- Joined
- Sep 16, 2012
- Messages
- 23
- Motherboard
- GA-Z77-DS3H
- CPU
- i5-3570K
- Graphics
- RX 580
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Silent Hackintosh · Fractal R4 · GA-Z77-DS3H · 3570K · 660Ti · Samsung 830
Comments
I hate fan noise, so I've liked Macs for a while. I've thought about getting an iMac for more than a year, but with the new ones just released in late 2012, I decided to build a hackintosh to save money while getting a faster computer that will last longer.
I've made a couple of choices to keep noise low. I chose a 128GB SSD for the system drive. It's roomy enough to keep all my apps still have 30+ left over.
For GPU, I chose a Gigabyte 660Ti. It's a very quiet, yet fast, card because of its Windforce cooler.
Since I didn't plan on a system with overclocked CPU and multiple graphics cards in SLI, I chose the be be quiet! Pure Power BQT since it's quiet and cheap. Reviews confirm also confirm it's a quality component. However, it seems that it's the noisiest component of the build - so avoid this and buy a Seasonic X-series instead!
I also chose the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO because if its price. The fact that it has a larger fan than the stock cooler makes it a pretty silent CPU fan.
Installation Guide
What Works & Doesn't Work
Benchmarks
Final Thoughts
It pretty easy to build this hackintosh. I've never built one before, and did it in about 2 hours. It's also easy to create a Mac OS X boot drive and get Mac OS X running.
It's very quiet, thanks to the quiet fans and cabinet but there's still fans running, of course. When I'm not directly beside it, I can't hear them.
UPDATE 22-Dec-2013, a year later: I've been running with this build for a year now. To be honest, hackintoshing is not worth it. I'm stuck with a machine that's powerful, but I can not run Mac OS X on it. Only Linux/Windows. I've had so many issues with this build, the worst of which is the freezing issue. The whole system will freeze at random times. 24 hours, 2 weeks. One thing is sure: My system will always freeze no matter what. When I upgraded to Mavericks, the freezing got worse. I've tried all BIOS settings, disabling over clocking. My temperatures are within bounds for a stable system. Currently I wish I had bought an 21" iMac instead for $200-300 more. It would have saved me hours and hours of debugging, frustration and lost work. Sorry for this rant, but I'm so tired of this, and I can't even sell this rig for a reasonable price.
sfr2's Silent Build GA-Z77-DS3H · i5-3570K ·
Gigabyte 660TI · Fractal Design Define R4
ComponentsGigabyte 660TI · Fractal Design Define R4
| Case | Fractal Design Define R4 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HD3CTI/ |
| Processor | Intel i5-3570K http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SZ0E1K/ |
| SSD | 128GB Samsung 830 Series http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005T3GPXE/ |
| RAM | Kingston 16 GB DDR3 1600Mhz (2x8) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007TTEHMW/ |
| Graphics | GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB DDR5 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008XGTRAM/ |
| Power supply | be quiet! Pure Power BQT L7 530W |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/ |
Comments
I hate fan noise, so I've liked Macs for a while. I've thought about getting an iMac for more than a year, but with the new ones just released in late 2012, I decided to build a hackintosh to save money while getting a faster computer that will last longer.
I've made a couple of choices to keep noise low. I chose a 128GB SSD for the system drive. It's roomy enough to keep all my apps still have 30+ left over.
For GPU, I chose a Gigabyte 660Ti. It's a very quiet, yet fast, card because of its Windforce cooler.
Since I didn't plan on a system with overclocked CPU and multiple graphics cards in SLI, I chose the be be quiet! Pure Power BQT since it's quiet and cheap. Reviews confirm also confirm it's a quality component. However, it seems that it's the noisiest component of the build - so avoid this and buy a Seasonic X-series instead!
I also chose the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO because if its price. The fact that it has a larger fan than the stock cooler makes it a pretty silent CPU fan.
Installation Guide
- Follow the tonymacx86 guide. http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html
- What to check off in MultiBeast:
3. Done!
What Works & Doesn't Work
Works:
- Audio
- Sleep. Only works when sleeping and waking up from the hardware power button, and then only works sometimes. Probably caused by the GTX 660Ti
- Bluetooth
- Turbo Boost (GA-Z77-DS3H doesn't support turbo boost?) - FIXED by disabling EIST in BIOS
- Transferring large files over LAN - makes OS X freeze
Benchmarks
| Cinebench GPU | 41.38 |
| Cinebench CPU | 5.87 |
| GeekBench | 10404 @ 3.8ghz ([email protected]) |
Final Thoughts
It pretty easy to build this hackintosh. I've never built one before, and did it in about 2 hours. It's also easy to create a Mac OS X boot drive and get Mac OS X running.
It's very quiet, thanks to the quiet fans and cabinet but there's still fans running, of course. When I'm not directly beside it, I can't hear them.
UPDATE 22-Dec-2013, a year later: I've been running with this build for a year now. To be honest, hackintoshing is not worth it. I'm stuck with a machine that's powerful, but I can not run Mac OS X on it. Only Linux/Windows. I've had so many issues with this build, the worst of which is the freezing issue. The whole system will freeze at random times. 24 hours, 2 weeks. One thing is sure: My system will always freeze no matter what. When I upgraded to Mavericks, the freezing got worse. I've tried all BIOS settings, disabling over clocking. My temperatures are within bounds for a stable system. Currently I wish I had bought an 21" iMac instead for $200-300 more. It would have saved me hours and hours of debugging, frustration and lost work. Sorry for this rant, but I'm so tired of this, and I can't even sell this rig for a reasonable price.
