Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Well Guys, I'm a PC now!

Well Guys, I'm a PC now!
Thread Tools
Big Mac
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 07:50 PM
 
My, how things do change. Now my main computer is a Core i7 930 system that my brother and I just built with an ATI 5850 GPU. I'm now a Windows 7 user primarily! Apple switches to Intel, and I switch to a self-built Windows PC (although hopefully not fully). If I were to go back ten years and tell this news to myself, my old self would probably not speak to me out of disgust. . .

This saga started when my G5's 9800XT failed. As some of you know, I bought a flashed PC Nvidia 6800 card off eBay to replace it, but I needed to pick up a molex splitter from Fry's (what do computer people do if they don't live near one?). My brother and I went there on Thursday just to pick up the molex splitter, and my intention was to pick up only the splitter. We went to the PC parts/components section where they have them, and then we started looking at PC cases. My brother said to me, "what you thought I came with you just to get a splitter cable? It's time to build a computer. And he started talking me into it. I had had the ambition to build a PC for a while, but I had assumed I would pick up components here and there in a piecemeal fashion over a few months. Nope, my brother succeeded in talking me into it, and with the assistance of a knowledgeable Fry's employee before I knew it I had $1,600 (on the dot) in parts in my cart and was in the checkout isle. I asked how I got myself to this point. I had never built a system before Were we ready for this?

Inspired forward by the way I damaged my G5's install of Leopard by trying to force a higher resolution than my new single-link 6800 supported (and then seeing it fail an Archive and Install), we dove into building our system. Some of it went smoothly, some of it not quite as smoothly, but we did well given our lack of experience. For those who are wondering if they're up to building a PC, if you know how to install RAM, hard drives, expansion cards and the like, then you're probably capable of it. Here are some general observations I have about the process now that I'm through it:

1. Buy a quality case with good stock fans and room for expansion. We got a Coolermaster Storm Sniper. By the way, in addition to those attributes, they're now labeling the case wiring well so that it's easy to figure out what goes where. That's important too, and not all PC cases have it.

2. The biggest thing to know about getting the components in is, if anything seems like it could physically block the component you're attempting to install, stop and move it out of the way. For example you need to make sure your I/O panel is securely locked into place before you insert the motherboard, which goes in with a nice click assuming the I/O panel is completely inserted. I struggled with that for a bit. The other problem we had in this regard was when we were trying to install the 5850 GPU - it's a huge double sized card, which means you have to properly line it up between the rail of two expansion slot spaces, and until we moved the little expansion slot case hooks out of the way we couldn't align it properly. It was frustrating because it's a big sucker of a card (very fast and reasonably priced, btw) and when something like that doesn't line up properly it becomes a headache. That was probably the most difficult part of the install and took maybe an hour to figure out.

3. We actually had the benefit of having access to a great tutorial from a British chap on youtube who had the same case, the same motherboard, the same CPU, nearly everything that we had. But we didn't find that video until we were will into the process, which is okay. If you're starting out on the process, it may make sense to watch those videos first. Or not.

4. Wiring the motherboard is really easy although it seems daunting at first. I'm impressed with myself that I know now how to read technical pin-out charts. Remember, the arrow on the underside of the small wires indicates positive. (Interestingly, when doing the final wiring I noted that the connection for a front-side audio jack was wired differently by the case manufacturer than what the Gigabyte board expected. The motherboard manual cautioned that if the wiring is different than indicated it could cause damage, so I'm glad I read that and figured out not to connect front-side audio jack. In case you're concerned, though, that was the only connection I saw that said improper pin-outs could cause damage. The other connection advisories only warned against obvious things like not connecting USB to a Firewire port and vice versa.)

5. So, we got things connected and thought we were good to go. We plug in, the fans and case light turn on, but we got nothing on the display. At this point, after many hard hours of work we were really very down and defeated. We feared the worst; we thought we were going to have to sheepishly return with it all assembled to Fry's and beg their service masters to verify the way we built our system. We were ready to give in for a while and reluctantly take it in some time Saturday evening.

