Hackintosh Build for Image/Video Editing

[Mouse McCoy]

This build is for a friend who does a lot of image and video editing with Photoshop, Lightroom, Final Cut X and some 3D work. She also wants a good monitor to do photo retouching that doesn't have a lot of glare and has good factory calibration. The budget is $1200 or less. She also will want to watch streaming movies and TV shows. Buying in the United States, no real preference for brands but the nvidia card is because it works with Hackintosh.

I have a legit copy of windows 8 that I could use, but since she's coming from a Mac Book Pro I think she'll have a better time in using Hackintosh since it won't require time to adjust.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hdgLdC

 

[vailr]

Looks fine, except you may want to consider an IPS monitor.
This 23" Dell IPS monitor is ~$155 (after promo code):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824260148

 

[Ken g6]

Not knowing what actually works in a hackintosh, it looks to me like there's lots of room for improvement.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.94 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($139.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($139.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($108.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($36.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Dell S2340M 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($144.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech MK550 Wireless Ergonomic Keyboard w/Laser Mouse ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Other: PNY Quadro K600 ($139.99)
Total: $1145.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-07 19:24 EDT-0400

A processor with HT, twice the RAM, and an IPS monitor there, among other things. It looks like most cards are about equal in Photoshop, so that low-end Quadro shouldn't be too disadvantaged. And it could help with the 3D stuff.

 

[vailr]

Not knowing what actually works in a hackintosh, it looks to me like there's lots of room for improvement.

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.94 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.98 @ Newegg)

Gigabyte is usually the preferred motherboard choice for a Hackintosh.
See:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/437-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-july-2014.html#9series
Other motherboard brands may work "okay"; however, proper power management under OSX with those can be a potential source of aggravation.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Edit: Newegg has this combo deal that includes a D.C. Haswell CPU:
$1,004.99 /w rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=4902415&SID=

8 Item Combo

• GIGABYTE GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
  
  • $134.99
• Intel Core i5-4690K Haswell Quad-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I54690K
  
  • $239.99
• CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i High Performance Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 120mm
  
  • $94.99
• ADATA XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600C4G9-DR
  
  • $80.99
• Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
  
  • $59.99
• XFX Double D R9-280X-TDFD Radeon R9 280X 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 CrossFireX Support Video Card
  
  • $323.99
• SilverStone Temjin Series TJ08B-E Black Aluminum front panel, steel body MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case
  
  • $109.99
• CORSAIR CXM series CX600M 600W ATX12V v2.3 SLI CrossFire 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
  
  • $79.99

Combined Total $1,124.92

Note: the current MacPro includes a pair of AMD workstation class video cards. Not sure if the Radeon R9 280X in this combo deal would work well in a Hackintosh system, or not?

Apple USB wired keyboard:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B005DLDTAE

 

[Tamron]

Looks fairly good to me, just look in to onboard sound support, i had a 990-FXA-UD5 that was extremely finicky when it came to ios

 

[Ken g6]

Gigabyte is usually the preferred motherboard choice for a Hackintosh.

OK. Put the OP's Gigabyte board back into my build and that should fix that for <$10 extra. The Xeon should be functionally identical to an i7-4770, except without the onboard graphics, and for ~$50 less.

Edit: Newegg has this combo deal that includes a D.C. Haswell CPU:

Too much overclocking-oriented stuff for someone who I infer doesn't want to overclock. Also too little RAM, no SSD, and a chip without hyper-threading. It's basically oriented toward gamers, not toward this application.

 

[vailr]

OK. Put the OP's Gigabyte board back into my build and that should fix that for <$10 extra. The Xeon should be functionally identical to an i7-4770, except without the onboard graphics, and for ~$50 less.

Too much overclocking-oriented stuff for someone who I infer doesn't want to overclock. Also too little RAM, no SSD, and a chip without hyper-threading. It's basically oriented toward gamers, not toward this application.

For better audio quality, you'd probably want to include selecting a motherboard with a better quality onboard audio chip: a Realtek 898 or 1150 chip. Unless you're using an HDMI connected monitor that has it's own speakers, and use the video card's audio via HDMI. Not all monitors include an HDMI input. However, I'd recommend instead using a 2.1 external bookshelf & subwoofer type speaker system (connected via the motherboard's audio output).

Hyperthreading: I could be wrong, but I'm not convinced that the hyperthreading CPU feature is of any added benefit when running OSX.

 

[vbuggy]

Would not bother with hackintosh unless you expect to be on call - and if not it's not fair on her. Get a Mac if she wants to work on a Mac. If that's too expensive, well she bought into the Beats of computers - not your problem.

 

[Mouse McCoy]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I don't think Radeon cards work with Hackintosh from what I've read. The Xenon CPU seems like a good suggestion as well as the Quadro workstation card. I didn't know Hackintosh would require me to be on call, does it break/need a lot of tweaks to the OS to keep it running smoothly?

 

[Essence_of_War]

Would not bother with hackintosh unless you expect to be on call - and if not it's not fair on her. Get a Mac if she wants to work on a Mac. If that's too expensive, well she bought into the Beats of computers - not your problem.

http://lifehacker.com/the-always-up-to-date-guide-to-building-a-hackintosh-o-5841604

Things go wrong with hackintoshes all the time. It's unlikely you'll create one without running into, at least, a minor dilemma. A lot of troubleshooting involves trial and error, unfortunately, and you'll just have to tinker around until you get the problem fixed. You will be able to find help on the InsanelyMac and tonymacx86 forums if you get stuck. You can also use tonymacx86's rBoot rescue CD to help you boot when you're having trouble doing so. You'll also want to spend some time disabling potentially problematic options and kexts in your /Extra folder (which you can get to by pressing Command+Shift+G, choosing Go to Folder, typing /Extra, and see if removing anything can help. Sometimes you'll need to add things, too, to get the proper hardware support without any glitches so just be diligent and you'll get there.

They can be very finnicky. I wouldn't build one for someone unless they LIKE tinkering, or you're planning on supporting it for them.

 

[vailr]

I don't think Radeon cards work with Hackintosh from what I've read. The Xenon CPU seems like a good suggestion as well as the Quadro workstation card. I didn't know Hackintosh would require me to be on call, does it break/need a lot of tweaks to the OS to keep it running smoothly?

The most recent Radeon cards may be okay for Hackintosh:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36599695&postcount=480
Note: the current Apple MacPro includes a pair of AMD workstation class Radeon video cards.
There's no nVidia option for the MacPro.
From my experience, the only minor problem that could crop up would involve re-installing the audio driver after a major OS update, such as 10.9.4 to 10.9.5, which the end user could probably be made capable of fixing. Of course, that's dependent on correctly picking current generation hardware components. Yes, you would need to provide extra assurances in the way of phone call support availability, but not all that much more than for a Windows based PC.
A bootable external USB hard drive containing a Time Machine backup is a good way to insure recovery from some kind of unexpected problem.

 

[mfenn]

Hyperthreading: I could be wrong, but I'm not convinced that the hyperthreading CPU feature is of any added benefit when running OSX.

OS X is a fully functional operating system just like Windows and Linux. It will expose the logical cores just like any other OS.

So it's really up to the applications that the OP's friend is running as to whether or not HT will be useful. It generally quite useful in video editing suites, so I'd say it's worthwhile.