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Z97N-Gaming 5 - i5-4460 - HD4600 (Clover)

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cloudwalker

cloudwalker

Joined
Jan 3, 2012
Messages
76
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z97N Gaming 5
CPU
i5-4460
Graphics
HD 4600
Mac
  1. MacBook Air
Classic Mac
  1. iMac
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Z97N-Gaming 5 - i5-4460 - HD4600 (Clover)

119611-air240-blk-01.png

Fig. 1: Corsair Carbide Air 240 case​

Components


Already Owned


Comments

I wanted to build a hackintosh to use as a file server, and for general work. I somehow tried to create a low-power system which would be capable of handling some demanding tasks, such as running MATLAB scripts, music production and editing. I have yet to borrow equipment for measuring the power consumption. I will post an update once I get it done.

I got the system up and running fairly quickly using the Chimera bootloader, and the Yosemite guide here. Since I had another hard drive laying around I decided to experiment with Clover.

So far the system is running fine. I had to replace the included Intel 7260 wi-fi/BT card in order to get wi-fi working (Bluetooth worked, but was buggy). I ordered a BCM94360CD card, an adapter and some internal antennas, all on eBay. Wi-fi and Bluetooth works great now, and by using the MLB from my MacBook Air, Messages, FaceTime, Continuity, iCloud etc. are all working. One thing that is not working properly (yet) is sleep. I need to do some more experimenting with the darkwake settings. If the machine sleeps for a longer period of time, it will reboot. Also, audio does not work when waking the machine from sleep, but that will be solved once I figure out which audio interface to get (was looking at the RME Babyface, now waiting for more info about Arturia’s new interface).

BIOS Settings

Here are the BIOS settings that I am currently using.

I started by loading Optimized Defaults (F7), see Fig. 2. Notice that I’m running BIOS version F3 (updated using the instructions on Gigabyte’s website).

119612-141228102120.jpg

Fig. 2: Load Optimized Defaults by pressing F7.​

I then disabled Extreme Memory Profile, see Fig. 3.

119613-141228102216.jpg

Fig. 3: Disable Extreme Memory Profile.​

Next, I diabled VT-d, and chose Other OS under Windows 8 Features. See Fig. 4.

119614-141228102434.jpg

Fig. 4: Disable VT-d and choose Other OS under Windows 8 Features.​

Finally, I set XHCI Mode to Auto, and enabled Legacy USB Support, XHCI Hand-off and EHCI Hand-off. See Fig. 5.

119615-141228102508.jpg

Fig. 5: Set XHCI Mode to Auto, enable Legacy USB Support, XHCI Hand-off and EHCI Hand-off.​


Chimera Setup

I first installed OS X using tonymacx86's guide UniBeast: Install OS X Yosemite on Any Supported Intel-based PC (see BIOS settings above). Downloading OS X and creating a bootable USB drive with UniBeast is easy. My MultiBeast setup is shown in Fig. 6.

119621-multibeast-setup.png

Fig. 6: MultiBeast options.​


Clover Setup

I ran into some problems using Clover. Here I will describe some of them, and how I solved them for this particular system.

Using an 8GB USB thumb drive I created a bootable USB drive with Yosemite. First I prepared the USB drive by partitioning it (Partition Layout: 1 Partition, Options: GUID Partition Table, Name: Install). Then I copied the OS X installer to the drive. In Terminal.app, I typed

Code: 
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Install --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --no interaction

I then installed Clover onto the USB drive. Launch the Clover installer by double-clicking it. Click Continue, Continue, Customize. I then chose the options “Install for UEFI booting only”, “Install Clover in the ESP” and under Drivers64UEFI I chose “OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi”. See Fig. 7 and 8.

119617-clover-install-1.png

Fig. 7: Choose “Install for UEFI booting only” and “Install Clover in the ESP”.

119618-clover-install-2.png

Fig. 8: Choose “OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi” under Drivers64UEFI.​

Next up I removed “VBoxHfs-64.efi” from EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI, and added “HFSPlus.efi”. I also added to following kexts to EFI/CLOVER/kexts/10.10:

  • AHCI_3rdParty_SATA.kext
  • AtherosE2200Ethernet.kext
  • FakeSMC.kext
  • IOAHCIFamily.kext

At first I did not even reach the OS X installer. When I pressed enter to install OS X at the Clover boot screen I received the message "root device uuid is...+++”. I managed to solve this problem by carefully re-installing Clover and re-creating the bootable USB drive, and following the guide at [13, or another source]. The next problem was that I got the message "Unable to find driver for this platform: \"ACPI\"...". I solved this problem by unchecking all the boxes in the Acpi section in the config.plist file (using Clover Configurator), see Fig. 7.

