

CustoMac Budget mATX



A powerful desktop build with budget-minded parts and no graphics card. This build contains a mATX sized motherboard, a dual or quad core CPU and Intel HD 4000 onboard graphics.



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CustoMac Budget ATX

A powerful desktop build with budget-minded parts and no graphics card. This build contains a ATX sized motherboard, a dual or quad core CPU and Intel HD 4000 onboard graphics.



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CPU Intel Core i3-3225 Intel Core i5 3570K Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Motherboard GA-Z77-DS3H (ATX) Amazon Newegg RAM 8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Case Corsair Carbide 300R Amazon Newegg Power Supply Corsair 600 Watt Amazon Newegg Storage SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg Amazon Newegg CPU Cooler Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler Amazon Newegg Wifi Card TP-Link PCI Express Wifi Adapter Amazon Newegg Operating System Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Mac App Store



CustoMac Pro



These full sized ATX builds have quad-core CPUs, maxed out RAM, and lots of expandability. Well suited for any demanding uses. Each has few high-end graphics card options that work in OS X Mountain Lion.



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CustoMac Pro Socket 2011



These rigs are the most powerful single CPU systems you can build. Warning: Power Management is NOT working, and may not ever work. This means no speedstep, sleep, etc...



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Graphics Cards



One of the most important components in a custom build is the graphics card. If you're building a CustoMac, it's an especially tricky decision. Not only do you have to worry about what will be a good performer for the cost, but you also have to be informed about what is fully supported, and what is not. The following graphics card examples are all natively compatible without modifying drivers. Each gives a range of port options, install compatibility, and is known to work with minimal configuration. Furthermore, it's now possible to use multiple NVIDIA cards in tandem- dual and triple cards are enabled by default.



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GeForce GT 640 PCIe-powered 900 MHz Clock for low power & quiet use. ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg GeForce GTX 650 Mid-range card with high performance. ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg GeForce GTX 660 Ti Mid to high end performance card. ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg GeForce GTX 670 Standard High end - our top recommendation. ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg GeForce GTX 670 Upgraded Higher graphics clock speed. EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg GeForce GTX 680 Standard The top end card. ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg Gigabyte Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg PNY Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg GeForce GTX 680 Upgraded Higher graphics clock speed. ASUS Amazon Newegg EVGA Amazon Newegg MSI Amazon Newegg Zotac Amazon Newegg

CPUs

We recommend these specific Ivy Bridge CPUs for Socket 1155 motherboards because they feature fully working HD 4000 integrated graphics.



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Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5Ghz 4 Cores / 8 Threads, Turbo Unlocked for Overclocking Amazon Newegg Intel Core i7-3770 3.4Ghz 4 Cores / 8 Threads, Turbo Amazon Newegg Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4Ghz 4 Cores / 4 Threads, Turbo Unlocked for Overclocking Amazon Newegg Intel Core i3-3225 3.3Ghz 2 Cores / 4 Threads, Turbo Amazon Newegg

Motherboards



We recommend these specific Gigabyte 7-series motherboards because of native power management support, network, and audio. They are the most compatible with OS X and are the easiest motherboards to get up and running for first time builders.



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Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5-TH ATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI Dual Thunderbolt, Bluetooth/Wifi* Amazon Newegg Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX, VGA, DP, DVI, HDMI Amazon Newegg Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H ATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI Amazon Newegg Gigabyte GA-Q77M-D2H mATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI, DP Amazon Newegg Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P mATX, VGA, DVI, HDMI, DP Amazon Newegg Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WIFI mini-ITX, DVI, HDMI Bluetooth/Wifi* Amazon Newegg Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI mini-ITX, DVI, HDMI Bluetooth/Wifi* Amazon Newegg

Drives



We recommend using a fast solid state drive for your system drive. Choose a 1TB or less hard drive if planning to use Chimera/Chameleon as your bootloader. Also, choose 512B format drives. 4K advanced format drives will not work with the bootloader without





​ We recommend using a fast solid state drive for your system drive. Choose a 1TB or less hard drive if planning to use Chimera/Chameleon as your bootloader. Also, choose 512B format drives. 4K advanced format drives will not work with the bootloader without workarounds . Note that this is only applicable for the boot drive, whereas your storage drive can be any size. The following drive examples have been hand picked to work without issues.

SATA 6Gb/s 500GB HDD Amazon Newegg SATA 6Gb/s 1TB HDD Amazon Newegg SanDisk SATA 6Gb/s 120GB SSD Amazon Newegg SanDisk SATA 6Gb/s 240GB SSD Amazon Newegg SanDisk SATA 6Gb/s 480GB SSD Amazon Newegg

CPU Coolers



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Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler Amazon Newegg Thermaltake Performer 2.0 Water Cooler Amazon Newegg Thermaltake Frio Air Cooler Amazon Newegg

Power Supplies



Corsair 500 Watt Amazon Newegg Corsair 600 Watt Amazon Newegg Corsair 650 Watt Modular Amazon Newegg Corsair 750 Watt Modular Amazon Newegg



Cases





​ The case is one of the most universal parts, although you need to make sure that your motherboard and chosen parts will fit. Each link refers to the details of the product, where you can see what sizes are recommended.



​ The case is one of the most universal parts, although you need to make sure that your motherboard and chosen parts will fit. Each link refers to the details of the product, where you can see what sizes are recommended.

mini-ITX Apex MI-008 (w/ 250W Power Supply) Amazon Newegg mini-ITX CoolerMaster Elite 120 Amazon Newegg mini-ITX Thermaltake Element Q (w/ 200W Power Supply) Amazon Newegg mini-ITX Silverstone Sugo SG07B (w/ 600W Power Supply) Amazon Newegg mini-ITX BitFenix Prodigy White Amazon Newegg Black Newegg Orange Newegg Red Newegg mATX Fractal Design Core 1000 Amazon Newegg mATX Silverstone PS07 Amazon Newegg mATX/ATX Corsair Carbide 200R Amazon Newegg mATX/ATX Corsair Carbide 300R Amazon Newegg mATX/ATX Corsair Carbide 500R Amazon Newegg ATX/E-ATX Corsair Graphite 600T Amazon Newegg

Accessories



These parts are known to work well with CustoMac desktops. If planning to use Bluetooth exclusively, access to a USB keyboard is also helpful to get into the UEFI and to access the bootloader menus.



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