$1,000 Photoshop and General Use Hackintosh

[PotatOS - Andrew]

Hello LTT,

 

     So my mom uses this absolutely terrible old Mac Pro to do her professional photography, which involves Photoshop and a ton of huge files and hard drives.  She's been using these years-old 5400RPM HDDs that are bound to fail any second to store her photographs, and I keep telling her she's overdue for a new computer.  Well, she finally accepted that fact as her OS drive (luckily not any mass storage drives) recently failed.  I've got her set up with an old HDD I had lying around now but she needs something new.  I will be building a Hackintosh for her with a budget of about $1,000.  There's no need for peripherals, monitors or anything of that sort.  I'm generally great at building machines but mostly hopeless at making part lists, so any help is appreciated!  The machine will be used primarily for Photoshop (CC and CS6), storing large files, and web browsing.  Basically just a well-rounded computer that excels specifically at photo editing.  Here's the part list I have so far, if you have suggestions I will take them gladly.  Please note that so far I only have the SSD as a boot drive and storage for Chrome, Photoshop, and other important applications, and a 1TB HDD for mass storage.  More storage will undoubtedly be added on later and does not factor into the cost of the build as of now.  Thanks!

[Killervolt]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.89 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.89 @ OutletPC)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($86.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($82.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($219.99 @ Micro Center)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $996.70

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 22:18 EST-0500

This, and never look at that PSU again.

[Aytex]

 

don't amd gpu's have problems on hackintosh?

[GSTARR]

I like the build above, but if this really is going to be an editing station;

this is the time to beef up the ram, as well as its speed.

I would go at least 32gb 2400Mhz (Assuming motherboard can handle it...?)

[Dr_Curry_MONSTER]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.89 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.89 @ OutletPC)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($86.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($82.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($219.99 @ Micro Center)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $996.70

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 22:18 EST-0500

This, and never look at that PSU again.

Probs best your gonna get for that price range. A Xeon 1231 v3 is like a 3770k.

[Killervolt]

don't amd gpu's have problems on hackintosh?

Maybe, idk. If so then go Nvidia.

[PotatOS - Andrew]

don't amd gpu's have problems on hackintosh?

I wouldn't know about GPU's but Hackintoshes generally ONLY run on Intel CPU systems.  Maybe that's what you're thinking about.

[PotatOS - Andrew]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.89 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.89 @ OutletPC)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($86.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($82.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($219.99 @ Micro Center)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $996.70

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 22:18 EST-0500

This, and never look at that PSU again.

Thanks for the reply!  Just wondering, what's your rationale for the 380 over the 960?  Pure performance/compatibility/something else?

[CJ Chua]

Thanks for the reply!  Just wondering, what's your rationale for the 380 over the 960?  Pure performance/compatibility/something else?

Performance

[GDRRiley]

Look at Linus's Build guide and go to the Hackintosh websites that talks about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrOHPm_7PDo