119616-acpi-settings-clover-configurator.png

Fig. 9: Uncheck all boxes in the Acpi section in the config.plist file using Clover Configurator.​

When I finally reached the installer from the USB drive, I went into Disk Utility and chose Partition Layout: 1 Partition, Options: GUID Partition Table and Name: Macintosh HD. I quit Disk Utility and clicked “Continue” to install OS X on the SSD. When the computer rebooted I booted Clover again, and selected Install OS X, and the installation process continued. When OS X was installed, I installed Clover onto the SSD using the Clover installer (I booted using the USB drive). I chose the same options as when installing on the USB drive (remember to choose the SSD/HDD as the target drive), but this time I also chose “Install RC scripts on target volume”. Furthermore, I chose “Install Clover Preference Pane”. See Fig. 10. I copied the same kexts, removed VBoxHfs-64.efi from EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI and added HFSPlus.efi to the same folder.

119619-clover-install-ssd.png

Fig. 10: Choose “Install RC scripts on target volume” and “Install Clover Preference Pane”.​

One thing that did not work was audio. I used toleda’s Clover Patched Realtek ALC method [2], and followed the instructions. However, the implemented ALC1150 codec caused me a bit of a headache, and it did not work at first. I missed the part where I should have replaced <09ec10> with <0009ec10> in the config.plist, see Fig. 11 (Note F. 1. in [2]).

119620-kernel-kext-patches-section-clover-configurator.png

Fig. 11: Replace <09ec10> with <0009ec10> in the config.plist.​

I tried to run audio_cloverALC-100-v1.0.1.command, but I got the error: No audio codec detected. When I open IORegistryExplorer and did a search for HDEF, it said layout id: <00 00 00 00>. In System Report under Audio, I could also see "Intel High Definition Audio. Audio ID: 0". I managed to fix this problem using the info at [3], particularly the file "[Guide] Add HDEF-Clover.pdf". I discovered that the reason audio did not work was that I had Inject=No instead of Inject=1 in my config.plist under Devices/Audio. I manually edited the file, and ran audio_cloverALC-100-v1.0.1.command again. I then edited replaced <09ec10> with <0009ec10> in the config.plist, restarted, and then it worked.

References
[1] http://www.corsair.com/de-de/carbide-series-air-240-high-airflow-micro-atx-and-mini-itx-pc-case
[2] https://github.com/toleda/audio_CloverALC
[3] https://github.com/toleda/audio_ALCInjection

Log
28/12-14: I am currently running 10.10.1 (updated without problems), and I have successfully updated the BIOS to version F3, which should improve SSD performance. I am running Clover v2k r3033.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi CloudWalker,
Nice build.
I'm starting to read around the forum, for a future build with Z97N-Gaming

How is it running so far?
 
So far it's working great.

Keep in mind that the included BT/wi-fi card didn't work for me. BT was supposed to be working, but it was only working half the time. With a BCM94360CD BT/wi-fi card (~ 25 EUR) and a mini PCI-E adapter (~ 15 EUR) bluetooth and wi-fi is working as it should.

I am still working on getting sleep to work, but that shouldn't be too difficult. I just haven't had the time to look into it properly yet.

I am also not sure that the CPU power management is working as it should. Using Intel Power Gadget it looks like I'm never going down to 800 MHz. I need to look into this, but I'm quite sure this isn't a problem specific to the GA-Z97N-Gaming 5 motherboard.

I have been measuring the power consumption with a watt-meter, this is what I got (monitor turned on):
Idle (~2.0-2.5 GHz, SSD on, HDD off): ~28 W (CPU: 29 C).
Idle (~2.0-2.5 GHz, SSD on, HDD on): ~36 W (CPU: 29 C).
Load (3.2 GHz, SSD on, HDD on): ~72 W (CPU: 54 C).

I stressed the CPU using the command [1]
Code: 
yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null &

References:
[1] http://osxdaily.com/2012/10/02/stress-test-mac-cpu/
 
Awesome build! I used your thread to flesh out my build which I just finished last night; my first time.

A little irritating that iMessage don't work, that's the whole point of this system I was annoyed at having to switch between my iPhone to answer messages @ home.


Build:
Shuttle XPC Case
Z97n-Gaming 5
HIS HD 7770 IceQ-X 1gb ddr5
8gb ddr3 Corsair Vengeance

What doesn't work:
iMessage
BT & wifi
 
Hey!

Any plans to update to El Capitan? This guide helped me quite a bit in installing Yosemite, and I was wondering if you had any tips/settings to keep in mind for El Capitan.
 
I actually just upgraded to El Capitan yesterday.

Here's what I did:
- Update Clover to latest version.
- Using the latest version of Clover Configurator, set rootless=0 (under Boot). This disables the System Integrity Protection (SIP) system, so remember to remove the boot flag once you've updated.
- Copy kexts from Clover 10.10 folder to 10.11 folder in the EFI partition.
- Had to patch audio again (as described in the first post).

I think that's it :) Give it a go and let me know how it went.
 
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