But then, thankfully, I believe providence guided me to a particular search result, a thread on a forum discussing why new computers may fail to POST. The first reply to the initial question was "did you make sure that you got both the main power to the motherboard and the second 4x2 power connector?" And instantly I knew that that was the problem because I knew we had only connected the huge 24 pin power connector. We had skimmed the manual for the motherboard while installing it but missed that there is a secondary power connector. I didn't think the motherboard would need anything other than that first huge PSU connection. I told my brother about it, we raced back to open the case, made the missing connection and held our breath for a few seconds before seeing the glorious Gigabyte startup screen. Success! Elation! So, for $1,600 with sales tax I've got a system that should beat the entry level Mac Pro (at $2,500 before sales tax) CPU wise, with a much better GPU and twice as much RAM.

The only downside is that I don't have Mac OS X, at least not yet. I bought the components, with the exception of the GPU, with an eye toward Hackintosh compatibility. But now I'm not sure if I'm going to ever attempt to go full Hackintosh. I think the only things that makes me doubt I'll do it are fan control and GPU support. Right now I have motherboard/software based fan control (the BIOS based control was too lenient, but I'm reasonably happy now with Gigabyte's EasyTune 6 despite wishing it had a few more fan control options). I've heard that without some really advanced DSDT hacking that I think is beyond me, hackintosh OS X can't read temperatures. And I doubt there is software available that would be able to control the fans. I could always unhook the fan wire from the motherboard (I think) and run them manually with the big fan dial on the top of the case if I really want to (the case was designed for that and others use it that way), but I like motherboard control. Perhaps an OS X installation could surprise me and manage the fans well. I'll probably try it some time in the future. I almost forgot about not having GPU support. I wonder if the next Mac Pro revision will provide support for ATI's newest cards.

But for now my fall back position is to run OS X in virtualization, and that's the process I'm embarking on right now. It makes sense, too - I want OS X because I prefer it for my productivity workflow. I don't need to boot into it to do most all of what I'd want to do; it's not like I need to play games in it. So hopefully I'll be able to get it up and running properly in Virtual Box and then I'll have pretty much the best of both worlds. Although, I'm concerned that once I get OS X up and running in Virtual Box it will be very limited in terms of screen resolution, which won't be helpful.

Hopefully this guide will help someone considering a similar build. My brother and I feel really far more accomplished technically than we did before. I didn't think we could do it, but the salesman at Fry's said it was easy and despite some hurdles it proved to be. And some of the prices at Fry's were considerably better than at newegg, to boot.

Specs:
Coolermaster Storm Sniper case
Corsair CMPSU-750TX PSU
Gigabyte EX58A-UD3R motherboard
Intel Core i7 930 CPU (2.8GHz Quad Core with Hyperthreading)
Kingston Hyper X DDR3/1600Mhz PC3 10700G (tri-channel 6GB kit) RAM
Diamond ATI 5850 GPU
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB and Liteon DVD+RW SATA drives
Plus a three year replacement guarantee on the CPU and motherboard from Fry's
----
$1600.00
( Last edited by Big Mac; May 3, 2010 at 12:57 AM. )

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
imitchellg5
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 08:01 PM
 
Great writeup! Hopefully one of these days I'll get around to building my own PC. My issue is that I'm afraid I'll drop in all this money but that it'll work terribly.
     
Big Mac  (op)
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 08:16 PM
 
Thank you, mitchell. Glad you liked it. I was worried someone would post that I should get a blog. I was concerned about that too (dropping money into something only to see it not work), but the salesman at Fry's assured us by saying his 8 year-old builds PCs with him and that it must certainly within our abilities if his son can do it. I recommend you do it, if only to be proud of the accomplishment. I love my Macs, but this PC is very special to me because my brother and I assembled it with our own hands. He also figured out how to do the motherboard standoffs properly (you just make sure you screw one in for each silver marked hole on the board), which is very important. One thing I will note is that it's certainly easier if you have someone help you build it because two minds are better than one and different people are good at different tasks. For my part, I excelled at figuring out the wiring, while my brother is better than I am at screwing in components and inserting small cables. Also, it's pretty hard to damage the components. Don't worry too much about scratching them or handling them improperly aside from not forcing anything and not touching the connectors.
( Last edited by Big Mac; May 2, 2010 at 09:43 PM. )

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
mduell
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 08:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
with the assistance of a knowledgeable Frys employee
Oh dear.
     
ghporter
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 08:52 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
with the assistance of a knowledgeable Frys employee
Oh dear.
I think Fry's limits each store to three knowledgeable employees (department is not considered). In the Austin store, I had the pleasure to run into one of such employees who was very helpful with a speaker issue (and no, he didn't recommend "all Bose, all the time.) In the Houston store on 59, I ran into someone who actually knew quite a few things about both PCs and (gasp!) networking-he was able to demonstrate to me how an AirPort Extreme would be a better buy than the TrendNet wireless router (with GigE) that my brother-in-law was considering.

