Suggestions to Replace z77x-UP4

[okinawanmatt]

Hey all,

So I recently invested in the components to build myself a relatively powerful hackintosh system, main components being a 3570k processor, and a z77x-UP4-TH motherboard. I purchased the board because it was listed as a recommended ivy bridge buy, but after receiving it and using it with my system, I am extremely dissatisfied. Aside from the USB3 ports not working, i'm unable to get my processor to overclock in the bios, after waking from sleep I often require a restart, my geek bench scores are only around 10000, and it seems as if this board just does not like to work properly with a mac configuration. This isn't my first build, but I've never been this dissatisfied

So, I've decided to send it back and replace it with something else more functional. My question is, do you have any recommendations? Is the UP5 a better option that will work much better, should I simply go with a z77x-UD5H? are there any other great recommendations, or am I just doing something totally wrong with the UP4 that can be remedied?

I'm in the same boat as you. I bought the UP4 TH within an hour of the CustoMac recommendations being posted. Also bought from NewEgg. I tried getting it to work with the old Unibeast-Multibeast, but since those have been updated, I went ahead and tried it with the new updated Unibeast and Multibeast. However, I now just arrive at kernel panics as soon as I finish running Multibeast.

Can you tell me what you did in Multibeast, as well as any other patches you applied? My GA-Z77x-UP4 TH is now a Windows-only machine until I can figure out what's making it panic. Installation is smooth, but the new Multibeast kills it upon reboot.

~EDIT~
Will update once I do a re-install this weekend, I must have missed a setting in Multibeast.

 

[salty dog]

You're mixing a SB CPU with a 7-series boards which we never recommended. It should work in theory, but it appears OS X isn't nearly as forgiving in this case as Windows is. You need to use an SSDT and in the case of overclocking, you need to use a different SSDT, or even roll your own. This is clearly a slightly different issue from what the OP is having.

I don't doubt you about mixing SB and a 7 series board . I have used the standard i5 SSDT, and the SSDT for Overclocking when I did the test.

I think I'm going to buy a IB processor before I switch motherboards and see what kind of success I have. My 2500K can be put to use in a different build and If I buy a UP5 I'll wanting an IB processor regardless.

 

[salty dog]

I'm in the same boat as you. I bought the UP4 TH within an hour of the CustoMac recommendations being posted. Also bought from NewEgg. I tried getting it to work with the old Unibeast-Multibeast, but since those have been updated, I went ahead and tried it with the new updated Unibeast and Multibeast. However, I now just arrive at kernel panics as soon as I finish running Multibeast.

Can you tell me what you did in Multibeast, as well as any other patches you applied? My GA-Z77x-UP4 TH is now a Windows-only machine until I can figure out what's making it panic. Installation is smooth, but the new Multibeast kills it upon reboot.

I'm going to ask the obvious here.... Have you selected the "UserDSDT or DSDT-Free Installation"? in Multibeast 5.

 

[okinawanmatt]

I am fairly certain I had all the correct boxes checked. I'll take a screenshot tomorrow when I try a re-install.

 

[thelostswede]

I'm in the same boat as you. I bought the UP4 TH within an hour of the CustoMac recommendations being posted. Also bought from NewEgg. I tried getting it to work with the old Unibeast-Multibeast, but since those have been updated, I went ahead and tried it with the new updated Unibeast and Multibeast. However, I now just arrive at kernel panics as soon as I finish running Multibeast.

Can you tell me what you did in Multibeast, as well as any other patches you applied? My GA-Z77x-UP4 TH is now a Windows-only machine until I can figure out what's making it panic. Installation is smooth, but the new Multibeast kills it upon reboot.

Whatever you're experiencing doesn't appear to be a board related issue, Tonymacx86 put together his Z77X-UP4 TH system yesterday and has it up and running. I"ll see if he's got time to add some advice here later, but the board works. The real issue is the USB 3.0 ports and I personally warned about that issue about 20 times before the buyers guide went up in something like three or four different threads.

 

[claptonfreak]

The real issue is the USB 3.0 ports and I personally warned about that issue about 20 times before the buyers guide went up in something like three or four different threads.

