New build advice for Pro Audio! (:

[joshking93]

Hi Guys,


I am an aspiring producer/mix engineer who has just finished my bachelor degree.
I am currently running my old PC with an Asus P5ke-wifi and a Q6600 on Hackintosh with mostly everything working surprisingly, but am in need of an upgrade as things are starting to bog down and become slow.

I need some advice on which routes to take and what the best options are for stability.


Currently am looking at a build featuring:

BitFenix Prodigy M
Corsair CX750M

Gigabyte Z87MX-D3H
Intel Haswell 4770k
2x8gb Corsair Vengeance

Corsair H100i
as well as a few BitFenix fans for additional cooling.

120gb Samsung 840 series SSD
a few mechanical drives I already own

appropriate Firewire PCIe card with compatible TI Chipset


My problem lies in that I heavily rely on Firewire due to working with Pro Audio, and with the recent advancements in ThunderBolt, and the audio world slowly adopting TB more and more, I'm not sure what I should do. My options here are to wait for an mATX z87 thunderbolt board, buy old hardware - Ivy Bridge - at the same price with pretty much the same performance (if not worse, as Haswell has much better integrated graphics), but gain thunderbolt.. or give up on it completely and buy the build above ^^.

In saying this, I have seen a few builds (Stork's, notably) where there have been problems with ThunderBolt not working. Should I give up on hoping for TB at all, and not even worry about it? Going back to Ivy Bridge and sacrificing the perks of Haswell doesn't really seem worth it.. I also don't want to be waiting another 6 months for GigaByte to release their z87 matx with TB, and in the worst case for it to not play nice with OS X.

Would love some advice on my parts and whether the motherboard I have chosen is 100% compatible with 10.8.5 or 10.9.

Thank you, it's much appreciated.

Joshua

 

[andehpandeh]

Hi Joshua,

All is not lost, you have a number of options. The prospect for fully functioning TB looks promising and if that's the case then you'll be able to use a TB --> FW400/FW800 adapter. There are also FW400/FW800 cards on the market but be sure to use one that has a TI chipset as this is what Apple use, most notably, this one http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=53789. I too use a Focusrite FW400 audio interface and don't want to give it up. The card may be $60-$70 but at least we know that it's stable, whereas TB may function but stability is another issue and stability is what's most important to us.

As for the rest of your build, it looks great. I don't think you'll have any major problems as your crucial items (mobo, CPU) have been tested and approved for hackintoshing.

P.S. there's a conversation going on over here < http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/117167-gigabyte-z87x-ud5-th-thunderbolt-not-working.html < about TB compatibility. It seems like toying with the BIOS settings might amend the mounting issue. Keep an eye on it.

 

[trs96]

Hi Guys,

In saying this, I have seen a few builds (Stork's, notably) where there have been problems with ThunderBolt not working. Should I give up on hoping for TB at all, and not even worry about it? Going back to Ivy Bridge and sacrificing the perks of Haswell doesn't really seem worth it.. I also don't want to be waiting another 6 months for GigaByte to release their z87 matx with TB, and in the worst case for it to not play nice with OS X.

Would love some advice on my parts and whether the motherboard I have chosen is 100% compatible with 10.8.5 or 10.9.

Thank you, it's much appreciated.

Joshua

Your timing is very good. We'll be getting an OS X software update this month that should fully support
T.Bolt 2.0. The new Mac Pros rely heavily on T. Bolt II for connectivity. So watch for Stork's build with
the Gigabyte UD7-TH board and you'll then know how well it will work on a CustoMac and whether to
invest in that high end GB motherboard for your build.

 

[joshking93]

aweesommmee. thank you guys.

here's hoping an mATX form factor too! really liking the look of the BitFenix Prodigy, and would like to keep things small too!