Need help selecting motherboard for my first build

[kd4584]

Hi,
Two weeks earlier i decided to get a hackintosh with the help of a friend. My main requirement being music production (Logic Pro, Reason) along with FCP (not frequently used) .I read a lot of threads and decided to get a 17 3770k processor as suggested by people and forums. I cant make up my mind about the motherboard. i have 2 options - Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H or GA-Z77X-UD3H. Now i don't have much knowledge about overclocking and other stuff but my main objective is to get performance. My RAM is 8GB to start with. Will upgrade as and when required. Can someone suggest which Motherboard would be apt???? . What are the features that will play an important role in performance??

 

[nobodynose]

Hi,
Two weeks earlier i decided to get a hackintosh with the help of a friend. My main requirement being music production (Logic Pro, Reason) along with FCP (not frequently used) .I read a lot of threads and decided to get a 17 3770k processor as suggested by people and forums. I cant make up my mind about the motherboard. i have 2 options - Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H or GA-Z77X-UD3H. Now i don't have much knowledge about overclocking and other stuff but my main objective is to get performance. My RAM is 8GB to start with. Will upgrade as and when required. Can someone suggest which Motherboard would be apt???? . What are the features that will play an important role in performance??

If you want to overclock, get the Z77 board; the H77 board doesn't support it. Otherwise, there's little difference, except in features such as the form factor, number of PCIe slots, and port configuration. But you've probably already looked into all that to have it narrowed down to two boards.

One thing I want to point out, is that both of the boards you mentioned have VIA 2021 audio, which is not well-supported. If you plan to use the onboard audio you should get a board with Realtek 8xx audio.

 

[kd4584]

thank you for the advice. i might go for the UD3H though its a bit expensive but can always keep an option for overclocking and extraports could come handy anytime. Anyway, with that sorted can you suggest me a graphics card. right now i am not looking to do any major work in terms of video editing\after effects etc. but would like facility for dual support for the future. Also, i am not buying a monitor an d looking to connecta tv instead.
further i am connecting an external sound card so the codec you mentioned shoulcnt be a problem.
Please let me know about the graphics card best for my purpose

 

[zaptoons]

For the requirements you list, you'd probably do fine with onboard video, so long as you're using a supported CPU (graphics wise) like the 3770k.

Otherwise, look into a GT640 or (better/more future-proof) GTX 650 card. With either, I wouldn't bother paying much extra for 2GB rather than a 1GB model for a good price.