But you're right-it's a LOT harder to find one that knows the technology than to find one who knows where to find where the current sales circular is posted.

BigMac, you managed to get decent parts that work well together (this last is the toughest part of building a PC IMO). I like all of the brands you used and have had a lot of success with them all. Now all you need to do is to keep up with keeping all the drivers current. It's not that hard, but it ain't as easy as a Mac.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
dcmacdaddy
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Madison, WI
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 09:00 PM
 
Good job on the home-brew PC and a great write-up of your process.
One should never stop striving for clarity of thought and precision of expression.
I would prefer my humanity sullied with the tarnish of science rather than the gloss of religion.
     
downinflames68
Baninated
Join Date: Jun 2009
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 09:03 PM
 
I am going to eat corn on the cob tonight. It will be awesome.
     
The Godfather
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Tampa, Florida
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 09:08 PM
 
And I'm an iPad 3G. The mbp was not a good enough value proposition to me.
Just in time when VirtualBox is able to virtualize OSX in PCs.
Let me know how it works
VirtualBox 3.2.0 Beta 1 released (View topic) • virtualbox.org
Perhaps I can VNC or RDP to a cloud Mac from the road.

P.S. You forgot to specify amount of RAM and CPU speed.
P.P.S. You need to change your signature picture.
( Last edited by The Godfather; May 2, 2010 at 09:20 PM. )
     
iMOTOR
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: San Diego
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 09:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Oh dear.




Did you go to the Burbank store?

I got an Intel Pentium D 820 processor/motherboard for 100 bucks a few years ago through the retail edge program. I’m on my third expensive video card, each one going borked about a month out of warranty.

They are extremely easy to assemble though, a caveman could do it. I still prefer my Mac a hundred times more though.
( Last edited by iMOTOR; May 2, 2010 at 10:55 PM. )
     
Eug
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Caught in a web of deceit.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 09:30 PM
 
It sux if it doesn't run PowerPC.
     
Big Mac  (op)
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 09:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Oh dear.
Haha, yeah most of them are clueless, but in the PC parts department you may run into an employee who has built PCs before and knows something about the process.

Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
BigMac, you managed to get decent parts that work well together (this last is the toughest part of building a PC IMO). I like all of the brands you used and have had a lot of success with them all. Now all you need to do is to keep up with keeping all the drivers current. It's not that hard, but it ain't as easy as a Mac.
Thank you Glenn. Now the next big hurdle is trying to virtualize OS X properly.

Originally Posted by The Godfather View Post
And I'm an iPad 3G. The mbp was not a good enough value proposition to me.
Just in time when VirtualBox is able to virtualize OSX in PCs.
Let me know how it works
VirtualBox 3.2.0 Beta 1 released (View topic) • virtualbox.org
Perhaps I can VNC or RDP to a cloud Mac from the road.

P.S. You forgot to specify amount of RAM and CPU speed.
P.P.S. You need to change your signature picture.
Thank you for the link, father. Yay for experimental OS X support. Oh, 6GBs of RAM and the i7 930 with a stock clock speed of 2.8GHz.

Originally Posted by iMOTOR View Post
^

Did you go to the Burbank store?

They are extremely easy to assemble though, a caveman could do it. I still prefer my Mac a hundred times more though.
Nope, I go to the City of Industry store. I have been to the Burbank store but it's been many years for some reason. I don't know about a caveman doing it, but you're right it doesn't take all that much brain power. It's a learning experience, and it's made me not only confident to work on computer internals but also to learn more about automobile internals because now I have proven to myself that I have some technical ability.

Originally Posted by Eug View Post
It sux if it doesn't run PowerPC.
True, I'd prefer to purchase a new PPC desktop instead, but if it's an x86 world I may as well build my own.

Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy View Post
Good job on the home-brew PC and a great write-up of your process.
Thank you very much, dcmd. I really appreciate it.

I know this thread is hilarous, but thank you guys for not giving me too hard a time over my change of thought.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
imitchellg5
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 10:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
Thank you, mitchell. Glad you liked it. I was worried someone would post that I should get a blog. I was concerned about that too (dropping money into something only to see it not work), but the salesman at Fry's assured us by saying his 8 year-old builds PCs with him and that it must certainly within our abilities if his son can do it. I recommend you do it, if only to be proud of the accomplishment. I love my Macs, but this PC is very special to me because my brother and I assembled it with our own hands. He also figured out how to do the motherboard standoffs properly (you just make sure you screw one in for each silver marked hole on the board), which is very important. One thing I will note is that it's certainly easier if you have someone help you build it because two minds are better than one and different people are good at different tasks. For my part, I excelled at figuring out the wiring, while my brother is better than I am at screwing in components and inserting small cables. Also, it's pretty hard to damage the components. Don't worry too much about scratching them or handling them improperly aside from not forcing anything and not touching the connectors.
Thanks for the encouragement! Now I'm thinking of making this a summer project with my dad. He's good with wiring and whatnot. I've always been pretty hands-on with my Power Mac G4s (pretty much rebuilt my Digital Audio G4). I'd also like to have a standalone PC around. I hate running Windows 7 on my MBP... it just makes me feel dirty
     
Eug
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Caught in a web of deceit.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:00 PM
 
Great for tinkering, but in the end it's a PITA if this is going to be your main work machine. I guess it comes down to cost and interest in tinkering.

When I was a student my main machines were often home-brew PCs. However, lately I can't be bothered. For my main machine, I just buy a new Mac with an extended warranty. I sell the Macs when the warranty is up (or before).

That said, I'm typing this on a 1.7 GHz Cube with flashed GeForce 6200.
     
Lateralus
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Arizona
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:12 PM
 
Well, the Cube is eternal...
I like chicken
I like liver
Meow Mix, Meow Mix
Please de-liv-er
     
ezveedub
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: May 2010
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:18 PM
 
The CM storm sniper case is similar to my CM HAF 932 case. These cases have very good airflow and the internals never seem to get hot in these cases. I would suggest getting another HD and setting up a RAID 0 with the ICH10R chipset. Two VelociRaptors 10k HDDs would make for a very fast RAID 0 setup on your computer. I'll be building a I7 9xx series computer soon. My I7 8xx computer I built a few months ago has been flawless.
     
Big Mac  (op)
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:18 PM
 
Originally Posted by Eug View Post
Great for tinkering, but in the end it's a PITA if this is going to be your main work machine. I guess it comes down to cost and interest in tinkering.

When I was a student my main machines were often home-brew PCs. However, lately I can't be bothered. For my main machine, I just buy a new Mac with an extended warranty. I sell the Macs when the warranty is up (or before).

That said, I'm typing this on a 1.7 GHz Cube with flashed GeForce 6200.
I can understand that point of view. If money were no object I'd get a top of the line Mac Pro, but I'm not exactly that well off (yet). For now I have a much more powerful system for the money than I could get from Apple plus the satisfaction of having built it myself, minus built-in OS X support. (Again Apple lost out on a sale because of a lack of an xMac option.) As for the tinkering, that's basically over aside from trying to get an OS X virtual machine going (and perhaps a full Hacintosh in the future).

I ran into my first critical bug (but it has nothing to do with how we built it). There's a problem with ATI drivers for this class of card in which they lag behind the rest of the computer coming out of sleep. It's been reported by others. The initial times that I used sleep mode I had to wait 10 or so seconds extra for the display to come back, and when it would I'd get a normal Windows error that the display driver was not responding but had recovered. Just a few minutes ago I tried to come out of sleep, but this time I got a screen of death confirming that the driver didn't come back online. I hope ATI gets a fix out for this problem soon because I like having sleep as an option.
( Last edited by Big Mac; May 2, 2010 at 11:31 PM. )

