Building a desktop hack i7 920 or i7 860

[four_ari]

I have a dell mini 9 running OSX and i love it. So i'm ready for my first desktop hackintosh. I want a i7 chip but not sure if it's worth waiting for the if 860 tutorial. Since my dell mini 9 is running a 16 gig SSD i'd like to have a 32 or 64gig SSD running in my desktop. Any thoughts on the SSD drive.

 

Potential components

 

i7 920 $200 Microcenter

Gigabyte x58 board (GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 ) $278 newegg

6 or 8 gigs of ram OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $149 newegg

 

nvidia 9800 GTX+EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $120 newegg

 

430 watt power supply Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430W ATX12V V2.2 Intel Core i7 Compliant $30 Newegg

32 or 64 gig SSD for OSX OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX30G 2.5" 30GB SATA II MLC Internal $119 Newegg

1 gig Western digital black -Already own this

[robertr]

I'm thinking about setting up a hack and have these alternatives:

Gigabyte X58-UD5 mobo + i7 920

Gigabyte P55-UD6 mobo + i7 860 (not sure how this will work out, I want to run vanilla kernel cause that helps when it comes to updates, right?)

 

As for disks I thought I would run three 30GB Vertex SSD's in RAID-0 for boot and a couple of Barracuda's in R-0 to have the /users on.

As I see it, most of the slow-downs are because of low disk speed so that is where I want to spend some money.

Of course it will be important to have backups of both system install and user files, especially when running RAID-0.

 

... still waiting for info about installing SL Retail on the P55 board with the i7 860 ....

[broken]

I'm thinking about setting up a hack and have these alternatives:

Gigabyte X58-UD5 mobo + i7 920

Gigabyte P55-UD6 mobo + i7 860 (not sure how this will work out, I want to run vanilla kernel cause that helps when it comes to updates, right?)

 

Yeah, vanilla is the way to go. Folks need to get away from these hacked up distros. Retail kernel with as few extra kext files as possible is the way to go.

 

 

I think the i7 920 is still the way to go. Especially if you have a Microcenter near you.

 

They have been selling the i7 920 for $199 for months new. By far the best price available anywhere for a new, retail i7. They have about 2 dozen stores throughout the US.

 

 

As for disks I thought I would run three 30GB Vertex SSD's in RAID-0 for boot and a couple of Barracuda's in R-0 to have the /users on.

As I see it, most of the slow-downs are because of low disk speed so that is where I want to spend some money.

Of course it will be important to have backups of both system install and user files, especially when running RAID-0.

 

 

I also think disk speed is the thing holding most folks back. I have several apps that throwing more cpu power at won't speed them up because they are heavily reliant on disk speed. I have a fairly speedy disk capable of more than 100 megs a second read or write and its still not fast enough for me.

 

I think my next move is definitely going to be a SSD. Maybe the Intel G2.

[four_ari]

I'm thinking about setting up a hack and have these alternatives:

Gigabyte X58-UD5 mobo + i7 920

Gigabyte P55-UD6 mobo + i7 860 (not sure how this will work out, I want to run vanilla kernel cause that helps when it comes to updates, right?)

 

As for disks I thought I would run three 30GB Vertex SSD's in RAID-0 for boot and a couple of Barracuda's in R-0 to have the /users on.

As I see it, most of the slow-downs are because of low disk speed so that is where I want to spend some money.

Of course it will be important to have backups of both system install and user files, especially when running RAID-0.

 

... still waiting for info about installing SL Retail on the P55 board with the i7 860 ....

 

For me i think that the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 is just too much $$ and i'm not sure the benefits besides the SLI? I'm not a gamer and I'm not sure we can get both of those nic cards to use with OSX?

 

 

 

Can someone recommend a good gigabyte x58 motherboard that is close to retail so that the upgrades are easier.

 

 

 

thanks again.

 

4 ari

[sumobritches]

i want to do the i7 and p55 board but it's looking like it's going to take 6+ months before someone can confirm the stability of this combination.

 

the x58 is overpriced because it was the first (and only initially) motherboard that supported the 920 i7's.

 

do the math, you'll save a good $100 doing the newer i7 1156 with a p55 using microcenter. sucks it's such a huge investment to gamble. i'm still on the edge of my seat waiting to hear more about it before buying.

[four_ari]

i want to do the i7 and p55 board but it's looking like it's going to take 6+ months before someone can confirm the stability of this combination.

 

the x58 is overpriced because it was the first (and only initially) motherboard that supported the 920 i7's.

 

do the math, you'll save a good $100 doing the newer i7 1156 with a p55 using microcenter. sucks it's such a huge investment to gamble. i'm still on the edge of my seat waiting to hear more about it before buying.

 

Ok I'm still going with the i7 920 because i believe that you can use a very retail snow leopard install. Which motherboard should i get the ASUS or Gigabyte and why is there only installs for the most expensive boards?

 

thx

[four_ari]

got the i7 920 today.. i need help with a motherboard? which should i get for 10.6.1? something that is a good retail install? also can we all agree that the 9800gtx+ is the card to get?

 

thanks

[four_ari]

My build results

osx 10.6.1

932 HAF coolmaster case

i7 920 $200 Microcenter

Gigabyte x58 board (GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 ) $278 newegg

6 ram OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $149 newegg

nvidia 9800 GTX+EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $120 newegg

600 watt power supply

1 gig Western digital black -Already own this

 

 

 

I,m looking to go bluetooth so i can buy a magic mouse. Can someone recommend a compatible bluetooth adapter

 

thanks

[SnowKitten86]

Hey Broken,

 

Thanks for the heads up about the i7-920 deal at Micro Center. I was going to buy my components tonight for my build and you just saved me $60. Many thanks.

[Generic George]

I found that this guide for the UD5, made for a virtually pain free install.

 

So the UD5 maybe expensive, but it does seem to work very, very well.

 

I am using an IOgear bluetooth adapter, with my hackintosh. Has worked just fine so far.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16833139019

 

Your 9800GTX seems a bit pricey for such a board.

[Qianlong]

I see alot of people are using the 9800 gtx+, which I think is an older card.

Why not spend 55 usd more on a gtx 260 core 216, which is a much better combo with a fast 920 machine.

[TR0LL]

any updated thoughts to this comparison? i know the 860 stuff has progressed a lot and people are having good luck installing 10.6.2 on it these days. not sure if its quite as far along as the 920 stuff though.

i'm looking to make a purchase in the next week or so and am still a bit on the fence about this.

 

i'm looking primarily to do photo editing on my computer, so photoshop, lightroom, etc. will be my most intensive programs used.

 

for this type of thing do i want to look at modest overclocking?

is the triple channel memory going to be beneficial over dual channel for me?

any other benefits of one or the other that you can think of?

 

thanks a lot for the help... i'm a first timer so have been doing a lot of research but i have a lot to learn still. if there's any other info i should be providing then please let me know, thanks.

[TR0LL]

cough cough bump... i'd think this conversation should be more lively than ever at this point... interested to hear some input!

[dtessier]

cough cough bump... i'd think this conversation should be more lively than ever at this point... interested to hear some input!

 

I just built a system based on the i7 860 last week. Look at my sig for the specs. This thread discusses installs on the P55-based motherboards, and this blog has some very good tutorials. I can't speak for the X58 side of things, but it's hard to imagine my install having been any easier or smoother.