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low-mid-end GA-EP35-DS4 -based Hackintosh (my NewEgg wishlist)

JestaGeek
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JestaGeek
JestaGeek
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Hello to all here... I hope that some of you with experience with my chosen parts may be able to comment and offer additional feedback regarding the compatibility and/or price/value ratio of items in my NewEgg Hackintosh Wishlist. MacUser2525, dakine and others have already given me some invaluable feedback regarding questions I had about individual components. I am most grateful for their help. I hope a few more people can take a quick look at my wishlist and see if anything looks problematic. Since I'll be buying the parts in Europe, I won't actually be using NewEgg, but the NewEgg site is great for sharing a public wishlist and viewing user ratings. A couple other items are slightly different on the NewEgg list, based on what they carry there compared to what I found here. The DVD drive is a slightly different sub-model (I'm not sure what the difference is between Samsung's 203D and N models). And I think my exact model of graphics card choice isn't listed in NewEgg and theirs isn't here in Germany; but except for the model#, the brand and description are an exact match, so I'm not sure what the difference is there, either).

 

While I have been looking forward to a more extensible mini-tower in Apple's consumer (not Mac Pro) range, I'd likely buy an iMac if I lived in the U.S... but I'm here in Germany and the cost is over 50% higher here. If I build it myself, it's a bit higher than people in the U.S. would pay for the parts, but not even near the price difference between Apple-brand systems. The basic iMac, (which, I should add, includes a number of features I have no need for and doesn't include enough RAM or storage and other things I do need) costs US$1199 from the Apple store. Here in Germany, the same system is 1199 euros (that's US$1887 at present exchange rates!) I can buy all kinds of cheap PCs for a fraction of the cost of a cut-feature Mac, but I've been running Macs for over a decade now so I'd like to mostly stick with OS X (and be able to run some Windoze apps, too).

 

Anyway... My goal is have a basic mini-tower workstation for around the cost of a basic, bare-bones iMac (with a bit more in terms of future-proofness, upgradability and, of course, a lot more of what I want). I'm leaving out the WLAN, bluetooth, and iSight camera, all of which are currently useless to me (I already have a Bluetooth dongle that I rarely use and could easily add a video camera and WLAN support, should I find the need one day). I want to run dual-monitor, a luxury I've been missing for the past 3 years I've had this Mac Mini, and I already have a monitor, keyboard, and Wacom tablet (my primary mouse). So my wishlist includes another basic Samsung monitor as well as copies of Windows XP, Leopard and VMWare Fusion. Other people who want to build a similar system may well have other needs than my own, so I just want to be clear about what I'm interested in, what I have, and what I don't. Other than that, I'd like to have as headache-free an installation and build process as possible. And I'd like to build a system which is as quiet as possible, while still thinking inside the (mid-tower) box. ;-)

 

My (real) Wish List -- Links are to German 'Geizhals' price search engine.

Case with Power Supply

(Quantity: 1)

HxBxT: 425x206x463cm; Drive bays: external: 3x 5.25", 2x 3.5", internal: 4x 3.5", Fan (front): 1x 120mm (optional)...

2nd Case Fan (the "optional" front fan)

(Quantity: 1)

Mainboard » Intel Socket 775 (DDR2) Edit: At Chuckeroo's suggestion, though the GA-P35-DS4 is still very available here in Germany, unlike at NewEgg, I've looked at the GA-EP35-DS4. It costs a few euros more, or about the same (depending on dealer) here in Germany, so there would be no $30 cost savings, as at NewEgg. The only difference I could find from extensive searching and comparison on Gigabyte's website is that it may help save a bit of energy (the 'E' in the model stands for 'energy efficient'). Fine, I like saving energy... I'll take it.

(Quantity: 1)

P35/ICH9R, USB 2.0/Firewire/Gb LAN/6x SATA II RAID (ICH)/2x SATA II RAID (Gigabyte)/7.1 Audio

Graphic Card » PCIe

(Quantity: 1)

Chip frequency: 800MHz, Memory Frequency: 700MHz • Attention! Only 128-bit interface

Processor (My needs would likely rarely take much advantage of a larger L2 cache or quad-core processor, so I'll skimp on the processor for now. If my needs change in the future, I can probably get a better one for much less). Edit: At Chuckeroo's urging, if prices and availability improve here before I place my order, I may go with a new 45nm "Wolfdale" design, mainly for the lower power consumption and heat generation. I don't think I should worry about computing power for my needs, so I might opt for the E8200 (2.66GHz) instead of the E8400 (3GHz) he's recommended.

(Quantity: 1)

Dual-Core "Allendale", TDP: 65W, 65nm, Stepping: M0 -- MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EI...

CPU Cooler -- Edit: Thanks, again, to Chuckeroo for confirming my worry that the cooling system on the board might get in the way of the cooler I was considering. I'll save a bit of money on the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, one of the few items on my wishlist that actually costs less here in Germany than in the U.S.

(Quantity: 1)

RAM » DDR2 240pin

(Quantity: 1)

2x 2048MB Module, 2.0V-2.1V, Lifetime guarantee

2 Hard Drives for start-up (intend to partition each for OS X start-up and Windows/boot camp and use VMWare Fusion). When I'm happy with how things are running, I'll keep a back up on the second drive, but don't want to run this as an automated back-up so it's easy to just "un-do" problematic upgrades, etc.

(Quantity: 2)

8MB Cache, 8.9 ms, 3 yr guarantee

Hard Drive (File storage/ file backup)

(Quantity: 1)

32MB Cache, 8.9ms, 3 yr guarantee

Internal Optical Drive

(Quantity: 1)

20x/8x/20x/6x/12x/16x DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/DVD-ROM • 16x/12x DVD-R/DVD+R DL ...

