Z590 or Z690

[alexjibcam]

Hi all,

The motherboard on my Z87 has finally bit the bullet after 8 years of hard service on my hackingtoshing journey.

I'm in the process of buying a new build.
I see there are a few working builds around for both the Z590 and Z690.

I have ordered the following:

Z590 Vision D with 11900K - Using HackinDROM with CODYQX4 build. @CODYQX4

But im also consider sending back and spending the extra for a Z690 build with:

Z690 Aero G with 12700K - Using HackinDROM with CaseySJ build. @CaseySJ

I have a Radeon VII that will be donated to either of the above so iGPU not an issue.

What would you do in my situtation? It is quite a jump in price to the Z690.

Thanks for any advise you may offer.

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi all,

The motherboard on my Z87 has finally bit the bullet after 8 years of hard service on my hackingtoshing journey.

I'm in the process of buying a new build.
I see there are a few working builds around for both the Z590 and Z690.

I have ordered the following:

Z590 Vision D with 11900K - Using HackinDROM with CODYQX4 build. @CODYQX4

But im also consider sending back and spending the extra for a Z690 build with:

Z690 Aero G with 12700K - Using HackinDROM with CaseySJ build. @CaseySJ

I have a Radeon VII that will be donated to either of the above so iGPU not an issue.

What would you do in my situation? It is quite a jump in price to the Z690.

Thanks for any advise you may offer.

Either Z590 or Z690 will require a supported graphics card to install and run MacOS so they are the same in this context.

If you are confident of getting it to run MacOS, then perhaps it is best to get the Z690, even though it is not supported, as there are a number of successful builds already. It might be easier to get Z590 to install and run MacOS though.

If I were you, however, I will direct my funds towards getting a suitable Apple Silicon Mac rather than building another hackintosh if I need to run MacOS. The era of Intel Macs is ending, and for all we know MacOS Ventura might even be the last Intel MacOS.

 

[Middleman]

Hi there,

While I agree with @Jamebond007's opinion about getting an Apple Silicon Mac instead of a hackintosh, the truth is
I find having a hackintosh to be the more economical and practical route to take in terms of use and ownership.

An Apple Silicon Mac is going to only be catered towards ARM based setups. Even though Windows and Linux is available, they will be ARM-flavoured so you won't necessarily be able to run any x86-based Windows apps or games (for example) unless they have been ported.

On top of this is hardware compatibility and parts upgrade/repair issues. If you want to upgrade RAM or the internal storage, graphics card or use PCIe based peripherals that is never going to happen on Apple Silicon. Apple Macs have been more and more user-unfriendly since around 2015 when they started to restrict user system upgrades such as RAM and SSD/NVMe hard drives to Apple-proprietary standards and connectors. It meant that if your hard drive was to fail on a 2018 Macbook Pro for instance, the chances of you wanting to replace or repair the device on your own is next to impossible compared to say the 2012 MBP as the hard drive would be tied to the logic board. Which meant you would have to hand your laptop to Apple to do the drive replacement/repair for you (and ends up being a much more costly exercise as many users have found). Did I mention RAM is not user upgradeable on a Apple Silicon device?

Luckily we now have more alternatives for hackintosh, which aside from Alder Lake and Ice/Comet Lake now includes AMD's latest line of Ryzen 7000 chips (which have now been confirmed recently to run Monterey and Ventura). If I were to upgrade I would prefer to go with AMD's newest AM5 lineup to be honest because the line would have more upgrade potential than Intel's Alder Lake & Raptor Lake (since they are only available for two generations only as a platform compared to AMD's AM5). Once Raptor Lake finishes this generation of Socket LGA1700 will finish and move to Meteor Lake which will use a new socket and likely be incompatible with LGA1700.

 

[alexjibcam]

Thank you both.

@Jamesbond007 Yes i already have an M1 MacBook which is great. But it does lack in areas such as GPU permormance especially for video editing.

The reaity is i still have 50% of the conponents needed for a good HACK. Case, Cooler, RADEONVII, PSU, Tonns of HDDs/NvMEs. Therefore I can upgrade for around 1k. Or I can pay 4k+ for a simular spec Mac Studio with low storage which just isnt feasible for me right now.