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
ezveedub
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: May 2010
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
I ran into my first critical bug (but it has nothing to do with how we built it). There's a problem with ATI drivers for this class of card in which they lag behind the rest of the computer coming out of sleep. It's been reported by others. The initial times that I used sleep mode I had to wait 10 or so seconds extra for the display to come back, and when it would I'd get a normal Windows error that the display driver was not responding but had recovered. Just a few minutes ago I tried to come out of sleep, but this time I got a screen of death confirming that the driver didn't come back online. I hope ATI gets a fix out for this problem soon because I like having sleep as an option.
Which drivers are you using, the OEM cd drivers, or latest from ATI?
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:34 PM
 
What made you decide to go with a quad core i7 930 that's $100 more expensive than a six core Phenom II x6?
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
Eug
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Caught in a web of deceit.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:35 PM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
As for the tinkering, that's basically over
Trust me, with a home brew, the tinkering ain't over.

aside from trying to get an OS X virtual machine going (and perhaps a full Hacintosh in the future).

I ran into my first critical bug (but it has nothing to do with how we built it). There's a problem with ATI drivers for this class of card in which they lag behind the rest of the computer coming out of sleep. It's been reported by others. The initial times that I used sleep mode I had to wait 10 or so seconds extra for the display to come back, and when it would I'd get a normal Windows error that the display driver was not responding but had recovered. Just a few minutes ago I tried to come out of sleep, but this time I got a screen of death confirming that the driver didn't come back online. I hope ATI gets a fix out for this problem soon because I like having sleep as an option.
Case in (two) point(s).

That said, sometimes it's worth it, to save hundreds of bux.
     
Cold Warrior
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:38 PM
 
I assume you bought Win 7 x64?
     
macaddict0001
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Edmonton, AB
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by olePigeon View Post
What made you decide to go with a quad core i7 930 that's $100 more expensive than a six core Phenom II x6?
The i7 says "Intel Inside"?
In all actuality Big Mac said Hackintosh compatibility was/is important.
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:50 PM
 
Big Mac: you won't be able to virtualize OS X in Virtualbox. The Virtualbox OS X support requires Mac hardware: Slashdot Apple Story | VirtualBox Beta Supports OS X As Guest OS On Macs
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:52 PM
 
Big Mac: just out of curiosity, what do you use your computer for Big Mac that sort of inspired getting such beefy hardware and abandoning OS X?
     
Big Mac  (op)
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 2, 2010, 11:58 PM
 
Originally Posted by olePigeon View Post
What made you decide to go with a quad core i7 930 that's $100 more expensive than a six core Phenom II x6?
I don't really follow AMD processors. Intel definitely has maintained the price to performance lead these last few generations. Also, I like the characteristics of the i7 930 and wanted Intel for potential OS X compatibility. I'm looking at the benchmarks right now and I'm pretty happy with my choice.

Originally Posted by Eug View Post
Trust me, with a home brew, the tinkering ain't over.
My temperatures are good, my performance is great, everything's running very nicely. I may install an overclock heat sink in the future but for right now I can't see adding much more than drives.

Case in (two) point(s).

That said, sometimes it's worth it, to save hundreds of bux.
Haha, well it doesn't bother me that much. It isn't rare for computers to exhibit wake-from-sleep problems, both Macs and PCs. I had to deal with my G5 not waking properly without pulling and reinserting the keyboard for a long time in Leopard until a particular point update fixed it. At least here I know where the problem is specifically located and who to complain to.

Originally Posted by ezveedub View Post
Which drivers are you using, the OEM cd drivers, or latest from ATI?
Latest from ATI. The OEM CD wouldn't even install.

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior View Post
I assume you bought Win 7 x64?
I had it from before for Boot Camp. I'll probably buy another copy for the license, but I've got months until I have to do that. Wish we hadn't waited to buy and missed out on the family pack, though.

Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Big Mac: you won't be able to virtualize OS X in Virtualbox. The Virtualbox OS X support requires Mac hardware: Slashdot Apple Story | VirtualBox Beta Supports OS X As Guest OS On Macs
Perhaps that's what they're saying officially (maybe to appease Apple), but I downloaded the Windows beta and Mac OS X is listed as an option. I think what the submitter of that story was confused by was that it requires Mac-like hardware. VirtualBox may officially say it only supports this on genuine Mac hardware, but the beta tells a different story. I was however reading the release notes someone posted and it claims that OS X uses 100% of the processor its assigned to. Feedback says performance is slow. I think I'll try it and wait for things to continue improving; it's a positive sign that experimental support is in. I'm also looking at VMware, btw.

Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Big Mac: just out of curiosity, what do you use your computer for Big Mac that sort of inspired getting such beefy hardware and abandoning OS X?
That's a pretty good question. Firstly, I've been interested in seeing if I could build a system for a while. It's a personal accomplishment if nothing else. Secondly, it's nice to have a beefy Windows PC for gaming, which I've never had before. Thirdly, I'm not abandoning OS X completely. I'm going to set my G5 up at our mother's house (she's been using our G4 mini until now), so I'll still be using it a good amount. I still have a MBP. Also, I do hope to get a decent OS X virtualized setup going soon and perhaps fully boot into OS X in the future.
( Last edited by Big Mac; May 3, 2010 at 01:02 AM. )

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
RAILhead
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:03 AM
 
I summarized the post to one sentence, and this was it:

"The other problem we had in this regard was when we were trying to install the 5850 GPU - it's a huge double sized card, which means you have to properly line it up between the rail of two expansion slot spaces, and until we moved the little expansion slot case hooks out of the way we couldn't align it properly."

Heh.
"Everything's so clear to me now: I'm the keeper of the cheese and you're the lemon merchant. Get it? And he knows it.
That's why he's gonna kill us. So we got to beat it. Yeah. Before he let's loose the marmosets on us."
my bandmy web sitemy guitar effectsmy photosfacebookbrightpoint
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:04 AM
 
Just FYI if you had gone through my company, one of the proposals you may have gotten:

$138.66 - Coolermaster Storm Sniper
$99.99 PSU - Corsair CMPSU-750TX PSU
$130.53 Mobo - MSI 890GXM Motherboard
$199.99 CPU - AMD Phenom II X6 3.3GHz
$142.72 RAM - OCZ Platinum 6GB Triple Channel DDR3
$279.98 Video - 2x Saphire 1GB 5750 Radeon in Crossfire ($139.99 each)
($309.99 Video - Single Saphire 5850)
$24.99 DVD - Lite On DVD RW

Subtotal - $1016.86

Tax - $0
Shipping - $65
Service fee - $150

Total - $1231.86; built, installed, tested, and shipped to your address.
$1261.86 with Radeon 5850.

$99 for Windows 7.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
Lateralus
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Arizona
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:10 AM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
Intel definitely has maintained the price to performance lead these last few generations.
How so? It's especially untrue, as olePigeon pointed out, in the case of the Phenom II X6.
I like chicken
I like liver
Meow Mix, Meow Mix
Please de-liv-er
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:20 AM
 
Originally Posted by Lateralus View Post
How so? It's especially untrue, as olePigeon pointed out, in the case of the Phenom II X6.
Intel hands down has the fastest CPUs on the market, but you pay high price for it. You're right, though, AMD has traditionally been a better value than Intel, especially ever since the Athlon debuted.

He still has a good system, and he saved a good chunk of change by doing it himself instead of going through a typical store. It's also a great learning experience and just so much more satisfying building the system yourself.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
ezveedub
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: May 2010
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:24 AM
 
You pay less for AMD, but you also get lesser performance. I've owned AMD PCs and they do not stack up to my Intels.
( Last edited by ezveedub; May 3, 2010 at 12:28 AM. Reason: typo)
     
Simon
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: in front of my Mac
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 08:10 AM
 
Congrats on your new computer, Big Mac. Nice write-up too.

I'm glad you chose to try this out. I can only hope more people go this route instead of wasting $2500 on a low-end MP. It's about time Apple gets a message from its pro community about the ludicrous price-performance ratio on the low-end MP.
     
starman
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Union County, NJ
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 08:24 AM
 
So, for $1,600 with sales tax I've got a system that should beat the entry level Mac Pro (at $2,500 before sales tax) CPU wise, with a much better GPU and twice as much RAM.
...and more viruses, worse apps, and bit rot. Enjoy your PC.

Not to sound like a Mac fanboy, but after using PCs since 1985, and an owner of Windows 7 (what a friggin' joke of an OS), I still don't see the appeal of a PC.

