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Short's Beastly Build - i7-4770k - GA-Z87X-UD3H - GTX 770 4GB

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Jun 13, 2013
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Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
CPU
i7-4770K
Graphics
GTX 770
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
[SUCCESS] Short's Beastly Build - i7-4770k - GA-Z87X-UD3H - GTX 770 4GB


Short's Beastly Build: Core i7-4770k - GA-Z87X-UD3H - 32GB RAM - GTX 770 4GB



21iy.png


Components

Apple OS X Mavericks @ Mac Apps Store
https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/os-x-mavericks/id675248567?l=en&mt=12

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H LGA-1150
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CU4L508/

Palit GTX 770 4GB GDDR5
http://geizhals.de/palit-geforce-gtx-770-jetstream-ne5x770010g2-1041j-a953281.html (Germany)

Intel Core i7-4770k
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO8TBQ0/

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GWMQNE/

Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev. A
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008YTUN38/

650 Watt be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 Modular PSU
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Z1DOX2/

Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HD3CTI/

250GB Samsung 840 EVO Series SSD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3W1726/

Eizo Foris FS2333-BK 23.6" IPS Display
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ASHTZYM/



Already Owned

3 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RORMF6/

128GB Samsung 830 Pro Series SSD (Windows drive)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0077CR60Q/

Apple Wired Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DLDTAE/

Roccat Savu Gaming Mouse
http://www.amazon.com/ROCCAT-Mid-Size-Hybrid-Gaming-ROC-11-600/dp/B007MPVRQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1383086000&sr=1-1&keywords=roccat+savu

8GB USB Drive
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JPVT8G/


Comments

This build was planned to be a beast. I mainly work with Cinema 4D and After Effects, so there wasn't a doubt that I needed a powerful CPU. There are OpenGL and OpenCL features in many plugins that I use, so I chose the GTX 770 with 4GB of VRAM which is natively supported in OS X.
What should I say about the other specs? You can't have enough RAM, the case looks awesome and the 840 EVO SSD is a great deal.
So let's get started.


10.9 Installation Guide

1. Update your BIOS to the latest version (currently F7).
Note: If you experience random freezes, try upgrading to the latest Beta BIOS.
1.1 Format your USB drive as FAT.
1.2 Download the latest BIOS here (beta BIOS here) and copy it to the USB drive.
1.3 Restart your PC and go into BIOS by pressing the DEL key.
1.4 Click on "Load Optimized Defaults".
1.5 Save & Exit, your PC should reboot after that.
1.6 Go into BIOS again and open Q-Flash, it should detect the BIOS file on your USB drive.
1.7 Flash the new BIOS version.

2. Configure your BIOS (credits to SquadSeven)
2.1 Load optimized defaults
2.2 Performace > X.M.P. > Profile 1
2.3 Peripherals > xHCI Mode > AUTO
2.4 Peripherals > xHCI Hand-OFF > ENABLED
2.5 Peripherals > EHCI Hand-OFF > ENABLED
Skip step 2.6 and 2.7 if you want to use your internal graphics chip
(2.6 Peripherals > Internal Graphics > DISABLED)
(2.7 Peripherals > Init Display First > PCIe slot of your graphics card)
2.8 Power Management > Wake on Lan > DISABLED
2.9 BIOS Features > Boot Options, change it to your boot disk but pick the one that starts with P2 or some number like that. Do not select the UEFI version else you will get the missing operating system error.
2.10 Save and Exit Bios.

3. Create a Mavericks USB Installer (Guide).
3.1 Copy MultiBeast and my config file (it is in the attachements of this post) to the USB drive.

4. Boot from the USB drive and enter installation.

5. At the installation screen, go to Utilities > Disk Utility.
5.1 Choose the drive you want to install OS X to on the left.
5.2 Go to the "Partiiton" tab.
5.3 Select "1 Partition", enter "Mavericks HDD" as name (you can change it later), choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as format and under options > "GUID Partition Table".
5.4 Click on "Partition", wait until it's finished and exit disk utility.

6. Install OS X to the drive you partitioned in the previous step.

7. After installation has finished, reboot and boot from your USB drive.

8. This time, instead of entering the installer, choose "Mavericks HDD" by using the arrow keys, type in "-v" (without the "") and press Enter.

9. Go through the intital configuration of OS X.

10. Open MultiBeast, click on "Load" at the top right corner and choose my config file.

IMPORTANT: If you want to use a dedicated graphics card, go to Customize > Boot Options > IGPEnabler=No. If you have installed OS X on a SSD, enable Drivers > Disk > TRIM Enabler.

