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i5 Video Editing Machine


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Saw this great video series about building a hackintosh for video editing.

 

This is part 2 where he gets into the hardware choices which are as follows:
 

Intel Core i7 3930K: http://amzn.to/12yU16D
Corsair H80i CPU cooler: http://amzn.to/Yhttap
Asus Sabertooth X79 Motherboard: http://amzn.to/XP7dAB
2X Corsair Vengeance 16GB RAM kits: http://amzn.to/XP7kMD
3X 128GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD's: http://amzn.to/10KuyZS
Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce Graphics Card:http://amzn.to/13TVOnl
Fractal Newton 1000W PSU: http://amzn.to/W9PNzD
Fractal R4 Case: http://amzn.to/10KIHWX

 

Dave Dougdale also built pretty much the same system for video editing but without being a hackintosh.



Both of these systems come out to around $2000+. I'd like to cut that price in half if possible and upgrade over time. Currently I'm using a 2008 aluminum unibody macbook which is horrible for video editing but decent otherwise. However now I want something powerful enough to cut HD video on from my hacked GH2. I may also be picking up a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera that record proRes 4:2:2 and cinemaDNG.  

That said my budget is tight for this machine. So I was hoping I could build the machine above at a lower cost by swapping out the i7 for an i5, going with a single SSD for boot and a HDD for storage, going with 16GB of ram instead of 32GB, ditching the water cooler and even holding out on the dedicated GPU until later on when I get some more cash.  

Because I plan to hold off on the GPU, I was hoping I could get into a Haswell i5 with the better onboard Intel graphics. It could be 6 months to a year before I buy an nVidia card, so having better onboard graphics would be nice.

The motherboard I hope to get would have:
USB 3

Firewire 400
SATA 6

HDMI out
(optional) Thunderbolt - Honestly this would be nice but not necessary as I have no thunderbolt accessories. But a futureproof motherboard would be nice. I plan to keep this machine and upgrade it over the next 4-5 years. I don't buy computers often.

This will be my first hackintosh build. I've built PC's since 1998 and have been a mac user on and off for the last nine years, steady for the last 5 years.

I have both the Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad, so getting those working with bluetooth is a must. 
I'd love to also put ina Blu-ray burner if possible. 

It's either I do this or I buy an iMac. But at $1300 the iMac is not very upgradable. I figure that if I can build a tower that matches the specs of the 2012 iMac for under $1000 I'll be in good shape. Several video editors use those and seem pretty happy with the speed.

So with all of that said here is what I'm looking for:

1. Is it possible to build a Haswell setup with a matching motherboard that has those four things on it and full compatability?
2. What motherboard would you recommend?

3. What i5 would be a good match?
4. Am I ok ditching the above parts for now?
5. If not Haswell what else would you recommend.  

 

The last thing i want to do is constantly be fiddling with my machine every day or week. Once set up it just needs to work and be a rock solid performer. One of the reason I stopped building PC's and switched to mac a few years ago is because I just needed a machine that worked and was portable. Now I need something powerful enough to cut video in Premiere Pro, After Effects and Da Vinci Resolve. But at current prices I can't afford a high end imac or mac pro.  

My girlfriend also wants a new machine just for PC gaming. So I'll probably build her the exact same machine at the same time just to keep things easy. But she just wants Windows 7 on it. I may dual boot to Windows 7/8 and she may decide to want OSX on hers at some point. Probably knowing her. So having matching machines would be good for that.    

 

 
 

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