SSD + Corei7 + Dual boot = Awesometastic?

[PunkHop]

I built my current box as a Windows PC and later converted it into a Hackintosh after discovering this forum about six months ago. Fortunately, I had a very compatible Gigabyte motherboard and almost everything has worked perfectly since I made the switch.

 

I'm ready to move my current box into the living room as a secondary gaming machine and build a Hackintosh from scratch. Hoping to spend $1500 or less.

 

I want to dual boot Windows 7 and Snow Leopard on an SSD or two.

 

Windows will only be used for gaming. All this Modern Warfare 2 talk from my PC friends has got me jealous.

 

OS X will be used for constant multi-tasking: Firefox, Thunderbird, Adium, iTunes, Usenet downloading/PAR2 file restoration, Picasa, Photoshop CS4, and some Handbrake and Final Cut Pro for editing videos (I'm a

).

 

• Is a Core i7 the wrong choice for all of these + Windows gaming? Is it overkill or would I take better advantage of a Core 2 Quad or something?
  
• And should I have 2 SSDs, one for each OS, or partition one bigger one into two pieces?
  

 

Thanks guys.

[EricM]

The Core i7 860 will be perfect. Core 2 processors are old technology and on the way out. It would be foolish to purchase one at this date and time. I recommend the Gigabyte p55m-ud2 if your running single video, it has an in-depth guide for it and its fairly cheap, so you can spend your $$ on the SSD drives.

 

I don't recommend running your system entirely off of SSD unless you have enough money to purchase larger drives... you can't run 2 os's off of a 128GB drive and still have much space left. The pricing on SSD's are VERY expensive right now and you won't be able to purchase much without a hefty amount of change ($750 will get you a 256GB drive...). If your buying SSD, I would buy 2 64GB drives and then 2 WD Black drives if you really wanted to dual boot and have SSD in both os's, this will be the fastest solution compared to partition. Just make sure that the WD Black drives aren't in raid, just used for storage in each os.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820148318 (x2)

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...6-283-_-Product (x2)

 

Doing all this will cost a little over $600, leaving you the other $1100 on the other components. You don't have to do this, but this is what I came up with for you.

[mic.mac.hack]

Does OS X treat SSDs in the correct manner?

 

All this talk of Windows 7's great support for SSDs and how Vista and XP can stuff up your SSD has got me thinking; surely OS X would be in the same boat as XP + Vista, would it not? No TRIM support + perhaps improper treatment of the drive resulting in wear and tear and then... DEATH

 

Does anyone have experience with running OS X from an SSD?

[ratedr_14]

Does OS X treat SSDs in the correct manner?

 

All this talk of Windows 7's great support for SSDs and how Vista and XP can stuff up your SSD has got me thinking; surely OS X would be in the same boat as XP + Vista, would it not? No TRIM support + perhaps improper treatment of the drive resulting in wear and tear and then... DEATH

 

Does anyone have experience with running OS X from an SSD?

 

Well I don't but Chris Pirillo [Google 'Chris' and click the first result if u don't know him] does on his Mac Pro and he describes it as 'stupid fast'.

[C.D.C]

I have been running OS X on my Dell Mini for well over 8 months now with no problems. Most GOOD SSD's have wear leveling algorithms that keep the OS from writing to the same block on the SSD repeatedly.

[smeared]

ssd on a hackintosh is stupid fast. I have a 64gb crucial i picked up for $224 as my boot drive, and apps load insanely fast. os x has no problem with ssd.

[PunkHop]

ssd on a hackintosh is stupid fast. I have a 64gb crucial i picked up for $224 as my boot drive, and apps load insanely fast. os x has no problem with ssd.

 

Smeared, I checked out your build and I'm green with envy.

 

Based on my list of uses, what's your opinion of the best processor choice for me, and one vs two SSDs for booting?

 

There was some confusion at the beginning of the thread. I'm of course not going to put all of my data on SSDs, just boot. A 2TB Samsung Spinpoint (my favorite) will be on data duty.

[noNix]

I am sure that you are aware that the OS X and Windows use different file systems. OS X can read and write to the Windows disk, but Windows has a lot more problems with the Mac disks. Additionally, OS X will litter the Windows drive with .DS, and other small files that just make sharing drives a complete pain. My advice is to have two separate drives for data so that you can keep things clean.

