATX case. That won't work.
5. No. You need to match the motherboard and the case. mATX motherboards will work in an ATX case but not vice-versa.
6. The motherboard you have listed has built in thunderbolt. Search the forums for info.
7. The thunderbolt display will only run off the HD4600 graphics built into the CPU. The back I/O panel of the motherboard has the Thuderbolt ports. You can run a dual display and connect another monitor to the GTX 760.

 

[BigJ]

Thank you so much for the reply. Cleared up so much.

One point of concerns remains:

- you mention that my apple cinema display (thunderbolt) will be running off the motherboard thunderbolt display port off the HD4600 intel video card. This might sound like a really dumb question, but I just need to make sure: If I plug it there, will it be taking advantage of the accelerated video card (GTX760/80) for gaming etc, or do I have to plug into that video card (which I can't do with the cinema display) to be able to get the acceleration?

Thanks again!!

 

[wfj]

Thank you so much for the reply. Cleared up so much.

One point of concerns remains:

- you mention that my apple cinema display (thunderbolt) will be running off the motherboard thunderbolt display port off the HD4600 intel video card. This might sound like a really dumb question, but I just need to make sure: If I plug it there, will it be taking advantage of the accelerated video card (GTX760/80) for gaming etc, or do I have to plug into that video card (which I can't do with the cinema display) to be able to get the acceleration?

Thanks again!!

You won't get any accelerated video from the discrete video card via the thunderbolt port, just the HD4600. Your best option might be to sell the thunderbolt cinema display (I realize that kind of sucks) and get a regular cinema display that will connect directly to the graphics card. I actually have a Korean knockoff of a cinema display that uses the exact same IPS panel. You can get them direct from Korea for $300 to $400 or so. Just google Korean IPS monitor and you'll see a lot of forums that cover the topic at overclock.net. My specific model is the Crossover 27q.