Feedback on Workstation/Hackintosh

[kleptine]

I'm primarily building this for my personal work (heavy game development / various software development projects) as well as bit of light gaming (should at least be able to play common games on decent settings). I'd like the option for a Hackintosh as well.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($378.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($184.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($172.49 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($317.93 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Thermaltake 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($80.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1489.14

I've been optimizing so far for general speed for work: larger SSD for programs and common files, 3TB side disk for media data, 32gb of ram to avoid ever swapping. Ideally programs are opening an closing as fast as humanly possible (my understanding is that this is usually a disk bottleneck).

Particular questions:
- Is there a better motherboard that will work with this setup that is hackintosh compatible? This one seems to have a bit more than I need, but I'm not sure.
- Any cheaper case recommendations? Don't care what it looks like as long as it's practical and not totally unmanageable (quieter is nice though).
- Is that CPU overkill? 6 cores seems ideal, but not familiar with it's other specs.
- I know absolutely nothing about power supplies -- is that a good one?
- I'm not running heavy games, will overclocking make a noticeable day-to-day impact?

Also if you have recommendations on where I can shave down the overall cost if you think I'm not going to get a big return on my dollar, that'd be great.


Thanks very much! General comments are great too.

 

[MrGuvernment]

just look up guides for running OSX in vmware workstation or something

 

[Dangman]

To answer your questions:
1) Yes but you would basically have to ditch the X99 platform altogether as currently MacOSX isn't quite widely supported on good X99 mobos yet. Key word is "good". Right now, apparently the X99 mobo with the best track record for OSX support is the Asus X99-Deluxe but that mobo happens to have a poor track record for reliability overall.

To get Hackintosh support, you'd have to drop down to the Z97 platform and the Core i7 4790K CPU.
2) The cheapest case I'd recommend for your setup is this:
$70 - Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Case

It has free shipping unlike that Fractal Design case which lowers the overall cost.

3) Nah.

4) It's ok but not the best bang for the buck. I recommend this PSU instead:
$80 - Seasonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W Modular PSU

5) Not really.

Another change I would make is to switch that Seagate 3TB to the cheapest Toshiba 3TB drive you can find for better reliability.

 

[kleptine]

Thanks for the input -- I think I'll go ahead and stick with the x99 then.

Just curious, what's the benefit of the PSU you linked? More stable? Better quality? Actually looks like the one I had originally is on 30% off -- still worth swapping?

 

[Dangman]

Thanks for the input -- I think I'll go ahead and stick with the x99 then.

Just curious, what's the benefit of the PSU you linked? More stable? Better quality? Actually looks like the one I had originally is on 30% off -- still worth swapping?

Better quality and slightly better performance. Still worth swapping.

 

[kleptine]

Performance in terms of energy usage?

 

[Dangman]

Performance in terms of energy usage?

In terms of "cleaner" and within spec power being delivered to your PC.

 

[E4g1e]

Just curious, what's the benefit of the PSU you linked? More stable? Better quality? Actually looks like the one I had originally is on 30% off -- still worth swapping?

Like Dangman stated, better overall quality. And Thermaltake does not manufacture its own PSUs per se; rather, that Toughpower 650 Gold that you linked to is actually manufactured by CWT to Thermaltake's design specifications. CWT isn't a bad manufacturer per se; it's just that its PSUs aren't as renowned as the ones manufactured by Seasonic for quality.