[smeared]

Smeared, I checked out your build and I'm green with envy.

 

Based on my list of uses, what's your opinion of the best processor choice for me, and one vs two SSDs for booting?

 

There was some confusion at the beginning of the thread. I'm of course not going to put all of my data on SSDs, just boot. A 2TB Samsung Spinpoint (my favorite) will be on data duty.

 

thanks, I'm pretty psyched now that it's coming all together.

 

You'd be very happy with the 860. It's a super fast processor. so let's just say hypothetically here. $280 for the CPU. average price for a decent mobo, $200-240. $200 for 8gb ram, you probably don't even need this much. $120-$140 for a good PSU. $120 for a decent video card, $30 for a dvd drive, $60-100 for a case. $120 for random expenses and you're arroouunndd what like $1100, before drives. Less than $1000 if you can skimp or buy used.

 

Now, about the ssd, I personally am going to stay away from both win and os x on one drive, for a few reasons, but it's also just easier. Also, I'm not a huge fan of windows in general and can say that I'll be on os x 98% of the time, I just need windows for a lot of specialty apps, as well as the fact that I'm building a pc whether I like it or not, and I need to be able to access windows-only attributes of my hardware.

 

So it's really dependent on how much you're going to use each os, which one more, and whether you want to fork out for two. You could do it and be under your budget, but I didn't figure in your 2tb samsung. I am excited about these crucial ssds. they are cheap, and very very fast from a company I trust. In fact when I was looking I did come across a guy on craigslist selling two of the 64gb models for 400 total. Would have been a very good deal for you. One for each os, double fast boot drives. so keep in mind looking around. I think you could pull it off very close to your budget. And look at it this way.. if your build gets delayed, then you get to add more money from another paycheck god knows if I was just putting everything in a case, and it all came perfect, I'd not have spent as much as I have... but alas..

 

Also, I second multiple data drives as well, I am just getting to the part where I decide and format mine, and how I'm going to do it, and I'm almost considering putting this extra 500gb Western digital that I have no faith in for my sole Windows drive, both boot and data. But my rack only holds 3.. don't know yet.. good luck either way. You're going to love it when it's done no matter what. Cuz building them is the best.

[okatodal]

Hi,

 

i´m using a OCZ Vertex 60 GB for Snow 10.6.2. without any issues. It´s very fast and noisless...

OCZ offers 2 versions of Firmware: with Tirm Support (for Win7) and with GC (Garbage Collection) for all other OS´s

For OSX you need the FW with GC.

60 GB are absolute sufficient for any OS.

Il will never use a mechanical HD for OS installation. Times are changing.

[PunkHop]

Smeared, okatodal, noNix -

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm gonna do 2 SSDs for boot. Probably 2 60GB OCZs. Now to just find em on the cheap!

 

Definitely gonna go with 8GB of DDR3.

 

For sound, are there any game-surround (EAX) cards that will work on the Mac side? I had to ditch my Creative X-Fi on my current Hackintosh because the drivers for OS X don't exist. The onboard sound of the motherboard will suck for gaming in Windows, right?

 

What about motherboard?

I want to get the most Hackintosh/dual boot compatible one I can find.

Is the ASUS P6T my best bet for playing nice with OSX and a socket 1366 for my upcoming Core i7?

 

And video card?

Is it dumb to buy a GeForce 9800 at this point? I've been an nVidia guy for a while, but it seems like ATi is winning the war at the moment. I'm definitely gonna do some gaming, but I don't need to do dual video cards or anything insane.

[noNix]

If you are going for an i7 I would go for one of the Gigabyte P55 boards. They are well supported with a ton of guides available.

[Evildemon989]

What about motherboard?

I want to get the most Hackintosh/dual boot compatible one I can find.

Is the ASUS P6T my best bet for playing nice with OSX and a socket 1366 for my upcoming Core i7?

I would second going with a gigabyte P55 board.

 

And video card?

Is it dumb to buy a GeForce 9800 at this point? I've been an nVidia guy for a while, but it seems like ATi is winning the war at the moment. I'm definitely gonna do some gaming, but I don't need to do dual video cards or anything insane.