Home - Twitter - Sig Wall-Retired - Flickr
     
ezveedub
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: May 2010
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 08:42 AM
 
Originally Posted by Simon View Post
Congrats on your new computer, Big Mac. Nice write-up too.

I'm glad you chose to try this out. I can only hope more people go this route instead of wasting $2500 on a low-end MP. It's about time Apple gets a message from its pro community about the ludicrous price-performance ratio on the low-end MP.
I agree, I was looking at building one of these as a high end unit.
Newegg.com - SUPERMICRO SYS-7046A-3 4U Rackmountable / Tower Barebone Server Intel 5520 Dual LGA 1366 Dual Intel Xeon
     
seanc
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cambridge, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 09:14 AM
 
Congrats on buying a decent set of components! I would have cried if you'd bought a '500w' Rosewill power supply and an ECS motherboard.

Just an FYI the Intel CPU and Gigabyte mobo come with a 3 year warranty from their respective manufacturers anyway - looks like Frys is offering to take some of the pain of shipping out of the equation if you have a problem.

I'd advise buying a second 1TB hard drive (preferably a different manufacturer, in case a firmware bug is discovered) and using it for backups.

As for driver updates, I don't bother unless I have a problem or there's something interesting in the changelog to make me want to upgrade. Windows Update in Windows 7 is quite nice too.

Try and run some sort of anti-virus software, ESET NOD32 is quite a nice one. Don't run Norton or McAfee.
Don't use Internet Explorer (the 8 second adverts are BS), always make sure Flash and Java are always to date - unless you like Scareware on your machine.
     
Laminar
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 10:00 AM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
Thank you, mitchell. Glad you liked it. I was worried someone would post that I should get a blog.
....

Originally Posted by downinflames68 View Post
I am going to eat corn on the cob tonight. It will be awesome.
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 11:36 AM
 
Originally Posted by starman View Post
Not to sound like a Mac fanboy, but after using PCs since 1985, and an owner of Windows 7 (what a friggin' joke of an OS), I still don't see the appeal of a PC.
Games.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 11:42 AM
 
A PC is also a much cheaper way to run a Linux or BSD OS, which each have their purposes.
     
starman
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Union County, NJ
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by olePigeon View Post
Games.
Parallels/VMWare/Dual Boot.

Home - Twitter - Sig Wall-Retired - Flickr
     
seanc
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cambridge, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:05 PM
 
Yeah, you could dual boot your Mac, but you're stuck with whatever GPU you have, unless you buy a MacPro - then your options are limited anyway if you want to stick to the Apple approved list.
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:09 PM
 
Not to mention you take over that machine. There are many reasons for not wanting to consolidate every computing task onto a single machine.

WINE is a much better option for games anyway
     
starman
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Union County, NJ
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:11 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
Yeah, you could dual boot your Mac, but you're stuck with whatever GPU you have, unless you buy a MacPro - then your options are limited anyway if you want to stick to the Apple approved list.
Or....buy the Mac version of the game if it exists.

Sorry, I just didn't see a compelling reason for getting this PC other than "my brother made me do it".

Home - Twitter - Sig Wall-Retired - Flickr
     
seanc
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cambridge, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:12 PM
 
I never had much luck with WINE, for any application really - but maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

The all eggs in one basket scenario just doesn't cut it for me, I'd rather be slightly inconvenienced losing one machine, than losing my only machine.

Edit: Starman, there isn't much compelling reason apart from price and added flexibility.
Looking forward for Steam for Mac, shame my MacBook Pro probably won't be here for me to test it.
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:15 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
I never had much luck with WINE, for any application really - but maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

The all eggs in one basket scenario just doesn't cut it for me, I'd rather be slightly inconvenienced losing one machine, than losing my only machine.
I haven't found a game I can't run in WINE. I run Starcraft 2, Civ 4, Project 64, and Dolphin all in WINE which all run wonderfully. I used to also run Firefox in WINE while the Linux Flash version was in limbo (it still kind of is, the 64 bit version doesn't work going full screen in Hulu, for instance).

