Video Editing Hackintosh

[tilllt]

Hi,

 

i want to build a Hackintosh for Video Editing / Compositing.

I was reading the suggestions for a Quadcore Machine here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t=#entry1090321

 

So i guess if i stay closely to that suggestion, it should run fine...

 

I didnt see much difference in features between the commonly mentioned Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P and the DS3 variant of this MoBo, so i was wondering if the DS3 works fine?

 

I have some more questions about this setup:

 

- Do all the SATA ports of the MoBo work and is it possible to use internal SATA Ports as external ESata to connect external drives?

- If i want Firewire 800, which card does work in a Hackintosh Setup?

- Does the internal FW400 of the Bord work flawlessly?

- Is this an overall stable system?

 

The overal system stability is the main factor for me, i don't care if it runs a little slower, if it runs reliably and doesnt crash...

 

This is what i was thinking to buy:

 

1 x Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400, 4x 2.67GHz, boxed (BX80580Q9400)

1 x Pioneer DVR-216DBK, SATA

1 x Zotac GeForce 9500 GT, 512MB DDR2, 2x DVI, TV-out, PCIe 2.0

(ZT-95TEH2P-FSL)

1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB, 16MB Cache, SATA II (WD5000AAKS)

2 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 32MB Cache, SATA II (WD10EADS)

1 x OCZ Platinum XTC Edition DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-8500U CL5-5-5-18 (DDR2-1066)

(OCZ2P10664GK)

1 x be quiet Pure Power 350W ATX 2.2 (L6-UA-350W/BN094)

1 x Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3, P45 (or ud3p if it runs better...)

 

Any opinions about this?

 

thanks

[Zaap]

I can't comment on the EP45-DS3 mobos, having never used one, but I'd suggest base your decision on a good install guide for the board you choose. If you find lots of people have had success with the board you pick, then you know the chances are great for you also. Rule of thumb- it's not really worth it to 'save' $30 or whatever on a motherboard that isn't as easy to do a retail install, or has flakier performance than one which costs more, but is known to work, is easy to install, and has great guide support. Not saying that is the case here, just a general thing to consider.

 

I've built several machines with the EP45-UD3P and it works perfectly with 10.5.6. Performance is excellent for video editing- on par with a single processor MacPro. Stability is great- the machines I've built have all passed the 'run and use for weeks, even months without a reboot, and not freeze or crash' test.

 

There are a bunch of great install guides for it, IE: Auzigog's guide. The overall build quality of the run seems to be top notch, so you're not likely to get a flaky mobo. (That does happen sometimes with some models).

 

As far as the UD3P: all the SATA ports work fine, including eSATA when the jmicron drivers are installed (actually part of the AHCI fix for orange drive icons).

 

Built in Firewire 400 works fine.

 

As for Firewire 800, I find that generally if a card (of any type) is supported under OSX, it will work fine in a Hackintosh. So look for Firewire 800 cards with OSX 10.5 support and you should be fine. IE: something like this. Keep in mind, I haven't used this or any other FW800 card personally, so to be 100% sure, maybe someone else has a specific model that works, or check the HCL hardware wiki.

 

The rest of your build looks OK- the one thing that stands out to me, is the PSU. I'll repost what I wrote in another thread, but keep in mind this is based on the UD3P board, so it all depends on your board choice:

 

I highly recommend one with an 8-pin 12V connector, as the Gigabyte EP45-UD3(x) series boards use an 8-pin connector. Most PSUs have 4-pin connectors, and while the board will work with only a 4 pin connector, to be sure you have enough voltage on the 12V rail, I really recommend an 8-pin, AND/OR a 4-pin model with two 12V rails.

 

For example, these PSUs are perfect for virtually anything you can throw at the UD3(x) boards, and have no power problems:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817702010

1 x 12V(4+4Pin)

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817151039

+12V Rails 2

1 x 12V(8Pin)

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817182044

+12V Rails 2

1 x 8Pin EPS12V Connector

[tilllt]

I can't comment on the EP45-DS3 mobos, having never used one, but I'd suggest base your decision on a good install guide for the board you choose. If you find lots of people have had success with the board you pick, then you know the chances are great for you also.

 

well according to this, it ( the DS3® ) seems to run fine too.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...200#entry812577

 

of course you are right about the 30€ / $ ...

 

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-258863_13_0.html

here they are talking about the general difference between the DS3 and the UD3P but i dont get the big difference really...

 

thanks for the reply, i will read the guide you mentioned...

