Proposed Premium Hardware for Hackintosh High Performance Computer by End User for 1-Off Self-Build

Proposed Premium Hardware for Hackintosh High Performance Computer By End User for 1-Off Self-Build. Not for commercial production.

COMPARE Apple Mac mini 2020 Apple iMac 27" 2020 Apple iMac Pro 2020

Maximum configuration: Intel i7, 8th generation 6‑core 3.2GHz processor (Turbo Boost >4.6GHz) 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM Intel UHD Graphics 630 2TB SSD storage Maximum configuration: 10 Gigabit Ethernet Nearest configuration: 27” 5K display 27” 5K display Wifi 802.11ac & Bluetooth 5.0 Intel i9, 9th generation 8‑core 3.2GHz processor (Turbo 1x HDMI2, 4x TB3 & 2x USB3 ports 2.3GHz 18-core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost Boost >5.0GHz) >4.3GHz $3,199 + keyboard, mouse and monitor 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM 128GB 2666MHz EEC DDR4 RAM Radeon Pro Vega 48 8GB HBM2 GPU Radeon Pro Vega 64X 16GB HBM2 GPU 3TB Fusion drive storage 4TB SSD storage 10 Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet Wifi 802.11ac & Bluetooth 4.2 Wifi 802.11ac & Bluetooth 5.0 SDXC Card, headphone, 4x USB3, 2x TB3 SDXC Card, headphone, 4x USB3, 4x TB3 PSU n/a (my late 2015 is 300W) PSU n/a (my late 2015 is 300W) Silver Magic Mouse 2 & full keyboard Space grey Magic Mouse 2 & full keyboard $4,249 $11,099 Apple Mac Pro 2020 This HACKINTOSH Apple Pro Display XDR 32" Retina 6K

Superb polished stainless steel & aluminium tower case Minimum configuration: 6016 x 3384, 10-bit 1.073Bn colours Intel Xeon W 3.5GHz 8‑core processor (Turbo Boost > 3x USB2-C ports & 1x TB3 port | 280g

4.0GHz) Corsair’s elegant and very well designed case may be Standard glass $4,999 + adjustable stand 32GB 2600MHz EEC DDR4 RAM swapped later for my custom plywood, maple & teak Radeon Pro 580X 8GB GDDR5 GPU furniture case. DELL UltraSharp 32” 4K & 8K Monitors 256GB SSD storage Intel i9, 8 Core, 16 thread, >5.0GHz CPU Wifi 802.11ac & Bluetooth 5.0 128GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM 5xTB3 Radeon VII 16GB HBM2 GPU 1.4kW PSU 6TB NVMe SSD, 8TB SATA SSD & 14TB HDD backup Space grey Magic Mouse 2 Aquantia GbE LAN + Intel® 10GB GbE LAN Space grey Magic full Keyboard Wifi 802.11ac & Bluetooth 5.0 $5,999 + monitor 10x cooling fans + Christmas tree LEDs 15x USB, 2x Thunderbolt3, 2xHDMI, 3x Display ports | Nearest configuration: 1.6kW PSU | Hi-Fi audio 96GB RAM, 32GB GPU & 8TB SSD storage. Silver Magic Mouse 2 & full Magic Keyboard 3840 x 2160, 7680 x 4320 & 1.07Bn colours $12,000 + monitor Premiere components all changeable. 11.2kg, 17kg | HDMI, DP, headphone, 3x USB. $7400 all in with 4K monitor (+ shipping where applicable) $1350 or $3700 all in USE General home office, DTP, Adobe CC, SD video upscaling and audio rendering, movies and music playback and family data storage all in one place. No games or overclocking.

