After I discovered the sub-culture of silent PC entusiasts I mentioned in Part 1, it really got me excited about the possibility of building another Hackintosh. If I could have the power of top end components, house them in a near silent environment, keep them cooled properly AND do it all on my budget, then I would have the best possible scenario.
My search started by finding out what others were doing to build silent PCs. I found a couple of GREAT resources for this: Silent PC Review and and TonyMacx86. Fortunately, not only is TonyMacX86 a great silent PC site, it is also a great Hackintosh site. As I mentioned in Part 1, InsanelyMac is also a great Hackintosh site. I came to the conclusion that there are two main ways to keep your computer quiet; use as few fans as possible, and use a sound dampening computer case. There are also other strategies employed such as using a liquid cooling system and using a power supply that is designed to be used in a silent system.
My original budget was set at $800. I came up with this number based on what I thought I could get for my iMac. I knew I wanted a Core i7 processor, and I new I needed a reasonably powerful graphics card. I don’t to a lot of gaming, but I do edit a fair amount of video and I stream a lot of video. During the course of my research, I had a check come in for a website I recently built. I decided to use this extra income to beef up my budget if necessary or to get a nicer component if I felt it was worth it. My new goal was to keep the build under $1100, including a new LED backlit LCD monitor.
Here are the components I chose. I’ll explain my choices afterward.
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 550 ($99.99)
Case Fan: Scythe SY1225SL12M (3 @ $13.99 each = $41.97)
Motherboard: Gibabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 ($109.99)
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4 GHz ($314.95)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4 GB x 4 (16 GB Total) ($67.98)
Video Card: AMD Raedeon HD 5670 with 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM ($42.99)
Hard Drive: Seagate Green SATA 3 1.5 TB ($69.99)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 620c 620 Watt ($34.99)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Gaia SD1283 ($4.99)
Web Cam: Rosewill RCM-2655V ($14.99)
DVD Drive: LG GH22NS70 ($20.99)
Network Card: Rosewill RC-401-EX ($19.99)
Bluetooth Adapter: Asus USB-BT211 ($7.99)
Keyboard: Used Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad ($39.95)
Mouse: Used Apple Magic Trackpad ($48.00)
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 24″ ($159.99)
Legal copy of OSX Lion from Mac App Store- $29.99
Total Build Cost: $1129.73
Compare this cost to a comparable iMac at $2,799 or a comparable Mac Pro at $4,474. It isn’t quite possible to get these exact specs on an iMac or Mac Pro, but the prices I’ve listed are as close as I could get without over stating the price of the genuine Apple machine. For example, it is not possible to get a 1.5 TB hard drive from Apple. So in both the case of the iMac and the Mac Pro, I quoted the lesser expensive 1 TB hard drive rather than the more expensive 2 TB hard drive.
Also in the case of the Mac Pro, I quoted the 3.33 GHz Xeon “Westmere” processor. Keep in mind that the Xeon and the i7 are brethren. They share nearly identical architecture and perform nearly identically when only one Core i7 is compared to a machine housing 1 Xeon processor. (Xeon processors are designed to run with multiple Xeon processors in the same system where Core i7 processors are not) I realize that although the Xeon and the Core i7 share similar architecture, they do not share similar price tags. Thus the iMac is a closer representation of the value of this build.
I definitely wanted a case with noise dampening. This generally means that the front air fans and the sides of the case have noise dampening foam, and the power supply mount, as well as the hard drive mounts have rubber pads to counteract vibration noise. I narrowed my choices down to the Antec P183, NZXT H2 and the Cooler Master Silencio 550. The Silencio 550 does not seem to have quite the air flow as the other two cases, but it has an SD card slot at the top of the case. I use the SD card slot a LOT so this was an important feature for me. I think that my choice to upgrade the fans and add a CPU cooler will offset the less than optimal air flow. I hope this strategy pays off.
I chose the AMD Radeon HD 5670 because Apple added these drivers in 10.6.7 which means it will work natively within OS X. Ideally I would have purchased a video card that did not have an on board fan so that the machine operates as quietly as possible. However, since the Silencio 550 has less than stellar air flow, I thought I’d go ahead and get a GPU with a fan. Several reviews on this card stated that the fan was very quiet.
