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Seeking advice for High-End machine

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Kraft2k

Kraft2k

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Oct 13, 2012
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Motherboard
I still didn't
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Rules!
Greetings fellow hackintoshers,

I have been silent on the scene the past 2-3 years due to some personal developments and have fallen a bit behind.
I have set-up many hackintosh's, and quite a few of them for my brother, which he makes music with.

Luckily, the last one i did for him (a Haswell), ended up being untouched for quite a while, as music producers tend to gain workflow, they cannot drastically change the environment around them.

It seems this time he's in need for a thorough upgrade and your advice will be really appreciated.

A few key points and needs i have identified:

1. RAM - 128GB will be needed (for post-production mostly, those guys will understand why).
Meeting this requirement will most probably be tricky. What is the best option in this case? 32GB x 4, which will ease me the decision for motherboards with 4 RAM slots. Or 16GB x 8, which in this case probably means E-ATX motherboards and maybe 2011 Socket.

2. NVMe (or equivalent, M-2 etc) - Last time i checked this, it was not supported, i think this has changed if i am not wrong. SATA SSD will be the library haven, but the system deserves the new upgrade.

3. CPU - 7th gen or 8th gen? Stick to widely used i7-x700K's or go for the beefy ones with more cores? What about i9?

4. Motherboard - This one is tied to the previous points (and the one below),

Thunderbolt is somehow important, but there are most probably cards out there for this need to be fulfilled, yet a built in one or two is desired.

I have already settled for:
A nVidia 1050 card unless i see any argument pointing at benefits of beefing up a better one for Cuda/GPU help.
A Bitfenix case (the very silent one)
Watercooling obviously depends on the choice of 3 and 4.

Further research will be needed for a 10GB Ethernet, as i will introduce a NAS in this new environment, but this is an optional subject and 1GB is more then enough.

Thanks in advance and i hope i didnt bore you. Feel free to correct me in anything i may have guessed incorrectly as i really did not keep much up in the hardware world.
 
KGP's guide looks wonderful. Many times we're left with sterile guides, completing something without understanding what one is doing, so the explanations there are very welcome :).

It obviously meets a lot of the requirements. Thanks a lot
 
@trs96 @kgp

Gentlemen, sorry for the tag, but i need the slightest attention on this. Just a couple more questions have risen.

1. Thunderbolt - Is the built-in at full capacity, or will adding something additional to the PCI slots prove to be a better solution? This factor is a very key one.

2. PCI Lanes - This one's a bit confusing to me, i do remember something similar in the ancient AGP slots and the bottleneck effect one could do, but i think this is just due to my lack of knowledge.
I do need to know which CPU should i go for in case i will be using these (rest aside, i am definitely going for a i9 variant):
  • nVidia 1050 TI (it's the multiple HDMI ports im after, GPU in general is low priority unless the tasks i will be using will benefit from it)
  • Samsung EVO SSD, not sure if the M.2 interface adds to the "lanes" reservation, but i know Intel offers the Optane series directly to the PCIe slots, are these supported/any beneficial?
  • Pro Tools HD Native (new PCIe model).
  • Additional Thunderbolt card in case if better performance can be reached.
  • The Apple Broadcom Wifi/BT card.
Thanks in advance guys.
 
Kraft2k said:
@trs96 @kgp

Gentlemen, sorry for the tag, but i need the slightest attention on this. Just a couple more questions have risen.

1. Thunderbolt - Is the built-in at full capacity, or will adding something additional to the PCI slots prove to be a better solution? This factor is a very key one.

2. PCI Lanes - This one's a bit confusing to me, i do remember something similar in the ancient AGP slots and the bottleneck effect one could do, but i think this is just due to my lack of knowledge.
I do need to know which CPU should i go for in case i will be using these (rest aside, i am definitely going for a i9 variant):
  • nVidia 1050 TI (it's the multiple HDMI ports im after, GPU in general is low priority unless the tasks i will be using will benefit from it)
  • Samsung EVO SSD, not sure if the M.2 interface adds to the "lanes" reservation, but i know Intel offers the Optane series directly to the PCIe slots, are these supported/any beneficial?
  • Pro Tools HD Native (new PCIe model).
  • Additional Thunderbolt card in case if better performance can be reached.
  • The Apple Broadcom Wifi/BT card.
Thanks in advance guys.
Click to expand...
Yes, you should definitely get the i9 for the extra lanes it provides. I don't use Th.Bolt so I can't help you there. If you search in the KGP guide you will find posts there from those using Th.Bolt on that system. It should answer your questions.
 
@Kraft2k I'm also very interested in what you're doing here. I have the same requirement of 128 GB RAM (I might start off at 64 and upgrade to the full 128 in a few months, but I do require it) and I'm looking for maximum compatibility with minimum effort so as to achieve the smoothest config.

I'm hearing that the X299 systems are much less problematic than folks believe, likely due to fewer folks having them + Apple having just released the new Pros.

I'd be extremely curious as to the shopping list of items you pull together to see how it compares with what I'll be getting.

I built a machine with an ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO ALPHA that was maxed out and have been having issues ever since the start with it (seems to be mostly reboots don't always work right leading to having to kill the power sometimes when starting up or shutting down). Just not entirely happy and I do need more memory to handle my workload vs the 64 GB on it. Running an old 2010 Mac Pro with 128 GB of RAM instead of my other hack that I just mentioned and it does a generally better job. The RAM seems to really be key when you're facing heavy multitasking workloads.
 
@yllapilate yup, i am already convinced for this build. I dont think one could get anything wrong with the amount of KGP's input there. I used to do Core 2 Duo builds back, and they were a real pain. I second you that it sounds a lot easier compared to how things were a while ago.

Price wise, following the guide from KGP, i went for his modest recommendations there and got a price tag for around 4000 Euros. I compared a "similar" build from the Apple configurator, and i can only say that they're nuts.
The code names and numbers on the i9 processors look alike with the 7th gen (2016/2017) numbers (i9-7XXX), and actually it shares the name with the 6th gen (2015/2016) processors (Skylake, Skylake-X), so i wouldnt be surprised if we get a price drop from these in 2-3 months as they will probably release a fresh generation of them. But let the pro's correct me if im wrong.

Also, take note, the i9 seems to have a limit of 128GB, as crazy as i sound right now, dont plan a 256GB for the future, it might need a total revamp. Bloody miners have increased the ram prices way too much.
 
128 GB of RAM is overkill for an audio production rig, especially at current prices. You mention "post production, those guys will know why", but I'm a post production guy and can think of several areas where I think the money would be better spent.
 
@emericuh i completely agree with you, i really do.
I laid the question to my brother about 64GB being enough, which in fact saves money in other places as i wouldn't need to go with the socket/models we have discussed up here.
As you can see, im just the messenger. He did invest a lot in the other areas (physical devices, plugins, other software), his argument was that he has met his criteria/needs, although it's his computer hardware that he thinks is limiting him right now.

I also gave an eye to the Pro Tools HD Native, and that thing seems to have turned the tables around, rather going with stand-alone DSP, it actually sniffs the power of the computer itself.

You guys (post-production, producers) make your mind up and any intervention is futile, i think you'll understand what i mean by that. Lucky him his work is paying off well, and i really need to deliver him a proper upgrade, especially since i'm getting his Haswell for myself :D
 
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