I wouldn't say buying a 9800 GT is a bad idea right now. I have one myself and it works great with just GraphicsEnabler=Yes. Yes, ATI is currently winning the war, but soon the Nvidia GTX 300 series will be out(In a few months probably). I'd suggest getting a 9800 GT now, and once the GTX 300 series comes out, upgrade to them. You'll have a 9800 GT lying around, but you can now use it for Physx. Just put it in the spare PCI-E slot, and use the physx drivers to specify it for physx processing. It takes a huge load off of the main GPU which will then be used just as the backbone.

 

A 9800 GT is more then enough to do physx rendering. Now the only problems you would have for this plan is that the 9800 GT would then not work under OSX(Not that big of a problem because you wouldn't have a second monitor plugged into it anyways since it is just doing physx computations and sending the data back through the bus and outputting through your main GPU.). Also, when the GTX 300 series comes out, it will most likely be very hard to get it to work under a hackintosh until a someone makes drivers. Lastly, if you do a config like this(GTX 300 series card, and a 9800 GT), you will not need a SLI bridge, as it would not work anyways. As I stated before, the data is sent back through the bus.

[smeared]

my quick suggestion for you. asus p6t, core i7 920, 6gb corsair 1600 ram, etc etc.. You won't be sorry.. that's all you really need.

[icedrake]

my quick suggestion for you. asus p6t, core i7 920, 6gb corsair 1600 ram, etc etc.. You won't be sorry.. that's all you really need.

 

I'll second the call for the P6T, though more specifically look at the Deluxe V2 or the SE -- I haven't been able to find anything about getting the base P6T to work, but I can tell you that as of six days ago, the Deluxe V2 has been doing (mostly) great for me. The front-side USB ports aren't functional at the moment, but I haven't tried overly hard to fix them yet. Also, I'm unable to boot without going through the Chameleon CD, but I have strong suspicions that's not due to the motherboard.

[PunkHop]

Here's what I ended up building.

 

Antec P183 Black Aluminum Case

Intel Core i7 860

6GB OCZ Gold RAM

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3

EVGA 9800 GTX

2 x 60GB OCZ Vertex Turbo SSDs

 

I've got everything working (!), used tonymacx86's install guide. 10.6.2 and Windows 7, both in 64bit. Awesome.

 

Here's my Geekbench score. Is that what I should be getting for a system like this? I've never used it before so I don't have anything to compare it to.

 

Edit: Just found this page, I guess my score is pretty good?

http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/mac-benchmarks/

 

[klh6686]

any plans for overclocking? IMO that is one of the biggest draws for running a hackintosh, being able to do something the mac elitist's can't.

 

score:

[PunkHop]

any plans for overclocking? IMO that is one of the biggest draws for running a hackintosh, being able to do something the mac elitist's can't.

 

score:

 

I suppose I should, yeah... as I've read that the i7 is ripe for overclocking.

I don't have the technical skill to just go into the BIOS and know what to change to keep everything clean and copacetic, I'd have to follow a guide. Any tips or links to the best guide for my setup with my 860 and 6GB RAM?

[windowbreaker]

I'm going to add my two cents here for anyone else considering something similar-

 

I bought components for to use with the excellent guide to installing with a Gigabyte x58 Mobo, and I can't recommend it enough:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185097

 

I have the Core i7 920, 6GB Ram and a GeForce 9500, and it works for me. I dual boot W7 and Mac, edit video for a living on it and then use W7 for Avid and bookkeeping. (If anyone was running Quickbooks on mac about a year ago, you understand why this makes sense.)

 

I've been astonished at the speed of the processor vs other machines I work on that cost much more. It's been reliable for high level video editing and graphics work, though it does hang in finder for a few seconds here and there. I use After Effects and Cinema 4d all the time, and it all works great. The components have even been reliable with Avid on the PC side, which is notorious. I had a bit of trouble making a proper com.apple.something.boot.plist for my graphics card, but there are utilities out there to help generate the codes.

 

I think the money for an SSD is a waste. Fast app load times? who cares? Open every app in your machine when you startup, get a beer and when you come back you're ready to go with no load time. If you have a large music or video collection or want to do any video editing, do what I did and buy a few 2TB drives for $170. I have a few 640s laying around for backup (yes, five hard drives in the machine.) SSDs are whizbang shiny, but just not worth the cash.