Gigabyte motherboards have an excellent reputation for being Hackintosh compatible. It’s hard to go wrong with a Gigabyte board, but I still made sure I purchased one that had been used successfully by several people on InsanelyMac.com and TonyMacx86.com. I also learned from TonyMacx86.com that LG and Sony optical drives have a good reputation for working natively on Hackintosh builds. Therefore, I picked one that others had used with success.
I wanted my Hackintosh to have all the features of my iMac. This meant that I needed to add a webcam and bluetooth to my build. Both of the ones I selected have been used with success from other Hacintosh builders. I had a really difficult time finding a hard drive at a price I was comfortable with. I finally found a deal at Newegg that brought me a SATA 3 drive that has a quiet design. The trade off is in the drive RPM speed. It’s a 5400 RPM drive instead of a 7200 RPM drive. But the slower speed gives me quieter performance. I hope that the SATA 3 speed will help make up for the RPM speed loss.
I REALLY like the quality of the screen in my iMac. I did NOT want to sacrifice this quality. I currently have the late 2009 21.5″ iMac. Apple states that this display has a rating of 320 cd/m2 and a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. The monitor I purchased has a rating of 300 cd/m2 and a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. I really hope I’m as impressed with it as I am the iMac. Since it is the same amount of pixels spread across a somewhat larger screen (21.5″ vs 24″) I suspect it won’t be quite as crisp. However, the screen will be bigger, so I think I’ll like the slight trade off.
I worked really hard to find compatible parts at a good or great price. I really doubt I could have built this computer at these specs for this price had I not done my research and been prepared to purchase when Black Friday came. I was able to spot good deals when I saw them and act quickly before the item sold out. I was able to score Black Friday deals on the RAM, GPU, Power Supply, Hard Drive, Monitor and CPU Cooler. Because I had done such a good job (at least in my mind) of finding great deals, I went ahead and splurged on the genuine Apple keyboard and Magic Trackpad-but I did save a few bucks by getting them used.
One final note. I went ahead and purchased a separate network card even though the motherboard comes equipped with Gigabit LAN. I did this because I had network connections with my last Hackintosh build. If the ethernet port on the motherboard works like it should, then I will return the extra network card to Newegg.
All of the parts should arrive over the next 4 days. Once they all arrive I’ll do some unboxing videos and document the build experience. I will also run benchmark tests to compare my current iMac to the new Hackintosh build.
[...] I must have found what I needed, right? I’ll cover my research and the components I chose in Part 2. Categories : [...]
Looks like It’s going to be awesome! If only Lion would run on a Hackintosh!
t_gruber, Lion can run on a Hackintosh and I have every intention of running Lion on this Hackintosh.
Darrell-
Have you thought about using the onboard video (HD3000)? I’m using that on my Hackintosh and it works great…5670 is a bit more powerful but if you aren’t going to play graphically intense games the HD3000 does fine and is one less component to power and less heat to deal with…
Looks great though and I love the Fringe podcast!
Thanks pdawg17! Honestly, I did not consider the on board GPU because I’ve never been satisfied with on board graphics chips. While the HD3000 will out perform my curent 9400m in my iMac, the 5670 will be even better still. I realize it will create more heat, but I really like having a dedicated GPU.
I hear you…just wanted to make sure you know it works great in Lion! Have fun with the project!
[...] As I mentioned before, the Silencio 550 computer case that I chose has a reputation for having restricted airflow so as I put all the components together, it was really important for me to take my time and route all the cables so that they did not restrict airflow and open up the case is much as possible. As you can see by the pictures I’ve attached, I think I did a pretty good job of keeping everything clean and neat inside the case and allow plenty of space for clean air flow. I also removed one of the hard drive racks to open up space inside the case even more and allow for complete unrestricted air flow. You may also remember that I chose to replace the stock fans of the computer case with some higher RPM fans and that I think was a good decision. The fans I purchased are a little bit noisier, but the computer is operating at very cool temperatures and it is still within the noise specifications that I needed for my studio. The motherboard came equipped with all of the documentation that I needed to know where to attach the components, and the zip ties that came included with the computer case allowed me to manage all of the cables and keep them out of the way of air flow. It did take me a little bit longer to assemble the entire computer than I originally thought that it would. This was in part due to the CPU cooler assembly. It is made to work with either Intel or AMD processors so I had to go through the instruction manual carefully to make sure that I used only the pieces that I needed for my processor and that it was assembled correctly.The end result is a very clean computer interior that has great airflow and delivers excellent performance. [...]