CPU/Motherboard help

[PeachyFawx]

TL;DR Need help choosing a CPU & motherboard for high end gaming/photoshop & AE. im not looking to splurge huge amounts of money and i dont really care between AMD or Intel at this point.

 

ok so i am fairly noob when it comes to choosing the cpu and motherboard thing mostly because well it's all confusing at first, then you have all the comparing, the "am i getting value for my money" and so forth.

 

so im in the process of build/upgrading my current computer and the next thing on the list is motherboard and CPU seeing as the MB i have now is being a munted rock and wont output sound through the IO or the case.  for now it is ok because i am using a tv for a monitor and the HDMI for sound through the GFX card.

 

the only reason i havent asked my partner is because she is an intel fanboy and has the Intel Core i7 4960X Extreme Edition and 2 Titan Z's in it.  im just looking for something that will run the newest games flawlessly (i know GFX card also has to do with it but i know what to get there) and still be reasonably priced.

 

for the motherboard i need something that has more than 2 expansion slots for RAM(Running only on 4GB because current MB doesnt have enough slots for the ram i found) and 2 PCI-E 16 slots for 2 geforce cards

 

also just for clarification are there any specific specs i need to run hackintosh because once i get the SSD and bigger HDD i kinda wanna run a dual boot Hackintosh/Windows machine

 

Thanks for helpin

-Fawx

[Akolyte]

Hackintoshes do require very limited components.  Not in terms of power but you need very specific components for it to work, not sure if dual booting like that is possible.   But we will see.

 

I'm not really knowledgeable when it comes to hackintoshes so I'd recommend checking out Linus's Hackintosh guide. 

 

Although one thing I can tell you is you might be able to get a better value for money components if you run windows only.    I'm not sure how much money you are willing to splurge but I would imagine it would be enough for a high end rig.  

 

If your only going to run windows, I'd recommend the i7 4930k Ivy bridge E chip, or waiting for the 5820k when Haswell E comes out, if your willing to spend quite a bit on your cpu and need like 6 cores, if you want just 4 cores and 8 threads the i7 4790k I think is your best bet. If you wanna go with AMD, which I'm kinda hesitant about because they aren't as good with productivity I dont think and are getting a bit aged nowdays.  But the FX9590 or FX8350 might be your best bet there.  You could also go Intel XEON, but I'm hopeless with XEON so you have to ask someone else about that.

 

In terms of the motherboard, if your willing to spend allot on a motherboard the P9X79-E-WS will be your best bet for the 4930k and if you wait for the 5820k you'll have to wait for a new motherboard, if you want socket 2011 still and dont wanna spend a ton of money on a motherboard I like the Asus X97-Deluxe or the Asus P9X79 is a good option too.   If you wanna go with the i7 4790k the Asus Z97 WS I think by far is your best bet. 

 

If you wanna know what CPU cooler I recommend too, because if your switching to a whole new socket you will probably need a new one is the Noctua NH-D15 or the Noctua NH-U14S if your not gonna overclock.  

[PeachyFawx]

thanks for that input, it really helps.  i was going to do hackintosh for the sole purpose of edits and such but seems like a lot more work then it is worth and windows 8.1 is not that bad to deal with.  i7's are expensive (buying in australia because reasons and i dont want to wait 2 weeks for shipping so yeah) but i fell that it would be better suited with an i5 as they are good and i was looking into overclocking since when i finish the build i will be doing  custom watercooling loop.  i mostly need help looking for cheaper cpu's that go above 3ghz with high clock speeds but i also need a board that has 2 pci-e x16 slots or at least 1 x16 and 1 x8 so i can either go 2 780's or 2 780ti's