I don't know if geekbench can be a measure in this but the Intel Core i7-3930K (6-core) hackintoshes outperform the 8-core Mac Pro's in the 20K vs 18K scores

on the other hand the i7 3770 hackintosh like this one http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1170091 states it has 8 cores and should be a quad so how in the end it all adds up i don't know.

But it appears to be that the fastest i7 3770 is or almost is equal to the 8 core Mac Pro. So i guess the 6 core hack should be a pretty safe bet for my build

@vicharris the score said 8 cores, so maybe he used a double cpu setup?

€2244 for the 6 core i7 3960 hackintosh build (just the basic parts) €1450 for the 4 core i7 3770 hackintosh build (just the basic parts) €1200 for a refurbished 8 core mac pro 2,8gHz (early 2008), would still have to buy SSD and 16G of ram probably...

i'm tempted by that 8 core but the damn thing is already 5 years old...

what are your thoughts on this guys?

I think my total was around $1600 but I added another 240GB SSD. I'll probably put the OS on that drive soon instead. I might try to overclock mine a little bit but not sure if I need it. My cpu has a liquid cooled unit on it though.

Considering update to 10.8.4. Maybe I can hit lucky 13000 ;-) Note: no overclock & no peripherals, etc. BOX = 10"X8"X22½" @ 43°C max idle.

Without O/C the Giga TB board Stork-esque builds were 14k -16k out of the box and overclocking the RAM gave 18k + no processor O/C at all x

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5-TH, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub, DVI-D HDMI Thunderbolt
Nanoxia Deep Silence One Black Ultimate Low Noise PC Case, USB 3.0, Air Chimney
250GB Samsung 840 Series Basic, 680W be quiet! Straight Power E9 CM BN199, 93% Eff', 80 PLUS Gold, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX Corsair Hydro Series H60 2013 Edition High-performance CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 3770K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.5GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 8MB Smart Cache, 35x Ratio, 77W,Retail
LG x24 DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x13/-RWx13 ,12xRAM with M-DISC Support, SATA, Black, OEM
32GB (4x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 10-10-10-27, XMP, 1.5V
2GB EVGA GTX 660 Ti Superclocked, 28nm, 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 980MHz, Boost 1059MHz, Cores 1344 +Free Game
3TB Seagate ST3000DM001 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA III 6GB/s 7200rpm 64MB Cache 8ms NCQ OEM

As an Example purchase.

I run multiple studios on Mac Pros and HDX Protools in our post studios - working at home (hackintosh) and porting to mixing studio - the hacky's destroy the Mac Pro's on Audiosuite and Native- actually on loading also. I run Hackytosh and Apogee Symphony at my home studio and HDX, SSL Aws900 etc at multiple work spots - still find home so much slicker. Go figure - hours of real world time savings over a year of front line work so far. Due probably to fear, the client facing suites are still Macs - however no crashes or KP on any hackintoshes as yet (touch wood) I have no qualms using Hackys over Mac Pros in my professional day to day work - and have several out in the field in music studios running and writing hits daily with no downtime - earning far more than I do lol

Sat in the pub yesterday with 4 people built that exact rig for - they've been video editing, Pro Tools editing, Logic music writing day in and out with zero down time - Gigabyte boards have taken much of the pain away! That build's already much cheaper - seems there's an exponential drop in pricing for SSD and RAM, and Intel's new chips don't break that much new ground, so that build is still valid! I mix on fully loaded HDX Protools systems at work and my "old" hackintosh native with Apogee in my prep room at home, still on Snow Leopard, burns the Avid rigs, on paper shouldn't but viscerally are more reactive when chopping through dials.

I've read and reread a ton of material (this thread, the gfx card thread, lots at tonymacx86...) and I would like some clarification/confirmation:

This all seems great and clear for the Resolve and Adobe crowds, but I am still primarily working in FCPX with some Motion (OpenCL) and while I am interested in moving toward CS6, I'd still like to know that FCPX will work well in a hackintosh that I am planning based on the GA-Z77X-UP5.

Lots of chatter at tonymac that the 660 Ti's don't work well with FCPX. Very interested in the inexpensiveness of the GT 640 for lack of expense but unclear that the new NVIDIA support with 10.8.3 covers that. Pretty interested in the non-TI GTX 660 for performance/price relative to cost of the 670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500270

I use NeatVideo quite a bit in FCPX and read in their forums that they aren't OpenCL but CUDA... Particularly stuck by post from Shaveblog, apefos, and all others and having a tough time reconciling all this info/possibilities.

Basically, wondering if the NVIDIA/CUDA route will also support FCPX well or specifically what cards work for folks.

Thanks.

@vicharris Do you have that linked Zotac? Here is the main thread regarding the 660 Ti (scroll down and note the FAQ about FCPX) and I found this complaint in other threads as well: http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-hardware-discussion/66611-660-ti-thread-questions-answers-here.html

Haven't read complaints about other cards, i.e. non-Ti 660, GTX 670, etc. once a few bugs were addressed. Basically, wanting a little assurance that NVIDIA cards drive FCPX well also before dropping $1.5k on a machine.

Ok, got it. I have the non Ti 660. No problems.

@WalterH If you are primarily a FCPX user, your best bet is an ATI/AMD GPU, as they are currently better optimized for Open_CL. This has nothing to do with the similar sounding Open_GL, which is what gamers look for in a video card. For speeding up FCPX, you are better off with a 3 year-old HD5870 than with any current NVIDIA GPU.

I use NeatVideo Pro in FCPX and can tell you that it's slow, period, but obviously worth it when you really need it. A CUDA card is not going to speed it up under FCPX - maybe it will under After Effects if you choose to apply NeatVideo NR there, but CUDA will have zero effect in FCPX.

Bottom line: if you are primarily a FCPX user, ATI/AMD is your best bet. If you are primarily Premiere Pro, NVIDIA CUDA will offer the fastest performance. A really powerful card in either camp will work decently for both editing programs but if you really want to optimize performance, you need to choose the GPU chipset that's best for your particular editing program.

I'm needing info for fcpx and 7970- anyone have any experience?

Btw, given the new Mac Pro's AMD gfx cards, chances are openCL will universalize, also in Adobe products