kpitstupidsimple Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 I hope to build my new computer by the end of the month. I'm budgeting somewhere between $1600 to $2000, including a new keyboard and mouse. (Logitech G5 and G92, most likely). I want to multiboot (vista, maybe XP, ubuntu, gentoo, OSX ). I've looked at the Abit IX38 QuadGT board. It appears to be a good board. The HCL shows the 'IX38 Roadster', but shows an ALC888 audio chipset, which I've heard is not easy to work with. Maybe another board would be better here. Important things in a board are: Quadcore compatible, including Yorktown CPUs. PCI Express 2.0. DDR2-1066 or faster, but not ddr3. NOT Asus. Can handle 8GB of memory. SATA II and onboard RAID. The MSI P7N and P7N Diamond seem to come up, but they're not mentioned in the 10.5.2 HCL either. Possibly the eVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1? I'm open to suggestions. More questions: 64-bit. I read that OSX runs 64-bit on its own? So if I have 8GB of memory, it will all be accessible in OSX? Emulation/virtualization/bootcamp/parallells/VMware fusion? My current system runs 10.5.2, on a pentium D and 2GB ddr2-533. I'm using VMware fusion to load vista. Vista is PAINFULLY slow in fusion. I've allocated one core and a gig of ram to vmware. Both systems slow to a crawl. Obviously with 8GB of ram, a quadcore processor, and a RAID-0 this will be less of a problem. I'm a bit confused, and quick google research hasn't helped much. I believe that bootcamp is just a bootloader. Parallels lets you run windows apps within OSX, but not a full windows OS. VMWare fusion is painfully slow. what's the lesser of the two evils? I have a Hauppage WinTV HVR-1800 PCIe-x1. Works in vista. Doubtful that it works in OSX. More doubtful that any non-usb HDTV tuner card will work in OSX. I'd really like to have vista media center to record my shows, without having to risk missing the shows when in OSX. Is there any chance that I can get a card that can be recognized in OSX, and then fusion/paralells/whatever recognize it for vista media center inside OSX? If you can answer one of these questions, or even insight to part of a question, I would really apprectiate it. Thanks! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/108233-ill-be-building-a-new-computer-soon-few-questions/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
knewsom Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 OSX is 64 bit. Will recognize up to 32 gigs of RAM. As for motherboards, well, have a look at mine. I'm quite happy with it, and I had a similar set of requirements as you. Only thing is, Shutdown doesn't always work and sleep only works on S1 so far, but I haven't done a BIOS update yet (that's tomorrow's project). I think I'll get S3 and shutdown working right then. Even if I don't, I'm VERY happy with the performance and stability of my system. The problems I've had are really minimal and haven't gotten in the way of my usage at all. As for what I do, I'm an editor, and I use my box for Final Cut Pro, so that's pretty demanding. Have a look at the thread where I explored the whole thing as I put it together: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=100703 This includes my more recent updates. As for multiboot/virtualization, VMWare Fusion is supposed to be VERY fast on an intelmac, I imagine it'd be near native on my machine, but I haven't tried it yet. As for getting your hardware to recognize in it, I don't know, but I SERIOUSLY doubt it'd work in parallels. Really, it'd be best to get a USB solution if you intend to use OSX as your primary OS. But I dunno, do some googling on the card, maybe it'll work on a mac, maybe there's software for it. More and more software and hardware is coming out for macs every day, and the more we as consumers demand it of companies, the more they'll see an important market niche to fill, and the more ubiquitous it'll become, and the less we'll have to hunt for solutions. From what I know, there are numerous HDTV solutions for macs. I'd advise you to move away from the RAID-0 idea. booting on a RAID doesn't work so well with OSX86, and RAID-0's have ZERO redundancy (and double the likelihood of failure). Sure, you'll get a small speed bump on read times from your system drive, but if you build a good system with a good HD and stay on top of your maintenance, you'll only occasionally be waiting for something to load, and with 10.5.3, things run REALLY fast. Safari and Mail will each open on a single bounce for me, and I'm running on a single 750 gig seagate. best of luck. do some searching to see others' experience with VMWare on OSX86 boxes. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/108233-ill-be-building-a-new-computer-soon-few-questions/#findComment-767568 Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpitstupidsimple Posted June 2, 2008 Author Share Posted June 2, 2008 The more I research, the more I find my limiting requirement is PCI Express 2.0. So I say forget that. My updated parts: Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 ($174.99) CPU: Intel Q9300 ($274.99) HS/F: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro ($26.99) RAM: 2x OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2-1066 2x2GB (total 8GB, $245.98, minus $50 MIRs) GPU: eVGA 640-P2-N829-AR 8800GTS 640MB ($209.99, minus $30 MIR) HDD: 2x Seagate 500GB SATA II with 32MB Cache (total $179.98) (I also have 2x320GB SataII drives to put in it) PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W ($129.99) DVD: LG SATA Blu-ray/HD-DVD reader/DVD multidrive ($159.99) (I doubt it'll work in OSX, but I have other DVD burners that i can use) Case: Antec Nine Hundred ($119.99 minus $40 MIR) Also buying the Logitech G5 mouse, a Saitek backlit keyboard, and a webcam. The cart in full (through Newegg) is available here : https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishli...Title=Ballin%27 Keyboard, mouse, webcam included, it comes to just under $1700 including shipping. Any concerns? Can anyone recommend to me an ATSC TV tuner (internal or usb) that is compatible with OSX and vista media center? linux too? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/108233-ill-be-building-a-new-computer-soon-few-questions/#findComment-768332 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaap Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Looks good. I'll be curious to know how your video card works with OSX. (I was wary myself of cards I didn't see listed on the 10.5.2 HCL, and GDDR amounts beyond 512MB, but I may have been playing it too safe.) Also it'll be interesting what happens with the Blu-Ray drive in Leopard- if anything. I hope you can find a Mac-compatible TV card. As so few real Macs have PCI slots, it doesn't seem likely there would be many. Currently, I'm happy with the HDHomerun (network tuner, ATSC and QAM, no NTSC) and VLC. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/108233-ill-be-building-a-new-computer-soon-few-questions/#findComment-768998 Share on other sites More sharing options...
colorfuel Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Dont take the GPU: eVGA 640-P2-N829-AR 8800GTS 640MB. Its still a G80. !! The 8800GT with G92 Gpu will be faster and cheaper. Or else take the 8800 GTS 512 (G92) its the newer model of your card and around 30% faster. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/108233-ill-be-building-a-new-computer-soon-few-questions/#findComment-777190 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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