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My new home theater Plex box
- Thread starter Cave Man
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I have a question, instead of the Core 2 Quad you used would one be able to use the Core i7 or is it not Hackintoshable
The i7 chips are not readily usable at this point. There are a few with them, but there are some kext issues for certain hardware. I suspect it'll get better in the next few months.
Cave, I am wondering why you chose the Asus over the GA-G7AUM-DS2H. Easier to configure as a Hack?
Is the video of the 9300 as good as the 9400?
Is your 300 watt PSU adequate?
For my use, I would go with the Dual Core E7400 at 2.8GHz.
Is it possible to install Kalaway 10.5.2 on this board? I prefer to wait until OS10.6 is out to buy it.
Any other thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Is the video of the 9300 as good as the 9400?
Is your 300 watt PSU adequate?
For my use, I would go with the Dual Core E7400 at 2.8GHz.
Is it possible to install Kalaway 10.5.2 on this board? I prefer to wait until OS10.6 is out to buy it.
Any other thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The Gigabyte board isn't hacked yet. The Asus board is nearly 100%.
They are effectively the same.
More than. I have the mobo, Q8200, two 3.5" drives and a 2.5" drive, PS fan, stock cpu fan and one other fan.
Should work fine, but be prepared for a bit of fan noise. You should also consider a quad core. I wish I had gone with the Q8200s instead (lower power).
I don't know. Certainly you'd have to get to 10.5.5 at least because that's where the chipset drivers started.
I think the Asus board is an easier decision, but all bets are off if you're talking about Snow Leopard. Shouldn't be any difference, but there's no way to know until it's out.
Why would the fan noise be greater with the E7400? I figured a dual core would be quieter than a quad core. There is nothing I do that would benefit me using a quad core. In fact, I would get better performance at the higher clock speed of the E7400.
What other distro might work with this system?
What other distro might work with this system?
Sorry, I meant next to a Mini there will be noise.
I've only used the 10.5.6 Retail installer, but the installer DVDs from the 9400m MB/MBP have been used by others using the Universal Installer app.
I have heard of the Universal Installer app, but I do not remember much about it. Can you refresh my memory? I need to get back over to the other site to research this before I make my hardware order. Thanks for all your advice.
Can it be that Snow Leopard is only a few weeks away?
My original Hackintosh is still working great. I have kept it at 10.5.2, because I have found no advantage to upgrading it for what I do.
Universal Installer (1) allows the installation of OS X and updates onto any hard drive, (2) installs essential kexts, and (3) puts the Chameleon boot loader onto the hard drive so that it becomes bootable.
Could be at WWDC. We'll just have to wait.
Another update. The MacBook Pro IR board works just fine with this set up. I had to remove its mini header and replaced it with a USB male connector (by cutting a USB2 cable, then soldering the wires together), then bought a USB female to USB header adapter and it works perfectly. It's nice to have my Harmony remote again. Now all that's missing is a Bluetooth module, which is also pretty easy to add for $30, but I have no need for Bluetooth ATM so won't be adding it.
Somehow I missed this post... The biggest issue is that I want my Eye TV Hybrid on my HTPC. While I could put two computers on my projector (i.e., one dedicated to the Eye TV and for transcoding, the other for Blu-ray playback) I think I'd rather just have one box. Just a personal preference.
I guess I just assumed you'd put the encoding an another machine you had and just use the Mini as your host and native Plex machine.
Somehow I missed this post... The biggest issue is that I want my Eye TV Hybrid on my HTPC. While I could put two computers on my projector (i.e., one dedicated to the Eye TV and for transcoding, the other for Blu-ray playback) I think I'd rather just have one box. Just a personal preference.
It can vary, but it's usually around 80-90 fps. A two hour DVD movie takes about 25 to 30 min to transcode. A two hour Blu-ray takes about 3 hours to 720p and about 5 hours for 1080p.
Cheers for the info Cavey. Sounds promising - my iMac takes about 7 hours for a 2 hour 720p. Thank God for the queuing feature.
How did you get on with this? I've built a Hack with the same mobo and the CPU runs at 40 C idle and 60 C flat out (Handbrake). Not too hot but the lid was off the case, so I need it to be cooler.
Also how did you get sleep to work? If I sleep the machine, it won't wake up unless I do a hard power down. Also shut down doesn't power the machine down. EDIT --> Just spotted the 256MB vRAM setting, will try it out.
Cheers,
- Stew
I have an 80mm fan blowing right over the northbridge. That's the major heat source in my box, not the cpu nor the drives. Now the drives are running around 25-30 C and the cpu usually doesn't get over 55, even with a HB encode.
Cave Man, can you describe how you made the IR receiver from the Mac Pro work? Where does it plug in? Where did you locate the actual IR receiver?