Monitor » TFT Wide 20"

(Quantity: 1)

Luminance: 300cd/m², Contrast: 3000:1, Reaction-time: 2ms, View Angle: 160°/160°

Operating Systems:

(Quantity: 1)

(Quantity: 1)

Multi-Boot Utility

(Quantity: 1)

Media » DVD+R -DL (need to burn modified copies of Leopard install disk. Don't usually use DL disks and not sure which are going to be compatible with my current recorder -- hopefully both, but if not at least one kind.)

(Quantity: 1)

(Quantity: 1)

Additional notes:

Since I'm buying bulk SATA drives, which I don't think come with cables, I also need to remember to buy a couple of extra SATA II cables. I think the motherboard comes with just 2.

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chuckeroo
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I built almost the exact same system last weekend and it is working flawlessly.

Just a few notes for you:

- I would spring for a little nicer processor if i was you. You are already at $140 with that one, another $40 would go a long way (q6600,e8400). The e8400 runs much cooler which would address

your heat concerns above as well. (I hate when people just push their own hardware, but in this case I think the advantages of this processor over the 65nm are huge)

- The P35-DS4 is out of stock, and it may be for good as I think it's replacement is the EP35-DS4. It is the exact same board, just newer bios and some energy saver stuff you won't use. It's $30 cheaper! use this $30 towards the processor!

-Your concerns on the heatsink with the cooling pipe on the mobo are legitimate. It will be a really tight squeeze with any of them I think. The one I got is this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835186134

so I can tell you for sure that one fits (barely) and seems to work well. Definitely not as hard to install as the newegg reviews say, just make sure to put it in before you put the mobo in the case.

 

I seriously can't find anything at all wrong with mine, you are going to be stoked.

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JestaGeek
JestaGeek
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I built almost the exact same system last weekend and it is working flawlessly.
Very glad to hear that; congratulations. It might take me another couple of weeks before I'm really ready to build, so if you have any thoughts about things you'd do differently in that time, I'd be curious to hear from you.
I would spring for a little nicer processor if i was you. You are already at $140 with that one, another $40 would go a long way (q6600,e8400). The e8400 runs much cooler which would address your heat concerns above as well. (I hate when people just push their own hardware, but in this case I think the advantages of this processor over the 65nm are huge)
Having looked a bit more, now, into the benefits of the new "Wolfdale" chips, I'm inclined to agree with you. However the prices are a bit different here than the U.S./Canada. Availability is also in question. If that changes in the next week or three before I order my parts, and especially if the prices start to drop a bit more, I'll certainly consider that advice. I don't really need a "better processor", but I do like the idea of lower energy consumption and heat... and that could make up for the price difference in the long run.
The P35-DS4 is out of stock, and it may be for good as I think it's replacement is the EP35-DS4. It is the exact same board, just newer bios and some energy saver stuff you won't use. It's $30 cheaper! use this $30 towards the processor!
It's in stock here, and the EP model actually tends to run a few euros higher here, but I've changed to it since it does appear to be the replacement board in Gigabyte's line-up and is the same in all respects except for the energy saving features, which actually might be useful if I can take advantage of them one day. In any case, it's worth a couple euros more not to rule the energy saving features out. Otherwise, the v2.1 P35-DS4 is identical in every way. Thanks for bringing my attention to this new board. I'd seen it mentioned, but wasn't sure and didn't see it on the 10.5.1 hardware compatibility list.
-Your concerns on the heatsink with the cooling pipe on the mobo are legitimate. It will be a really tight squeeze with any of them I think. The one I got is this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835186134 so I can tell you for sure that one fits (barely) and seems to work well. Definitely not as hard to install as the newegg reviews say, just make sure to put it in before you put the mobo in the case.

If you say it barely fits, I really appreciate the tip not to get the model I was considering (a tad wider). I've updated my wishlist and will save a bit on the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, too. That is savings I could, perhaps, apply to a newer-design processor.
I seriously can't find anything at all wrong with mine, you are going to be stoked.
Good to hear that... I'm really looking forward to getting my elbows into this project! Many thanks for replying to this thread and for all your tips. --JestaN00b
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JestaGeek
JestaGeek
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UPDATE:

I don't have time right now for more since I need to catch a plane in about 12 hours and have a ton of other stuff to do between now and then, but I did want to say that my system is running great and I wanted to thank (in no particular order) Chuckeroo, MacUser2525, dakine, ~pcwiz, netkas, and Kalyway, and all the others who gave me advice and/or who've contributed to the OSx86 project, for their individual parts in making this all possible. You guys are tops! :)

 

Yes, the build was a bit of a PIA. Yes, it was all more trouble than buying a new Mac and may continue to be more trouble to keep up-to-date, but it is really running great and its been an incredible learning experience. I'll still buy the "mythical mid-sized minitower" one day... some time after Apple decides it can't ignore this market, but I hope to keep using their great OS until then. Installing Windows was such a pain by comparison to how smoothly the OS X install went. I may try a retail install when I get back, but I'm not really sure what I'd gain from that. My system sleeps, wakes, has CI (hardware enabled) and QE, audio, firewire, USB, everything seems to "just work".

 

When I get back (in about two weeks) I'll do more extensive testing, but I should say that the system listed in my signature is running near-flawlessly (better than I can say for my old G4-based Mac Mini) and I really couldn't be happier. I used only Kalyway 10.5.2 installer and selected appropriate settings for the hardware. In my next post, I'll include more specific info about how I set up my BIOS and what I included in my Kalyway install and maybe a bit more info on a few quirks of this build and minor stumbling blocks I ran into along the way.

 

For now, just this short update to say that I've encountered no real problems so far and can only recommend my hardware to anyone considering building something similar. :(

 

--Jesta(totally thrilled)N00b

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