pastrychef's Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming (WI-FI AC) build w/ i9-9900K + AMD 6600 XT

[pastrychef]

Any info on whether the supplimental update offered today breaks things in 10.13.2 on the Z370-G ?

It should work fine. I'm just waiting for Nvidia to release updated web drivers before updating.

I've already updated my hackbook air and the update was smooth and easy.

 

[jeandossantos]

@pastrychef, do you keep your hackbook air sync'd with your hackintosh? I haven't done any research yet but eventually I'm going to be looking for a solution that allows my MacBook Pro to sync with my hackintosh. I'm primarily using this 8700k build as a workstation. However, I do travel often. It would be great if I could keep my two systems sync'd to make it a seamless work experience whether I'm home or traveling. Is this a simple Time Machine backup between the two or do you know of other solutions out there? Will there be any issues using Time Machine with a hackintosh and a MacBook Pro?

 

[dclive]

iCloud Drive?

 

[jeandossantos]

I was more looking for a free solution, or one that doesn't require me to be on a rebill for monthly access. This is why I was thinking the backup route.

 

[dclive]

iCloud gives you 5GB for free. That's a lot of files.

 

[pastrychef]

@pastrychef, do you keep your hackbook air sync'd with your hackintosh? I haven't done any research yet but eventually I'm going to be looking for a solution that allows my MacBook Pro to sync with my hackintosh. I'm primarily using this 8700k build as a workstation. However, I do travel often. It would be great if I could keep my two systems sync'd to make it a seamless work experience whether I'm home or traveling. Is this a simple Time Machine backup between the two or do you know of other solutions out there? Will there be any issues using Time Machine with a hackintosh and a MacBook Pro?

When you say synced, do you mean that you want all your work related files to be the same on both your desktop and laptop?

If this is what you mean, you may want to look at ChronoSync. I have never used it but it sounds like exactly what you are looking to do. Sync The Home Folder Between Macs Using ChronoSync

Of course, there's always iCloud... How to Sync Your Mac’s Desktop and Documents to Other Devices with iCloud I know you're looking for a free solution, but iCloud has a 50GB for $0.99 a month plan... That's really not much at all.

Again, I've never personally used these solutions. About as close I've gotten is to share Notes over iCloud. I do have remote access to my NAS which pretty much holds all my files.

 

[jeandossantos]

iCloud gives you 5GB for free. That's a lot of files.

Right, but if I'm away from home and I so happened to forget to add a particular file to iCloud, I'm out of luck.

When you say synced, do you mean that you want all your work related files to be the same on both your desktop and laptop?

If this is what you mean, you may want to look at ChronoSync. I have never used it but it sounds like exactly what you are looking to do. Sync The Home Folder Between Macs Using ChronoSync

Of course, there's always iCloud... How to Sync Your Mac’s Desktop and Documents to Other Devices with iCloud I know you're looking for a free solution, but iCloud has a 50GB for $0.99 a month plan... That's really not much at all.

Again, I've never personally used these solutions. About as close I've gotten is to share Notes over iCloud. I do have remote access to my NAS which pretty much holds all my files.

Yeah, I'd like to be able to access all of my files regardless on which system I'm using. I took a look at ChronoSync and that definitely looks like a viable solution, however, NAS looks pretty awesome. Idk where I've been all this time but haven't come across this type of system. I'm going to have to do more research on this as it may be the solution to what I'm trying to accomplish. Have you discussed/shared any info on your NAS system on here by any chance?

 

[pastrychef]

Have you discussed/shared any info on your NAS system on here by any chance?

Not really... Just some passing mentions...

Essentially what I have is a Synology clone (think hackintosh for Synology). The Synology OS, known as DiskStation Manager or DSM, is fantastic. The folks over at www.xpenology.com has made building one quite simple. It works very similarly to how hackintoshes work. A bootloader is used to trick the OS in to thinking it's running on authentic hardware.

My NAS runs 24/7 and is accessible remotely. It acts as my Time Machine, media server, and general storage of all my files. My particular NAS is an 8 drive array set up for dual disk redundancy. This means that even if 2 out of the 8 drives fail, I won't lose any data. If/when capacity runs low, I can simply swap out smaller hard drives with larger ones. This makes it extremely future-proof.

Hareware-wise, my NAS is build on top of an Intel C2550 CPU with 4GB of ECC RAM. The C2550 is passively cooled 4 core CPU with a TDP of just 14W (an i7-8700K has a TDP of 95W). While it's extremely energy efficient and cool running, it's also powerful enough to act as my media server. ECC RAM was used to help prevent any data corruption. No video card is needed since everything is accessed/controlled over the network through a web browser. (SSH access is also possible for advanced controls/configurations.)

As my media server, it runs the Plex media server right on the NAS itself. On the other end, I have Plex client installed on my Apple TV. This allows me to play all my media on my TV using a beautiful UI. For example, my movie collection is presented with gorgeous artwork and brief movie info such as synopsis, cast, etc. All this is done automatically by the Plex media server.

It's a wonderful solution that I build for about $500 (not including the cost of hard drives). It was my experience with building this NAS that gave me enough courage to try building a hackintosh given how similarly they work in theory. I really can't say enough good things about the Synology DSM and I have no problems recommending it anyone looking for a NAS.

Here's a video that demonstrates how the DSM works:
Synology DiskStation Manager 6.0 Overview - YouTube

 

[jeandossantos]

Thank you for sharing all of this information. This is music to my ears and I'm already hooked. Not only does it solve my issue of needing to have all of my files accessible from both of my computers, it also provides the ability of becoming a media server! It hasn't been of utmost priority, but I have been wanting to figure out a easy, reliable way to share my movie/tv show collections through my house. Plex sounds like the solution! As of now, I have no idea how I'm going to build my NAS system but I'll be joining the xpenology community (I appreciate the mention) to start learning more about it. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I feel like a owe you a beer and by beer I mean many beers.

Do you have pictures of your NAS? I'd love to see how it looks.

 

[pastrychef]

Thank you for sharing all of this information. This is music to my ears and I'm already hooked. Not only does it solve my issue of needing to have all of my files accessible from both of my computers, it also provides the ability of becoming a media server! It hasn't been of utmost priority, but I have been wanting to figure out a easy, reliable way to share my movie/tv show collections through my house. Plex sounds like the solution! As of now, I have no idea how I'm going to build my NAS system but I'll be joining the xpenology community (I appreciate the mention) to start learning more about it. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I feel like a owe you a beer and by beer I mean many beers.

Do you have pictures of your NAS? I'd love to see how it looks.

No, i don't have any pictures. It's hidden in a corner and hasn't been dusted in a bit so it's not quite centerfold ready... But here's a parts list that I used to build mine.

ASRock C2550D4I motherboard. Although, if I were to build today, I would go with the C3758D4I because a serious flaw was discovered last year in Intel's C2550 (yes, yet another serious flaw in an Intel CPU) that can not be easily fixed...

Silverstone DS380 case. It's not the best case but it is compact and includes hot swap bays at a very reasonable price. Here's a much sexier case but I've read that installation can be a bit of a pain due to how tight it is inside.

Silverstone SFX ST30SF 300W power supply. I chose this power supply because it provides 22A over the +12V rail so I know the hard drives get enough power. There are power supplies of higher wattage that don't supply enough power over the +12V rail and it results in drives disappearing from the array which is very bad!

The RAM I used were just leftovers from my old MacPro5,1.

I don't deserve any credit. It's the fine folks here, at www.xpenology.com, and the developers who deserve beers.