11. Go to Build and then click Install.

12. After MultiBeast has finished, reboot your PC.

13. This time, boot from your Mavericks HDD and boot into OSX.

14. If all goes well, you are sitting in front of a fully functioning Hackintosh. If not, don't worry - we're here to help. Enjoy!


Screenshot 2014-01-11 16.08.09.pngScreenshot 2014-01-12 11.24.43.png
Windows Cinebench: CPU 746 cb, GPU 112.99 fps
Mac OS 10.8.5 Cinebench: CPU 713 cb, GPU 100.62 fps
Mac OS 10.9.1 Cinebench: CPU 774 cb, 92.90 fps


Edit Section:
Note: You can skip to Edit 2013-12-27, as upgrading to F8k BIOS fixed all the problems I had. Everything before was failed attempts, so you don't necessarily have to go through my troubleshooting process.

2013-10-30:
What's working (tested): Audio, Ethernet, USB 3.0, Sleep, FakeSMC + HWMonitor
What doesn't work: Some users of this board as well as myself had the problem of random freezes. Either this is a hardware problem with the mainboard or this will be fixed with a BIOS update. Discussion on this topic can be found here, the change that might have done the trick for me is the following:
I might have found a solution for our problem, didn't have freezes since (over 6 hours of uptime).
Try increasing DRAM voltage to 1.65V in the BIOS (1.5V is default) and reduce the RAM frequency by disabling XMP (my RAM runs on 1333MHz instead of 1600MHz now).

2013-12-01:
Everything works now! I sent back my mainboard and it was confirmed that there was a hardware problem with my mainboard. I got a new one and didn't have any freezes ever since.

2013-12-15:
After some days without freezes, thinking that the problem was solved, they came back.
Being very busy at the moment, I removed one RAM stick (now I have 24GB left) and set the DDR frequency to 1333MHz. I haven't had any freezes since.
As tailchaser stated in his build thread, he fixed the freezes by removing the AppleIntelHD drivers. I did the same and am currently testing wether this helps (I increased the frequency back up to 1600MHz).
Video Card Issues
I was experiencing graphics card issues including rendering problems in Maps and complete system freezes without kernel panic when manipulating any HD video under certain circumstances and always when attempting to load HD DRM content in iTunes for transfer to my iPad. Some digging showed that the OS was ignoring the BIOS disable of the Intel Graphics. I removed the following .kext files, ran the kext utility, and the system is now 100% stable.
Code:
AppleIntelHD3000Graphics.kext
AppleIntelHD4000Graphics.kext
AppleIntelHD5000Graphics.kext
AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext

2013-12-19:
Removing the AppleIntelHD kexts didn't solve the issue. I noticed that incresing the RAM frequency to 1600MHz (setting X.M.P. to Profile1) gave me more frequent freezes.
I removed all RAM sticks except for one, so I can test if one module is broken (memtest86 gave no errors). I have it running for 12 hours now with 1 RAM module at 1600MHz, no freezes. I will test the other modules and give an update for you guys.

2013-12-20:
The bad news: it froze again with one RAM stick at 1600MHz. The good news: it seems that flashing the F8j BIOS has fixed the freezes, I have been running with all 4 RAM sticks at 1600MHz without any freezes for 12 hours. I will let it run for a few days and give an update here. More on Gigabyte Beta BIOS here.

2013-12-26:
Unfortunately, the system froze again after 24 hours. I will upgrade to F8k BIOS next week and see whether it helps. The freezes, at least with my system, aren't specific to any OS, I tried Windows, Mavericks and Mountain Lion now... So I hope it will be fixed with a BIOS update in the near future. If even F8 BIOS doesn't help, I will return this board and get another model, I finally want a stable system *grrr*

2013-12-27:
(1) I upgraded my BIOS to F8k and will update to Mavericks now (previously downgraded to Mountain Lion to test whether the freezes are Mavericks' fault). Let's see whether F8k did the trick (testing with X.M.P. enabled & stock voltages).

(2) Is this real life? Could this be it? No freezes since I upgraded to F8k BIOS with X.M.P. enabled and stock memory voltage :O

2013-12-28:
WOW! I can't describe how happy I am :D My machine's running for 22 hours without a single freeze at 1600MHz memory frequency and stock voltage!
I think F8k BIOS is the ultimate solution to the freeze problem if your system freezes no matter what OS you use.

