danielmramos Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 I am doing some research before I put together a hackintosh. I would like to use a Mac Pro case, so I need to use a Micro ATX motherboard if I am going to be able to keep the case as stock as possible. I don't want to have to cut that beautiful case. I have thought about the reliability of a hackintosh system. It seems to me that if you could build a setup that has an internal SATA hardware raid 1 pair and another drive for time machine backups, then you will almost always be able to recover your system no matter what. This would allow you to disconnect the second drive from the raid 1 array before major system updates to make sure the update didn't kill your OS. If it did kill your OS, then you could just go back to the system on your disconnected redundant raid drive without losing any time. I read about the Asus P5K3 Deluxe WiFi motherboard, and it works very nicely with the JMB363 controller to set up either raid 0 or 1. I would love to use that board as it works almost perfectly as a hackintosh motherboard right out of the box. The P5K3 Deluxe board uses a jumper to set raid 0 or 1 and it works very well with OS X. I have looked and looked and have not found a Micro ATX motherboard that has a JMB363 SATA raid controller that works worth a damn. I was thinking of the Asus P5B-VM, but after I read the reviews on Newegg I was discouraged as it apparently raid 0 or 1 doesn't work on the internal SATA ports at all. I wish I had a shrink ray to reduce the size of the P5K3 Deluxe board (sigh). It would also be nice if the board had dual gigabit LAN ports, but those are quite rare and do not have firewire on board and are usually lower tech in general. Does anybody have any ideas. I would like to use an Asus or Gigabyte motherboard. I will keep looking, but any help would certainly be appreciated. Yes, I have reviewed the HCL profusely. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielmramos Posted May 9, 2008 Author Share Posted May 9, 2008 For anybody that actually give a pttt about my problem... I looked around and found another candidate. The Gigabyte GA-965GM-DS2 (rev 2) is a possibility. http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherbo...?ProductID=2414 It is not ideal as it has a legacy parallel printer port and a COM port on the external port panel. I don't know why manufacturers keep these old legacy connectors on modern motherboards. This motherboard does meet some necessary qualifications. 1) It is a Micro ATX format. 2) It supports quad processors. 3) It supports at least 1066 Mhz FSB 4) It supports RAID 0, 1, JBOD (2 ports with RAID function supported by GIGABYTE SATA2) without having to utilize the intel chipset capabilities. 5) It supports 8GB of DDR2 memory. Now here is the killer. WHERE CAN I BUY ONE? I have looked all over and I can't find them for sale anywhere. I see them mentioned, but I do not see them being sold except for maybe in Australia. This is asinine! I just don't understand why this has to be so hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorkbydesign. Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Huh? A standard ATX mobo should fit inside a Mac Pro case! Try and double check!!!! Don't waste your money on a M-ATX mobo when they cost too mush and are too lacking. Try the Bad Axe 2... They ARE the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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