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Building my first desktop and need someone to check me.


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So I have had a hackintosh before, so this is not my first attempt. I used a mostly working Compaq Presario V6000, and even with every problem and missing driver, I loved it, and never had an issue with it dying. So now I am building a desktop just for Mac, because this Macbook Pro just doesn't have enough power for things like encoding videos, and other misc things. So now I do have some help physically building this desktop if I need it, but I want to make sure that I am not missing anything at all, and that everything will work with OSx86, and most of all, make sure that I won't have any parts that just won't fit, not have enough slots, or cables, ect. Can someone please make sure all of these parts work together at the same time, and work with OSx86? I checked as well as I could, I just want to make 100% sure that I am not going to buy something that I can't use. I don't care about getting additional drivers if needed, because I have ~pcwiz's tool as long as I have ethernet, so that does not bug me much. Here is my list of parts!

 

MOBO

Graphics Card

CPU

Disk Drive 1

Hard Drive

Screen

RAM

Mouse

Keyboard

PSU

Thermal Paste

Case

CPU Cooler

 

I just included everything to make sure everything would fit, and that I have EVERYTHING, because I don't want to get the parts, and not have something that I need to build it. I want to be able to get this, build it and have OSx86 on it in the same day. That's my goal. If you have something that will save me money and be just as good for my build, or just plane better, that would be great. Thanks a ton in advance. Lets make my first build a happy one please. You can leave the OSx86 problems to me though. Once I'm up to date, I'll have no problems.

 

 

Edit: I get $30 off with the PSU/Case combo, BTW, so I don't want to change those.

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Hey

 

I've built two machines with that motherboard and they're great! I just wanted to let you know that basically the only things that don't work are shutdown and restart. One of the two worked until we updated to 10.5.3 I think, but no worries.. Sleep works and with restart and shutdown you only have to just manually hold in the power button on the machine. I actually used this same ram! So everything on the machine looks good to me.

If you plan on overclocking that processor, which I recommend, I'd get a better heatsync/fan. These quad cores can run a little hot, and if you want to speed up your time on video encoding, overclocking is awesome. If you haven't done it before, there is somewhat of a learning curb, so you'd have to read up some...But as you're a hackintosh user I'm sure you're used to this!

A couple other questions. One you are aware you are getting ps/2 input devices? I haven't read up on whether those work on this mobo, but I'm reasonably sure they would. Really haven't seen any of those not working on motherboards. I'm just saying it's old stuff. Also if you wanted to use the mouse with your laptop or some other machine it might make it difficult

Two I would go, for one of your drives, with the non-lite scribe samsung. It has the fastest specs and is usually a dollar cheaper. Same customer reviews as your best drive. I love this drive. It burns DL dvds, not that I do that all that often, way fast. point is it's faster for the same price or cheaper. Basically just look up dvd burners and look at the 2 sata samsung drives, it's the one without lite-scribe

Three the 8600 series is amazingly compatible with hackintosh but very underpowered compared to other nvidia chipsets. It has PLENTY of power for most anything you'll be doing with your hack, but just isn't the best gaming card. Doesn't sound like you want to game much anyway, so I don't think this matters.

Fourth just so you know the terrabyte drives are terribly overpriced. Unless you're looking to save power, which by specs you have plenty on the PSU, or just like to have just one hard drive, you can get two 640gb drives for twenty dollars cheaper and have a lot more storage to boot. Pick any combo with 500gb drives and up and you'll pretty much always come out cheaper..750gb drives are just around 100 dollars. If I have the PSU to handle it, I'd always choose more hard drives with more gigabytes simply because statistically speaking 1/5 hard drives will fail... So for me better to have it spread out on a couple hard drives than have EVERYTHING i have just up and dissappear.

Anyway, if you have any other questions shoot.

 

Grey

 

Oh....one more thing

 

The mobo you are purchasing only comes with 2 sata cords.. So depending on what you choose to do, with your current setup you need to purchase one more cord. There are only 4 sata ports so if you want to add more hard drives later, then you might want to spring for that overpriced terrabyte drive! With your current setup, you'll have one sata port free. You can also always go with one ide disk drive to save an sata port. With only one drive on the ribbon, ide is fast enough I find.

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I'd definitely look at a better than oem heatsink like Greybaby said. Also for the price, you may want to look at some Geil RAM. Very affordable, and I have been able to get much better timing right out of the box than the g.skill.

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Grey: Do you recommend me trying that mobo? I decided 1 DVD burner (no lightscribe) will do fine. I'd be glad to try your board if you thing it's a better bet than this one, though I have heard great things about this series.

 

Splits: Link me to some ram then! I was recommended to go with these, but I'll check what you have out too. I'm only shopping from newegg to make my life easier though. lol

 

Thanks a ton both of you! Also, choose a heatsync for me please. I don't plan to overclock much if at all off of the bat, but I'm bad at finding heatsyncs for some reason. lol. If it has a fan, Is a variable fan (With controller on the back) or a regular one better. Ahhh, whichever. Just link me up, and thanks a ton!