 

But most importantly, keep your OSes on separate drives. Hard drives are cheap, and it's just not worth the headache.

 

Enjoy!

[daseighty]

...But most importantly, keep your OSes on separate drives. Hard drives are cheap, and it's just not worth the headache.

 

Enjoy!

 

So in my case...

 

I plan on using a current WD Raptor 7200RPM 120gb drive to run Win7 64bit. I'm probably picking up an extra 500gb or maybe even 1TB to use for data associated with Windows.

 

For OSX, I'm contemplating a 1TB with 2 partitions, one for the OS, the other for data...

 

Would that not be the best of ideas? I guess I can also do something similar to the Windows setup, all that does for me though, is add another hard drive and heat the box up some more... Hmm.

[windowbreaker]

So in my case...

 

I plan on using a current WD Raptor 7200RPM 120gb drive to run Win7 64bit. I'm probably picking up an extra 500gb or maybe even 1TB to use for data associated with Windows.

 

For OSX, I'm contemplating a 1TB with 2 partitions, one for the OS, the other for data...

 

Would that not be the best of ideas? I guess I can also do something similar to the Windows setup, all that does for me though, is add another hard drive and heat the box up some more... Hmm.

 

 

I think the main thing is to keep your OSes on different drives, basically so if I do something stupid or something breaks, the trauma is contained. If both partitions of your 1TB are HFS+ and used with Mac, what's the advantage of partitioning? To me that just takes away options if you get a lot more data (video? mp3s?) or if you need to expand the size of the system partition. What does the partition gain you?

 

Because I push a lot of data and am risk averse, my situation is a bit extreme, but I have a Carbon Copy Cloner disk of my Mac OS as well as a different disk with Time Machine backups. I've tested both backups and both work. So any of my disks can fail and I'm fine.

[PunkHop]

So I've got my dual-boot SSD box running and it is glorious.

 

But I need to boot off of my Snow Leopard DVD to run Disk Utility on an external drive (I know you don't have to boot up off the SL DVD to do this, but for this disk you do) and I can't get my box to boot off the SL DVD. And, if ever I need to restore from a Time Machine backup, I'll need to boot off the SL DVD.

 

During POST, I choose Boot and pick CD-ROM. It ignores that and goes straight to Chameleon, which shows my SL and Win7 partitions, just like always, and also doesn't show my SL DVD.

 

What the {censored}?

[Bob-tosh]

So I've got my dual-boot SSD box running and it is glorious.

 

But I need to boot off of my Snow Leopard DVD to run Disk Utility on an external drive (I know you don't have to boot up off the SL DVD to do this, but for this disk you do) and I can't get my box to boot off the SL DVD. And, if ever I need to restore from a Time Machine backup, I'll need to boot off the SL DVD.

 

During POST, I choose Boot and pick CD-ROM. It ignores that and goes straight to Chameleon, which shows my SL and Win7 partitions, just like always, and also doesn't show my SL DVD.

 

What the {censored}?

 

Silly, but check the bottom of the F12 boot list for your DVD drive - CD-ROM not it.

[ballisticmedicine]

ssd on a hackintosh is stupid fast. I have a 64gb crucial i picked up for $224 as my boot drive, and apps load insanely fast. os x has no problem with ssd.

 

 

That's what I like to hear. Thanks.

 

I think the main thing is to keep your OSes on different drives, basically so if I do something stupid or something breaks, the trauma is contained. If both partitions of your 1TB are HFS+ and used with Mac, what's the advantage of partitioning? To me that just takes away options if you get a lot more data (video? mp3s?) or if you need to expand the size of the system partition. What does the partition gain you?

 

Because I push a lot of data and am risk averse, my situation is a bit extreme, but I have a Carbon Copy Cloner disk of my Mac OS as well as a different disk with Time Machine backups. I've tested both backups and both work. So any of my disks can fail and I'm fine.

{censored}, that is good advice. I may end up shelling out for a second SSD now. I'm going to be dual-booting w/OSX and Ubuntu Studio for video editing and 3D graphics.