Modding Silverstone FT03 (NoFan CS-70) Hackintosh - Node 2.0

I have had three different Mac Mini computers the past 8 years, lastly a 2011 Mac Mini with the dual core i7 and AMD graphics.
Lately it has started to annoy me, mostly because of the summer heat where the fan goes bananas if I try to game.

Something has to be done, and as I don´t trust the new Mac Mini is much of an improvement, the Mac Pro is too expensive and I already have an awesome screen so an iMac is not an option - I have to build a Hackintosh!


Took me about 1 week of research and then about 1 month of assembly (see more in the thread I link to) to get everything to work - except one minor detail, it can´t wake up from sleep (it freezes until I physically push the reset button).
Anyway, when I leave m computer it is either because I am not doing anything so it´s off - or I am doing something that takes an endless amount of time and just turns the screen off. Who needs sleep then anyways (btw it´s 2:00am here now).



Node 2.0


Parts list:

• MSI Z77-MA-G45 motherboard (easy to hack and love the colour scheme)

• Intel i3 3225 3.3GHz IvyBridge CPU (low TDP with plenty of power)

• Cooled by a NoiseBlocker modified Noctua (with two M12-S1 8dB fans)

• Corsair DDR 1600 CL9 16GB low profile RAM (3225 native supports DDR 1600)

• ASUS GTX660 TOP 2GB graphics card (nVidia is easiest to get working in OSX)

• LyCOM PE-107 FireWire 800/400 PCIe card (should be OSX compatible)

• IOGear GBU521 bluetooth adapter (should work natively in OSX)

• Silverstone SST-SOB02 Blu-Ray burner (slot in type and perfect match for the case)

• Two Intel 520 series 240GB SSDs in RAID0 (FAST! and reliable)

• Two NoiseBlocker M8-S1 (8dB fans to blow in a little fresh air)

• One NoiseBlocker M12-S1 (8db fan in the top of the case above CPU cooler)

• Seasonic X400 fanless PSU (plenty powerful and build to last)

• Lastly, the NoFAN CS-70 case (it´s very unusual and easily could be something Apple had thought up + perfect for true noiseless build without killing your hardware)

One more thing... Why Node 2.0? Because most of the parts come from a friends server that is now retired, it was called the Node.


Notes:

It runs OS X 10.8.4 perfectly, have delayed the startup process with 5 seconds to give me time to punch in any boot parameters if needed, but after the countdown has passed it can boot in about 14 seconds due to it´s SSD RAID0 setup!

Took me half of the building time just to get the installation right, but now it runs smooth as butter!
I can play any of my games in highest possible resolution and detail, like Call of Duty 4, Grid, Batman Arkham City and so on... Very demanding Mac games! Looks stunning...

Best part though, the machine is extremely silent!
I am placed about 1.5 meters away and can´t hear when it´s on unless I turn my screen off and the fridge in the kitchen next door is not running... The buzz from my IPS screens backlight (Dell 2209WA) make more noise than the computer!

If you take the time and go trough the work log I linked to earlier you will find and immense amount of software hacks to make this the perfect setup, everything from the dock to the menubar, Geektool, log in procedures and About This Mac have been tweaked!
Even the placement of some of the default system folders is rerouted to external drives to not tear up the SSDs.


Enough talk, go check out the work log if curious.


Pictures:

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All pictures can be found on my Flickr in full resolution

 

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What...? No watercooling?

 

For once, no.
I know that is kind of rare these days...

To be honest, too expensive and for my use not really worth it.

 

Totally forgot to benchmark!
But now I did a little testing and here are the results (do remember though that the SSDs are 55% full and a lot of tools like antivirus, geektool and other essentials running, so its the complete working results):


GeekBench:



As GeekBench only test RAM and CPU it is not a big surprise my result is kind of low.
My RAM is only DDR1600 and my CPU a low-end i3.



My 8K GeekBench score for my hackintosh is right in the sweet spot where most Mac Pro 3.1´s fit in - but most of them might actually be very close to identical hackintosh systems so not a big surprise...


NovaBench:



Pretty OK score, specially when you do a little digging and find out its similar to what a genuine Mac Pro 4.1 scored!



Both the Pro 3.1 and 4.1 had very powerfull CPUs compared to what I use, but my rig scores better in benchmarks. Neat.


CineBench:






XBench:



Very suprising to see that my XBench score is lower than my old Mac Mini (scored 415)...
A big potion of it seems to be due to the fact my RAM are now "only" DDR1600 where my Mac Mini was upgraded with DDR1866 (even that multiple sources say that the Mac Mini of that time could not benefit from the higher speed it looks like it worked here).


Disk Speed Test:



My two Intel 240GB 520 Series SSDs really shine in RAID0!
Even so that it might only be software raid they do put on a good show...
I have never used this much space on them before (55% full out of 480GB - two 240GB in RAID0), so maybe that is why the speed seems a little off compared to what I usually got in scores on my Mac Mini (or the fact that the SATA controller is totally different) idk...?!



Any other benchmarks I can run on mac??

 

Very pretty. Love the blue and black.

However: "All pictures can be found on my Flickr in full resolution"
It may just be me, but all the embedded images are huge and/or load very slowly. My computer/connection is usually fine, but this thread made it cry.
Maybe a bit of resizing or compression wouldn't go amiss

EDIT: I guess it doesn't help that Imageshack is really slow at the moment. Shame, I use them too. I might have to find a new place to upload stuff.

 

Yea I know the pics are big, might even be too big... But as I have posted this on more than one forum and more than one person had told me that I needed to crank up the resolution (because I started out with scaled images) then I decided just to go all in... I thought everybody had good Internet these days, it is after all just pictures and not extremely heavy loads.

Anyway, thanks for the comment, the black/blue theme seems to get good responce, specially because I also have black/blue RAM

 

I really like that! Reminds me a lot about my own hackintosh! Good job

 

Update!

The machine is now dual booting in Windows 8.1 Preview too!
Had a small 64GB Plextor M3 SSD I just threw in for the very same purpose.





Benched it a bit in Windows too:



















By the way, you can see a comparison GeekBench 3 score here for OS X.





Not sure why, but could not get GreenScreen app or Fraps to take screenshots of Unigine benches... So they are taken with my iPhone.
On another note, the programs refused to run in 1920x1080, might be because that is not my native resolution...





Also benched the M3 SSD because sooner or later it will be updated as 64GB is kind of small... So wanted to know in numbers how well it performs currently:
















Why did it make it run Windows when I despise the layout of the OS so much?


To run my good ol' Windows only games like Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun!!!







//Thanks for looking.


Next up is a new keyboard and mouse as my current Logitech EasySwitch dont want to connect in Windows and im therefor now using my good old Apple Wired Alu Keyboard which dont have any backlighting

 

how is the nofan case different than the stock FT03?

 

There are a few but very nice differences:

• It comes without any fans or fan brackets, so as in my case where I wanted to use something different than what Silverstone normally ship with I did not end up having stuff laying around after.
  
• The side panels have no plastic vents, it is the biggest eyesore on the original imo, and here it's replaced with perforated aluminium instead.
  
• Same aluminium continues along the back for a really good heat exchange as any fans can suck in air without restrictions in he airflow (as in the graphics card that is kind of close to the backside).
  
• Silvertone logoes have been either replaced or painted over so the case seems cleaner and more stock. The front logo is therefor just a plastic chip that can easily be replaced or taken off.

Thats it. Basically the same but different