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First build sanity check


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Hello,

 

I am looking to run Snow Leopard on the following:

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3

Processor: Intel Core i7-860 (2.8 Quad)

Video: Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-512I GeForce 9600 FT 512MB

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ

Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W - OCZ700MXSP

Hard Drive: 320 GB Serial ATA Barracuda 7200.11

 

I haven't purchased the major components yet, and I am open to suggestions, especially on the video card (just want something that supports OpenCL)

 

Thanks

Brad

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Do you think you'll really need 700w for the power supply?

 

Probably not - just doing a little "future proofing" as I plan to add 3 more hard drives a couple dvd burners and possibly a bigger video card. Not to mention it was on sale....

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Brad,

 

Since we're both starting builds, I hope you don't mind if I tag along in your thread rather than starting another one.

 

My goal from the parts below is to have a fast machine for desktop applications - no waiting for MS Office apps, iWork, etc., and be snappy with iTunes and iPhoto. I will occasionally use iMovie to piece together clips from YouTube or HandBrake to rip a scene from a DVD, and my time is valuable, so quicker is better.

 

Any comments on this potential setup?

 

 

Plan is Snow Leopard, retail DVD install, and really want to keep everything vanilla as possible. I'm not a habitual tinkerer, and I would just like to get it to work.

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To both of you: This website is your friend. It is great for install guides on P55 boards, and for DSDT fixes(Tony even has created a DSDT database with HD Audio and sleep fixes already made.). Read up on that site greatly.

Hello,

 

I am looking to run Snow Leopard on the following:

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3

Processor: Intel Core i7-860 (2.8 Quad)

Video: Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-512I GeForce 9600 FT 512MB

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ

Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W - OCZ700MXSP

Hard Drive: 320 GB Serial ATA Barracuda 7200.11

 

I haven't purchased the major components yet, and I am open to suggestions, especially on the video card (just want something that supports OpenCL)

 

Thanks

Brad

Mobo, Processor, RAM, PSU, and HDD are fine, but I'm not sure about the Video Card. I'd be willing to bet it would work, because it's a 9 series card. I probably wouldn't get that card since of the cooling, but that is just me. Also, for the same price you can get a 9800 GT, which I know for a fact works great in OS X. I'd recommend the BFG Geforce 9800 GT 512MB.

 

Brad,

 

Since we're both starting builds, I hope you don't mind if I tag along in your thread rather than starting another one.

 

My goal from the parts below is to have a fast machine for desktop applications - no waiting for MS Office apps, iWork, etc., and be snappy with iTunes and iPhoto. I will occasionally use iMovie to piece together clips from YouTube or HandBrake to rip a scene from a DVD, and my time is valuable, so quicker is better.

 

Any comments on this potential setup?

 

 

Plan is Snow Leopard, retail DVD install, and really want to keep everything vanilla as possible. I'm not a habitual tinkerer, and I would just like to get it to work.

Case doesn't matter as long as it fits your components. Board is a great choice(I have one myself. This board is also the board that tony has. If you read his P55 blog, your installation will be a breeze). Processor is good(Same one that I've got). RAM is good(Be advised that the P55M-UD2 has native support for only 800/1066/1333/2200 MHz RAM. Your RAM will downclock itself to 1333 MHz. Now, this is no problem if you plan to overclock your processor, since to get your RAM to 1.6GHz, you will have to make your Base Clock 160, and not 133. The processor and memory clock both refer to the baseclock, so this will overclock your processor to somewhere in the 3GHz. I know this the hard way since I bought 1.6GHz RAM too and it downclocked. Now, I'm going to overclock my processor so this doesn't really matter but still, be advised. If you don't plan on overclocking, I'd suggest getting G.SKILL RipJaws 2x2GB 1333MHz RAM. It has a slower clock, but tighter timings. I would've recommended Corsair, but they don't make any 1333MHz dominator RAM. If you want 1.333GHz Corsair RAM, look into the XMS series). The graphics card is also a great choice(Tony has the same card.). DVD burner, and HDD are good, since they are SATA.

 

Since you want to install from the retail guide, I recommend following this guide.

 

Need any other help just ask.

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Thank you. I have been reading on Tony's blog, but its still been a bit of information overload. I had read somewhere about the ram speed but forgot about it. I have no interest in overclocking, so I'll change the ram as you suggest.

 

Placing order tonight or tomorrow!

 

 

 

One quick question:

 

I've never built a computer before - do I need to be concerned about a low profile video card? I intend to use a mid-tower case, so I'm assuming not, but I just want to be sure.

