Need advice on the best possible build for a hackintosh!

[alans17]

So the best video a person can hope for via Thunderbolt is HD 4000. And the only monitor that I know of on the planet that has extra features (video camera, USB ports, firewire) is Apple's 27" Thunderbolt Display, and it costs an arm and a leg. So if you spend $1000 for that monitor, you're relegated to mediocre video with it... Awesome...

 

[gyroknight]

Intel doesn't want others to extend into Thunderbolt chipsets just yet, which may be a reason why Thunderbolt isn't a de facto standard yet. All of the Thunderbolt-authorized devices today are manufactured by either Intel or Apple (with the exception of the new Gigabyte board). Maybe manufacturers are just waiting for Intel's proprietary license to expire, or Intel wants to remain the majority manufacturers of TH devices.

 

[alans17]

Licensing is licensing, whether it's on a mobo or a video card. I don't think that's the problem.

 

[genzai]

correct, licensing is not the issue. The video card designers could buy the chips from intel and integrate them. Unless there is some unforeseen technical issue hopefully someone will try this before long. But it wont be a licensing issue. Also there are lots of intel licensees. including certified motherboards, i think MSI was actually the first to achieve that. Intel's license will never "expire". they own the technology and anyone who wants to use it will have to buy their chips and deal with their certification process. Apple had exclusivity for the first year but that's over now. Its also possible intel wont sell chips to AMD and Nvidia (or their partners), though i think that's unlikely, since it would help push TB and, well, sell more chips. It's probably more likely that nvidia and AMD are not on the TB boat and without their support and validation it would be hard for a graphics card maker to design a working board.
In any case the Apple TB display needs updating. At least to USB 3.0 ports. But for the cost you are probably better off buying the matrox or belkin upcoming TB docks and attaching a nicer and cheaper display to it (still limited to hd4000 of course).
g\

 

[gyroknight]

Licensing is licensing, whether it's on a mobo or a video card. I don't think that's the problem.

If that was the case, Intel would have authorized ASUS's solution. The standard says Intel only authorizes device that meet it's specification or higher, but I don't think ASUS was cutting corners.

 

[genzai]

Asus' solution was a silly workaround that required cluttered external cabling, add on cards, specially equipped motherboards and intel probably didn't want TB associated with that type of thing. It is also possible that it failed to meet intel spec in some way. In any case if the solution were clean and tidy i am sure intel would be happy to sell chips to a graphics card maker. Better yet if said maker had a way of switching between onboard graphics and discrete ones on demand. Again i wouldn't hold your breath for any of this, and discrete TB chipsets are probably going to have a pretty short life. Intel will be building TB directly into CPUs as soon as they can.
g\

 

[jessanastasio]

so is it settled that if i have a 27 inch thunderbolt display ill need to buy gigabytes thunderbolt mobo and use integrated hd 4000 graphics on the i7-3770k? thanks