New build advice please - hoping to avoid past problems

[markehh]

Hi,

I'm about to build myself a new hackintosh and I'm hoping to be especially sure of avoiding the 2 things that plagued my last setup:

nvidia gtx9800 insta kernel panic or no boot with HDMI
sleep never functioned with my motherboard

So I'd be grateful if someone could run the rule over what I'm thinking about buying, the only item I haven't really settled on is a motherboard, most of it is based on the building a custom mac buyers guide on the homepage:

Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked NVIDIA Graphics Card - 2GB
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V
Kingston 128GB V200 SSD - 2.5" SATA-III (already have one)
Seagate 2TB SATA III Performance HDD ST2000DM001 7200rpm 64MB
Cooler Master CM 690 II case
Silverstone SST-ST50F-ES Strider 500W (600W Peak) 80+ Power Supply

Motherboards
I really wanted to follow the buyers guide and get the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H but it seems a bit expensive
I'm not really sure what the difference is between the above and others on the buyers guide such as the Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
Also is buying a Gigabyte motherboard essential, are these with considering - Asus P8Z77-V LX, or Asus P8Z77-V

One other thing, do I actually need a DVD drive? I've read I should probably get a sony one but could I live without it altogether?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm sure you've all seen it a thousand times before but I just want some opinions.

Any help would be great, thanks.

 

[Mr_Pie_Guy1234]

Your hardware seems fine.

Getting a gigabyte motherboard is NOT essential. It's just the easiest to get up and running, since it requires no DSDT, and everything will work correctly. If you can't get the UD5H, then get the UD3H. If that's too expensive, then you could always go with the Z68 series of motherboards too.

 

[markehh]

Your hardware seems fine.

Getting a gigabyte motherboard is NOT essential. It's just the easiest to get up and running, since it requires no DSDT, and everything will work correctly. If you can't get the UD5H, then get the UD3H. If that's too expensive, then you could always go with the Z68 series of motherboards too.

Thanks for the reply. It's not that it is too expensive, I just have a fixed price in my head of roughly what each component should cost - maybe I'm out or date or maybe I'm just tight...

I was just reading about UD5H v UD3H it seems the more expensive version is a lot more compatible with audio and other stuff. Looks to be worth the extra expense.

Are the newer nvidia cards pretty flawless in terms of hackintosh compatibility then?

Thanks for your time, you've helped push me towards the ud5h

 

[Going Bald]

If you are not into heavy gaming or video editing then you don't really need a discrete video card. The HD4000 graphics in the Ivy Bridge CPU is good enough for general use and light gaming.

 

[Mr_Pie_Guy1234]

If your not going to be doing too much gaming on this (minecraft, online games, etc), then the built in graphics on the cpu could be fine for you.... but if you're doing video editing or heavy gaming (like battlefield), then I would go with one of the nvidia cards, since they're usually compatible with everything right out of the box.