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Hello, Building my first Hackintosh


Milhooz
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Hi, I'm Milhooz from France.

 

I'm a Mac user for at least 17 years, I play games a lot and I'm an user of a 2008 15" Macbook Pro (the first with dual graphics cards, GeForce 9400M and 9600M GT). I've installed a Crucial SSD in it which well boosted the reactivity of the computer but for new games it's not performing very well.

 

After seeing the Quo Computer project for a universal motherboard on Kickstarter, I've got interested in Hackintosh. It hitted me like that and now i absolutely want to buy one. Right now I'm a bit short on money so my budget must be under 1300 € ($1700, including taxes) for the whole setup, including the display. I had to abandon the Core i7 and a more powerful graphic card to be a little more reasonable. But I plan to upgrade the last one in a year or two probably. I need a silent computer, that's why I love macs, I don't want a vacuum cleaner under my desk. Could please look at the setup I want to buy below, see if there is anything dumb? I know it must be compatible but I'm not sure I've picked all the right components. All prices include taxes. This is prices from a website where I want to buy the parts. Thank you.

  • Intel Core i5-3570K 3,4GHz (HD 4000), 216 € ($282)
  • Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H TH (micro ATX, 2 thunderbolt) 156 € ($204)
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 GV-N650OC-2GI 83 € ($109)
  • Gigabyte GV-N66TWF2-2GD 2GB 182 € ($238)
  • Be Quiet! Pure Power L7-630W 80Plus Bronze (Must be to powerfull but I will upgrade my graphics card later) 55 €
  • Be Quiet! PSU Straight Power E9-500W 80PLUS Gold 83 € ($109)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 Black (With sound dampening foam inside and a clean design) 71 € ($93)
  • Crucial M4 256GB 179 € ($234) I'll use the one in my MacBook Pro
  • Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb/s 64MB 50 € ($65)
  • Corsair Vengeance Low Profile Blue 2x4 GB (for Dual channel) 66 € ($86)
  • Blu-ray reader + DVD burner LG CH10LS28 60 € ($78)
  • Apple Keyboard 55 € ($72)
  • Eizo 23" FORIS FS2332 216 € ($282)
  • Eizo 23" FORIS FS2333 350 € ($458)

Total without display : 939 € ($1228)

With display : 1289 € ($1686)

 

I can provide links to the parts but I'm not sure it's allowed by the forum rules.

Thank you for your comments.

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Looks solid for me. I don't have much information about the motherboard (people use to get the GA-Z77-UD5-TH), but since it's a Z77 Gigabyte board, must present little to no issues. But i'd have to take a further look at the specs to know for sure.

 

The 630W power source is overkill: get a 500W and use the money you save to buy a GTX 660ti (Kepler chipset, works OOB). Credits for this tip to Rampagedev, i'm only reproducing his answer in this topic: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/286897-first-hackintosh-is-this-compatible-i5-3570kz77-lga1155gtx-650-ti/

 

All the best!

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Thanks for your answer theconnactic. Just after I posted, i've checked some test about the GeForce GTX 650 and it looked quite lame so I will choose the GTX 660 Ti (Gigabyte GV-N66TWF2-2GD 2GB). I can buy it for 182 € ($238). I will not buy the SSD but use the one I put in my MacBook Pro and put back the original HD that was inside before.

 

Concerning the power, actually, the 630W is cheaper than most 500W ecause its on sale on the website I use, and it's rated 80Plus Bronze so it's a good one. Is there anything bad using a too big power supply?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

LatinMcG > Wrong post no?

 

Edit : Looks like the power requirements for the GPU itself is 450W (source Gigabyte), add 77W for the processor, and some for the hardrive + SSD, and we are closer to 600W than 500W.

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Seems like the power recommended by Gigabyte is a bit overrated. I read some tests and it's more around 350W, the 450W value is probably a recommendation for the whole setup. But the problem is the same, the 630W Be Quiet is cheaper due to a sale, should I choose a lower version anyway?

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OK, thanks, I'll look into it. On some websites, I've seen the same power supply with 500W at the same price, but with a 800Plus silver rating, maybe I'll choose this one.

 

I'm ready to press the buy button, there just a problem with the display, it is strong for gaming but the design is so ugly... Any advice on display around 250 € ($330)? I'm looking for sizes from 22 to 27 inches.

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I'm ready to press the buy button, there just a problem with the display, it is strong for gaming but the design is so ugly... Any advice on display around 250 € ($330)? I'm looking for sizes from 22 to 27 inches.
These two maybe?

http://www.dell.com/.../dell-u2412m/pd

http://www.dell.com/.../dell-s2440l/pd

 

BTW. If you can afford/find, buy 600-700W PSU with active PFC. It will only consume as much power as PC needs, not the whole 700W 100% of the time. A PSU more powerful then you need at the moment is upgrade proof and as such is a very good investment.

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OK thanks for your answers. I just bought everything, waiting for the delivery of all the component in 2 or 3 days and I'll keep you in touch about install.

The PSU was sold to someone else so I had to choose another one, I went for Be Quiet ! PSU Straight Power E9-500W 80PLUS Gold which is quieter and more efficient, should be nice. In Europe, all PSU have active PFC.

 

For the display, I chose the new Eizo FORIS FS2333, a bit more expensive but brand new and 5 year warranty. Acclaimed by a lot of websites for it performance.

 

Will update my first post to reflect changes. Thanks!

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Actually it's more the manufacturer that defines the warranty. In France, legal warranty is 1 year, 2 years in Italy. But both Eizo and Be Quiet offers 5 years warranty for the products I ordered. Corsair offers 10 years for the RAM. Everything else has only 1 year warranty.

 

Do you think I can take the SSD from my MacBook Pro and put it like this in the new config? Will it boot (not blend) without formatting and reinstalling? It runs Mac OS 10.8.2 and Windows 7 64 bits in 2 partitions (Bootcamp).

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