Something cheap on a GA-B75M-HD3. How's it looking so far?

[Essenar]

So I gave this a shot back in 2007 or so when OSX86 was starting to get steam. I had a 965 DS3 or something like that, an E2160 and 4GB of ram. (I was a baller back then?) I had KP's trying to get my QE/CI working, restarting was a shot in the dark at getting the system to boot. Sleep was considered a loss.

Ultimately I went back to Windows.

Fast forward to 2012, I bought a MacBook Pro and what a splendid device it is. 13", upgraded to a 750GB hybrid Seagate drive, 16GB of ram. I love OSX now. Unfortunately it can't play games for crap and I also went through hard drive cables like bottles of water. I think the Seagate drive taxes them due to the 7200 RPM speed.

So I'm going to give a Hackintosh+Splashtop set up a try. Here's what I have on order so far:
Gigabyte GA-B75M-HD3 - (I know it only has two ram slots, but I'm going for 16GB max so it will suffice)
Crucial 8GB DDR3-1333 - (I know it's not 1600 but again, I was going for cheap and my school's bookstore wanted $80 for a DDR3 8GB 1600 stick versus $50 for the 1333)
Intel Pentium G2020

What's left:
SSD - Do I need a 120? I don't care about booting Windows off of the HDD since I'm only using it for gaming here and there. 80% of the time I'll be on OSX. What I plan on installing: Office 2011, VLC Media Player, maybe 1-2 games on Mac Steam for the occasional grinding in Borderlands 2. Primarily I'll be using Office 2011 and browsing the internet with OSX.

HDD - I have my 500GB from my MacBook Pro. Once I pull my files off of it, I'm going to use it as a second drive. Or I'll pick up a cheap 1TB 7200 RPM drive.

GPU - I'm debating using the HD4000 in the meanwhile until I can decide which card fits my needs. Right now the choices are:
GTX 650 Ti Boost
GTX 650 Ti
GTX 660

How are 500 series cards in ML? I always see people emphasize picking a 600 series card. The last time I checked guides a few months ago, GTX 500 series cards were recommended. Did some kind of incompatibility surface with 10.8.1/2?

For PSU - I'm probably going to pick up a mildly used modular PSU on Craig's List or Overclock's marketplace. I'm going around $45-60 on that component but I want modular with at least 550 watts in case I go with a more powerful GPU in the future.

Is the G2020 an acceptable CPU for gaming? I'm going to be using a 24" 1080p monitor. I understand that at lower resolutions the CPU matters but at 1080p would a GTX 650 Ti Boost be enough to crank it through Skyrim, Borderlands 2, Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2 with decent settings? At the same time, what kind of real world experience will I expect in OSX? How will a G2020 compare to the i5 in the MacBook Pro? My MacBook is quite speedy. Should I go with an i3 or an i5 to really wipe the floor with my MacBook? My concern is I'd rather invest in a more powerful GPU since the stressful task of my machine is gaming and not audio processing or editing. Am I right in that assumption?

 

[Adrian B]

Hi Essenar,

I am using that same board and CPU. I am using 4 GB of RAM and its more than enough for internet and word-processing type duties.

Couple of things you need to know, the G2020 has HD2500 graphics - its not supported by OSX although some have got it going it seems a little bit flaky. I would suggest you consider a GPU. a 650Ti should be all right, but do a little more research before making your decision

Memory is best bought as dual channel pairs rather than single channel sticks - the extra bandwidth for dual channel memory is noticeable. G2020 only supports 1333 Mhz. I have fitted 1600 Mhz (upgrading CPU to i5 at end of summer) but it is set as 1333 in the bios.

Using an SSD for all your software makes a big difference in speed. Highly recommended.

Good luck

 

[ayushh]

hey i was actually looking for some cheap build for video editing perfectly.
is it possible to use ur B75M DH3 + 8gb ram + G2020 Cpu with 1 tb of drive.
if i have the configuration you provided can i do video editing smoothly with some average performance GPU?

 

[ayushh]

sorry my bad not DH3 i meant ur board B75M HD3

 

[Adrian B]

ayushh,

For video editing processing power is of paramount importance. An i7 or i5 processor would make the most sense, the extra processing cores would make a HUGE difference.

I understand that you are on a tight budget and as long as you do a small of amount of light editing you can probably get by with an i3.

 

[Essenar]

ayushh,

For video editing processing power is of paramount importance. An i7 or i5 processor would make the most sense, the extra processing cores would make a HUGE difference.

I understand that you are on a tight budget and as long as you do a small of amount of light editing you can probably get by with an i3.

Is the 650 Ti Boost supported out of the box? Since the HD2500 isn't supported, if I set up the desktop with a 650 Ti Boost, will it automatically detect it and get me into the install enough to install drivers?

 

[Adrian B]

I should be very easy to get it working - see this thread from Moarfish:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-bu...build-ga-b75m-d3h-i5-3570k-54.html#post576187

The boost version will not be any different to set up.