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I want to build a $1500 Hackintosh powerhouse. I do mostly video editing with Final Cut Pro. I don't game (on this pc). I already have a powerbook, macbook, and mini. I have the peripherals already (monitors... dual if I wanted), mouse, keyboard, etc.

 

My first choice was for an 8-core (This seems not $ effective unless from Mac). But even a quad-core would be big jump from my 1.5ghz G4 (<-Primary Comp.) I need one that will be 100% compatible and headache free. The dual monitor feature is not necessary but would be nice, as I am not gaming an expensive video card is not priority.

 

My priorities are:

 

#1 - Fast CPU (Overclocking?)

#2 - Boat load of RAM - 8gigs?

#3 - Case (I like fancy small sleek showy cases)

#4 - Hard Drive Space (I have 1tera external already...) (Any advice for FAST? I have never done SATA?)

#5 - Wifi, etc.

 

Thanks for all your advice!

 

*Edit*

Intel just released that they are developing a 6 core chip. Now I really want 12-core system... 'Drool'

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Check my signature. I did it for about $1100 + tax. I got about $600 for selling parts from my old Pentium 4 build which was about 3 years old. So Not bad for $500 investment that out-performs an entry level Mac Pro. In fact, I would've spent about $4500 if were to oder a similar system from Apple Store.

 

My system is rock solid. I do a lot of Photo editing and recording, and some Video editing. Never has given me a hiccup.

 

Let us know how you decide.

why not just an iMac !?

 

core 2 duo, should be a big step up from G4,

and be done with it.

 

probably can yank the cpu and replace it with a quad,

thought I don't know,....

 

or get a used mac pro,....

 

also with a real mac, you can run your G4 software,

where the hacks, are intel only,....

Intel Core 2 Quad e9450 Penryn 45nm 3.0GHz = $319

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P = $165

G.Skill PC8500 DDR2-1000 (2GB x 4) = $230

Western Digital 500GB AAKS HDD = $100

8800GTS 512MB = $310

 

That gives you like $350-400 bucks to play with for a case and others stuff...maybe like DVD burners or cooling/fans.

 

Oh yeah...forgot to mention...you have to wait another month like me for that CPU to come out. But hell if I am gonna buy up a Q6600 right now UNLESS the price takes a major plunge after Quad desktop Penryns come out.

I don't understand why insanelymac people often recommend buying straight from apple? Isn't the whole point of hackintosh to get more computer for your dollar? Besides I LOVE building them. I would also like to do a liquid cooled system (never done one and want to give it a go).

 

So the e9450 is gonna rock?

why recommend,....

simple, you asked for a workhorse,.... buy apple,

you want a playhorse,..... build yours,...

 

been there, done that, got my shirt dirty,...

 

check out the guy, building a mac pro,....

or the ones, used a G4 case,...

have fun ,...

So the e9450 is gonna rock?

 

I hope so..

 

45nm tech spec (people are already hitting 4GHz on air with the dual cores)

12MB L2 cache vs 8MB in the Q6600/Q6700

Price (speculated) - $319...only $50 more than the Q6600 G0 stepping

 

I just can't bring myself to buy the Q6600 that I was so hooked on only a month or two ago. I think I will pay the premium to be ahead of the game at this point since I am building a $1500 system also. The only problem is the waiting game. I have no firewire and an Athlon XP 2100+ system right now, but a brand new HV20 high def camcorder. So I have no way to get the video off the tapes. :)

 

When I do however get this up and running I am hoping to get some amazing encoding and rendering speeds with the new Penryn chip.

What about this configuration, is everything compatible?

 

GA-P35-DS3L $90

 

Q6600 $280

 

G. Skill (4x2gb) ddr2 1000 $230

 

Case: $150

http://www.xoxide.com/lianli-pc-a12b-case.html

 

XFX 8600GT 256mb Vid $140

 

(I am not sure what to do for hard drives??, I have a 1tera extrernal i want to connect so I just want a medium sized speedy inside, newegg has two identical hard drives that i like, one is scsi and one sata/raid whats the dif? :thanks_speechbubble: )

 

Fujitsu: $170

73GB 15,000 SCSI or SATA?

