New build. Have some extra budget, what to get/upgrade?

[Samchavles]

Im building a new hackintosh very soon and because of christmas i gt more money than my budget allowed so im asking what is the best parts/upgrades i can do for my current build?
Total for me is 1041.00 because of tax.
max amount:1300
Ill be using this for video editing and gaming, not hardcore gaming just source engine games.

Current Parts Going to be purchased: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=10737489

Also my question im aware taht the installation using iboot, only 4 gigs of ram can be inserted. Will that work for my setup? Can it run the install off of only one stick of 4 gb ram? or isnt like 2 stick need to be inserted for it to read correctly?
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
-Sam

 

[mlk]

Im building a new hackintosh very soon and because of christmas i gt more money than my budget allowed so im asking what is the best parts/upgrades i can do for my current build?
Total for me is 1041.00 because of tax.
max amount:1300
Ill be using this for video editing and gaming, not hardcore gaming just source engine games.

Current Parts Going to be purchased: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=10737489

Also my question im aware taht the installation using iboot, only 4 gigs of ram can be inserted. Will that work for my setup? Can it run the install off of only one stick of 4 gb ram? or isnt like 2 stick need to be inserted for it to read correctly?
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
-Sam

In my experience, the most significant improvement you can get is if you add Solid State Drive to boot OS from it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227551

You can keep your conventional HD for data if you need more than 120GB HD space.
Even MUCH better improvement you get if you put two SSDs in RAID 0 configuration.

Another possible improvement could be ATI 5770 or 5870 video card.

Any XFX card works out of box with Kabyl's boot loader, but I have
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I lately switched to ATI from nVidia and I find it refreshing experience. For the same performance, you pay somewhat less, works on a significantly lower temperature, with MUCH LESS NOISE that nVidia.

Cheers

 

[Samchavles]

Im building a new hackintosh very soon and because of christmas i gt more money than my budget allowed so im asking what is the best parts/upgrades i can do for my current build?
Total for me is 1041.00 because of tax.
max amount:1300
Ill be using this for video editing and gaming, not hardcore gaming just source engine games.

Current Parts Going to be purchased: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=10737489

Also my question im aware taht the installation using iboot, only 4 gigs of ram can be inserted. Will that work for my setup? Can it run the install off of only one stick of 4 gb ram? or isnt like 2 stick need to be inserted for it to read correctly?
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
-Sam

In my experience, the most significant improvement you can get is if you add Solid State Drive to boot OS from it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227551

You can keep your conventional HD for data if you need more than 120GB HD space.
Even MUCH better improvement you get if you put two SSDs in RAID 0 configuration.

Another possible improvement could be ATI 5770 or 5870 video card.

Any XFX card works out of box with Kabyl's boot loader, but I have
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I lately switched to ATI from nVidia and I find it refreshing experience. For the same performance, you pay somewhat less, works on a significantly lower temperature, with MUCH LESS NOISE that nVidia.

Cheers

Thanks for the advice! My only problem is i have an apple cinema display, thats my ONLY monitor. I was told that Nvidia chipsets work with apple cinema displays out of the box. So ill be booting into bios and all that with the apple cinema from the beginning. And i was told Nvidia chipsets only for that, unless i was told wrong i have to stick with Nvidia

 

[Mackilroy]

That sounds pretty strange. You should be able to use an ATI GPU with your machine for no problem at all - I did.

 

[mlk]

On the contrary, XFX 5770 card for which I sent you the link has Mini Display Port and you can connect ACD directly. I have ACD too (plus Samsung Syncmaster) and they work beautifully OOB. I built the system just two days ago.

The system I built is:
MB: GA-X58A-UD3R Rev. 2.0, CPU:i7 920, 6GB Corsair Dominator 1600 MHz, XFX HD577XZMF3 Radeon HD 5770, 2 OCZ Vertex 120GB in RAID 0.

All the video outputs work perfectly - tested with one and two monitors (Apple Cinema Display 27" and Samsung Syncmaster P2309). Installation using iBoot and Kabyl's boot loader was almost boring uneventfull - everything worked in less than 6 hours (HW assembling included).

Let me know if you go that way and need any help.

Cheers

 

[Samchavles]

Ahh but another thing is i have the 20" ACD with no minidisplay cable. Its DVI Male. So would i need to get a minidisplay adapter from the card. into the ACD? Or could i just plug the ACD into the DVI port in the card since my ACD is Dvi.

 

[mlk]

Ahh but another thing is i have the 20" ACD with no minidisplay cable. Its DVI Male. So would i need to get a minidisplay adapter from the card. into the ACD? Or could i just plug the ACD into the DVI port in the card since my ACD is Dvi.

My Samsung is DVI and works perfectly using DVI port from the card. There are two DVI ports on the card and one MDP. Unless you are going to use three DVI monitors (just kidding) you are fine. In case that rich aunt decides to buy you new ACD 27", which I highly recommend, you will be fine too - works OOB while some people had issues with other cards.

BTW: can you afford to go with GA-X58A-UD3R or GA-X58-USB3 with i7 CPU? I believe that it is not much more expensive (~$50), and I believe that performance would be much better.

 

[Samchavles]

Ahh but another thing is i have the 20" ACD with no minidisplay cable. Its DVI Male. So would i need to get a minidisplay adapter from the card. into the ACD? Or could i just plug the ACD into the DVI port in the card since my ACD is Dvi.

My Samsung is DVI and works perfectly using DVI port from the card. There are two DVI ports on the card and one MDP. Unless you are going to use three DVI monitors (just kidding) you are fine. In case that rich aunt decides to buy you new ACD 27", which I highly recommend, you will be fine too - works OOB while some people had issues with other cards.

BTW: can you afford to go with GA-X58A-UD3R or GA-X58-USB3 with i7 CPU? I believe that it is not much more expensive (~$50), and I believe that performance would be much better.

Thanks so much for all your help. And no i cant afford that mobo )=. This will do fine for me and if your interested here is my final build. http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=15194912

 

[mlk]

Ahh but another thing is i have the 20" ACD with no minidisplay cable. Its DVI Male. So would i need to get a minidisplay adapter from the card. into the ACD? Or could i just plug the ACD into the DVI port in the card since my ACD is Dvi.

My Samsung is DVI and works perfectly using DVI port from the card. There are two DVI ports on the card and one MDP. Unless you are going to use three DVI monitors (just kidding) you are fine. In case that rich aunt decides to buy you new ACD 27", which I highly recommend, you will be fine too - works OOB while some people had issues with other cards.

BTW: can you afford to go with GA-X58A-UD3R or GA-X58-USB3 with i7 CPU? I believe that it is not much more expensive (~$50), and I believe that performance would be much better.

Thanks so much for all your help. And no i cant afford that mobo )=. This will do fine for me and if your interested here is my final build. http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=15194912

Enjoy, I'm glad to help.

Let me know about Asus wireless adapter. I bought one lately (don't remember the model) and it was an awkward to start it every time you start the computer.

 

[Vendetta]

To be honest, that seems pretty expensive for a moderate-ish build. I guess it's the i7 and case that is pumping up the price. That's an expensive case.

Also, I would -highly- recommend a SSD. You only need a 60GB drive to use as a boot drive, which you can get for around $115.

You should check to see if you can get combo deals on any of your items as well. You should be able to save a decent amount of money that way.