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Introduction
We take a look at some of the best motherboards available for a hackintosh build in 2018, chosen for compatibility with MacOS X Mojave and ease of installation, to help you choose the best motherboard for your needs. Included are ITX, microATX and ATX form factor motherboards, so whether you’re looking for a compact but powerful system for video editing or a full-size ATX system with lots of room for storage, there should be something to suit you.
If you’re building a hackintosh, or thinking of building one, the motherboard is the heart of your system, so you need to choose carefully. All of these motherboards are based on the Intel Z370 chipset and feature an Intel LGA1151 CPU socket, for the latest 8th Generation Intel Processors. Motherboards based on the Z370 chipset have the best compatibility with OS X. That’s not to say that people haven’t successfully built working hackintosh systems using H370 chipset boards, but they generally have more issues and are more difficult to get fully working.
| Board | Form Factor | RAM Slots | LAN | Sound | M.2 Slots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gigabyte Z370N WIFI | ITX | 2 | Intel GbE | ALC1220 | 2 |
| Asus ROG STRIX Z370-I GAMING | ITX | 2 | Intel GbE | ALC1220 | 2 |
| ASrock Z370 Fatal1ty Gaming-ITX/ac | ITX | 2 | Intel GbE | ALC1220 | 1 |
| Gigabyte Z370M DS3H | mATX | 4 | Realtek GbE | ALC887 | 1 |
| Asus Prime Z370-A | ATX | 4 | Intel GbE | S1220A | 2 |
| GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 | ATX | 4 | Intel GbE | ALC1220 | 3 |
| ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero Z370 | ATX | 4 | Intel GbE | S1220 | 2 |
| GIGABYTE Z370 HD3P | ATX | 4 | Intel GbE | ALC1220 | 2 |
Mini ITX
At just 17cm x 17cm, the ITX format is ideal for those who are looking to build a compact system in a small case. There are some compromises to be made however. First, having only 2 RAM slots makes ITX boards less versatile when it comes to memory. Second, you’re limited to only one PCI-Express slot. In most cases, unless you’re using integrated graphics, this slot is going to be taken up by your GPU. When choosing a case, be sure to choose one that’s tall and long enough to accommodate the GPU you intend to use.
Gigabyte Z370N WIFI
- ALC 1220 Audio codec
- 2 x DDR4 Memory slots (max 32GB)
- 2 x M.2 Connectors
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
- 8 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 1 x USB Type-C port
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0
- Dual Intel Gigabit Ethernet
Asus ROG STRIX Z370-I GAMING
- ALC 1220 Audio codec
- 2 x DDR4 Memory slots (max 32GB)
- 2 x M.2 Connectors
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
- 8 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 1 x USB Type-C port
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0
- Intel i219-V Gigabit Ethernet
- Integrated RGB Lighting
ASrock Z370 Fatal1ty Gaming-ITX/ac
- ALC 1220 Audio codec
- 2 x DDR4 Memory slots (max 32GB)
- 1 x M.2 Connector
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
- 8 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 1 x Thunderbolt 3 port
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0
- Intel Gigabit Ethernet
Micro-ATX
Larger than Mini-ITX at 244×244mm, you lose the compactness of the ITX form factor but gain 4 RAM slots instead of 2, and PCI Express x1 slots for expansion cards.
Gigabyte Z370M DS3H
- ALC 887 Audio codec
- 4 x DDR4 Memory Sockets (max 64GB)
- 1 x M.2 Connector
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
- 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
- 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- DVI-D and HDMI 1.4
- Realtek Gigabit Ethernet
ATX
A full-size ATX motherboard sacrifices space for expansion potential. At 305 × 244 mm (12 × 9.6 in) it takes up a lot of room, but you get multiple PCI slots, a minimum of 4 memory slots and lots of space for storage. Note that, although most of the ATX boards support SLI or crossfire, there is no support for SLI in Mac OS X. If you use multiple graphics cards in a hackintosh, they’ll be treated as separate graphics cards.
Asus Prime Z370-A
- Realtek S1220A Audio codec
- 4 x DDR4 Memory Sockets (max 64GB)
- 2 x M.2 Connectors
- 3 x PCI Express x16 slots
- 4 x PCI Express x1 slots
- 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- DisplayPort, DVI-D and HDMI 1.4
- Intel i219-V Gigabit Ethernet
GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
- ALC 1220 Audio codec
- 4 x DDR4 Memory Sockets (max 64GB)
- 3 x M.2 Connectors
- 3 x PCI Express x16 slots
- 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
- 5 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 1 x USB Type-C port
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4
- Intel Gigabit Ethernet
ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero Z370
- S1220 Audio codec
- 4 x DDR4 Memory Sockets (max 64GB)
- 2 x M.2 Connectors
- 3 x PCI Express x16 slots
- 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
- 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (Type-C + Type-A)
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.2
- Intel i219-V Gigabit Ethernet
GIGABYTE Z370 HD3P
- ALC 1220 Audio codec
- 4 x DDR4 Memory Sockets (max 64GB)
- 2 x M.2 Connectors
- 2 x PCI Express x16 slots
- 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
- 1 z PCI slot
- 8 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
- 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (Type-C + Type-A)
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- D-Sub, DVI and HDMI 1.4
- Intel Gigabit Ethernet
Required Drivers
The drivers neeeded to get working ethernet, sound and USB for all of these boards are the same.
AppleALC.kext and Lilu.kext provide working audio on all of these boards using both the ALC1220 codec, and the single board which uses the ALC 887 codec.
For working Gigabit Ethernet under OS X use IntelMausiEthernet.kext.
For USB 3.0 support, USBInjectAll.kext and XHCI-300-series-injector.kext will provide working USB on the Z370 chipset used by all of the motherboards above.
All of these kexts should be copied from the RELEASE folder of the zip file and placed in the EFI/Clover/kexts/Other folder on your EFI partition.
If you’re looking for a graphics card to use in your hackintosh, be sure to check out our article on the best graphics cards for a hackintosh in 2018