Advice I'm Looking For I'd like to build a silent, dual-booting (Windows and MacOS) Hackintosh to play games and also be a Media Server. I think some of the part choices are controversial, and I need help to make sure I've selected the right CPU, GPU, and especially chiller.
Priorities 1. Performant 2. Silent 3. Cheep
Background
I used to be a "Mac Gamer" when I was a teenager in the late 90s/early 2000s, so I played a lot of shareware games [1] but I was really captivated by BioWare/BlackIsle's Baldur's Gate, and then Shadows of Amn. I took a 15-year hiatus from gaming to get a couple worthless degrees and burn out working in startups, and then burn out working in corporate dystopia, but a few months ago I saw that Baldur's Gate 3 was being released (Larian Studios) and decided to try my hand at gaming again.
So much to my girlfriend's chagrin, I've now re-played the Baldur's Gate series, then Planescape, then Fallout 1 & 2 (in Parallels), and then Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 (Obsidian Entertainment), then realized I should try Larian's IP to be ready for it when it gets here. Unfortunately, as the games have gotten more advanced, my poor 16" MacBook's fans keep spinning up, and it gets hot. Annoying. When looking at alternatives, the Mac Pro seems too expensive, and I already have a U3818DW display so I don't need to subsidize the displays built into the iMac Pro. And the prospect of a Mac mini with an eGPU seems inelegant and wasteful of GPU cycles. So I decided to build a Hackintosh.
I'm an old-school Mac guy, so I don't much care for Intel because I remember the old days. [2] I've heard good things about AMD so I'd like to give them a shot. My understanding is that a sufficiently-advanced CPU is fine, so I don't need to get a Ryzen Pro. In general, I felt like I should start by looking at the parts in the Corsair Vengeance 6182, as per Snazzy Labs. [3].
Objective
I'd like to be able to play Baldur's Gate 3 in a buttery-smooth fashion. I'd also like to be able to play future RPGs (and maybe other games) smoothly when they come out, so I want something pretty beefy. It's also important to me that I run as close to silently as possible because I hate fan noise. I'd like to dual-boot because… some games only work in Windows. Also, I might want to do VR at some point if it decides to become a thing instead of fizzling out into another two decade VR winter.
Chiller I am at a loss here about what to get. I've seen sketchy folks on YouTube say that I shouldn't use water coolers because they aren't more performant at lower volume levels [4]. That stands to reason, because I'll still need a fan to assist with moving air over the radiator. But I don't know a lot about what I need, and I'm thinking that this is where the kindly folks at r/hackintosh can be the most helpful
GPU AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
I've read conflicting reports. In general sources I like and trust say that it's relatively quiet [5] but other anecdotal evidence suggests that it can suffer from loud coil whine and fan noise under heavy load [6]. It seems performant enough, and it seems like the only people who should consider beefier GPUs (e.g. Radeon VII) are professionals working on professional 3D renders.
Case I have no idea here, and haven't found good resources about how case choices affect thermals and volume.
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700x
This seems sufficient to meet my needs. I am hoping someone can talk me into needing greater or lesser performance, or something with a better thermal profile.
Motherboard X570 Micro-ATX
I'm a total n00b when it comes to building PCs, so I don't really know where to start when it comes to Motherboards. Ideally I'd like something with Thunderbolt so I can plug in a NAS, but from what I've read, Thunderbolt is still a little unstable on Hackintosh's and there are almost no motherboards that support Thunderbolt that aren't Intel boards.
Other resources I consulted Optimum tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlPrQE82m-E (and other videos)
Overall Build |Component|Part| |:-|:-| |Motherboard|X570 Micro-ATX| |CPU|AMD Ryzen 7 3700x| |GPU|AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT| |DRAM|16GB (2x8GB)| |Chiller|?| |Storage 1|1TB M.2 NVMe SSD| |Storage 2|2TB 7200RPM 2.5” HDD| |Power Supply|Corsair RM650, 80 Plus Gold| |Networking|Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac, Bluetooth|
[1] Shout out to Escape Velocity, Realmz, and Burnin Rubber [2] Not that I care much for Google (neé Motorola) or IBM. [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_QPLl81GrY [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23vjWtUpItk [5] https://www.anandtech.com/show/14618/the-amd-radeon-rx-5700-xt-rx-5700-review/15 [6] https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/caie50/new_rx_5700_xt_owners_is_it_that_loud/
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