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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

gunna build a new hackintosh.. advice?

Zakaree Sandberg

Zakaree Sandberg

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Im no stranger to hackintosh.. its all I use.. but I want to beef up my system..

heres my plan..

the BEAST will be my render station.. where my transcoding and coloring will take place

I plan on using a new Mac mini to be my downloader..

plan is..

MacMini-thunderbolt out- sonnet echo express 10Gbe -daisy chain to Mlink chasis which will contain a SAS card- out of this to a raid

hackintosh (what video card should i get? gtx 580 (x2) )
thunderbolt equiped motherboard (gigabyte z 77x)
10gbe card pcie-

network via cat6 to sonnet echo express


I will also daisy chain another 2 minks to the macmini which will have my decklink and Hdlink
 
If you're looking at using Resolve, two GTX580s will be very little benefit over one - since one will only be used for GUI.

Also, while it's great that the Z77 boards have Thunderbolt, they're also very limited on PCIe lanes - namely 16. The graphic(s) cards alone will want 16x (each), and I believe 10Gb Ethernet PCIe cards are 8x. I've seen it argued that the GPU doesn't always need the full 16 lanes, and can get by with 8 - in which case you could do a Z77 build with one GTX580 and the 10GigE card. Note that this would preclude adding any other cards to your tower - i.e. HBA, Rocket, etc.

It may also be worth noting that LGA 1155 is EOL (Haswell is on a new socket), so no real chance to upgrade your CPU later - meaning the best R3D performance you'll get on this tower is about 1/2 res Good at realtime (3770K @~4.3GHz). You may get 1/2 Premium realtime, especially with a higher over clock.

This may all work for you. If so, great - I just built a Z77 tower for a friend a few months ago with a 3770K and a GTX580 for Resolve - though they have a Thunderbolt Mobile Rocket to help.

If you're looking for more power, I'd recommend looking into something LGA2011 like the X79 boards. Better processors, more PCIe lanes (40, I think), more RAM capacity, and upgradeability to Ivy Bridge-E processors (Q3 2013 launch, last I saw).

That said, I'm sure someone like Jeff will come in here with better knowledge. Just my two cents.
 
z77x gigabyte is a pretty limited board actually. the thunderbolts on them zap out a lot of the pci lanes. but what's nice about it is that it runs a hd 4000 graphics on board so you can use that as your gui, and you'll get full bandwidth from two gtx 580's. I haven't gotten my final 4x slot to work, might be a defect, too late for me to send the board back now. but just be a bios issue I have to look into when I have the time. other limitation is that thunderbolt has no hotplugging. it will lock up your system, so just remember to have all your devices plugged in and power upped before you boot. also, it's limited to a single quad core processor. a very good one at that, but anything you do that requires a heavy amount of cpu cycles might take a hit. other than that, the board is a breeze to set up, cheap, and you can get a lot done with it. oh yeah, lots of usb 3.
 
Tom.Wong said:
but what's nice about it is that it runs a hd 4000 graphics on board so you can use that as your gui, and you'll get full bandwidth from two gtx 580's.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. That's nice that Resolve will use the integrated graphics for the GUI. Is there a significant gain with two 580s over one on this board? Since as I understand it both would run at 8x?
 
Tom.Wong said:
z77x gigabyte is a pretty limited board actually. the thunderbolts on them zap out a lot of the pci lanes. but what's nice about it is that it runs a hd 4000 graphics on board so you can use that as your gui, and you'll get full bandwidth from two gtx 580's. I haven't gotten my final 4x slot to work, might be a defect, too late for me to send the board back now. but just be a bios issue I have to look into when I have the time. other limitation is that thunderbolt has no hotplugging. it will lock up your system, so just remember to have all your devices plugged in and power upped before you boot. also, it's limited to a single quad core processor. a very good one at that, but anything you do that requires a heavy amount of cpu cycles might take a hit. other than that, the board is a breeze to set up, cheap, and you can get a lot done with it. oh yeah, lots of usb 3.
Click to expand...


is there another/better board with thunderbolt
 
There isn't a better choice for a thunderbolt mother board at present than the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH. At TonyMacx86 there is a lot of info and support for this board. I was intrigued once upon a time with the ASUS Thunderbolt board (almost $500!) but nobody else online had built one, and now it looks like it has been discontinued.

I completely agree with what Tom has written. The thunderbolt ports severely limit the number of PCIe cards you can add to the system. You only have 1 x16 slot, and that drops to a x8 if you use the x8 slot! And the 2nd x8 slot drops to x4 if you use the x4 slot! Now, I haven't seen any real performance difference running my GTX 470 in the x8 slot. In fact, I leave it there because I have had trouble with other PCI cards there. I have, however, put a ATTO R680 and a Red Rocket in the x16 slot (obviously not at same time!) and both have worked without a hitch.

I use the built-in Intel HD 4000 as my main display.

Also bad -- I have had trouble using both thunderbolt ports simultaneously for thunderbolt devices. If I just use the left/top port for thunderbolt devices, and the right/bottom for minidisplayport to my displayport monitor, everything works fine. As has been repeated -- no Thunderbolt hotplugging. Big bummer, especially with hope of using Echo Express adapter or QIO for reading SxS cards.

Very easy board to set up as a hackintosh. But... I wish I had gone a different route, and with your intended 2 computer setup, you might want to rethink the importance of thunderbolt.

If I were to do it over again, I would have gone with my competing option: x79 board w/a 3930k 6-core processor (or a single/dual XEON setup). It would have handled transcoding faster and left me with plenty of PCIe slots to hold a Raid card, a 10gbe card, a GeForce card, and a Red Rocket at the same time! In fact, that is what I will do later this year. I will either buy a new Mac Pro (if they come out with updated ones) or build a hackintosh to match. It's true that you might have to add an additional graphics cards as your GUI in Resolve... although I am hearing reports that newer versions of Resolve are working with a single graphics card quite well.