 

TOTAL: ~$1200 after taxes

 

 

ANY ADVICE OR RECOMMENDATIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED

Dont get the ds3l, get the ds3p. or the ds4. seems to run and overclock better.

dont use any ide drive. all s-ata und ahci. best speed and compatibility.

if you go for speed, get a 250 or 500 GB WD AAKS drive and two other 500 GB AAKS running with raid (apple software raid). very speedy. case is o.k, i ve goit two of those http://www.xoxide.com/lianlipcv1000.html. very nice, silent and a bit mac like. which psu do you get? i recommend the bequiet http://www.be-quiet.net/be-quiet.net/index.php?StoryID=16 which can control up to 3 coolers, has 8 S-ATA is is normal ATX size. Or if you want it extra silent: the corsair vx450w is GREAT but has no additional cooler control. http://www.corsair.com/products/vx.aspx.

CPU: $319..this is the speculation

Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB L2 cache 1333MT/s FSB expected Feb/Mar 2008

I would pick this over the Q6600 if you can wait. OR wait and then get the Q6600 at a price cut.

 

Heat Sink: $65

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU Heatsink - (Socket 775 / AM2)

http://www.pcextreme.com/catalog/sku/cpu-tri-39.html

 

Motherboard: $154.99

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P (great OSX support, has firewire)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128083

 

Memory: $114.99 x 2 = $230 (now you have 8GB of ram, G.Skill promises 1000Mhz, great for overclocking)

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231145

 

HDD: $104.99 (You can find this up to $10 cheaper than newegg, but that's up to you; AAKS = fast OSX)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136073

 

Video Card: $188.32 after rebates (otherwise expect $250 on this card and if you spend that much you might as well spend $300 on a GTS version)

Galaxy GeForce 8800GT 600MHZ 512MB 1.8GHZ DDR3 PCI-E DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out OEM Video Card

http://www.ncixus.com/products/27328/88YFF6HUFEXX/Galaxy%20Technology/

 

DVD-R DL Drives x 2 = $60

Floppy Disc drive = $6 (always worth having even if you can boot/flash from USB)

Power Supply = $100 (I bought mine at Best buy and it has detachable power cables! great feature)

 

Total Cost: $1227.32 + shipping (prolly $50 total)

 

All you will need is to pick a case. Make sure you order all the cables you might want (i.e. firewire for $5 online vs. $20 best buy). Do you have a monitor? I use a Hanns-G 19" widescreen now, but I could have done better. Take a look around online and find a LCD that the masses suggest. Expect to spend about $200 on a 19" widescreen right now for something decent. Less if you only want a Hanns-G.

 

That should put you right around that $1500 mark.

 

Good luck...you just stole my system ;)

I LIKE IT!

 

I would do watercooling instead of the heatsink though, just for kicks. I think I'll up it to a XFX gts too. I have a couple monitors as well. So here is my new thought.

 

2.4/2.6ghz overclocked, 8 gig ram, 500 gig hard drive, 512 gts, watercooled beast. = ~1400

 

OR

 

Refurbished Mac Pro

DUAL 2.6 xeon, 1 gig ram, 250 sata, 256 gt = $2000?

 

I could scrounge up enough to go with the mac pro if it was a way better deal...???

Which do you think would win in benchmarks?

couple of thoughts,...

 

dual 2.6ghz xeon mac pro, coming from a G4, should be more then plenty for video editing,...

should be smooth transition,...

down the road, still has resale/swap value,...

probably can upgrade the CPU's,...

and no hassle to get it working,...

 

quad and water cooling,....

quad has heat, bigger power supply, bigger heat,

running mine, core duo at 2.8ghz,... removed side panels,... fanless,... only psu, has slow spinning 140 fan,

and the other 6 disks are in sleep,... do you like it quiet ?

 

8800gt,... nice,... but you only need a 7300gt, or 7600gs, and those come fanless,...

 

motherboard,... wold want one , where I don't need to run in AHCI mode,...

booting in windowz, always have to switch in bios before booting,.. also boots slower,...

buildin firewire,.... for video editing , files are larger, get firewire 800 card.

disk, boot , 300gb single platter, all others 750gb,

 

memory, 8gb be nice, but think, it needs fast io,.... more, so 4gb be good start,

and some sort of temp disk space as softraid setup 2x or 4x in slices, be doing you more good,

or 2x for input, /temp and 2x for output,

 

monitor, dual lcd, and monitor calibration, is pritty standard

 

DVD burners, dual, + blueray burner, since you do video editing,...

 

last not least, for the immediate usability, a used G5 for ~$700 should do the trick,...

since all the apps on same platform,... my buddy has an G5 system, and no desire to go to core duo,

disk space is usually his concern,...300-400gb per video edit,...