Back to my original post it seems that as I will only want to use the perfomrance cores if opting for the 12700k that in fact it would be very simular if not slower than the 11900K?

Maybe i should even consider downgrading again to the 10900K with a Z490 for maximum compatibility.....

Thanks again.

 

[Middleman]

Thank you both.

@Jamesbond007 Yes i already have an M1 MacBook which is great. But it does lack in areas such as GPU permormance especially for video editing.

The reaity is i still have 50% of the conponents needed for a good HACK. Case, Cooler, RADEONVII, PSU, Tonns of HDDs/NvMEs. Therefore I can upgrade for around 1k. Or I can pay 4k+ for a simular spec Mac Studio with low storage which just isnt feasible for me right now.

Back to my original post it seems that as I will only want to use the perfomrance cores if opting for the 12700k that in fact it would be very simular if not slower than the 11900K?

Maybe i should even consider downgrading again to the 10900K with a Z490 for maximum compatibility.....

Thanks again.

Well I would think the 12700K would be much quicker than the 11900K (as the OC config will use all of the cores). In terms of multicore performance it matches the Max Mac Studio on Geekbench 5, but coupled with a powerful AMD GPU like a RX6800/6900 would push that easily to push to beyond M1 Pro speeds. On a DDR5 spec (with Z690) it will match the M1 Ultra Mac Studio and be better at graphics.

 

[alexjibcam]

Well I would think the 12700K would be much quicker than the 11900K (as the OC config will use all of the cores). In terms of multicore performance it matches the Max Mac Studio on Geekbench 5, but coupled with a powerful AMD GPU like a RX6800/6900 would push that easily to push to beyond M1 Pro speeds. On a DDR5 spec (with Z690) it will match the M1 Ultra Mac Studio and be better at graphics.

Maybe I'm reading @CaseySJ Golden Build post wrong but wont the opencore config use all the cores on the 12700K but only at the speed of the slower efficency cores? Thanks

 

[Middleman]

Maybe I'm reading @CaseySJ Golden Build post wrong but wont the opencore config use all the cores on the 12700K but only at the speed of the slower efficency cores? Thanks

Yes that's correct. But when it runs together it can and does match Max Mac Studio speeds. I have checked this myself with my Z690 12900K build. Either way you are getting a faster setup than the 11900K.

 

[alexjibcam]

Thanks @Middleman. I'm in a real conudrum at the moment. I need to get working again asap as my DATA is spread again across multiple HDDs. I have the Z590 arriving today with 11900K and can prob have the build up and running by the weekend. Or i can return and reorder Z690 setup but will be a couple of weeks until I recive and build. What would you do in my shoes? Was a bit of a panic buy moment when my orginal machine went kaput!

 

[Middleman]

Thanks @Middleman. I'm in a real conudrum at the moment. I need to get working again asap as my DATA is spread again across multiple HDDs. I have the Z590 arriving today with 11900K and can prob have the build up and running by the weekend. Or i can return and reorder Z690 setup but will be a couple of weeks until I recive and build. What would you do in my shoes? Was a bit of a panic buy moment when my orginal machine went kaput!

Right! Well I guess if it was a necessity then sometimes you can't really avoid that.

I see you have two other builds in your signature? If so could you use those for the time being in place of the original machine? Or is it not possible? If that is the case and you are desperate then build the Z590. But if you can hold off, I'd suggest to get the Z690 instead (I think that is the best choice in ownership upgrade terms).

 

[alexjibcam]

Yes i have built about 6 hacks now so I'm no stanger. Those addtional hacks are for a team of video editors for a company i work with but are all occupied.

The Z87 is my personal machine for seperate work. i'm gonna proceed with the Z590 as need to get up and running. FIngers crossed i dont regret it in a few years! After research I think the perfomance increase will be negligible in real world use between the 11900K vs the 12700K and still a massive jump from my Z87 4770k!

Hopfully will be a seemless install.......I've said that before.

While I have you- Do you think I should install Big Sur or Monterey? I have USBs ready for both.