Minimod's hackintosh - i7 3770k, GA-Z77X-UP5 TH

[Cruel_Brit]

Hi Minimod,

Got my machine built. Went out after my last post and bought the parts. No major problems except I couldn't get the GT640 card to work because I hadn't set GraphicsEnabler=n!

Everything seems to work except USB3.0 is slow (75MB/s). I will post a more thorough write up when I have a bit more time.

 

[bondfrenchbond]

as long as you have good ventilation and are not overclocking the system, low profile ram is just fine.

I have a similar setup. Are you suggesting I go with regular profile ram (and liquid cool) if I'm over-clocking? I was planning on getting a COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO with low profile RAM but that's air cooling. Thanks

 

[Willosy]

Hi Minimod,

Got my machine built. Went out after my last post and bought the parts. No major problems except I couldn't get the GT640 card to work because I hadn't set GraphicsEnabler=n!

Everything seems to work except USB3.0 is slow (75MB/s). I will post a more thorough write up when I have a bit more time.

HI Mate,

Can you please tell me why and what you did here? I am planning on a GT640 for my build which will be an exact buyers guide recommended build around the Gigabyte Z77 series boards.

 

[Cruel_Brit]

Not totally sure about your question but here goes:

Why did I choose the GT640?

Because I'm not a gamer/video editor and I just wanted to run 2560 x 1440 smoothly and maybe a second monitor in the future. The Z77XUP5-TH will not support this resolution with Intel 4000 on-chip graphics. I could probably have got an even cheaper graphics card but I was attracted to the out of the box compatibility indicated on tonymacx86.com

What did I do?

Plugged it into the PCIx16 socket on the motherboard, got confused for a while why the machine wouldn't boot and then retried setting GraphicsEnabler=no using Multibeast 5.0.2. Then it worked well. Really that simple which is a relief given the number of posts people have written about battling with GTX670/680 cards.

Also note, I am using the upper connector of the two DVIs on the card. Will try the lower one when I rearrange/tidy my desk next.

As mentioned in another post the only odd thing is a couple of seconds of fuzzy screen when I come out of sleep before the OS X login screen appears.

 

[Willosy]

Not totally sure about your question but here goes:

Why did I choose the GT640?

Because I'm not a gamer/video editor and I just wanted to run 2560 x 1440 smoothly and maybe a second monitor in the future. The Z77XUP5-TH will not support this resolution with Intel 4000 on-chip graphics. I could probably have got an even cheaper graphics card but I was attracted to the out of the box compatibility indicated on tonymacx86.com

What did I do?

Plugged it into the PCIx16 socket on the motherboard, got confused for a while why the machine wouldn't boot and then retried setting GraphicsEnabler=no using Multibeast 5.0.2. Then it worked well. Really that simple which is a relief given the number of posts people have written about battling with GTX670/680 cards.

Also note, I am using the upper connector of the two DVIs on the card. Will try the lower one when I rearrange/tidy my desk next.

As mentioned in another post the only odd thing is a couple of seconds of fuzzy screen when I come out of sleep before the OS X login screen appears.

Awesome thanks mate. I was more interested in the what happened to prompt you to set graphicsenabler=no.

Not actually having ever built a CustoMac, what are the steps to set graphicsenabler=no ?

I will be using Unibeast + OS X Mountain Lion.

Still waiting on parts, the GA-Z77-DS3H isn't available locally and I had to get it off eBay..

 

[Cruel_Brit]

Prior to setting GraphicsEnabler=n the machine simply wouldn't boot unless I pulled the GT640 out of the motherboard.

This setting is changed using Multibeast. There's a submenu called "Customisations". See picture attached (if I can work out how to attached images to posts!)

 

[Willosy]

Prior to setting GraphicsEnabler=n the machine simply wouldn't boot unless I pulled the GT640 out of the motherboard.

This setting is changed using Multibeast. There's a submenu called "Customisations". See picture attached (if I can work out how to attached images to posts!)

Ah, thank you. Does that mean you boot off Multi Beast and change that setting or change that setting when building the boot USB??

If it wouldn't boot how did you get to that screen in the screenshot??

 

[Cruel_Brit]

I used the built in Intel 4000 graphics in the i7 3770K CPU connected to the DVI socket on the motherboard before I moved on to the GT640 card.

If this is your first Hackintosh (as was mine) I suggest you walk before trying to run. In other words build the basic machine first without graphics card, wifi, bluetooth etc. Once you have it running then add the other stuff. This means you'll want an old wired mouse to make life easier.

I followed two guides:

a) The tonymacx86 guide to installing Mountain Lion

b) This excellent post: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...cess-gigabyte-ga-z77x-up5-th-thunderbolt.html

However, I suggest you don't choose iMac12,2 as the type of system when setting this in Multibeast. This appears to give sucky audio. I set my machine to "be" a MacPro3,1. You'll see what I mean when you read the post I mention above.

Also, do upgrade the BIOS on the Gigabyte board. I think the latest is version F9. Download from Gigabyte, place on a thumbdrive and flash into the Gigabyte board once you have the basic machine running. You do this from the BIOS menu (Hold F12 while booting). Best to just research this bit on this website or Google.

When you do get to buying a Bluetooth receiver dongle thingy. I suggest the Belkin F8T016 (sometimes not marked as such on the packet in the shop but Belkin appear to only make one kind). The Targus USB bluetooth dongle some people have recommended with Lion-based Hackintoshes doesn't seem to work with Mountain Lion according to some but I have used the Belkin out-of-the-box with a Magic Mouse.

For a Webcam I chose the Logitech C310. It's HD, built-in Mic and works out of the box without any driver installation.

I only need to fix the USB3.0 which is a bit slow (75MB/s) and I think I'm finished. Probably I should write up the build properly but I have a long haul flight tomorrow morning and won't even have my Hackintosh for a while so difficult to verify my build process/settings

 

[miv79]

Do any of you guys get the flashing white square in the upper left of the login screen? (It's intermittent but happens more often that not)

Actually if you log out of OSX you'll see that the square appears wherever the mouse cursor was last positioned before logging out - obviously if you do this via the Apple menu its going to be near the upper left of the screen unless you use the keyboard shortcut - (Shift + Command + Q)

It's no deal-breaker as it doesn't seem to effect anything else in the system, just the login screen.

I did read somewhere it was caused by the GTX 6xxx cards (I have 660 Ti) but I'm almost certain it did this before I purchased my graphics card so just wondered what others experience was.

 

[sic0048]

I don't see it, but I'm only using the integrated HD4000 for graphics. No other GPU is installed.