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Thank you. I have been reading on Tony's blog, but its still been a bit of information overload.

 

One quick question:

 

I've never built a computer before - do I need to be concerned about a low profile video card? I intend to use a mid-tower case, so I'm assuming not, but I just want to be sure.

About the video card: No you don't. If you are going to use the Antec case you suggested, you don't need a low profile card.

 

About tony's blog: Yes it may seem like a little bit of an overload, but it is very very good for info about the P55M-UD2. Here are the posts that you will need for a full functioning hackintosh on the UD2:

 

Guides:

 

OSX install guide(No fixes for SpeedStep, Sleep etc. Just a working install of OSX.):

 

Retail DVD Install Guide(Make sure you do step 5, and step 6 in the optional install section.)

Dual Boot Guide(If you want to Dual or Tri Boot)

 

The Bells and Whistles:

 

Guide for Sleep(This also enables HD Audio.)

Guide for Intel SpeedStep

Guide for getting rid of PlatformUUID.kext(Not necessary, but it will help make your hackintosh as "vanilla" as possible.)

Enable Apple Boot Screen

 

Do those in order, and you should be alright.

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About the video card: No you don't. If you are going to use the Antec case you suggested, you don't need a low profile card.

 

About tony's blog: Yes it may seem like a little bit of an overload, but it is very very good for info about the P55M-UD2. Here are the posts that you will need for a full functioning hackintosh on the UD2:

 

Guides:

 

OSX install guide(No fixes for SpeedStep, Sleep etc. Just a working install of OSX.):

 

Retail DVD Install Guide(Make sure you do step 5, and step 6 in the optional install section.)

Dual Boot Guide(If you want to Dual or Tri Boot)

 

The Bells and Whistles:

 

Guide for Sleep(This also enables HD Audio.)

Guide for Intel SpeedStep

Guide for getting rid of PlatformUUID.kext(Not necessary, but it will help make your hackintosh as "vanilla" as possible.)

Enable Apple Boot Screen

 

Do those in order, and you should be alright.

 

 

 

 

Evildemon989, thanks for the great info! I'm also about to purchase the p55m-ud2. Still deciding between the i5 and i7 860.....wondering what made you choose the i5?

 

Also with the overclocking, what kind of gb scores are you getting and what are you using to cool?

I'm thinking about overclocking if I get the i5 a little, possibly to match the 1600 RAM but I don't want to go too much that will shorten the length of my proc.....any suggestions?

 

Thanks again!

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Evildemon989, thanks for the great info! I'm also about to purchase the p55m-ud2. Still deciding between the i5 and i7 860.....wondering what made you choose the i5?

I went with the i5 because of the price(I was on a budget). It's like 100 dollars cheaper then the lowest end i7. The only difference between them is that the i7 has hyperthreading and the i5 does not. From my research hyperthreading only helps greatly with tasks like video encoding, and the like. Now, I'm also going to overclock my processor, and that would help me compromise the speed that hyperthreading gives.

 

Also with the overclocking, what kind of gb scores are you getting and what are you using to cool?

I'm thinking about overclocking if I get the i5 a little, possibly to match the 1600 RAM but I don't want to go too much that will shorten the length of my proc.....any suggestions?

 

Thanks again!

Honestly, I haven't yet installed OS X to my Hack. I'll be doing that tomorrow or 2 days from now when my new GFX card arrives. I currently have W7 installed on it to see if everything works(It does). I'll run geekbench thru W7 and give you an answer.

 

Well, if you are going to overclock the i5 AT ALL, make sure you get a better cooler then stock. The stock cooler is horrible. Since you're getting a P55M-UD2, I'd suggest going with ZEROtherm CORE92 cooler since it will not cover any RAM slots(My Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 covers 2 slots, but not enough to keep me from not using them. Now, my RAM do not have large heatsinks and the FAN cage is touching one of the heatsinks. You can go with this cooler, but make sure you get RAM with short heatspreaders.)

 

Now, since the 1600MHz RAM on the p55m-ud2 board only gives you a multiplier of 10, you will have to raise the baseclock of the board from 133MHz to 160MHz to get to 1.6GHz RAM speed. This will also get your processor to around 3.3-3.4 GHz. Now, if you do this, but you want your processor to be at something lower then 3.3GHz, do this:

 

The Processor has a separate multiplier, you can lower the multiplier from 20 to say 16(just an example. You'll have to see what multiplier you want then), and instead of your processor being at 3.3GHz it would be in the 2GHz's.