 

Edit: Forgot about why PS2, not USB. Would converters work? I'm trying to keep the cost down, but if you think that a USB mouse and keyboard are needed than ok, but I can most likely get a usb mouse and keyboard for setup if I have to install a patch. I don't know. Let me know what you thing. The only rule is it can't say "Microsoft" anywhere on anything. I'm sure some of you understand why. lol

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Heatsync

Cheapest for how well it cools

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835186134

I love this heatsync...Can't beat it for 25 bucks

 

As far as the mobo goes, it looks fine as long as you can do the kext editing that is posted on the wiki there. If you read the wiki, and looked at those steps theyhad there and you can do them, it looks great.. It supports the later processors through overclock, and it looks to have what you need. If you can do the steps to make it work the way you want it to, shoot for it.

Dvd burner I would recommend

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151171

 

If you're looking for sleep, looks like it won't happen with this board though.

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Personally sleep doesn't really matter. I've never edited a kext. I have some kext installers though, so if I can find them, than great. ~pcwiz really does rock! Cooler and DVD burner added. This is looking like a great build IMHO. Now you said that I can make it support higher processors with overclocking? What does that mean?

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About ps/2... It works fine. If you're going cheap, go for it. PS/2 should work fine. I don't even know if there is a way to check, but if you have a usb keyboard anywhere and a mouse, you can take the risk! I've never heard of ps/w not working, so it's good.

 

What I meant by the support of higher processors by OC is that it supports 1600fsb that is on the newer processors by overclocking the fsb. This is an automatic overclock when you install the newer processors this board supports. As of now, you're buying a processor with 1066 fsb, which is fine. Gives you headroom for overclocking. With this mobo/cpu/heatsync I'm sure you could get to at least 3.1 ghtz stable instead of the stock 2.4. If you're going for a quad core, the next step up that is even worht looking at is quite a bit more expensive.

 

If you're getting your own heatsync, you can save 10 bucks by adding the oem version of your processor instead of retail...I don't know what that entails on the warranty though...may want to read up on that

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I'm buying the retail version. I prefer it that way, and I'll have a backup if needed when it comes to heatsyncs. If I overclock to 3.1 GHz, than how short will the lifetime be? I would only go to like 2.8 GHz if I were to overclock unless life would not decrease to the point that I would care. Just wondering.

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Overclocking does decrease the lifespan. But you could probably get a stable overclock to 2.8 without even upping any voltages. The increased voltage is the biggest way the processor's lifespan is affected. If you don't over voltage when overclocking, I'd say, along with other avid overclockers, that the benefit makes the lifespan of the processor a mute point. If you think you'll be using the same processor in 5 years or so, then you might worry about overclocking. But most of us tech hungry people can't last that long without getting our hands on faster hardware! Not only that there are millions of reports of people who have had components overclocked for YEARS. The improved heatsync will probably lengthen the lifespan of your processor enough to compensate for the overclocking shortening it's lifespan. Honestly, a year ago this processor cost 300 dollars! You know what I mean? So in another 2 years, which by then the processor will not have fried at all if you overclock right, the processor will probably retail for like what 60 bucks? Either way, overclock or not, the next step up in quad cores is 100 dollars more so I doubt you're going to be springing for that. You can do all sorts of reading up on overclocking, for now looks like you should order your components!

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Yea that's what I figured about overclocking. When it does, you'd be buying something better anyways. lol. I'll do something slight at first I guess. I only need it to last about 2 years, and then I'll most likely upgrade, so yay! Thanks a ton for all for your help. Just wanted to check one last time. I have enough slots, cables, and everything for this? It should go together easy too. Another thing I was wondering is how do you wire the front buttons, like the power button. Does every board support the same type of connector, or will I me making my own connectors or what? I've clearly never done this before. lol.

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yeah motherboard all use those same connections, the headers Are just usually in differnent places. The mobo manual will have their locations specified. You'll want to read up on how to apply the arctic silver. Easy instructions on their web site. That heatsync comes with decent directions, so you should be good. When you first turn it on check your temperatures!

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Exactly..most bios's have a way to check the temperatures in the bios. Should run pretty cool with that heatsync on there. If it's running hot, usually all it means is that you need to reinstall the heatsync. It's REALLY easy to leave it not all the way on due to the extreme amount of force it takes to install those 775 sockets. It's ABSURD! I don't know how intel could be so smart and have such s stupid way of installing heatsyncs!

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I have a EP35-DS3R and I have the same RAM, a MSI NX8800GT gfx card which works great, Sleep & shutdown work fine with 10.5.2 - still waiting on going for 10.5.4 but will be trying that soon.

I agree with Grey though, go for a less expensive HD, 1 TB? not worth the price for the cash these days, go for 750GB or 500GB drive. BTW Grey

"a learning curb" - it's a learning curve :) not a curb.

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One last and final question. I have Iatkos V1.0i and 2.0i, and also kalyway disks lying around (I do have licenses for each one). Which one would work best? I assume IatkosV2.0i, and if I use that with this hardware, will it be a true 60 bit OS, or only 32 crappy bits? I'm loving 64 bit so much, and with snow leopard coming out, the more cores, and 64 bit means speed, speed, speed! So looking forward to that too. Just wondering. If this is only 32 bit, which hardware and or software do I need to change?

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