[tilllt]

Ok, finally i went for this stuff:

 

1 x Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400, 4x 2.67GHz, boxed (BX80580Q9400)

1 x Pioneer DVR-216DBK, SATA

LG DVD Combo Drive

1 x Zotac GeForce 9500 GT, 512MB DDR2, 2x DVI, TV-out, PCIe 2.0

(ZT-95TEH2P-FSL)

Asus EN9500GT

1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB, 16MB Cache, SATA II (WD5000AAKS)

1x Samsung Spinpoint SATA 500GB

2 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 32MB Cache, SATA II (WD10EADS)

1x Samsung Spinpoint SATA 1TB

1 x OCZ Platinum XTC Edition DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-8500U CL5-5-5-18 (DDR2-1066)

(OCZ2P10664GK)

1 x be quiet Pure Power 350W ATX 2.2 (L6-UA-350W/BN094)

1 x Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P

 

i installed iPC 10.5.6 and it installs perfectly, one thing you have to change a the beginning in the BIOS is SATA mode to AHCI or you will get the "cannot locate root device" error after installation and the 9500GT initially is without QE/CI and some things need fixing.

 

Most things that do not work "out-of-the-box" can be fixed by using the UD3P package from auzigog's tutorial

(http://auzigog.com/2008/12/23/hackintosh-20/) or directly here http://www.mediafire.com/file/gkrzjztcnnw/UD3P-package.zip

 

I don't really now if this is a bad thing to do, but the UD3P package contains some kexts that are supposed to be loaded via chameleon but i rather installed everything with Kext Helper cleaning caches with OSx86Tools, and so far everything seems to work fine.

 

I havent tried everything possible yet, but Firewire works ok, capturing DV / HDV in FCP works fine.

Sound works, although the internal soundcard has some bad hiss / electromagnetic interference. Probably i will buy a cheap external card anyway since back in my PC times i always had this problem, so for me its nothing new.

I had a problem of the ethernetports suddenly stopping to work so i tried setting them in BIOS to "Green Mode" and they were back, working fine.

 

Xbench results seem to fast enough, here with HD Benchmarking included

 

http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc2=357645

 

and without

 

http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc2=357647

 

so if i understand correctly, slightly faster then the MacPro 2.6 Quadcore

 

The most problematic part was the 9500GT, for which i had to do the installation twice, but following marionez instrcutions (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=139775&view=findpost&p=990081) , finally it works with QE/CI and dual monitors working fine.

 

The only thing that really sucks is the "boot loop" thing that my box is suffering from, and to my surprise, this seems to be something very common and currently unresolved issue, OS independently, in some boards (ASUS / Gigabyte) with Intel CPU's.

 

i.e. check out the topic here, applies to my UD3P too, but i didnt have the nerve to try out the solution of taking out the CMOS battery etc. Maybe i should do that.

 

http://forums.hexus.net/help-technical-adv...eboot-loop.html

 

My workaround so far is to either turn out the PSU ~5 seconds before restarting, or never turning the box of entirely but just entering sleep, from which it wakes up fine, if somebody has a hint how to fix this, it would be great.

 

So far everything runs stable, which is the most important for me. Maybe if i am bored at some point i will try some overclocking, so far i am fine withe bios defaults.

 

Whats the difference in loading Kexts via chameleon or directly adding them to the Extensions folder? And how can i install Kexts to Chameleon without installing Chameleon again?

[Crabman]

As far as i know most boot-loop problems are related to the ram-ratio settings in the bios of the board. Iif you check the manual or search on the common hardware-forums you'll find out there's are setting that will set the fsb-speed / memspeed to a ratio of 1:1. So if your FSB is running at 333MHz your Ram will work at 333MHz (aka 666MHz because of DDR2) also.

 

Don't let you get disappointed about running beyond the memory's max. speed. The Core2 is bottlenecked by the FSB and not ram-speed.

 

In case you're going to overclock (i.g. FSB 400) having bought the faster memory modules might still be usefull.

[tilllt]

you're the man, crabman. the frequency stuff was not so important as it seems, i'd rather leave everything in defaults then to break anything because really i have no idea about all this stuff FSB etc.pp.

 

What i DID change though, because it says it is mandatory it said somewhere, is the memory voltage from 1.8 to 2.1 volt as stated by OCZ... aaaaaaaaand: boot loop gone. thanks! thats great.

 

 

 

As far as i know most boot-loop problems are related to the ram-ratio settings in the bios of the board. Iif you check the manual or search on the common hardware-forums you'll find out there's are setting that will set the fsb-speed / memspeed to a ratio of 1:1. So if your FSB is running at 333MHz your Ram will work at 333MHz (aka 666MHz because of DDR2) also.

 

Don't let you get disappointed about running beyond the memory's max. speed. The Core2 is bottlenecked by the FSB and not ram-speed.

 

In case you're going to overclock (i.g. FSB 400) having bought the faster memory modules might still be usefull.

[Crabman]

you're welcome. nice to hear it worked out for you.

[tilllt]

one remark for people having problems with FCP / Compressor on a similar hackintosh setup:

there is an issue with these programs crashing on startup when no network card is present.

i think the "Green LAN" option in the UD3P Bios actually does not report the OS to have a network card present if no cable is plugged in. It took me a while to figure out what was happening but turning the Green LAN off solved the crashes for me.

 

check related post here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversi...php/t48666.html