HELP: building my first system

[Mebster]

Hi guys,

I'm about to build my FIRST system ever, which I plan to be fully OSx86 compatible. Although I'm familiar with swapping out pc parts for my old system, I have no clue how you compare components such as motherboards and graphics cards so I need some help here if you don't mind.

 

However with some help I've come up with the following components:

 

Case:

Please note that I'm planning to add the Casecom Black Mid Tower Case (No PSU) for £19.99 inc VAT OR replace the PSU above with the Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU for £52.99 inc VAT. Any opinions here?

 

As I said, I'm fairly lost here and really could do with some advice on whether any of these components could/should be replaced and if so with what. Also it's fairly important the rig is OSx86 compatible so please let me know if you see a problem with any of these components and consider this if suggesting alternative parts. In particular I don't know much about motherboards and graphics cards and which are good and OSx86 compatible.

 

Once it's clear I have the right parts, I plan on start buying parts within a week or two max to begin putting it alltogether. There is a budget I should add, roughly £450.

 

Like I said, really would appreciate any help from you more experience guys and want to thank in advance for it.

[FrankOS_Scripting]

Sounds very nice! But you can take also a Gigabyte P35-DS3 motherboard, all feedback I've heard was very positive and works out of the box (Lan, sound, chipset) sleep/reboot/shutdown with patches. Also, guaranteed to ran Vanilla Kernel easily. Seems good at all:)

[~pcwiz]

Looks great! All the parts are good. Not too sure about the "OcuK" PSU and video card. When it comes to video card, go with a more known brand like BFG, XFX, eVGA, ASUS, etc. Same with PSU, go with a more known brand like Antec, Sparkle, Zalman, Thermaltake, etc. Otherwise the build looks awesome

[mac_cute]

About the HDD:I believe that a 2500KS or 3200KS WD is a good choice.At least I have some good disk tests on Xbench (~75-80 points).But hey,that does look nice!.

[~pcwiz]

Oh yeah, and about those Hitachi Deskstars, according to stuff I read online and in magazines, even though Hitachi drives have good capacity, those Deskstar models are low quality. I recommend that you go with a Western Digital hard drive, those things are the fastest drives on the market, have great capacity and quality, and have good prices too.

[badboy0033]

you chose asus motherboard, not gigabyte, why you chose asus?

[Mebster]

FrankOS_Scripting, I'll certaiunly look into the Gigabyte P35-DS3. Soiunds interesting.

 

badboy0033, reason I initially choose a Asus board was because I'd heard they were reliable and people who'd had problems with others told me to go with Asus. Any reason you see why I maybe shouldn't?

 

Xxp/TuX and ~pcwiz, yeah the HDD I know I can improve on. I probabily will get a 500GB Western Digital or Seagate version. I have a few in mind and will ask advice on them later.

 

Any other thoughts?

[~pcwiz]

Change the PSU and video card brand too, the "OcuK" doesn't have a sense of quality to it :censored2:

[FrankOS_Scripting]

For higher performance, take an nVidia like BFG 8800 GTS. It's damn too fast and pretty cool and a GPU of 512Mb DDR3. So huge

[nikonnut]

Mebster,Looks good to me. I like my Gigabyte since with the installer I'm running ( http://aquamac.proboards106.com/index.cgi?...&thread=496 ) I don't have to patch anything except for the AppleSMBIOS.kext. As long as you have Realtek ethernet, ALC889a sound, and an ICH9R northbridge you should be good to go IMHO. As for the GPU I just bought an eVGA 8800GT 512 and I'm blown away by the performance! Overclockers UK has them for 109.99 GBP if you can manage the difference. As for the PSU I've been using a FSP Saga 450W unit and I'm very pleased especially for 59.99 USD. It came highly recomended by Thom's Hardware and you can find it here http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Module...&doy=search

 

Cheers,

Nik

[mac_cute]

you chose asus motherboard, not gigabyte, why you chose asus?

 

Personal preference,but I will stick with ASUS

 

Mebster,you need to be carefull upgrading your BIOS.I mean,do not do that online.A lot of people killed the motherboard (you can read it on ASUS forums ) using the utility.That is the only problem so far IMO.

[Mebster]

Xxp/TuX, thanks for the advice mate.

 

I thought I'd go with Asus because I've heard a lot of good things about them. However the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 seems to be more OSx86 compatible than the Asus P5K Intel P35 and has a lot more documentation too. So I'm wondering if I should reconsider now...

 

Thanks all of you guys for your help. Really is helping me figure out what is best.

[~pcwiz]

Hey Mebster, consider this: If you get the Gigabyte P35 mobo, I will be there to help cause I've gone through most problems/happy times any Gigabyte P35 user has gone through, from 10.4.8 all the way to 10.5.4

[mac_cute]

Best Gigabyte motherboards (very compatible).There you go Mebster...

 

->Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R

->Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R

 

If you want a Gigabyte motherboard,you need to have one of these for OSx86.

[Mebster]

I just realised there is a difference between EP35 and P35. lol

Anyone know what the actual difference is and does it make any difference?

 

~pcwiz, that actually makes a lot of difference mate. Thanks a lot for offering to be there to help out.

