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Building My (Almost) Dream Editing Machine

Long story short, I’m impatient. I don’t like it when I have to wait a long time for my computer to do things. That’s why I set out to build a computer this past December. In this post, I’ll share:

  • What my goals in building this computer were.
  • How I selected the parts I used.
  • What parts I actually ended up using.
  • A few snags I ran into during the actual building process.

The Goals

I had three goals in mind while building this computer:

  1. To be able to edit (and export) video pretty quickly using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
  2. Be able to play current video games at high graphics settings in 1080p
  3. To not have to buy Adobe CS6 again.

That third one was what created the biggest problem: I owned CS6 for Mac. That meant one thing: I needed to build a Hackintosh.

Goals 1 and 2 work pretty well together: the venn diagram of things that make a good video editing machine and a good gaming rig has a pretty good cross section. That meant the starting point was to start with the hardest part (Hackintosh), and then get the others to work within the restraints presented by Hackintoshing.

One more thing: my goal was to stay right around the $1000 mark. The good news: I was buying the parts in November, which has some of the steepest discounts on computer parts all year.

Selecting the Parts

Knowing that I’d have to work within the constraints of building a Hackintosh, I set out to find parts that work best with that. One of the most trusted and comprehensive sources of information on Hackintoshing is TonyMacX86. The best part is that they publish guides to the most compatible parts every month. The great thing is that Hackintoshing has come a long way and there’s a wide variety of parts you can use. That would be enough, except that those same parts are the best ones for video editing!

Long story short, I just selected the best parts within my budget limitations from the Tonymac list.

The Actual Parts

I used PC Part Picker to price out and plan the parts.

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
  • Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
  • Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
  • Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
  • Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
  • Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card
  • Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter
  • Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case
  • Power Supply: Thermaltake Tough Power 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
  • OSes: OS X Mavericks & Windows 8.1

The Snags

This was my first time building a computer, and it was a little scary. I was going very slowly when building it because I was so afraid of messing up. The number one thing I’d recommend to people building a computer for the first time is to prepare. Watch tutorials online. Read the manuals (seriously, they are necessary). Preparation is going to make your life much, much easier.