Assembly of my Skylake Hackintosh Build.

Let’s do this!

After rounding up all the components for this build, the time to put it together has finally come. Assembly was pretty straightforward, the only thing puzzling was how to install the massive CPU cooler without resorting to black magic. It is so big that installing it on its mounting brackets when the motherboard has already been settled in the casing was never an option – the monstrous heatsink fins tower just right over the RAM slots leaving no room at all to securely screw the cooler in place.

The only way around it was to pre-install the Shadow Rock 2 before mounting the motherboard in to the casing. the combined height of the MoBo and the cooler was a tad more than the casing frame thus making it impossible to straightforwardly slot them in from the side openings.

Thank God that the Tecware Quad Cube casing opens up fully form the top as well. With a little bit of manoeuvring coupled with agile ninja moves, I was able to angle it in from the top of the chassis and properly mount the MoBo with the heatsink attached. I must say, it is well worth the trouble… it looks amazing.

With everything having the red, black and aluminium colour scheme. Then just having a little touch of accented yellow colour for the SATA cables – the build looks very much like the inside of an engine bay.

Assembly Gallery

Meet the ‘Skylake Hot Rod’

The whole black, red and aluminium theme turned out pretty well. Having the massive aluminium ‘big block engine’ smack in the center of the build really hits the mark on achieving the 30s hot rod look that I was gunning for.

Adding the Turbocharger

As originally planned, I am turbocharging this bad boy with a GTX 970. As of writing, Pascal cards are now support by MacOS Sierra. But since the 10xx cards have already been out for some time, the series 9 GPUs are selling at very good prices in the pre-owned market. In this month (May 2017), buying a new GTX 1060 will cost S$300 and up. The MSI Gaming 1070 is going for about S$500 up. Sheesh. For a lot less and a comparable performance to the 1060 (both cards  will allow me to effortlessly game 1080p in ultra settings), I am very blessed to have been able to snatch up an MSI GTX 970 that is still under 2 years of warranty for only S$200. The previous owner is an avid gamer who’ve just upgraded to a Pascal card and looking to get additional funding for a two-way SLI by selling of his old card. Wherever you are Ryan, thank you! You are truly awesome – everything is in pristine condition, even the box and receipt.

(Get yours here: http://ho.lazada.sg/SHN3uW?keyword=MSI%20GTX%201060)

I’m not actually complaining, especially since I was already anticipating how awfully big the graphics cards is for such a small chassis, but it really IS DAMN BIG. One can never truly appreciate the advanced planning of building a rig until the time comes when everything just fits nicely into place with just enough room to manoeuvre your short fat fingers between the components.

I was praying the whole time that I didn’t f*ck up the measurements beforehand. And as I was ‘forcing’ the GPU into position, it kinda reminded me of how awkward it would’ve been if Arya Stark and The Hound shacked up. But I digress… below are a few snaps from the GPU installation.

Gallery: GPU Unboxing & Installation

Rate my rig!

I’d love to hear what you guys think of my first hackintosh rig… Do you think I should’ve used any other particular part? Could’ve I have picked any better component for a similar price point? Is there anything else that you think I should be adding to the build? Should I have just bought a Mac Mini and a PS4? Does this make you want to build your own hackintosh? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

For posts on component unboxings, installations and whatnot’s with this build do visit the links below:

Part 1: Let’s Build a Hackintosh

Part 2: Assembly (y’er already here)

Part 3: Installing Windows 10 (coming soon)

Part 4: Installing macOS (coming soon)

Part 5: Post Mortem (coming soon)

Unboxing/Reviews:

• Storage: PNY CS1311 SSD and Toshiba 1TB HHD
• Chasis: Tecware Quad Mini Cube
• PSU: FSP Hydro 500W 80+ Bronze
• Core Components (MoBo, CPU, Cooler, RAM): MSI H110M Gaming, Intel i3-6100, be quiet! Shadow Rock 2, Corsair Vengeance LPX

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Lance Sison, Rockstar for Hire.

Rockstar for hire.
I help businesses create memorable branding experiences for their customers.

www.arsnovadesigns.com