i'm trying to find the sapphire hd 4870 1GB or the 4890, both are so hard to find in canada ( newegg.ca , tigerdirect.ca ) and local store, I only found the 4870 512MB version. So I'm wondering if the brand is important ? The main reason I'm taking the Sapphire over another is because I've read so many thread with people using the Sapphire and its works flawlessly or almost. Or maybe should I go with a Nvidia but which one ?
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Cindori Custom: Building an i7 Hackintosh
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FWIW, I'm running a Diamond brand 4870 1gb and it works perfectly. I picked up two of them on eBay for $200 for the pair. Unfortunately OS X ran the fan on the 2nd card at full blast so I had to drop down to a single card and sell the second, but beyond that it works beautifully. My bet is that any brand 4870 will work just fine. If you start looking at exotics like a 2gb version of a 4890 you may run into troubles there, but a standard 512mb or 1gb version should be plug and go.
Last questions before I build.
Don't know if you guys are getting sick of hearing about peoples builds, but I am finally taking the plunge and building my system. After reading up on the forums, especially this post, I only have two questions. One, what is a good quality 1080p monitor that people use for under 400 bucks (right now I'm looking at LG's 27" HDMI Widescreen????), and two, I want my boot drive to be on a SSD, but I'm not sure if I should buy one SSD and partition it half for Windows 7 half for Mac OS X, or if I should buy two different smaller drives, one for each OS. Any other helpful hints would be great, but so far this post has been an almost one stop shop so thanks to all for keeping it current!
Don't know if you guys are getting sick of hearing about peoples builds, but I am finally taking the plunge and building my system. After reading up on the forums, especially this post, I only have two questions. One, what is a good quality 1080p monitor that people use for under 400 bucks (right now I'm looking at LG's 27" HDMI Widescreen????), and two, I want my boot drive to be on a SSD, but I'm not sure if I should buy one SSD and partition it half for Windows 7 half for Mac OS X, or if I should buy two different smaller drives, one for each OS. Any other helpful hints would be great, but so far this post has been an almost one stop shop so thanks to all for keeping it current!
Hello. I read that somebody tried to build a Hackintosh with the i7 980x without success. As far as I recall, the reason was that OS/X has not been updated to recognize all the 12 cores. So, what is the fastest PC/CPU that can be made to run the Mac OS/X without much difficulty?
I think one of the changes in 10.6.4 is that it now recognizes the i7 980x.
See this.
Maybe that's also good news for an impending new Mac Pro, but that's another subject altogether.
Thanks. That is a great news! Hope somebody could build an i7 980x Hackintosh the next few days.
Might as well add to the fun... I posted my Q9650 somewhere earlier in this thread and just replaced my ancient Sun/AMD Hackintosh with an i7 930 build. I couldn't resist since Micro Center has/had the i7 930 on sale for $199 along with 1tb drives for $59.
i7 930
GA-X58A-UD3R
12gb Crucial
512gb 9600 GT
It runs noticeably better than my C2Q (stock speed vs stock speed).
It's stable at 4.0 on air.
i7 930
GA-X58A-UD3R
12gb Crucial
512gb 9600 GT
It runs noticeably better than my C2Q (stock speed vs stock speed).
It's stable at 4.0 on air.
I've seen this post for months but never got around to posting to it. Awesome job Cindori, I took the plunge and have everything but the case and processor... the only NA retailer with the Fractal Case sold out and it is one of the very few computer cases I have ever found attractive. I think I might settle on the CM HAF-922. Half of the parts I picked up were offering rebates so my similar setup is going to come in around $1050. Should have it all put together in the next month or so... I'm very excited to see the results!
Fractal Design recently launched a white case.
Looks great!
Are these on the market yet? Looking around Google now.
G5 case and Hackintosh
I used the G5 case for my Hackintosh project, I am using the Gigabyte GA EP45-UD3L motherboard with a intel Q9400 2.66 quad core, 8 GB 800Mhz ram and an GeForce 9800GT. My boot drive is a 64GB SSD drive with OS X 10.6.4 Its very stable and has filled the gab of wanting a new MP. My GeekBench score was 5291. Front power switch and power light working, I don't use the front USB or Firewire so I didn't bother making it work.
This picture is before I added the fans.
I used the G5 case for my Hackintosh project, I am using the Gigabyte GA EP45-UD3L motherboard with a intel Q9400 2.66 quad core, 8 GB 800Mhz ram and an GeForce 9800GT. My boot drive is a 64GB SSD drive with OS X 10.6.4 Its very stable and has filled the gab of wanting a new MP. My GeekBench score was 5291. Front power switch and power light working, I don't use the front USB or Firewire so I didn't bother making it work.
This picture is before I added the fans.
yeah, the backside is where the mess is, I didn't go for making the back as "Power Mac" look as possible. just started cutting and adding what was needed. I need to add some other things to the case and will take some pics of the back. Don't laugh ...
If only someone could figure out how to create drivers for newer, just released hardware that were foolproof, we could get new state of the art 6-12 core boxes and not look back. As it is it is simply too limiting for me not to mention iffy when it comes to certain updates etc. Won't work for my main system as things stand, although I am sure it probably does some people. better yet, Apple should just start licensing OSX out.
Good luck trying to reduce the fan speed on the 4890s. I had the same problem with my two 4870s. The only 'solution' was to restart immediately after booting into OSX - that usually had the effect of shutting up the second card. I ended up giving up and bought a 5970 the second I heard about the driver release. Maybe you should consider doing the same. If you really want trifire then a 5970+5870 might be the way to go. I remember reading on the insanelymac forums that there is a way to get multiple ATI cards working in OSX provided they are different model cards.
I'd settle for just quietening down my single 4870 as it is now the only noise producing component in my i7 build.
Spanky, how did you find the performance of the 5970 compared to your 4890s, and where is the best (cheapest) place to buy it in the UK?
Spanky, how did you find the performance of the 5970 compared to your 4890s, and where is the best (cheapest) place to buy it in the UK?