 

The only thing that can shorten your processor's life is heat(Why I said get a better cooler), and voltage(If you stay within Intel's spec's you should be fine). I'd recommend checking out an overclockers forum for more info on overclocking.

 

EDIT: I got a score of 6153. This is with 32-bit geekbench on W7(automatic decreased performance, :) ), Intel SpeedStep not on, turboboost on, CPU clocked at 2.66 GHz, memory clocked at 1.333GHz, and this is also with geekbench thinking that my core i5 has 8MB of L2 cache, and no L3 cache, so I'm not sure how much you can trust this. This is with stock clocks and downclocked RAM.

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Thanks Evildemon,

 

I'm still a little confused about one of the first steps, how to set the BIOS for ACHI and the Boot Priority to CD-ROM, but I'm sure it will make more sense once I have a machine put together and powered up.

 

The first step is to get the parts, and get them assembled.

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Thanks Evildemon,

 

I'm still a little confused about one of the first steps, how to set the BIOS for ACHI and the Boot Priority to CD-ROM, but I'm sure it will make more sense once I have a machine put together and powered up.

 

The first step is to get the parts, and get them assembled.

Oh, don't worry about that, that is one of the easiest things you'll have to do. If you know how to get into the BIOS on a computer, you'll be fine.

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Guides:

 

OSX install guide(No fixes for SpeedStep, Sleep etc. Just a working install of OSX.):

 

Retail DVD Install Guide(Make sure you do step 5, and step 6 in the optional install section.)

Dual Boot Guide(If you want to Dual or Tri Boot)

 

The Bells and Whistles:

 

Guide for Sleep(This also enables HD Audio.)

Guide for Intel SpeedStep

Guide for getting rid of PlatformUUID.kext(Not necessary, but it will help make your hackintosh as "vanilla" as possible.)

Enable Apple Boot Screen

 

Thanks a lot for the help. I had a few of those guides bookmarked, but not all of them. It actually seems pretty straight forward.

 

I ended changing my order due to combo deals. I expect the install process to be the same.

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P

Video: ASUS GeForce 9800 GT 512M

 

Thanks again for the help.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Now, since the 1600MHz RAM on the p55m-ud2 board only gives you a multiplier of 10, you will have to raise the baseclock of the board from 133MHz to 160MHz to get to 1.6GHz RAM speed. This will also get your processor to around 3.3-3.4 GHz. Now, if you do this, but you want your processor to be at something lower then 3.3GHz, do this:

 

The Processor has a separate multiplier, you can lower the multiplier from 20 to say 16(just an example. You'll have to see what multiplier you want then), and instead of your processor being at 3.3GHz it would be in the 2GHz's.

 

The only thing that can shorten your processor's life is heat(Why I said get a better cooler), and voltage(If you stay within Intel's spec's you should be fine). I'd recommend checking out an overclockers forum for more info on overclocking.

 

EDIT: I got a score of 6153. This is with 32-bit geekbench on W7(automatic decreased performance, :thumbsup_anim: ), Intel SpeedStep not on, turboboost on, CPU clocked at 2.66 GHz, memory clocked at 1.333GHz, and this is also with geekbench thinking that my core i5 has 8MB of L2 cache, and no L3 cache, so I'm not sure how much you can trust this. This is with stock clocks and downclocked RAM.

 

So I'm really excited because my parts are coming in today...planning on getting the build nice and stable with tonymac's guides and then maybe a little overclocking.

 

I plan on making this my main computer for a while but I've seen that even slight overclocking can increase performance drastically on these i5s.

 

I ended up getting the 1600Mhz Ram (was close in price and for overclocking seemed better if I could actually reach the speeds), so I was planning on raising the baseclock like you said to 160.

 

Haven't actually gotten into the bios yet but once I get my board are there any other settings that I need to change to achieve the overclock?

 

Also is there any disadvantage to running the CPU in the 3gz range (provided stock voltage like you said and assuming I can get good temps (got the core92 like you recommended...I'll let you know how it performs)) or should I not worry about taking the CPU multiplier down to 16.

 

Thanks again for your help Evildemon! You've been very helpful thus far

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My parts are all in, so I'm starting my build tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Have fun! I have a very similar build to yours that I just completed on Monday. Great case and psu. Make sure you get the optional 120mm case fan for the added airflow. And since its your first time building, always make sure your grounded. Wear rubber soled shoes and always touch the metal inside of the case to reduce static!

 

Btw: I made the mistake of ordering the Caviar Green drive. It's a lot slower than the blue and black since it spins at 5,400rpm. So if your a hd speed freak, rma imo.

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Haven't actually gotten into the bios yet but once I get my board are there any other settings that I need to change to achieve the overclock?