Corsair Crystal Series 680X Case - White Elegant dual chamber, quality case with good clearances, cable management, air flow and expandability. 423 deep x 344 wide x 505mm high x 11.6kg. No cooling in Drive Chamber for SSDs and HDD: modification for additional fan may be required. No Optical Drive bay: SATA ports to be added at the top of the rear panel for external placement. Will iCUE and the pre-installed Intel® Wireless & Bluetooth 5 AC 9560 M.2 AC work? Included 3x LL120 (2200 RPM, 63CFM, 0.3A, >36 dBA) & 1x SP120 >37dBA LED fans. Noise Level Benchmarks Faintest audible sound 0dB Noisy office or cafeteria 80 Whisper or ticking watch 10-20dB Food blender @ 0.9m or chain saw 90 Nearby leaves rustling in the breeze 25 Car horn @ 3m or motorcycle @ speed 100 Quiet office or normal speech @ 0.9m 50 Rock concert 120 Vacuum cleaner @ 3m 70 Jet engine @ 23m: PAIN 150 My PCE Online Double Conversion MX3k UPS is rated at less than 50dB at 1m, running at maximum output in hot weather. I looked at other brands but this type of UPS provides by far the best protection and they all emit similar noise levels. In reality I hear a very soft whoose when I enter my office, if I am listening for it. But when I power up my iMac and I’m sat at my desk with the UPS underneath, I don’t hear anything except occasional snoring from our dog. It’s not an issue. For about $600 I get clean pure sine wave power to my iMac and excessive runtimes from 5 outages every day until the generator kicks in. That’s in the Middle East Amazon US $227.99 where I live as an expat. NB: the given Mac script to install the ViewPower app doesn’t work in Mojave. Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme (rev. 1.0) Motherboard Double the price of the Designare but larger E-ATX and higher specification. Amazon US $570 Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Processor 16M Cache, 3.6GHz (> 5.00GHz boost) Mainstream high performer. Amazon US $600 But I am still considering the Intel® Core™ i9-9900KS for its higher base frequency of 4.0GHz and willingness to run at 5.0GHz. Speed and power starts with the CPU.

Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan & Radiator Premium CPU Cooler Dual NF-A15 PWM, 140mm fans of maximum 1200RPM, 67.9CFM @ 26dbA. Superb quality with massive cooling of the CPU and surrounding MB. Designed to clear the PCIe slots and 35mm standard height RAM. Clearances checked. 161mm wide x 150 deep x 165mm high (as shown) x 1320g | 6 year warranty. Amazon US $90.99

VENGEANCE® LPX 128GB (4x 32GB) DDR4 2666MHz C16 White Excellent quality maxed out and only 32mm high for clearance under the Noctua. Amazon US $569.99