Honestly, I'm not slamming all the hard work you're doing with the project, because it obviously takes a lot of time and dedication. But it seems like a really big oversight to have known about these issues and not make a mention of it on the very public buyers guide, and simply warn about it on various forum posts instead...

 

[okinawanmatt]

Honestly, I'm not slamming all the hard work you're doing with the project, because it obviously takes a lot of time and dedication. But it seems like a really big oversight to have known about these issues and not make a mention of it on the very public buyers guide, and simply warn about it on various forum posts instead...

I agree with his statements. I LOVE the work that's been put into this site, and I'll be chipping in via PayPal to this site once my next paycheck comes in. It's fantastic that someone's taken the initiative to gather such a knowledgeable community and make all these patches and programs for us.

Unfortunately, I put too much trust in the CustoMac article. I had only stumbled upon this site 2 months ago when Lifehacker.com discussed the "upcoming CustoMac recommendations". It's been nearly a decade since I messed with any flavor of BSD/Unix/Linux, and I just don't have enough time to read about the different patches and modifications while trying to finish my thesis and working so many jobs. I just hopped onto this site two months ago, read through a couple dozen threads that stated that the CustoMac recommendations were the end-all-be-all lists of fully compatible chipsets, and I left, confident that I could make a day-1 purchase when the new CustoMac list was posted.

So, within the first hour of the new CustoMac 2012 list being posted to the site, I purchased the UP4 TH with full confidence. In all honesty, I only spent about 20 minutes comparing all of the different motherboard options on the CustoMac list and chose the UP4 since it fit all of my needs an my budget. I didn't have any doubts about the recommendation, so I didn't read through all of the forum threads on this website prior to my purchase. It was my misunderstanding when I thought that anything on the CustoMac list was compatible. I don't want to pass the blame, and I know that it was my responsibility to do some more research.

Now that I've found out that there's an issue with the USB, and now that I know that a lot of the community (including the admin/mods) knew about this issue, it shocks me that the CustoMac page has yet to be updated to reflect this issue. I'm just suggesting a simple asterisk (*) be placed next to the recommendation and an extra line of text be placed at the bottom of the article.

Otherwise, there may be other users like me who are new to the scene, misinterpret the intent of the recommendations list, and make the mistake of buying a board with reduced functionality. This requires the user to either eat the S&H and restocking fees (which comes out to over $75 for this board at NewEgg), or augment their build by buying extra parts to make up for the non-functioning chipest.

In all honesty, I'm not too broken up about the purchase since it should only cost me $8 to work around this issue by purchasing an extra PCI USB 2.0 bracket. But I'd really like to petition the admins to please place one small line of warning for that board in the CustoMac thread.

 

[HazMatt]

Yeah… me too. I'm planning my build with the UP4 based off the CustoMac page. I'm glad I found out about the UPS 3.0 limitation via the forums!

 

[krautzman]

Hey guys , I'd seriously like to second ( and third , fourth etc etc ) the request to update the suggested builds motherboard listing as posted on the blog.

Let people know that the UP4 mobo has major issues regarding the USB3 component please

As the blog post stands atm , there is no mention of ANY issues with the UP4 mobo & this just leaves people to purchase the boards only to discover afterwards that its not 100% working OOB.

This will only lead to major frustration.
I know things are hectic , but people need to know what they are getting into based upon this sites recommendations for hardware. :
Yes people should do their research before committing to hardware choices , but let them know if there ARE any issues straight up.

Personally I got the UP5 and would highly recommend that model to anyone .

Cheers , Kman

 

[tonymacx86]

Sorry for the confusion this recommended board may have caused. I have this board and am currently working out the kinks. It's super early to know what we can and can't do regarding this board on a permanent basis. Also, as the swede mentioned, we are on an early UEFI, and haven't yet released any DSDT edits for 7-series boards, as they don't require them. Perhaps the USB issue can be sorted other ways.

UP4-TH

• There are no native usb2 ports unless you have a case with usb2 ports in front.
• There are 6 ports on rear of that board. 2 work with standard usb3 devices
• There is a label that says- use keyboard/mouse here.
• The other usb3 ports don't have hubs on that particular board.

It's a budget version of the UP5 model, which has none of the issues that people have spoken about here. Personally this is not a dealbreaker in my opinion and the board is amazing for OS X, but I can see why people are miffed.