Intel Q9450- $316

Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4- $199

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB SATA hard drive- $246.49

G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1000- $114.99

Corsair 750W PSU- $124.99

ZOTAC GeForce 8800GT 512MB- $229.99

ASUS DRW-2014L1T Lightscribe DVD burner- $31.99

 

Total= $1263.45 w/out case......dont know if you already have a monitor

 

you could probably save a few bucks here and there lookin around and the components should come down once the Q9450 is out

Definately go with this board. For like $25 more it will be worth the "future proof" aspect.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read,the Penryn's will be the batch of chips for ddr2/775 architecture. The next set of chips (Nehalem) will require new mobo/ram.

 

I would just save some $ and get a P35 board.

  • 2 weeks later...
I want to build a $1500 Hackintosh powerhouse. I do mostly video editing with Final Cut Pro. I don't game (on this pc).

I already have a powerbook, macbook, and mini. I have the peripherals already (monitors... dual if I wanted), mouse, keyboard, etc.

My first choice was for an 8-core (This seems not $ effective unless from Mac). But even a quad-core would be big jump from my 1.5ghz G4 (<-Primary Comp.) I need one that will be 100% compatible and headache free.

The dual monitor feature is not necessary but would be nice, as I am not gaming an expensive video card is not priority.My priorities are: #1 - Fast CPU (Overclocking?)#2 - Boat load of RAM - 8gigs?#3 - Case (I like fancy small sleek showy cases)#4 - Hard Drive Space (I have 1tera external already...) (Any advice for FAST? I have never done SATA?)#5 - Wifi, etc.

Thanks for all your advice!

 

You could go to Intel's website and check out the Workstation dual socket motherboards they have there. The one called S5000XVN' is for sale for only 375€ (might be the same price in dollars in the USA). Add to this to begin with:

- only one of the cheapest (but still very powerful) Xeons for 275€/$;

- 2GB memory DDR2 PC-6500 FBDMM say for 100€/$ (this is just a guess, I know the equivalent of 2GB non-FB DMM goes fot 40€/$);

- a 500GB 7200rp HDD for 100€/$;

- a graphic card for 100€/$ (or 200 if such is your need)

- a case for 50€/$ and reliable + silent PSU for 50€/$

 

...and you end up with an extremely powerful workstation/server system that rivals the similarly modest configuration Mac Pro for exactly half the price of that configuration and with much more than the same options for upgrading and expanding memory (to 64GB), cpu, pci slots, but with no more than six SATA connections...

 

I don't know about compatibility, but the more i read about it on the forum the more I get the impression that it is less a matter of hardware difficulties than having the right installation modes, bios updates and settings, controllers, drivers...

 

I think by the time I will need such computational speed and power the market will have already evolved so I'm going to keep it modest and classic with a GA P35 DS3P system for 550€/$. But I just wanted to point out that a dual socket system build by yourself with the same specs is only half as expensive as a Mac Pro...

 

Anyone, keep me posted on your thoughts and plans... and enjoy your day (go play outside, its what I should do at least :-))

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read, the Penryn's will be the batch of chips for ddr2/775 architecture. The next set of chips (Nehalem) will require new mobo/ram.I would just save some $ and get a P35 board.

 

From what I gathered from Asus and Gigabyte, their motherboards both with p35 and with x38 chipset will support the future 45nm processor architecture... So even a p35 chipset based MOBO is fine from that perspective.

 

Is x48's official support for FSB of 1600 only different in bios content or also in hardware architecture. In other words will x48 accommodate more of the future processors needing more bandwidth or allows the p35 exactly the same bandwidth without forcing the hardware. Or will those future more rapid processors be unusable since they will be designed for other systems than those with FSB????

 

These are all questions as I hesitate between buying a MOBO with p35, x38 or x48.

...and what about DRR2 and DRR3? I understood that now the performance of the latter is not significantly better but how will it be in the future? What will be important memory wise. Anyone an idea of how it is going to change beside processor/chipset architecture?

 

I'm just a novice and I would hate to have to already buy a new system in five years time to keep up in continuing with no less speed my work and edit music and film materials. So I'm not interested in overclocking issues but in the future upgradeability and sturdiness of my setup...

 

Will GA-P35-DS3P do? or should I get GA-x38-ds4 (how well does it work with current osx installation modes?)? or perhaps the combo variant accommodating at one time 4 slots DDR2 and changeable to using the two slots DDR3 when it becomes more affordable and performative...?

 

Or are Asus MOBO's better? I just have been put off by Asus issues with Jmicron controller as I could read on their support forum and on this forum but perhaps Gigabyte has also these likewise SATA/AHCI/IDE issues or other ones... Which is the better brand for durability, stability, performance and compatibility with installing OSX?

 

Any enlightening thoughts / comments on these questions would be greatly appreciated...thanks!

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