New Mac tower build
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 3:48 am
My cousin has asked me to look into building him a MAC (Hackintosh) tower, being out of the loop and no experience what so ever with mac's I'm looking for some suggestions to get me started.
He's looking for quite a power full machine from what I can gather these are some requirements he has:
- Stylish non fussy case - we both thought the silverstone TJ09b was a nice looking case
- Intel cpu - possible six cores (very pricey compared to quad) - Noctua NH-D14 heatsink?
- Min 16gigs of ram (I had a look and found some 24gig tripple channel for ok-ihs money, not sure if it would work with which ever mobo is chosen)
- SSD drive & probably 2x 2tb in RAID (I've suggested something like a Seagate or WD Sata3 "Green" drive which should be plenty and fast enough)
- GFX I'm not sure what to go for, the few mac related site I've looked at all seem to use nVidia cards so possible a 560ti if there's a decent cooler available for them (or a decently quiet stock card)
- Mobo, not sure on either, something compatible with a 4/6core intel cpu and tripple channel ram (if I want to use 24gigs)
- Fans depending on what the case needs, no idea what brands are good these days. I'm running a Noctua or Nexus in my solo which I'm happy with.
His intended use will be for photography editing, he does a lot of timelapse and started getting into video editing as well. He basically wants a very good machine which is better than is macbook.
I'm also thinking if it's possible to build something with enough room for 2x additional harddrives if he choses to add more and still fit in to a midi tower or something smaller than the above case, maybe even a m-atx board?
--- edit ---
Just realised I never thought of a PSU!
Have also just found a site with suggested hardware here and it looks like ati gfx cards are just as compatible, just need to be a little cautious as not everything is.
Also, if it matters, he will be using his tv as a monitor via a hdmi port.
He's looking for quite a power full machine from what I can gather these are some requirements he has:
- Stylish non fussy case - we both thought the silverstone TJ09b was a nice looking case
- Intel cpu - possible six cores (very pricey compared to quad) - Noctua NH-D14 heatsink?
- Min 16gigs of ram (I had a look and found some 24gig tripple channel for ok-ihs money, not sure if it would work with which ever mobo is chosen)
- SSD drive & probably 2x 2tb in RAID (I've suggested something like a Seagate or WD Sata3 "Green" drive which should be plenty and fast enough)
- GFX I'm not sure what to go for, the few mac related site I've looked at all seem to use nVidia cards so possible a 560ti if there's a decent cooler available for them (or a decently quiet stock card)
- Mobo, not sure on either, something compatible with a 4/6core intel cpu and tripple channel ram (if I want to use 24gigs)
- Fans depending on what the case needs, no idea what brands are good these days. I'm running a Noctua or Nexus in my solo which I'm happy with.
His intended use will be for photography editing, he does a lot of timelapse and started getting into video editing as well. He basically wants a very good machine which is better than is macbook.
I'm also thinking if it's possible to build something with enough room for 2x additional harddrives if he choses to add more and still fit in to a midi tower or something smaller than the above case, maybe even a m-atx board?
--- edit ---
Just realised I never thought of a PSU!
Have also just found a site with suggested hardware here and it looks like ati gfx cards are just as compatible, just need to be a little cautious as not everything is.
Also, if it matters, he will be using his tv as a monitor via a hdmi port.