# Any help with building a 6- 8- or 12-core Hackintosh?



## Mattynabib (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi there,

I am a Mac professional who has basically been priced out of the Mac market as far as my home use goes. I want to build a Hackintosh - I have some system building/maintenance/under-the-hood time, and a decent amount of system-level dealings, but I've never built a machine before. 

There have been some genius articles on this in the past (thanks, Skykast), but as a video and interactive media pro, I need to build one with more horsepower than perhaps even a quad core can give me. I need something with, ideally, 8- or 12- cores, that can rock DDR3 1333MHz memory and a kick-ass video card (preferably a CUDA-enabled nVIDIA card for Adobe suite work). The ability to have at least 3 drive bays would be sweet as well.

Does anyone here have the know-how to guide me to the parts AND the directions for how to build something like this? I would be very grateful for any advice and/or direction you can give me. Thanks!

Mattynabib


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## Dent1 (Aug 10, 2010)

How to build a comptuer!
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/144

Buy parts from:
Ebuyer.com
Scan.co.uk
Novatech.co.uk
Dabs.com


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## Mattynabib (Aug 10, 2010)

Dent1 said:


> How to build a comptuer!
> http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/144



What a great place to start - thank you! Now, can anyone guide me on which parts to buy if I'm going to Hackintosh an 8-core machine? I assume I'll need:

- A motherboard that can handle 2 quad-core processors and all of the proper ports (I'd like to have 2 FW800, at least 2 USB 2/3, and eSATA available on the back, along with ethernet), as well as up to 8 memory ports for DDR3 1333Mhz RAM (I suppose 1066 would be fine too)
- Two kick-ass quad-core processors (recommendations? I've been looking at Xeons and Core 2 Quad Yorkfields, but is there any reason I shouldn't go with the Lynnfield i7s? All in the $280-$320 range from what I can tell)
- A case that will take all that plus at least 2 drive bays
- A wireless card (unless that's something built in to most motherboards these days)
- A power supply that will be able to drive all of it plus a fat graphics card

Can I simply buy all these parts, check for compatibility, and basically snap (and perhaps solder) them together?

Now, since I know very little about the cost of parts and such, it's possible I am leading up to a machine that will be more expensive than if I just bought one from the Fruit vendor. Any thoughts or recommendations here? And manufacturers I should beware of, or consider for their excellent quality? Any who make parts that are particularly friendly to Hackintoshes? What more should I know, and can you all tell me?

Thanks so much for the help... I'm so glad I discovered these forums!

Mattynabib


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## slyfox2151 (Aug 10, 2010)

solder? lol...

everything just fits together and held in place by screws. if your going the xeon route i would take the newer Nehalem based cores not the older core 2's. your looking at needing a 850 to 1200 watt high end brand PSU to run it with 2 CPU's and a decent video card, i would recomend a GTX460.


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## computertechy (Aug 10, 2010)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-053-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

couldn't resist...


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## dhdude (Aug 10, 2010)

Unfortunately LGA1156 cpus (i.e. Lynnfields) dont support multi processors configurations, if you want dual processor, you're gonna have to look at the LGA1366 Xeons (Scan sell them)


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## dhdude (Aug 10, 2010)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer...Intel-Xeon-Socket-1366-(Bloomfield-Gainestown)

or the newer Westmeres:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/CPUs-Intel/Intel-Xeon-Socket-1366-(Westmere)


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## Dent1 (Aug 10, 2010)

Mattynabib,

I think you might be overshooting here. 8 core processors or Xeons are not for the desktop market, they are server grade processors and will run you thousands of dollars to assemble, presuming that you can even find the parts.

More realistically you need to be looking at desktop graded hardware. You will not get 8 cores in the desktop market yet, maybe a i7 4 core + 8 threads with Intel or 6 cores + 6 threads with AMD.

If you need help selecting parts just ask.

Your best option is to build a high spec'd computer (generally speaking) and virtualisation software so that you can run both OSX on top of a windows operating system. That way you get compatibility for both operating systems and hardly any of the redundancies.


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## xiy (Aug 11, 2010)

I just built this for my music studio and research work, it's stunningly powerful:

Intel Core i7 930
EVGA X58 SLI Micro
12GB Patriot DDR3-1600 RAM
2x Geforce 460 Superclocked GPU's in SLI

I run CUDA apps in bioinformatics research and Cubase/Protools and this system laughs at it. My CUDA work is just amazing with those two beasts in SLI. Let me know if you need pricing, because I managed to get this for £420.


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## Kreij (Aug 11, 2010)

Here is a server build that I worked up. Pretty powerful for $2700.


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## BarbaricSoul (Aug 11, 2010)

motherboard- ASUS Z8PE-D12X(ASMB4-IKVM) Dual LGA 1366 Intel 552...

CPU- Intel Xeon E5620 Westmere 2.4GHz 12MB L3 Cache LGA...

RAM- Crucial 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Regi...

GFX card- EVGA 015-P3-1480-AR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB...

Hard Drive- Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 R...

PSU- CORSAIR Professional Series AX1200 1200W ATX12V v2...

Case- LIAN LI PC-X2000F Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Co...

don't know if it will play nice with being a hackintosh, but it'd be one powerful rig.


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## magnes (Jan 12, 2011)

*£420?*



xiy said:


> I just built this for my music studio and research work, it's stunningly powerful:
> 
> Intel Core i7 930
> EVGA X58 SLI Micro
> ...



Where did you get that for £420
Chepest I found for EVGA, Ram, and i7 930, (WITHOUT 2x gtx 460!!!) is £520.

Did you buy new?


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## dhdude (Jan 12, 2011)

Welcome to TPU Magnes!

and yeah xiy, where did you get that kit for that price!?


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