- Joined
- Nov 2, 2013
- Messages
- 24
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H
- CPU
- Intel Core i7-4770K
- Graphics
- EVGA GTX 770 4GB
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
tdw's Haswell ATX: GA-Z87X-UD5H - Core i7-4770K - GTX 770
Components
Fractal Design DEFINE R4 Titanium Grey Window Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352023
Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm Fan (Case comes with 2 of these, I purchased 1 extra)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835352007
Corsair AX760 Power Supply
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Professional-Modular-Platinum-AX760/dp/B00A0HZMEM
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GA-Z87X-UD5H-1150-2-Way-Motherboard/dp/B00CU4L6MA
Intel Core i7-4770K CPU (Overclocked to 4.3 GHz)
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-4770K-Quad-Core-Processor-BX80646I74770K/dp/B00CO8TBQ0
Noctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler
http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U14S-Sockets-Heatpipe-Cooling/dp/B00C9FLSLY
EVGA GeForce GTX 770 4GB Graphics Card (03G-P4-3774-KR)
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclocked-Dual-Link-Graphics-04G-P4-3774-KR/dp/B00E5AEIKE
Corsair Vengeance 16GB RAM
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Desktop-Memory-CML16GX3M2A1600C10/dp/B007TG8QRW
2 x Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD Drives (1 for OS X Mavericks, 1 for Windows 8.1)
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-7TE250BW/dp/B00E3W1726
Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB Hard Drive (Data)
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B004CSIG1G
Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB Hard Drive (Time Machine)
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Green-Desktop/dp/B004RORMF6
Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD+/-RW Drive
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-AD-7280S-0B-Internal-Drive-Black/dp/B0057FRTPW
TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Wireless Adapter
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WDN4800-Wireless-Express-Low-profile/dp/B007GMPZ0A
StarTech.com USB 3.0 Adapter
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Female-Plate-Adapter-USB3SPLATE/dp/B0066KP06M
HDE USB 2.0 Adapter
http://www.amazon.com/2-Port-Rear-Panel-Bracket-Adapter/dp/B002IWEDSS
Dell UltraSharp U2713HM 27 Inch Monitor
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=225-4015
Comments
I decided to build this system to replace my aging 2008 MacBook Pro. I had been holding out for the new Mac Pro but once it was announced I decided it wasn't what I wanted, not to mention the cost. Apple no longer offered a product that met my needs (powerful desktop with expandability) so I decided to build my own. I spent a long time researching how to build a Hackintosh. I found tonymacx86 and decided that UniBeast and MultiBeast were the way to go. I used the November 2013 CustoMac Pro build as a starting point and put together my list of components.
This was the second PC I have built, the first being an AMD-based system back in 2000. A lot has changed since then, but the principles of putting a system together are essentially the same. I spent an afternoon putting all the components into the case. I had concerns whether the CPU cooler would fit in my case, but it is perfect. Once all the components were installed, it was time to embark upon the scary part ... could I make this PC I had built become a Mac?
I turned it on, and the BIOS appeared as expected. I first updated the BIOS to the latest version, F7. I then loaded Optimized Defaults by pressing F7. I spent the next few days experimenting with additional BIOS settings, but to keep things simple I will just tell you what settings I ended up with. I set the Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) to Profile1 to allow my RAM to run at 1600 MHz. Initially, I had only my OS X SSD connected to SATA port 0 and so set that drive as Boot Option #1. Note, you must use P0, P1 etc not UEFI when setting Boot Options. I disabled my Firewire and Serial ports as I have no need for them. Initially, I had the Intel graphics enabled but due to crashing in Apple Maps I have since disabled that and am using just my GTX 770. The final BIOS change I had to make was to disable Wake On LAN, as I was having issues with waking up from sleep. It would turn on, but the display was blank and I would have to reboot every time.
To install OS X 10.9, I used Unibeast 3.0.1 on a USB drive as specified in the 10.9 Installation Guide. It just worked! Once OS X was installed, I ran MultiBeast 6.0.1 with what I thought were the correct settings. There is some guesswork involved here, at least for a first time Hackintosh builder. I noticed there were a few issues. Although my GTX 770 was working perfectly, my Intel graphics was not being detected correctly. I later discovered this was due to having installed the MultiBeast USB 3.0 kext. For anyone building with this motherboard, this advice will save you a lot of headaches : the MultiBeast USB 3.0 kext is NOT REQUIRED and CAUSES PROBLEMS! Not only was it messing up my internal graphics but also the whole system would crash occasionally when I plugged in a USB device. Again, to simplify things, I will show you what MultiBeast options I am now using, which work perfectly :
One issue that bugged me was the display resolution of the boot loader and OS as it was booting up. I had ticked the 1080p option, but my monitor is 2560 x 1440. So I edited the Chimera boot file in OS X's Extra folder. You just need to change "1920x1080x32" to "2560x1440x32" or whatever your resolution may be. This could be added as an option to MultiBeast to make life easier for people. The other major issue I had was that iMessage refused to work. With the power of Google, I managed to find a solution. I downloaded FileNVRAM from http://public.xzenue.com/downloads/ and placed FileNVRAM.dylib into OS X's Extras/modules folder. After a reboot, iMessage worked perfectly. Note I had to use version 1.1.2 from the archive folder. The latest version 1.1.3 would not work, I have no idea why. My final issue was that when opening Apple Maps the display would go garbled and sometimes crash the entire OS. Now I don't use Apple Maps as Google Maps is much better, but I didn't want to risk crashing in the future. Again, with the power of Google I found a solution which was to disable my internal graphics card. I wasn't going use it anyway and by disabling it Apple Maps now works perfectly. In fact, everything works perfectly. The wake from sleep issue I described earlier was the last problem I had to resolve and by disabling Wake On LAN in the BIOS, that now works perfectly.
I have also installed Windows 8.1 onto my second SSD drive. I plugged it into SATA port 1 and disconnected all the other drives as I installed it. I won't go into details here, as installing Windows is a whole separate conversation. I have OS X on SATA 0, Windows 8.1 on SATA 1, and can choose between the two when the computer boots up. I did have to adjust the Boot Options in the BIOS, making P0 Option 1 (for OS X) and P1 Option 2 (for Windows) and then disabling all the others.
I hope at some point to experiment with overclocking but wanted to get my system totally stable and iron out all the kinks first. Thank you tonymacx86 for making the process relatively simple with UniBeast and MultiBeast. I would like to suggest you add in the 2560 x 1440 option into MultiBeast to make things simpler for people, and also perhaps the iMessage FileNVRAM fix, as I imagine most people using OS X would want iMessage to work and it took me a while to figure out how to achieve that.
If anyone has any questions or comments I'd be glad to answer them. If I've left anything out of my first post, please let me know and I will update this post accordingly.