Sierra running too slow. Guess it's upgrade time. Suggestions?

[subnet192]

I am running an H55M-UD2H with a 2.8Ghz i5 and 16GB RAM, SSD and ATI Radeon HD 5000 1024mb (3 displays)

And it's been so sluggish that it's unworkable since I upgraded to Sierra. It's about 5 years old I think, so I'm ok with upgrading, got my money's worth

I'm looking at the Buyer's Guide suggestions (CustoMAC mATX) and I get lost real fast when it comes to hardware (I don't keep up with it since I "hackintoshed" my PC - didn't have to upgrade every 2 years!)

So... How would I pick one motherboard more than another? One model of video card over another? Here's my target config (generic):

- 3.0Ghz+ CPU quad core
- 32GB RAM (support 64) - I run virtual machines all the time
- 500GB SSD
- Guess I might as well change the video card...
- Oh! And as quiet as possible without going insane...

I do photography editing with Lightroom, a few games (nothing that requires an awesome card - Rocksmith mostly), listen to music, watch videos, and work on various VMs to experiment with various things (GNS3, Windows 10 desktop, vSphere stuff, etc...)

So here it is. What I have, what I want, and what I do. Can you help me pick the right stuff? I want to order soon as I'm going nuts seeing my CPU usage peaking all the time and the sluggishness!

 

[Kazbah]

I am running an H55M-UD2H with a 2.8Ghz i5 and 16GB RAM, SSD and ATI Radeon HD 5000 1024mb (3 displays)

And it's been so sluggish that it's unworkable since I upgraded to Sierra. It's about 5 years old I think, so I'm ok with upgrading, got my money's worth

I'm looking at the Buyer's Guide suggestions (CustoMAC mATX) and I get lost real fast when it comes to hardware (I don't keep up with it since I "hackintoshed" my PC - didn't have to upgrade every 2 years!)

So... How would I pick one motherboard more than another? One model of video card over another? Here's my target config (generic):

- 3.0Ghz+ CPU quad core
- 32GB RAM (support 64) - I run virtual machines all the time
- 500GB SSD
- Guess I might as well change the video card...
- Oh! And as quiet as possible without going insane...

I do photography editing with Lightroom, a few games (nothing that requires an awesome card - Rocksmith mostly), listen to music, watch videos, and work on various VMs to experiment with various things (GNS3, Windows 10 desktop, vSphere stuff, etc...)

So here it is. What I have, what I want, and what I do. Can you help me pick the right stuff? I want to order soon as I'm going nuts seeing my CPU usage peaking all the time and the sluggishness!

It was working fine before you upgraded to Sierra ?
Why don't you simply revert back to what you had ? I never upgrade to a new OS without a back up plan in case it does not perform to my expectations ....

 

[subnet192]

It was working fine before you upgraded to Sierra ?
Why don't you simply revert back to what you had ? I never upgrade to a new OS without a back up plan in case it does not perform to my expectations ....

Not quite what I asked. I know I can revert. It's my prerogative if I want to use the latest version/update and I'm simply asking for advice. In any case, I have ordered the material already (hopefully I didn't screw up).

I'll rebuild this "old" PC with something that works.

 

[Kazbah]

It's my prerogative if I want to use the latest version/update and I'm simply asking for advice.

True

 

[subnet192]

True

Sorry, I responded quickly, my phone rang So yeah, I always have a 2nd partition (clone of the "working" setup) before upgrading. However, this upgrade required a change of "MAC Model/Type i.e. Macpro3,1" which the previous versions didn't ask for. I found a post here that recommended a specific setting as the new "baseline", I think it was iMac15 or something like that. Well, that was the source of the problem. I changed it to Macmini5,1 and my geekbench score doubled... It was terrible (but functional). Go figure...

 

[Kazbah]

No offense taken.
Sierra is not supported on MacPro3,1..heck it is not even supposed to install...
I am using iMac13,2 and have some friends under macMini6,2. Have to go to a meeting, I'll tackle a couple questions you asked when I return ..

 

[Kazbah]

How would I pick one motherboard more than another?

I cannot review 40 motherboards but you have to check what you need and how 'state of the art' you want to be

So why would I pick (according to my reality) the Gaming 5 over the D3H (link)
-> USB 3.1 Type C connector (this is were the industry is going)
-> Better audio with built-in amp
-> Support for Nividia SLI & AMD Crossfire (only matters if using Windows to play games)
-> Thunderbolt™ add-in card connector

I would stick to Gigabyte motherboard because they have writable nvram which makes them more hackintosh-friendly and people on this board and others have developed more expertise on Gigabyte motherboards than any other brand.

One model of video card over another?

Now again there is a slew of models ...
Frankly I think the Buyer's Guide lists so many of them it becomes useless but that is my opinion...
Rule of thumb #1 , stick to main brands (EVGA, Gigabyte, ASUS,MSI)
Rule of thumb #2 , EVGA GTX 970 = Giga GTX 970 = ASUS GTX 970 = MSI GTX 970 for most purposes. Nvidia manufactures the chip, same apply to any model GTX 950, GTX 960..GTX 760..so forth so on
Rule of thumb #3, Pay close attention to the cooler .. basically 2 types: Blower type - exhaust heat to the back of the card outside the case, the other type .. exhaust inside the case .. since you value quietness make sure that you get a card where the fans only start running when a certain temperature is reached ...

Other points of interest:
Power Supplies are not all created equal ...and if you value quietness pay close attention to the power supply fan (which btw is the loudest part of my build)
Same can be said about fans ...

Hope this helps you a bit

 

[ZDigital2015]

Hey there! If your heart is set on an mATX build, then pastrychef's ASUS MAXIMUS VIII GENE build - https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/pastrychefs-build-asus-maximus-viii-gene-i7-6700k-gtx-980.198470/ - would be a worthwhile read.

pastrychef's build is solid and powerful, with a Core i7 6700K and 64GB or RAM. You could downscale to a Core i5 6600K and reduce the amount of RAM to 32GB, while preserving the ability to upgrade in the future (possibly to Kaby Lake with a BIOS update). If you prefer a Gigabyte motherboard, then you would need to look at the GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5. I prefer Gigabyte myself, but for an mATX build, the ASUS is an excellent choice. Bear in mind the ASUS is about $65 more than the Gigabyte.

That build also has an NVIDIA GTX 980 card, which are still pretty pricey, so I went with a EVG GTX 960 refurb and saved quite a bit of money. The newer GTX 10xx series cards are not supported by NVIDIA's Mac video drivers yet, and most newer AMD/ATI cards are problematic and not recommended.

I would change up the PSU (Corsair), case (NZXT) and the CPU cooler, but those are personal preference items, not life or death matters.

Hopefully, that's enough info to give you a good base to start working on your own build. If not, reply here and I'll try to guide you.

 

[zebrum]

I think the new system logging makes Sierra much slower than the previous version. Try running the Console app and see how many lines of log are output when for example you launch Mail and check your email. If you see thousands of lines of console output then that's your performance problem.

 

[subnet192]

I have ordered the Gigabyte Z170MX-Gaming 5 and the EVGA GTX 950 SC, as well as a Core i5 6600K.

Thanks for the feedback! A few more questions:

Is the m.2 SATA drive support on the Z170MX compatible with macOS?
I ordered the wrong case by mistake (Fractal Design Nano S which is very nice but ITX...) Any recommendations for a good quiet case of that quality?

Thanks!