SPCR

Intel Core i7-920
GA-EX58-UD5
DDR3 1333 2G x 3 RAM
Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 or GF 9800 GTX+ with stock nvida reference cooler?
WD 1TB WD10EADS

Case: Antec P182
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W
CPU Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120
Fans: Noctua NF-P12-1300 120mm Case Fan X2?

any comments on this set up?

Hi,

The stock GPU cooler may be the loudest bit? The Noctua fans would not be my choice -- they are expensive and according the SPCR reviews, not the quietest either.

What OS are you going to use with 6GB of RAM?

Thanks for the reply, NeilBlanchard.

It will be running OSX, 10.5.6.

So Should I go with Nexus or Scythe S-Flex instead @ 800 rpm instead?

And which GPU cooler is recommend?

I want to keep it as quiet as possible.

What are you going to do with the system?
DDR3 1333 is pretty much the same speed as DDR2 1066 (due to higher latencies), if you use software that is senstive to memory speed then i suggest you cough up a bit more and get 1600.

Overall the system seems pretty balanced but i cant help but feel that a LGA775/C2Q system would be far more cost effective, then on your next upgrade you can get the i7/i5/whatever is in the mainstream segment at the time. DDR3 and motherboards will be much cheaper.

Wouldn't the hard drive be a serious bottleneck with all the other really high-performance parts? Might be worth it to get a small SSD or Velociraptor as the system drive. What will this computer be used for?

nyonya wrote:Wouldn't the hard drive be a serious bottleneck with all the other really high-performance parts? Might be worth it to get a small SSD or Velociraptor as the system drive. What will this computer be used for?

The HDD would only be a bottleneck for loading times. If you think waiting an extra 5 seconds to load the next level in Far cry 2 is so terrible you need to spend hundreds of dollars extra on a good SSD then it might be a good idea.

FartingBob wrote:

nyonya wrote:Wouldn't the hard drive be a serious bottleneck with all the other really high-performance parts? Might be worth it to get a small SSD or Velociraptor as the system drive. What will this computer be used for?

The HDD would only be a bottleneck for loading times. If you think waiting an extra 5 seconds to load the next level in Far cry 2 is so terrible you need to spend hundreds of dollars extra on a good SSD then it might be a good idea.

I use a WD10EADS in my computer myself, so I agree it is a great drive - but this seems like a fairly serious performance computer, which is why maybe getting a faster hard drive would make sense here.

I assume you're going to be running a Hackintosh using the EFI partition scheme. If that's not true, then ignore this.

As a general rule, I'd stick with NVidia cards for the time being- the Nvidia Inject kernel extensions are more stable and up to date than the ATI equivalents.

Also, you probably want to have someone comment on your hardware selections over at Insanely Mac forums. The responders there are very helpful and patient.

Thanks for all the replies!

The hackintosh is mainly for Photoshop CS4, Lightroom, Final Cut Pro, etc.

I was considering faster Hard drives, but they are currently too costly in terms of gb/$. I might upgrade to faster HD in the near future. (even the final cut pro program alone will take up at least 100gb HD space)

FYI, I am a current owner of macbook Pro core 2 duo 2.4ghz with 4gb. I tried my dad's hackintosh (Quad core 2.33ghz with 4gb, 500gb STAT drive, geforce 9600)for image editing with Photoshop CS4, it is amazingly fast! so much faster than my macbook pro.

My dad got a pretty good deal on the Ci7 + motherboard combo and that is the only reason I chose this combo.


I also bought the CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W and Thermalright Ultra 120 yesterday. The Noctua fans are sold out in HK and I might be getting the Scythe instead.

I haven't decided on the case yet tho -- there are simply too many interesting choices here!

btw, which graphic card heat sink is recommended?

and what kind of noise level should I expect from the set up?

fri2219 wrote:I assume you're going to be running a Hackintosh using the EFI partition scheme. If that's not true, then ignore this.

As a general rule, I'd stick with NVidia cards for the time being- the Nvidia Inject kernel extensions are more stable and up to date than the ATI equivalents.

Also, you probably want to have someone comment on your hardware selections over at Insanely Mac forums. The responders there are very helpful and patient.

I have no idea what EFI partition means... My dad will be taking care of the installation part. I tried to go through the insanelymac forum, but I don't have time to read through the posts yet

My dad also told me to stick with the NVidia cards.

Enable PAE in the OS (patch/hack). This will allow you to utilize up to 8-32GB of ram.(depends on actual chipset and processor you are using - see below!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08 ... indle.html
A good explanation with pictures.

But there is a problem that one person on that site brought up:
*****
Let's review the issues to try to get some clarity:

Hardware: Intel's 32-bit chips had an extension called PAE, that was a hack to support more than 4GB of RAM, but not "directly". At this point, it is best forgotten. AMD released their 64-bit Opteron chips that support 64-bit addressing and MMIO. Intel copied the AMD 64-bit IS extensions but did not have the integrated memory controller, and hence had a limitation that expansion cards had to be mapped under 4GB, potentially conflicting with real RAM. This is an Intel chipset limitation, and has nothing to do with the AMD64 instruction set that both use, or Apple, Microsoft, or Linux OS.

Software: Both Linux and Windows have 32 and 64-bit versions available, meaning the full stack, kernel, drivers, and applications. Again, if you have an Intel chip, you might not be able to use all your RAM, but this has nothing to do with the OS. For years you've been able to install 64-bit Linux on an AMD Opteron and not have to worry about any of this nonsense.
*****
In other words, Intel makes proper processors that support PAE. But most of Intel's chipsets don't. Oops. AMD chips have no such problem, but AMDs won't work on a Hackintosh very well.(though it is possible as recommended as it will then support gobs of ram)

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archi ... 16492.aspx

http://www.hackinthebox.org/modules.php ... =0&thold=0
Good site for Hackintosh news and info.

Plekto, thanks for all the information. I will definitely go over it during the weekend!

stingy wrote:I haven't decided on the case yet tho -- there are simply too many interesting choices here!

btw, which graphic card heat sink is recommended?

and what kind of noise level should I expect from the set up?

Antec Solo for full ATX, or Antec NSK3480 for mATX would be my suggestoins for a case.

The Arctic Cooling S1 is a great aftermarket VGA heatsink.

If you do it right, it would be very quiet. Even with all the right parts though, if implimented improperly, it could end up being louder than expected. I have seen people take otherwise normally loud components and create a quiet system from them, and also have seen people buy all SPCR recommended gear and end up with a loud system. Its all in how you do it.

http://www.hackint0sh.org/

This site is specifically dedicated to making these work. Better link than the previous one I posted.

I bought the XFX 9800 GTX+ today. I want more space inside the case so I'm planning to go with P182 instead (but it is sold out in the computer mall).

Here are the missing parts:
Antec P182
Scythe S-Flex X 2 (intake and exhaust)
Arctic Cooling S1

Should I over clock the system to ~3.6ghz?