AMD Radeon VII Sapphire GPU Compute Units 60 | Base & Peak Frequency 1400MHz >1800MHz | Memory 16GB HBM2 4096-bit | Bandwidth 1024 GB/s Peak Half Precision Compute 27.7 TFLOPs | Peak Single Precision Compute 13.8 TFLOPs | Peak Double Precision Compute 3.46 TFLOPs Stream Processors 3840 | Transistor Count 13.2Bn Radeon™ VR Ready Premium | FreeSync | Radeon™ Chill | Radeon™ ReLive | DirectX® 12 | AMD Eyefinity | Catalyst Software | OpenCL 2.0 \ OpenGL 4.6 | AMD PowerTune | TressFX Hair | TrueAudio Next | Unified Video Decoder | Video Code Engine | Virtual Super Resolution | Vulkan® API | AMD ZeroCore Power | Resolution 4096 x 2160 pixels | Typical Power 300W | 280 x 125 x 40mm x 454g Amazon US $529.99 Pending macOS support for the 24GB Turing Nvidia RX Titan, demanded by professional users of the new very expensive Mac Pro tower. Corsair AX1600i Digital Modular PSU The world’s best with superior voltage regulation and reduction in electronic ripple and noise, ensuring the cleanest power feed to components. Lots of spare power for expansion and inaudible fan. My iMac 17.1 is only 300W so I have to limit the external devices. 80 PLUS Titanium certified efficiency to 94+% MB Connector 24/20-pin & 8/4-pin PCIe connectors x8 | SATA connectors x16 | PATA connectors x9 10 year warranty | MTBF 100,000 hours | 140mm PWM fan noise 9dB at 50% & 27dB at 100% 200 x 150 x 86mm x 5715g. Amazon US $429.99 3x 2TB Western Digital Black SN750 M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs (System and current data) Sequential read & write speed 3.4 & 2.9GB/s | MTTF 1.75Mn hours | Low power 100mW 80 x 22 x 2.38mm x 7.5g | 5 year warranty. RAID as 1. Amazon US $1079.97 2x 4TB Western Digital Blue 3D NAND SATA 2.5" SSDs (Archive data). Amazon US $1007.98 Sequential read & write speed 0.56 & 0.53GB/s | MTTF 1.75Mn hours | Average power 60mW 100.2 x 69.85 x 7.0mm x 57.9g | 5 year warranty | Room for 2 more that I will probably need later. RAID as 1. 14TB Western Digital Gold SATA 3.5" HDD (Backup) 7200 RPM, 256MB cache | MTBF 2.5Mn hours | HDDs typically read and write at 0.10 to 0.20GB/s. Designed for 365/24/7 continuous commercial workload writing >550TB pa. RAFF™ technology corrects vibrations in real time | 36dBA average noise | 147 x 101.6 x 26mm x 666g 5 year warranty (not with OEM) | Room for 2 more! Amazon US $460.99 Much preferred and trusted manufacturer. Western Digital are also a Mac friendly company with excellent support even after warranty. Samsung are not. I am trying to resolve the spinning beachball locking up my USB3 12TB WD My Book Duo as I scroll through 8TB of 650 movie files. The WD Blue SSDs I am hoping will fix it with the kext to overwrite the 15 USB macOS limit. Pioneer BDR-212UBK in Newertech OWCMR3UKIT Mercury Pro Enclosure Advanced optical drive upscales on playback and plays and burns all discs and formats. Mounted externally in good quality aluminium enclosure. OD is bundled with Cyberlink PUPs and regional zoning. 148 x 42.3 x 180mm x 740g | 12V, 26.6W, 2.2A SATA connected to MB and PSU, not via USB and separate power: rear I/O panel removed to fit the longer OD in the enclosure. NewEgg $153.97 & OWC MacSales $49.00 Dell UltraSharp 32" 4K Monitor - UP3216Q Native Resolution 3840 x 2160 (8.3mMn pixels) Vertical & Horizontal refresh rates 24-75Hz & 30-140kHz 1.07 billion colours | 749 x 483 x 213mm depth x 11.2kg 2x Display Ports in, 1x Audio line out, 1x USB3 in, 3x USB3 out & 1x USB3 BC1.2 charging DELL $1350.00 DELL’s UP3218K is distinctly preferred but $3,900 instead of $1,400 and 8K is not supported by the CPU or GPU.

macOS 10.14.6 Mojave Final build January 2020. Much more stable than Catalina: even after its 3rd update, my iMac 17.1 (BTO maximum configuration), still fails to shut down with Time Machine external HDD connected. Most unMac-like but they’ll fix it; they have to: it can’t stay like that.

Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - British English - Silver $129

Apple Magic Mouse 2 - Silver $79.00

These images are all geometrically corrected from manufacturer’s given sizes and layered fairly accurately into position. They were very useful in thinking through the build and identifying and sometimes resolving problems.

Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme flagship MB, Intel i9 5GHz processor, 16GB GPU, 128 GB RAM, 28TB storage, 1600W PSU and 10 cooling fans, all in Corsair’s dual chamber display case, with external Blue Ray optical drive, multiple connectivity, Apple keyboard and mouse and DELL 32” 4K monitor. Total indicative price as of January 2020 $7,400 (+shipping where applicable)