[Guide] Gigabyte Z490 Catalina

[cbushjr56]

I decided to build a Hackintosh to run Catalina as software that I use it is the highest I can go. I do video editing and audio. I wanted a fast computer with lots of RAM and a beast of a video card. I looked long and hard at components and based my decision on Mac compatible. I choose a Gigabyte Z490 Vision D motherboard with a i9-10900, 128GB RAM and a Radeon Vega 64 Frontier Edition 16GB video card.

This combination produce a Mac Pro killer for a whole lot less money. Anyway to get on with the components and the build.

The Components:
Gigabyte Z490 Vision D motherboard
Intel Core i9-10900 cpu
128GB G.Skill Ripjaw RAM 4x32GB
AMD Radeon Vega 64 Frontier Edition 16GB video card
Patriot Viper 1TB NVMe SSD (boot drive)
2x Seagate Barracuda 5TB drives
Seagate Barracuda 6TB 7200 RPM drive (video drive)
Pioneer Ultra HD Blu-ray Burner
fenvi FV-T919 wireless card
DIYPC D480-W-RGB case
2x Acer ET322QU 32” monitors (2560x1440)


The build:
I wanted this build to be as vanilla as possible, so I did not use UniBeast or MultiBeast. The first thing I did was to download Catalina, Opencore 8.5,ProperTree and GenSMBIOS. Next I downloaded my Kexts, Drivers and ACPI files. I included a zip of them at the bottom of this guide.

Once you downloaded Catalina or whichever flavor of macOS you want (The EFI folder will work with Catalina, I do not if it will work with any other macOS version). Now to get started.

You will need a 16GB or bigger USB drive. Prepare you USB drive with Disk Utilities. You will need to erase with the following name: USB, format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map. When that is done type the following in Terminal:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app --nointeraction

Once that is done you will need to copy the EFI folder from Opencore to the EFI partition (use EFIMounter to get to the EFI partition) on the USB drive. Next open the config.plist file on the USB drive with ProperTree and go to PlatformInfo and put in serial number, uuid number, ROM, board serial number and SystemProductName. You get this information using GenSMBIOS. All that is left is to boot up the computer (F12 will get you to the Boot Menu) with the USB drive and install macOS to the hard drive. Once the install is done leave the USB drive in and reboot. Hit F12 and boot off of you USB drive again. Follow all of the on-screen prompts and fill the info. Next use EFIMounter to get to the EFI partition and copy the EFI folder from the USB drive to the EFI partition on your hard drive. Once that is done reboot the computer and enjoy macOS.

All programs and files are included in the attachments below.

 

[c-o-pr]

Don't forget to overclock

If you get a top-end air cooler and strong case airflow, you'll be on the hairy edge of thermal limits at 96C sustained 5GHz all-core. Set thermal max to 100C and rev limiter to 97C. You want to remove all limits in BIOS overclock config and get all core up past 5Ghz.

Be sure to enable XMP for RAM. There's gains to be had making RAM faster up to 3600, then it levels off so no point reaching for more.

Pay attention to RAM cooling in case air flow; make sure the area around the socket/VRM/RAM has flow, and consider how to move heat from the GPU away from the CPU so you can get everything running full bore sustained.

On a very similar system with DDR4 3600, my kit was stable to run all day and benched:

GB5: 1460 / 11400
CR23: 16400

For you I looked up Vega 64, in place of a W5700 Pro:

OpenGL: 80000

I went z590 instead of z490 due to time Window of purchase and eventually upgraded to 11900. This upped GB5 to:

1820 / 11400

And doubled NVMe throughput.

Note how 10th – 11th gen sees no increase in multicore due to loss of 2 cores but 25% IPC gains in single core.

But the upgrade actually offers no practical gain and is slightly more thermally challenged. Not worth it.

OTOH:

12900 has been shown to offer a 50% gain in multicore, so there's where the next bump lives if you seek to upgrade. You'll be pulled towards Monterey, and maybe should just go all the to Ventura because it fixes some bugs introduced in Monterey.

Expect bench of 2000 / 18000 where additional cores truly pay off.

This brings it close to Studio Ultra.

As to whether all the hours of futzing around with a hack that will cost 3500 to get into ballpark of Ultra that costs 5500+ is worth it... ? If you bill yourself at $50 / hr, you can spend 30 hrs on the hack and break even. Personally I ended up spending hundreds of hrs due to so much change going on at time of my kit and so much learning required, and some bad juju with NVMe—just bad luck.

Things are much better now, 18 mos later.

 

[cbushjr56]

My next build will be a Mini-ITX Xeon.