Snow Leopard Build, need advice on parts

[jeffcarrera]

Hi,

I was planning on doing an Ivy Bridge build to install mountain lion. I will be using the hackintosh mainly for audio recording with my existing hardware m-audio Profire 610. After doing a search on profire 610's compatibility with mountain lion, i found out that even users of this hardware with actual mac computers are having some issues with this hardware on mountain lion and even lion os.

So now I think it's safer to do a snow leopard build using sandy bridge components. I am aware that installing Snow leopard on Sandy bridge will not be as hassle free as mountain lion on Ivy bridge system, but i think the trouble will all be worth it if I can get a stable Mac OSX SL running.

I'm still undecided about some parts that I can use which are available locally. I'd appreciate everybody's expert advice.

CPU
core i5 2500k or i7 2600k (whichever is still available locally, but would prefer i5 as I wont be doing much video editing)


MOTHERBOARD (please help choose)
z68P-DS3 - I found several threads on the forums where users are having trouble with the audio. Mainly because the audio codec listed on gigabyte website was 889, while on rev 2.1 it was actually 887
z68XP-UD3 - very similar board with the z68P-DS3, a few extra features

I also read a couple of threads about successful snow leopard builds using a z77 motherboard with sandy bridge CPU. Can anybody else confirm this please?


GPU - Please help choose. I am not very familiar with GPU chipsets and stuff. I just need a card that will work OOB hopefully as HD3000 is not supported in SL. I won't be gaming, just something that can support my 19inch 1440x900 display, and I need the cheapest, quietest GPU I can get.

HP Nvidia GeForce 8400 - this I have already (scrapped from my 2008 HP a6490d desktop)

Asus EAH6450 Silent 1GB DDR3 - this is my preferred card, silent and cheap, available locally. Will this work?

Asus HD6670 Direct CU silent 1GB DDR3 - slightly more expensive than the EAH6450, but price is still okay. Available locally. Will this work?


BOOT DRIVE
OCZ Agility 3 SSD SATA3 120GB plus a couple of mechanical internal hard drives from previous machines (all sata interface)

RAM
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB Low Profile (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600mhz


PSU
CM Silent Pro M2 520W Modular


CASE
Corsair 550D Obsidian Series
or
Fractal Design R4 (not sure yet if it's available locally)


FIREWIRE CARD
StarTech.com 3 Port 2b 1a 1394 PCI Express FireWire Card Adapter PEX1394B3 - It's pricey and I may need to pay a premium on shipping, but it's alright as long as it works without any issues

OPTICAL DRIVE
SONY AD-7280s (SATA) oem

OS
Mac OS X snow leopard upgrade disc (10.6.3) - this upgrade this will work just as well as the retail disc right?


Appreciate your advice. Thanks

 

[Going Bald]

I would go with the -UD3. If you are doing audio you need all the storage you can get and the -UD3 has the extra 2 SATA ports.

i5 2500K will doo all you need for just audio

the 8400 would do fine, but if you wanted to upgrade the GPU I would go with the 6670 rather than the 6450

everything else looks good,

The description may say upgrade, but it is a full install DVD as long as it looks like this

 

[jeffcarrera]

Thank you Going Bald. I probably will go with the UD3. How compatible is the HD6670 with snow leopard?I have looked at the compatible graphics card wiki, there's too many and i kinda got more confused. I'll search through the forums more to see which ones are more compatible.

One question though, my Snow Leopard install disk says "new version 10.6.3" in the box (see photo). Will that be an issue during installation?

 

[Going Bald]

Thank you Going Bald. I probably will go with the UD3. How compatible is the HD6670 with snow leopard?I have looked at the compatible graphics card wiki, there's too many and i kinda got more confused. I'll search through the forums more to see which ones are more compatible.

One question though, my Snow Leopard install disk says "new version 10.6.3" in the box (see photo). Will that be an issue during installation?

Not a bit of problem for the 10.6.3 version. For the gfx card, you will need to update to 10.6.8 (IIRC this is the first update that had HD6xxx gfx card support) immediately you get to desktop after that first install reboot with iBoot, then before you reboot after the update run MultiBeast with your selections. I would advise downloading the combo update to desktop, lauch MB and make your selections, hit continue and verify the target drive but do not click on install - instead, launch the combo-update. As soon as the update is finished and the reboot pop-up appears, double click on the MB install button (once to activate the window, second to launch the installer. When MB is finished, reboot.

It is still kinda iffy whether that particular gfx card was in the SL support package for the 10.6.8 update.

EDIT: Also, you might wind up having to run the 10.6.7 combo update first, run update helper and reboot and only then run the 10.6.8 combo update

 

[Nodarkthings]

Hi Jeff!
I'm on the same boat, so I don't want to add confusion, but I can give you my actual selection, for what it's worth:
Gigabyte - Z68P-DS3 (but after reading you I may consider the Z68XP-UD3 )

PSU: Be Quiet! 350W Pure Power L7 (excellent reviews though only 80+) or FORTRON AURUM 400 (GOLD! but I have read contradictory reviews about its silence... )

Core i3 2125 (originally I selected this one because of HD3000 if someday I go Lion or ML)

RAM: 8 Gb DDR 3 (found out on some dedicated site that Crucial has the lowest failures rate)

Case: Lian Li (Lancool) - PC-K59 has excellent reviews for a quite cheap one

GPU: fanless such as MSI-N210, MSI - N520GT or EVGA - GT210

As for Firewire, I haven't found anyone saying the integrated ones work or not...

My guide to this selection was "cheap, silent and as easy as possible".