If you want to run WINE run the development version 1.1.43, and use the latest version of X11 available from Apple's open source software website Macosforge.
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:29 PM
 
Other reasons to buy a PC:

- a NAS or offsite backup box that can run ZFS if you install Solaris/OpenSolaris/FreeBSD
- a MythTV/Freevo/whatever media center
- a development box
- a better VM host and/or VM host that won't tie up your computer (I say better, because the best performing VM host on the Mac and the one with the richest feature set is actually Virtualbox which probably runs best under Linux)
     
Simon
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: in front of my Mac
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 12:34 PM
 
And of course my favorite reasons:

- you want an expandable desktop but you can't be suckered into paying Apple $2500 for last year's architecture along with a ludicrously limited choice of GPUs
- you'd like to put state-of-the-art components into an expandable case so you have an upgrade path

It's up to Apple to make the MP more attractive. With the last update they definitely dropped the ball. It's absolutely no surprise to me that right now people are buying PC hardware and building hackintoshes like never before. Apple's call. If they tell desktop users to go **** themsleves, desktop users will spend their money elsewhere. Rightly so.
     
starman
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Union County, NJ
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 01:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
I never had much luck with WINE, for any application really - but maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

The all eggs in one basket scenario just doesn't cut it for me, I'd rather be slightly inconvenienced losing one machine, than losing my only machine.

Edit: Starman, there isn't much compelling reason apart from price and added flexibility.
Looking forward for Steam for Mac, shame my MacBook Pro probably won't be here for me to test it.
Is "added flexibility" the ability to put in a video card? This isn't 1994.

People can argue for themselves if a Mac or PC is better for them. That's fine.

What I don't get is the "my brother convinced me with no other viable reason" argument.

I could talk about Soundflower, Final Cut Pro, GarageBand, and all the other awesome things I do with my Mac, and that'll be good for me, but at least I have better reasons for my decision than what BigMac listed.

Home - Twitter - Sig Wall-Retired - Flickr
     
seanc
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cambridge, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 01:10 PM
 
'added flexibility' is having parts that are standard, not proprietary and expensive to replace.
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 01:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by starman View Post
Is "added flexibility" the ability to put in a video card? This isn't 1994.
To some people, it could be.

I don't need the latest and greatest hardware so this is not a big issue to me, and I know some people that like to have the latest and greatest hardware just because with no discernible reason in terms of software driving this, but if you do have a legitimate reason to upgrade you have to keep in mind that some desktop iMacs include shared video (I'm not sure if you can supplement this with any old video card?!), and there is also your CPU. For some people storage is something they wish to upgrade too, not just direct attach, but eSATA. Some people may also want to salvage their case and go for an all new motherboard...

In the case of building a 1U server this also includes random SATA drives.
     
seanc
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cambridge, UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 01:17 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
...Some people may also want to salvage their case and go for an all new motherboard....
Which is exactly what I just did.

Replaced my Gigabyte for an ASUS (I don't usually like ASUS) because it has SLI, it was free and I repaired it myself.
     
DrTacoMD
Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Seattle
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 01:17 PM
 
I went on a date with a PC user this weekend. Does that count?
Trust me. I'm a Taco.
     
starman
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Union County, NJ
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2010, 01:18 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
'added flexibility' is having parts that are standard, not proprietary and expensive to replace.
HAHAH. Again, this isn't 1994.

What does "expensive to replace" mean?

Let me guess, you're talking about the mobo, or the video card? Look, the only thing I *ever* upgraded in *any* PC I ever owned was the video card. You can get video cards for the Mac. Other than that, your points are pretty moot. What other parts are there? If you're going to build a gaming rig, you'd get a PC anyway, so the point is moot again.

Other parts to replace:
CD/DVD drive?
Hard drive?
Keyboard?
Mouse?
Sound card (unnecessary)?
RAM?

I mean really, what do you need to replace in a Mac? I've had my Mac Pro since 2006 and other than the RAM I haven't had to do a single thing with it.

If you're going to upgrade a PC, you have to buy a whole new Mobo/processor anyway, which sometimes warrants reinstalling the OS. However, I can still encode HD pretty damn fast on my Mac Pro from 2006. Would a more modern Mac be faster? Of course, but there's a reason why Macs have high resellability - they don't *require* upgrades.

Home - Twitter - Sig Wall-Retired - Flickr
     
 
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:33 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,