- Joined
- Jun 3, 2018
- Messages
- 43
- Motherboard
- ASUS Prime H310T/CSM
- CPU
- i5-8400
- Graphics
- UHD 630
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hi,
I decided that I will try to build a medium-duty machine (no gaming/intensive job/OC) that can fit into a Mac Mini enclosure to replace my veteran mid-11 MBA. Let's not talk about Mac Mini enclosure for a while (cooling is rather hard XD) but the key components themselves.
I will use this computer mostly for browsing and office/school work, but since I have a bad habit of hoarding tabs, I would need a rather big RAM. Also, I do some music composing, light 3D designing, and drawing as hobbies.
I have found out that ASUS recently launched a new Thin Mini-ITX motherboard, namely the Prime H310T. I could have gone with an H110 or Q170 MoBo, but 1) I want to use a newer CPU (Coffee Lake or Kaby Lake), 2) it seems that it is the best to match up the gen. of CPU and the chipset, and 3) gigabyte's MFH27AI is just a lie—I SPEND TWO DAYS GOOGLING AND ALL I FOUND WERE EUROPEAN SELLERS WITH NO STOCKS (FRUSTRATION INTENSIFIES). So, on a budget of around $800 and a cap of $1k, the components I am thinking is as the following:
As the motherboard is so new it is only available on eBay from Israel, I assume that no one tested if it's Hackintosh-compatible; so, probably all we can do is to read the spec page and hope it would work.
So then...
(If it won't, I'll probably just build a Windows machine somehow...)
I decided that I will try to build a medium-duty machine (no gaming/intensive job/OC) that can fit into a Mac Mini enclosure to replace my veteran mid-11 MBA. Let's not talk about Mac Mini enclosure for a while (cooling is rather hard XD) but the key components themselves.
I will use this computer mostly for browsing and office/school work, but since I have a bad habit of hoarding tabs, I would need a rather big RAM. Also, I do some music composing, light 3D designing, and drawing as hobbies.
I have found out that ASUS recently launched a new Thin Mini-ITX motherboard, namely the Prime H310T. I could have gone with an H110 or Q170 MoBo, but 1) I want to use a newer CPU (Coffee Lake or Kaby Lake), 2) it seems that it is the best to match up the gen. of CPU and the chipset, and 3) gigabyte's MFH27AI is just a lie—I SPEND TWO DAYS GOOGLING AND ALL I FOUND WERE EUROPEAN SELLERS WITH NO STOCKS (FRUSTRATION INTENSIFIES). So, on a budget of around $800 and a cap of $1k, the components I am thinking is as the following:
- ASUS Prime H310T, w/ Realtek RTL8111H & ALC 887 and UEFI AMI BIOS: most likely about $100
- i5-8500: $205
- intel stock cooler
- onboard intel UHD 630 graphics
- DDR4-2666MHz SoDIMM (16G) x1 (since I am so frustrated with my MBA's 4G memory): $190~
- 500G WD blue M.2 SATA SDD x1: $110
- DW1830 wifi+BLE card: $30~
- 18V 250W home-brew PSU (based on a high-power LED power supply): $50~
As the motherboard is so new it is only available on eBay from Israel, I assume that no one tested if it's Hackintosh-compatible; so, probably all we can do is to read the spec page and hope it would work.
So then...
- How much faster is NVMe SSDs versus SATA ones? Should I add that add'l $50 to $60 to upgrade to an NVMe instead?
- I saw seldom mentions of i5-8500, nor is it in the buyer's guide. Should I just go with it, step down to 8400, or step up to 8600K? Or, any other CPU recommendations?
- Do you guys think this plan would work? Will I have any hardware that might be incompatible for Hackintosh?
(If it won't, I'll probably just build a Windows machine somehow...)
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