New Hackintosh Build - First-timer

[praine]

Hey guys!
I'm very excited to have confirmed my Amazon order for my first-ever Hackintosh.
These are the parts I have ordered:

SSD: OCZ SSD OCZ mSATA Nocti Series 120GB
Power supply: Corsair HX 650 W
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 GIGABYTE
Memory: CORSAIR DDR3 1600MHz 16GB 4x240 DIMM
CPU: Intel CPU Core i7 i7-2600K 3.4GHz 8M LGA1155 SandyBridge
Graphics card: GIGABYTE AMD Radeon HD6870 1GB PCI-E DVI HDMI DisplayPort
Media storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200 Series3.5inch SATA 6Gb/s 1TB 7200rpm
Unit: CORSAIR Carbide Series 500R
Optical drive: Sony Optiarc BD-R Drive BD-5300S

The components are almost exactly the same as CustoMac Pro Build No.2 but with a bigger SSD.

I'm hoping to have a dual-boot Windows 7 / SL system, the PC side for gaming and the Mac side for media creation (particularly video editing)

I was wondering whether there is a step-by-step guide for putting together these components and configuring the system once they arrive?
I am a complete noob, so any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hey guys!
I'm very excited to have confirmed my Amazon order for my first-ever Hackintosh.
These are the parts I have ordered:

SSD: OCZ SSD OCZ mSATA Nocti Series 120GB
Power supply: Corsair HX 650 W
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 GIGABYTE
Memory: CORSAIR DDR3 1600MHz 16GB 4x240 DIMM
CPU: Intel CPU Core i7 i7-2600K 3.4GHz 8M LGA1155 SandyBridge
Graphics card: GIGABYTE AMD Radeon HD6870 1GB PCI-E DVI HDMI DisplayPort
Media storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200 Series3.5inch SATA 6Gb/s 1TB 7200rpm
Unit: CORSAIR Carbide Series 500R

The components are almost exactly the same as CustoMac Pro Build No.2 but with a bigger SSD.

I'm hoping to have a dual-boot Windows 7 / SL system, the PC side for gaming and the Mac side for media creation (particularly video editing)

I was wondering whether there is a step-by-step guide for putting together these components and configuring the system once they arrive?
I am a complete noob, so any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

Are you going to install Mac OSX Snow Leopard and Windows 7 on the same SSD or are you going to install them separately on the SSD and hard disk?

 

[praine]

Are you going to install Mac OSX Snow Leopard and Windows 7 on the same SSD or are you going to install them separately on the SSD and hard disk?

Well, I was wondering that myself. Out of the following three options, which is best?

1) Create two partitions on the SSD: one for Windows, one for SL
2) Install SL on the SSD and Windows on the other HD
3) Buy an additional SSD for the Windows install

Which would you recommend?

Thanks in advance

Paul

 

[Jamesbond007]

Well, I was wondering that myself. Out of the following three options, which is best?

1) Create two partitions on the SSD: one for Windows, one for SL
2) Install SL on the SSD and Windows on the other HD
3) Buy an additional SSD for the Windows install

Which would you recommend?

Thanks in advance

Paul

We always recommend installing Mac OSX and Windows 7 on separate hard disks. So if you can afford another SSD you can choose Option 3. Otherwise Option 2 is fine.

 

[praine]

We always recommend installing Mac OSX and Windows 7 on separate hard disks. So if you can afford another SSD you can choose Option 3. Otherwise Option 2 is fine.

If I get another SSD, should that also be mSATA, or does the motherboard only have space for one mSATA drive?

Thanks

Paul

 

[Jamesbond007]

If I get another SSD, should that also be mSATA, or does the motherboard only have space for one mSATA drive?

Thanks

Paul

The motherboard should have only one mSATA port, so if you want to buy another SSD it will have to be normal SATA (SATA3 preferably).

 

[praine]

The motherboard should have only one mSATA port, so if you want to buy another SSD it will have to be normal SATA (SATA3 preferably).

OK, thanks. I'll probably stick to the HDD for the Windows install for now, and maybe upgrade to an SSD at a later date.

Thanks again for your help. I expect I'll be asking many more questions once I actually start building the thing!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Jamesbond007]

OK, thanks. I'll probably stick to the HDD for the Windows install for now, and maybe upgrade to an SSD at a later date.

Thanks again for your help. I expect I'll be asking many more questions once I actually start building the thing!

Cheers

Paul

You are welcome. Good luck on your build!