 

Xxp/TuX, the boards I could find are the following:

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P iP35 £88.19

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 £63.95

 

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P iP35 £89.27

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L iP35 £60.31

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 iP35 £66.72

 

I couldn't find the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R in the normal tech sites I use and actually seemed to be discontinued on one site. But with the ones above I'm finding it difficult to know what are the major differences and how they effect OS X. I don't need firewire so I don't think I'll need the DS3Ps, which seems to be the main difference.

[~pcwiz]

The DS3P is the most full featured (its the one I have). I don't know why the EP35-DS3P is slightly less expensive than the P35-DS3P, because the "E" model has more features. I recommend that you either go with a EP35-DS3P or a P35-DS3P. Don't go with a DS3. Either go with the (E)P35-DS3P or the (E)P35-DS3L. Here is a comparison between those two:

 

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mother...uctID=2742,2778

 

The main differences are the DS3P has faster RAM support, dual PCI Express x16, More PCI slots, a real hardware Dual BIOS, Silent Pipe cooling, 8 SATA Ports (over 4), SATA RAID capabilities, eSATA support (via an included add on card thing), and slightly better High Definition audio. Its not just FireWire as you can see

[Suhail]

I also have the P35-DS3P and trust me mate you will not regret it .

I have previously been an Asus fan but once I saw the great compatibility reviews I knew I was in safe hands.

[mac_cute]

Too bad...I give you specially this option Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R because:

 

-->It has North Bridge G33 and GMA X3100,just like a Macbook,Macbook Air or Pro

-->ICH9R controller (you can have 6 SATA devices working with no problem)

-->You can make a RAID (software RAID)

-->Audio in/out working properly (codec ALC889A)

-->LAN Realtek RTL8111B

 

And is fully compatible.But,as ~pcwiz,I will be happy buying this one:EP35-DS3P (this works great too.Oh,of course,it is compatible ).

[raven332]

8800s nvidia have KNOWN linux and OSX flaws to them.IE: LACK of driver support.

dont know about LEOPARd, though.

 

you need the natit installer from 10.4.6 to get anything up with QE/CL under tiger or above.there is HUGE performance increase with this driver.

 

would recommened the 73/7600.i have the 7300.most think this is a bad downgrade, but for 256mb, its not that bad, dont even have a fan on mine and it runs fine.bought it oversea, so thats why no fan.

 

use thermaltake for power, at least 500W.the liquid cooler from them only works so well.(so-so, could have been my bad cpu as well......)

I have a 945 GNT/GCNL (had to replace it as cpu blew the first one and was bad and now replaced)

 

the 945 series works well, would recommend the GNT945 board or pro or gaming series of same if available(are rare find nowadays, not made anymore) if you want over 2GB of ram, as GCNL and newer 945 boards have a ram limit.All have ICH7, (dont know what 9 is supposed to do), that works fine.GCNL autoconfigs your raid on sata, however, where GNT series does not.softraid works well on both boards.setup for said is only with Leopard(kalaway release only?)

 

minor tweaking(install System.kext from kalaway 5.2 release (USB fix) and hda patching is all i needed.Marvell ukon on GCNL proved an effort at first, but got easier second time around.use the realtek gigabit kext and drop it in and fix your permissions to get it working like a charm.you need the older Natit drivers as nvinject doesnt take to the 3D accelleration, but the natit driver WILL do 3D work flawlessly.

USE THE MODBIN OR SPEEDSTEP KERNEL if using other than core2duo CPU.VANILA ONLY WORKS ON CORE2DUO chips.

 

after a few updates from kalaway, you are at 10.5.4 before you know it.) use the kalaway install cd for now, you can make your own installer cd for the next release to use the native installer at a later date.instructions for that are in another post.

 

KEXTs are your driver files.

the internal i945 video works, but it works like the one on the mac mini does.not so much 3d power, but it IS fully QE/CL supported out of the box, so if you have a dual input screen like mine, you can see the effect when trying to get your nvidia up and runnung properly if for some reason it displays nothing or a blue screen(this is a automatic dual monitor config it takes to for some reason sometimes.you just have to hook both inputs up to the nvidia card and fix the problem with your settings and it goes away.)

 

took me about 30 minutes maybe to get the drivers up.GNT works the LAN out of the box.

I have a HP(lite-on with the DL firmware update), and used pioneer and mad dog drives with no problem.usually stick to good name brands for the optical and hard drive.(seagate or western digital, have had issues with maxtors for some reason......still dont know why they drop data occasionally.)

 

these boards are your choice, but this is the most compatible i've seen and recommened from the days of the deadmoo tiger installation.you can use what you want now(asus and AMD if U wish, but theres another DVD,YEAH DVD download for you, kalaway wont work on those),just saying.....

 

you have to dig for the ISO on the torrent sites.kalaway, i find for 10.4.6 is the most quick, i takes me days on BB/cable to get the leopard disc.worth the wait IF you find the correct file, there is someone posting a bad ISO somewhere (its empty) and it set me back a week.

 

you could boot the native dics that apple makes, but you need someone to make you an installer cd first because you aren't running mac, or aren't telling us you are running a mac.any mac will make the disc.but you need those bootable drivers for YOUR board and the tweaks for the native installer cd.it does nasty things i hear just like what the native updaters (10.5.3) do to your machine if you dont get this disc configured right.

 

this is a project at best, if your up to the challenge.worst thing you can do is build another windows box. :-)

 

its the 882 driver for the audio, forgot to post it.888 wont work at all.grab froggie the patcher as well, you need him.

[Zaap]

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