New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX - G4 Cube

[neilhart]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

After about two weeks off doing other things, I am back to the Intel DH61AG system. I am looking for a low price on a G4 Cube but have not found one that is local.

So I have carved out an ABS mounting plate and attached two 2 1/2" hard drives to one side and the MB to the other. I made up a custom power harness and found two short SATA cables with correct facing right angle connectors. I have also installed a mini-PCIe Broadcom WiFi raido (which OS X sees as an AirPort Extreme card and loads kexts automatically) and a Kensingon Bluetooth dongle which works OOB.

Running 10.7.2 with the DSDT.aml from Minihack and edits from going through SpeedStepper for Lion. The system is stable.

Next step is to add a front panel and stand the thing up….

neil

 

[Mate94]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

Awesome work neil! Sleep is still problematic, isn't it?

 

[roto31]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

I just happened to log in today and see this build. This board opens up all sorts of possibilities for my next possible build. I'm thinking if one could do it the right way and had say, an old VCR or DVD player to gut and use as a case it would integrate nicely as a HT set-up, (my g/f is cringing in the background) or even build a custom case or some type. I've always wanted to dabble and make a nice wood case at some point in time and this gives some inspiration for that. Keep up the good work and I'm sure it will be a nice design when finished.

 

[minihack]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

Hi Neil,
Looking very nice. I am almost on the point of taking the plunge on this board, but one thing is bothering me - is there an easy way that you can see to get a 5vSB signal out from the integrated board? If not, then we'd need to find a work around for getting the touch switch to work (maybe you thought of that already?). I am sure it can be done - e.g. dividing down the input voltage - but a ready made signal power line for it would be perfect and eliminate the need for an add-on.

 

[neilhart]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

Hi Neil,
Looking very nice. I am almost on the point of taking the plunge on this board, but one thing is bothering me - is there an easy way that you can see to get a 5vSB signal out from the integrated board? If not, then we'd need to find a work around for getting the touch switch to work (maybe you thought of that already?). I am sure it can be done - e.g. dividing down the input voltage - but a ready made signal power line for it would be perfect and eliminate the need for an add-on.

minihack - check page 55 of the spec at http://www.intel.com/support/motherboar ... 032443.htm 5V standby power on pin 5 of the Front Panel CIR Receiver Input Header. Also there is a standby power LED near the SATA ports.

This board has a wealth of features that I have not even considered such as support for LVDS.

neil

 

[minihack]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

minihack - check page 55 of the spec at http://www.intel.com/support/motherboar ... 032443.htm 5V standby power on pin 5 of the Front Panel CIR Receiver Input Header. Also there is a standby power LED near the SATA ports.

This board has a wealth of features that I have not even considered such as support for LVDS.

neil

Excellent. I think that may be me almost decided.......looks like it may soon be time for me to sell my Socket 775 Zotac board.

 

[neilhart]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

To make some order out of this mess (first attachment), I made up a front panel of 1/8 ABS.

Installed a 4 port USB panel, LEDs for the hard drives and power, a power switch (red cap) and a reset switch (black in a black hole).

Then cut an ABS base - these panels assembled using ABS solvent glue. The system continues to please me with no faults and boots without incident. No sleep (yet).

Still to come - Side panels, top and rear to go for this quick case.

neil

 

[beastyfellow]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

Sleep works! I'm not a "super guru" so had to experiment a bit to make it work. Here's config and basic instructions.

CPU i5-2500K (underclocked to 2.1GHz, Turbo Boost disabled) - sounds a bit awkward, though I had PVR setup originally on i3-2100T (35W, HD2000 Gfx) - it has low profile cooler and run very quiet, but HD2000 is no go on hackintosh… So I happen to get i5-2500K (HD3000 Gfx) and under clocked to fit into my setup.
MB DH61AG (BIOS rev. 0031).
RAM 2 x 2GB Kingston HyperX
SSD Intel mSATA 80GB
HDD Seagate 750GB
WiFi mPCIe Intel N 1000 - no luck, since there's no driver for OSX

1. Installed Lion via UniBeast, upgraded to 10.7.2 and added following via MultiBeast
- FakeSMC & MB plug-in
- NullCPUPowerManagement
- ALC8xxHDA, AppleHDA Rollback, Non-DSDT HDAEnabler ALC892 - I guess this could be done via DSDT but enabler is good enough
- TRIM Enabler - for my SSD
- Hnak's AppleIntelE1000e Ethernet
- Chimera bootloader
- System definition Mac mini
2. Extracted DSDT using Linux Mint 12 live CD.

sudo cat /proc/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > dsdt.aml

3. Run DSDTFixer cleanup on it. Google for latest version.
4. Copied DSDT to /Extra (see below mine attached). Restart and shutdown now work OK.
5. Now need to fix sleep. Google for Lion 10.7.2 SleepEnabler.kext. Use pmVersion=23 flag. It makes system sleep occasionally - USB and Ethernet still causing issues
6. USB fixed via Chimera kernel flags (see below). Ethernet - need to get latest AppleIntelE1000e Ethernet driver - Google helps… One which goes with MultiBeast is very old.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Kernel</key>
	<string>mach_kernel</string>
	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>npci=0x2000 darkwake=0</string>
	<key>USBBusFix</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
	<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
	<key>Timeout</key>
	<string>1</string>
	<key>Legacy Logo</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
        <key>GenerateCStates</key>
        <string>Yes</string>
        <key>GeneratePStates</key>
        <string>Yes</string>
        <key>Graphics Mode</key>
        <string>1920x1080x32</string>
	<key>pmVersion</key>
	<string>23</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Sleeps and wakes like a charm! Now need to buy MacBook IR receiver, put Plex / EyeTV / Remote Buddy and I'm done.

Obviously there's a room for improvement so any suggestions welcome. USB3 with MultiBeast driver from LaCie works, but if you had device connected it will drop after wake.

P.S. Overall the board is quite unique. All those features packed in extremely small space. You can realistically put it into 1 inch high chassis together with new Intel heat pipe cooler HTS1155LP. I'm thinking about InWin K1 setup which was specifically developed for DH61AG http://www.in-win.com.tw/K1/SPECIFICATIONS.html. The sky is the limit

 

[slowjin]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

@beastyfellow: you certainly showed up with a boom! I will give this a try hopefully today or in the next few days.

 

[neilhart]

Re: New Player - Low Profile Intel DH61AG mini-ITX

beastyfellow very interesting. I have attempted to duplicate your installation and I can get the system to sleep and wake up. However my USB does not come back immediately and I my Ethernet does not resume. Bluetooth and WiFi do come back within a few minutes.

Could you share a list of the kexts loaded by your system by attaching a copy of kextstat (run in the Terminal app)?

neil