Have been debating whether to get a Mac Pro or not for the last few months now as I'm currently driving 2x 4K monitors from my MacBook Pro and it does struggle a little at times! But after pricing up a Mac Pro I feel I could build a very nice desktop which could easily match the performance of the Mac Pro without the added extras such as ECC memory and thunderbolt which I don't really need.
The primary usage of this machine is for work so reliability is important (although if it all goes wrong I can use my MacBook), work will include anything from running up to 10 virtual machines, software development, file processing and some minor graphics work. I'd also like the ability to dual boot into Windows for the odd bit of gaming every now and again :) (note this would only be on a single 4K monitor).
I'm aiming for:
High single core CPU speed
32GB RAM minimum (the ability to go higher in the future would be nice, but understand that eliminates the 4790K CPU)
Ability to drive 3x 4K monitors via DP (I'd love a third in the near future)
High disk IOPS and sequential transfer speeds
10GbE network connectivity is a must
Run Yosemite! iMessage I'm not too fussed about would be nice to have.
Having done a fair bit of research, with help from the Tonymacx86 buyers guide, I'm still a little unsure on my build, especially the motherboard! I'd like something which is going to be pretty straight forward to setup.
ASUS Z97 PRO
i7 4790K
32GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz as 4x8GB (already have this)
OcUK GeForce GTX 980 (already have this) - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-204-OK
Areca 1882ix-8 with 6x Samsung 850 EVOs in RAID (already have this)
Myricom 10GbE adapter (already have this)
Corsair PSU (already have this)
Questions:
1) Really unsure on the motherboard choice, I read Gigabyte are more compatible? Looking to stick with the Z97 chipset.
2) Would a socket 2011 processor offer me any sort of performance gains? The 4790K seems like an excellent CPU especially single core speed looking at the comparisons on CPUBoss, I'm sure I could ship the virtual machines off to a server if 32GB memory limit did ever become an issue.
3) Read and been told about some issues running multiple monitors on a hackintosh, should I be concerned? Especially running 4K monitors!
4) Achieving high disk IOPS and sequential transfer speeds, I thought about using my Areca 1882ix-8 with 6x Samsung 850 EVOs which I already have. I understand this card supports the Mac Pro, wondering if I can use it with a hackintosh? - http://www.areca.com.tw/products/1882.htm
5) 10GbE ethernet is a must, I currently use a Myricom card with my MacBook Pro in a Sonnect PCIe enclosure and it works perfectly. The drivers are available (https://www.myricom.com/support/downloads/myri10ge.html) should this work in hackintosh?
No doubt I'll have many more questions as I continue researching, but just wanted to get some of these initial big questions out the way :)
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