- Joined
- Nov 17, 2009
- Messages
- 7,365
- Motherboard
- Z370N WIFI
- CPU
- i7 8700K
- Graphics
- HD 630
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Components
Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Motherboard with DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and D-Sub Connections
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CU4L4XG/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128601
Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell Processor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO8TBQ0/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901
Fractal Design Core 1000 Black Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case (FD-CA-CORE-1000-USB3-BL)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CUSUV0O/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352032
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W v2.31 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Semi Modular Haswell Ready Power Supply
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005E98I0G/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139031
CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model CML16GX3M2A1600C10
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007TG8QRW/
'http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233280
Already Owned
OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z0S6SO/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227725
LG Flatiron 23" E2350V Monitor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003D9SJ5S/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005150
Comments
I had an mATX build in mind since last year's Gigabyte Z77 offerings for mATX had incompatible or troubled audio or network. This build is fantastic- fast, small, quiet, and suits my testing needs for HD 4600 and Haswell very well. The only thing that's not currently working is HDMI Audio from the integrated graphics- we're working on a solution. If you need iMessage and Facetime services, Chameleon's FileNVRAM module is needed. Add the .dylib to /Extra/modules.
Update: Haswell seems to be less tolerant of older memory used in 6 & 7 series motherboards (Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, respectively). Older memory, especially DDR3 1600 type, may result in system freezes if the BIOS parameter XMP is set to Profile1 as in previous Ivy Bridge motherboards. Be sure to use new memory on Gigabyte's list of supported memory, or newer memory that is Haswell ready/approved. The Corsair Vengeance LP memory used in this build is on Gigabyte's list. The motherboard recognizes the memory and it's respective DDR3 1600 parameters with the BIOS XMP parameter set to Default.
Installation Notes
For Haswell, you MUST update your Mountain Lion App to 10.8.5 before attempting the UniBeast 10.8 Installation Guide. Procedure was exactly the same as Ivy Bridge. I used a SSD connected to SATA0 and a HDMI cable connected to LG 1080p monitor.
Note on 2nd Boot: When booting from UniBeast created USB and targeting SSD after the initial Installation, I had to type -x to get to OS setup. After applying MultiBeast and booting directly from SSD all was normal.
UEFI Settings
1. To access UEFI Setup, press and hold Delete on a USB Keyboard while the system is booting up
2. Set to Optimized Defaults.
3. (Optional) Set X.M.P. Memory Profile to Profile1
4. Save and exit.
MultiBeast Settings
Post installation is easy, as this board doesn't require a DSDT. Use the following settings and reboot following a successful installation.
Mountain Lion 10.8.5 - Multibeast 5.5
Mavericks 10.9 - MultiBeast 6.0
.mb Config: View attachment GA-Z87MX-D3H.mb
Benchmarks
General system benchmarks from Geekbench 3
OpenGL test results from Unigine Heaven for Intel HD 4600 graphics at 1080p and 720p
A few more pics:
Helpful Links:
Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Product Page
Intel Core i7-4770K Spec Page
Simplest OS X Installation Guide
Install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on Haswell Based PCs
Install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on any Supported Intel Based PC
Thanks for reading my build description!
Just wanted to quickly write that first of all this might be the simplest setup of this particular build, and by no means is it the only way it can be done.
Feel free to make general comments here, but please note that I will most likely not be able to keep up with specific questions. If you have problems using this setup, please create a topic in the Installation section of the forum.
Update: Mavericks 10.9 Benchmarks:
A few updates on this build- if you're having issues with the ethernet (Intel i217), please use the latest MultiBeast to downgrade your network driver.
Here are some benchmarks from today- I threw in the Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 770 for a little benchmark testing action. The Haswell seems to perform better in graphics tests than any of my other systems.
Testing was done on the exact same hard drive, exact same system- just popped the graphics card in and out. Used Luxmark for OpenCL benchmarks, Heaven for OpenGL, and for general benchmarks, Geekbench 3. Please note that the OpenCL benchmark for NVIDIA cards is not a good direct comparison with AMD Radeon.
AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB:
Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Motherboard with DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and D-Sub Connections
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CU4L4XG/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128601
Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell Processor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO8TBQ0/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901
Fractal Design Core 1000 Black Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case (FD-CA-CORE-1000-USB3-BL)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CUSUV0O/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352032
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W v2.31 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Semi Modular Haswell Ready Power Supply
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005E98I0G/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139031
CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model CML16GX3M2A1600C10
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007TG8QRW/
'http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233280
Already Owned
OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z0S6SO/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227725
LG Flatiron 23" E2350V Monitor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003D9SJ5S/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005150
Comments
I had an mATX build in mind since last year's Gigabyte Z77 offerings for mATX had incompatible or troubled audio or network. This build is fantastic- fast, small, quiet, and suits my testing needs for HD 4600 and Haswell very well. The only thing that's not currently working is HDMI Audio from the integrated graphics- we're working on a solution. If you need iMessage and Facetime services, Chameleon's FileNVRAM module is needed. Add the .dylib to /Extra/modules.
Update: Haswell seems to be less tolerant of older memory used in 6 & 7 series motherboards (Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, respectively). Older memory, especially DDR3 1600 type, may result in system freezes if the BIOS parameter XMP is set to Profile1 as in previous Ivy Bridge motherboards. Be sure to use new memory on Gigabyte's list of supported memory, or newer memory that is Haswell ready/approved. The Corsair Vengeance LP memory used in this build is on Gigabyte's list. The motherboard recognizes the memory and it's respective DDR3 1600 parameters with the BIOS XMP parameter set to Default.
Installation Notes
For Haswell, you MUST update your Mountain Lion App to 10.8.5 before attempting the UniBeast 10.8 Installation Guide. Procedure was exactly the same as Ivy Bridge. I used a SSD connected to SATA0 and a HDMI cable connected to LG 1080p monitor.
Note on 2nd Boot: When booting from UniBeast created USB and targeting SSD after the initial Installation, I had to type -x to get to OS setup. After applying MultiBeast and booting directly from SSD all was normal.
UEFI Settings
1. To access UEFI Setup, press and hold Delete on a USB Keyboard while the system is booting up
2. Set to Optimized Defaults.
3. (Optional) Set X.M.P. Memory Profile to Profile1
4. Save and exit.
MultiBeast Settings
Post installation is easy, as this board doesn't require a DSDT. Use the following settings and reboot following a successful installation.
Mountain Lion 10.8.5 - Multibeast 5.5
Mavericks 10.9 - MultiBeast 6.0
.mb Config: View attachment GA-Z87MX-D3H.mb
Benchmarks
General system benchmarks from Geekbench 3
OpenGL test results from Unigine Heaven for Intel HD 4600 graphics at 1080p and 720p
A few more pics:
Helpful Links:
Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Product Page
Intel Core i7-4770K Spec Page
Simplest OS X Installation Guide
Install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on Haswell Based PCs
Install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on any Supported Intel Based PC
Thanks for reading my build description!
Just wanted to quickly write that first of all this might be the simplest setup of this particular build, and by no means is it the only way it can be done.
Feel free to make general comments here, but please note that I will most likely not be able to keep up with specific questions. If you have problems using this setup, please create a topic in the Installation section of the forum.
Update: Mavericks 10.9 Benchmarks:
A few updates on this build- if you're having issues with the ethernet (Intel i217), please use the latest MultiBeast to downgrade your network driver.
Here are some benchmarks from today- I threw in the Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 770 for a little benchmark testing action. The Haswell seems to perform better in graphics tests than any of my other systems.
Testing was done on the exact same hard drive, exact same system- just popped the graphics card in and out. Used Luxmark for OpenCL benchmarks, Heaven for OpenGL, and for general benchmarks, Geekbench 3. Please note that the OpenCL benchmark for NVIDIA cards is not a good direct comparison with AMD Radeon.
AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB:
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