 

Also is there any disadvantage to running the CPU in the 3gz range (provided stock voltage like you said and assuming I can get good temps (got the core92 like you recommended...I'll let you know how it performs)) or should I not worry about taking the CPU multiplier down to 16.

You'll need to change the multipier, base clock, QPI Clock ratio, advanced intel features, and voltages.

 

The only disadvantage is CPU overclocking is lifetime of the CPU. The higher you set the voltage of the CPU, the short lifetime it has. If you stay within Intel's recommended ratings for voltages of the i5-750, you should be fine, and it won't decrease that much.

 

I'd recommend reading these guides, and watching these videos about overclocking:

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i...clock,2438.html

http://techgage.com/article/overclocking_i...i5-750_i7-870/1

- Core i7, but it still helps because they are very similar

- Part 1 - MSI board, but still helps for understanding still they use the same terminology.

- Part 2 - Gigabyte Board. This is pretty much the same exact BIOS that the GA-P55M-UD2 has. Study this as much as possible.

- Part 1 - Intel and AMD - Covers the basics

- Part 2

- Part 3 - Goes thru torture tests, which you should always run on an overclocked computer.

 

I'd first recommend not overclocking until you have the OS's installed and running. It helps a ton for troubleshooting. Right now I don't have my processor overclocked because I'm installing my system's OS's. After the Operating System's are running and fully stable, then overclock, because the OS might not like it, then you know it was because of the overclock.

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Btw: I made the mistake of ordering the Caviar Green drive. It's a lot slower than the blue and black since it spins at 5,400rpm. So if your a hd speed freak, rma imo.

 

I ordered the Caviar Green as well - I didn't see anywhere on NewEgg where it said the speed was 5400. That's maddening. :(

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I ordered the Caviar Green as well - I didn't see anywhere on NewEgg where it said the speed was 5400. That's maddening. :poster_oops:

Yeah, it's not too slow but enough to where I wish I would've gotten the blue or black. Although the low noise is nice. Random access times are terribly slow... ranging from 2 to 5 seconds to open simple programs like Firefox.

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I believe that they are 7200 RPM, just the other specs are slower.

No it has been confirmed that it runs at sub-6,000 speeds. I'm currently saving for a new drive, I'll use this one as a storage drive for music and what-not. 640gb caviar black will be my main os drive here in a couple weeks.

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No it has been confirmed that it runs at sub-6,000 speeds. I'm currently saving for a new drive, I'll use this one as a storage drive for music and what-not. 640gb caviar black will be my main os drive here in a couple weeks.

Probably the reason they've talked about sub-6,000 rpm speeds is because of WD's "IntelliPower" feature:

 

IntelliPower - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance.

 

Since it is a "green" drive, it probably slows the platters down to save power.

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"IntelliPower" is just a marketing buzzword

The caviar green drives have a fixed RPM, the drive cannot speed up or slow down its rotational speed.

Its 50% deception and 50% misunderstanding. IIRC the speed is not "exactly" 5400RPM, and it "varies" between different drives in the series, but its 5400RPM give or take a % or two

WD was forced to change their tune, and have slightly clarified things

 

Seagate made big light of the fact when they introduced their rival efficient drives, the LP (Low Power) series, which run at 5,900 RPM, and thus spin almost 10% faster.

 

 

With all that said, I've used the 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB caviar greens, and have no complaints. These are the fastest 5400RPM drives ever, and will rival slightly smaller/older 7200RPM drives at transfer speeds. These are designed as storage drives tho, so they do have slower random access times than most 7200RPM drives, and as such are not ideal as a boot drive.

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"IntelliPower" is just a marketing buzzword

The caviar green drives have a fixed RPM, the drive cannot speed up or slow down its rotational speed.

Its 50% deception and 50% misunderstanding. IIRC the speed is not "exactly" 5400RPM, and it "varies" between different drives in the series, but its 5400RPM give or take a % or two

WD was forced to change their tune, and have slightly clarified things

 

Seagate made big light of the fact when they introduced their rival efficient drives, the LP (Low Power) series, which run at 5,900 RPM, and thus spin almost 10% faster.

 

 

With all that said, I've used the 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB caviar greens, and have no complaints. These are the fastest 5400RPM drives ever, and will rival slightly smaller/older 7200RPM drives at transfer speeds. These are designed as storage drives tho, so they do have slower random access times than most 7200RPM drives, and as such are not ideal as a boot drive.

That being the case, would it be a good idea to run raid with this and a 640gb black? How will the performance be?

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