A few revisions
I've done a few revisions to my Plex box to get it to run a bit cooler and, thus, quieter. Here's the final build:
I also bought Snatch for my iPhone and installed the Plex screens, so my Harmony 520, iPhone or Apple Remote can control the system. I have been able to concurrently watch Blu-ray rips with Plex, record and transcode with the Eye TV Hybrid, and stream other content to my Apple TV. The only thing I'd do differently would be to buy the Q8200s, which is the low-powered version that runs a bit cooler. I also reseated the cpu with Arctic Silver compound and that should get me a few more degrees. At full load, it can get to 60 C, which is perfectly acceptable.
I've done a few revisions to my Plex box to get it to run a bit cooler and, thus, quieter. Here's the final build:
- Antec NSK2480 MicroATX case and 380w PS -$120 (got mine for $100)
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - $165
- ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300/nForce 730i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - $115
- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - $43
- Samsung 750 GB HD753LJ boot drive - $85 (no longer available)
- Two Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drives - $130 each
- MacBook Pro Infrared board - $42
- Thermaltake MeOrb CPU fan - $44
- Scythe 120mm Case fan - $18
- Retail OS X 10.5.6 Installer DVD - $130
I also bought Snatch for my iPhone and installed the Plex screens, so my Harmony 520, iPhone or Apple Remote can control the system. I have been able to concurrently watch Blu-ray rips with Plex, record and transcode with the Eye TV Hybrid, and stream other content to my Apple TV. The only thing I'd do differently would be to buy the Q8200s, which is the low-powered version that runs a bit cooler. I also reseated the cpu with Arctic Silver compound and that should get me a few more degrees. At full load, it can get to 60 C, which is perfectly acceptable.
Nice setup Caveman. I have been wanting to do one for a while. The IR mod.......My hats off, I'm glad they're are other options.
My questions...
What made you go with plex instead of maybe XBMC?
How/where dd you find out about that boards compatibility?
My questions...
What made you go with plex instead of maybe XBMC?
How/where dd you find out about that boards compatibility?
That's a shame. I have this board in a water cooled chassis running Vista Media Center and although the hardware is fantastic I would love to convert it over to a Hackintosh - but not if I have to sacrifice the HDMI audio. I just spent a ton on a top of the line Sony AVR to allow all my components to connect with HDMI only... I'm not going to go backwards on that front.
I won't consider a MacMini for the same reason. I guess my stubbornness on this means I'm forced to wait for an updated AppleTV.
I'm sure Apple will never put HDMI on a computer since they're not principally for connection to TVs (unlike the Apple TV) for the licensing fees. What boggles the mind, though, is why they don't allow it over DisplayPort. That doesn't cost them anything and you can get audio over a DP to HDMI cable. I suspect Apple has something up their sleeves, but who knows.
Hey there Cave Man,
Now that SL is out, have you had a chance to see if a Mini can handle Blu-Ray rip playback at the same time EyeTV is recording and transcoding? If so, this info coupled with the rumors of a price drop could make the mini a very attractive HTPC purchase. Any thoughts?
BTW, how's the Plex box working for you? Any updates?
(Wow, not sure how I missed this - sorry!)
I only have a 2 gHz GMA950 Mini and it still cannot transcode and play Blu-ray rips at the same time. I don't know about the new Mini
The only update I've done is to replace one of the 1.5 tb drives with a Hitachi 2 TB drive. So it now has a 750 gb boot drive, and 1.5 and 2 tb media drives.
Oh, and the board is no longer in production. What a shame, it's been really stable. It looks like the new path will be i5/i7 systems, but there's only a few mobos that are easily hackintoshable, and they're pretty expensive.
I only have a 2 gHz GMA950 Mini and it still cannot transcode and play Blu-ray rips at the same time. I don't know about the new Mini
The only update I've done is to replace one of the 1.5 tb drives with a Hitachi 2 TB drive. So it now has a 750 gb boot drive, and 1.5 and 2 tb media drives.
Oh, and the board is no longer in production. What a shame, it's been really stable. It looks like the new path will be i5/i7 systems, but there's only a few mobos that are easily hackintoshable, and they're pretty expensive.
In case anyone's interested, I retasked this hackintosh and have built a new one around the HD3000 chipset on a mini-ITX board (GIGABYTE GA-H67N-USB3-B3) using a quad-core i5-2405s low-power (65w) cpu. I reused my IR board and put in 8 gb of RAM (way overkill) and added an Airport card via a PCI-e to mini-PCI-e card adapter. This computer is super fast and is virtually silent with the stock fan and one chassis fan (Scythe). It transcodes EyeTV recordings at about 2x speed. Running Lion 10.7.2 and using an HDMI to DVI adapter for my Sanyo 1080p projector and optical audio to my Onkyo 5.1 DTS/Dolby Digital receiver. It's made Plex very happy and all for about $550.
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