Recommendation for graphics card: either a GeForce 580 or 680 with minimum 3gb RAM (for handling 4k material). The GTX Titan is now out, but unsupported at the moment. It appears to be working in the OSX 10.8.4 beta (see Netkas.org). That is what I am holding out for.

One comment about what Kevin Marshall said about the x79s being upgradeable to use Ivy Bridge E processors... maybe, and maybe not. There have been rumblings that Intel may skip Ivy Bridge E and jump straight to Haswell E (or whatever they call it). Or, that Intel will in fact introduce a new chipset from x79 with new features like USB 3.0 and maybe even Thunderbolt. My point is, hopefully it upgrades, but don't count on it!

** Almost forgot -- with USB 3.0 absent from the x79 motherboards, and with it finally taking hold (Sony Readers, Codex readers, etc.) you would have to spend a PCIe slot on a USB 3.0 card. Something else to consider. Both, those slots sure go quickly...
 
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Some more thoughts.

1) The Sonnet 10gbe thunderbolt networks via SFP+, not CAT6.

2) Why get a MLINK w/RAID card AND a SONNET Echo 10GBE? Why not simplify. Get an Express II thunderbolt expansion chassis, or other brand, which holds 2 PCIe cards, and put the RAID and 10gbe cards inside that. Leaves you with more flexibility down the line. Not a big deal, just a suggestion.

3) Why use PCIe RAID card at all? Is it to connect to a RAID you already own?

I ask because this is my big dilemma. I am considering the Promise Pegasus R6, but at 600-700MB/S I am concerned it will leave me wanting as I find myself doing more ARRIRAW / SONY 4K material. When you need to offload and verify the footage, offload again to MASTER/BACKUP drives, and read for transcoding, all that speed dries up in a hurry. I feel like a 1000+ MB/s is safer, but this requires at least a 8-12 bay raid, and NOT on a thunderbolt chain where all that bandwidth is being shared (which would be the case, say, with a mlink/RAID card scenario -- your raid is not achieving the speeds of which it is capable).

Anyone want to chime in? Ease my fears and tell me that Pegasus R6 would be enough? Tell me what is the best setup (I work almost entirely on commercials). Thanks--
 
I dont think i need thunderbolt in my main computer.. that being said i DO need usb 3.0 and would prefer to have at least 4
(id hate to eat up two lanes with USB 3.0 cards.. so is there another MB out there with plenty of USB 3.0 built in? and enough lanes for video card, rocket and 10gbe?

I wouldnt need a pcie raid card for the transfer station.. but a SAS card.. so this would go into the express 11 which i didnt know about..


all i know is.. i need a nice transfer station.. was thinking macmini because it has usb 3 and thunderbolt and is dirt cheap..

and from there.. I would connect to my big computer system.. which im open to ideas for what i should get.. gtx 680 4gb is one of the cards im looking at..

need help with mobo for sure and processor.. I have money to make this thing legit..

Im all about fast speed.. i want fast transfers.. fast read and write.. and fast transcoding
 
Zakaree Sandberg said:
I dont think i need thunderbolt in my main computer.. that being said i DO need usb 3.0 and would prefer to have at least 4
(id hate to eat up two lanes with USB 3.0 cards.. so is there another MB out there with plenty of USB 3.0 built in? and enough lanes for video card, rocket and 10gbe?

I wouldnt need a pcie raid card for the transfer station.. but a SAS card.. so this would go into the express 11 which i didnt know about..


all i know is.. i need a nice transfer station.. was thinking macmini because it has usb 3 and thunderbolt and is dirt cheap..

and from there.. I would connect to my big computer system.. which im open to ideas for what i should get.. gtx 680 4gb is one of the cards im looking at..

need help with mobo for sure and processor.. I have money to make this thing legit..

Im all about fast speed.. i want fast transfers.. fast read and write.. and fast transcoding
Click to expand...


ciao,
I believe that it is not easy as a choice.
I have always worked with hack, first I would choose a better dual Xeon 8 core, with at least 30-40 gb of ram.
as a second thing since you need it I would use a nice http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/cs-product_RU.htm 4-port.
as the third would purchase a gtx 690 as cuda and a 630 single slot for monitors.
as the fourth if you can buy a 10gb network card.
With this configuration, you have no problem.

Be my opinion.

luigi
 
Also, in terms of using a mac mini as your offload station...

It only has 1 thunderbolt port instead of 2. This means you could max out your bandwidth pretty quick (as opposed to a Retina MBP with 2 ports).

New MacBook Pros are expected in June with release of new Haswell CPUs from Intel. Might be true for Mac Mini too. Something to consider if you can wait 2 months.
 
I would not concern myself with Thunderbolt in the Hackintosh. There are no worth-while motherboards out there that have Thunderbolt on them, IMO... Sad, but true, they're all geard toward low-end desktop configurations.

I also recommend waiting for a new Mac Mini if you can. On the other hand, unless they redesign it, which is highly unlikely, you won't gain any new or different ports. We'll see an updated version of Thunderbolt late next year.


Not going to start spouting hardware recommendations or anything here. There's tons of that info already and I'm trying to get the last of my stuff done to head to NAB today. haha...


Forget the GTX580's -- get GTX680's or GTX Titans (OSX 10.8.4 has Titan support!). We'll see at NAB what Resolve 10 brings us in terms of GPU support. Currently, there's little to no difference when you run dual GPUs vs. single GPUs. Adding that second GPU makes Resolve turn your first one into a GUI only card and it just uses the second one for compute. CS6 currently uses one GPU, but it was just let out the other day that "the next version" will support multiple GPUs for export/render from Premiere.
 
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