2014-01-03:
Happy new year everyone! Being so hyped about the F8k BIOS, which indeed fixed the freeze issue for me, I forgot to mention that I successfully updated to 10.9.1 last week. Just update and reinstall the audio drivers via MultiBeast before rebooting.
I noticed that F8m BIOS was released today, I'm not sure when or whether I'll be upgrading my BIOS, my machine is running perfectly since F8k.

2014-01-06:
Today I updated to F8m beta BIOS, which improved speed stepping (highest multiplier is x37 now), it seems very stable so far.
I also updated the MultiBeast config file to 6.1.

2014-01-11:
I updated the Cinebench score on 10.9.1, highest multiplier the CPU went to is x39 (-> turboboost working!)

2014-01-12:
I updated the Geekbench score on 10.9.1. With F8m BIOS I now get the following multipliers using the MacPro3,1 defintion: x8, x35, x37 and x39.
 

Attachments

  • GA-Z87X-UD3H MultiBeast 6.1 Config.mb
    4.9 KB · Views: 1,631
No problems with the process?? How does everything work? I'm debating and these two + stability are pretty important.

How's the heat in that case? Any additional fans?

Awesome build! Jealous of the 770.
 
No problems with the process?? How does everything work? I'm debating and these two + stability are pretty important.

How's the heat in that case? Any additional fans?

Awesome build! Jealous of the 770.
The whole installation process went perfectly using the guide I wrote above. I added a "what works/what doesn't work" description at the end of post #1.
There are two fans in the case by default, one at the front and one at the rear.
CPU Temp is between 28°C (idle) and 60°C (full workload for hours). The hard drives get to around 48°C when they have to work alot, which is pretty warm (but still OK).
 
I'm using the same board and CPU. After all settings in bios, I'll boot from the USB but at some point the pinwheel underneath the apple logo stops for about 15 minutes then the system just shuts down. If I turn it back on, it boots directly from the USB and does the same thing. Any ideas why this may be happening?
 
I'm using the same board and CPU. After all settings in bios, I'll boot from the USB but at some point the pinwheel underneath the apple logo stops for about 15 minutes then the system just shuts down. If I turn it back on, it boots directly from the USB and does the same thing. Any ideas why this may be happening?
Boot with -v and look where it stops.
 
Boot with -v and look where it stops.


I must be extremely noob because I don't see where you would enter any parameters. This is where it hangs. The first install from Unibeast, I select it to boot from the USB device, it gives me the Unibeast option to install, I select it then it shows the apple logo and the pinwheel progress right underneath it. It spins for about 30 seconds the stops. The activity light on the USB also stops. System would shut down after about 15 minutes after that.
 
I must be extremely noob because I don't see where you would enter any parameters. This is where it hangs. The first install from Unibeast, I select it to boot from the USB device, it gives me the Unibeast option to install, I select it then it shows the apple logo and the pinwheel progress right underneath it. It spins for about 30 seconds the stops. The activity light on the USB also stops. System would shut down after about 15 minutes after that.
After you have selected to boot from your USB drive, you should see the Chimera screen. If you press Enter, your PC will enter the installation (or in your case, it won't), but you can also type "-v" and then press Enter. This will enable verbose mode, which allows you to monitor what's happening during the boot process.
 
After you have selected to boot from your USB drive, you should see the Chimera screen. If you press Enter, your PC will enter the installation (or in your case, it won't), but you can also type "-v" and then press Enter. This will enable verbose mode, which allows you to monitor what's happening during the boot process.


Great! That worked. Now, it won't boot from HDD even after I installed chimera 2.2.1 Any suggestion?
It just keeps spinning and if I try -v it gets stuck at....I don't remember. It boots fine using the USB and selecting HDD.


--UPDATE: NVM, I was able to get online and used your settings and it worked. Thanks much!
 
I have almost an identical build, and I followed your steps, and damned near everything worked perfect, except for the audio. When I loaded your multibeast file, I got the warning that Drivers>Network>Intel - hnak's AppleIntelE1000e v.2.5.4d is no longer supported, but I thought that that wasn't related.
 
I have almost an identical build, and I followed your steps, and damned near everything worked perfect, except for the audio. When I loaded your multibeast file, I got the warning that Drivers>Network>Intel - hnak's AppleIntelE1000e v.2.5.4d is no longer supported, but I thought that that wasn't related.
Sorry for that, I updated the file for MultiBeast 6.0.1.
What exactly doesn't work with your audio? Did you try using the black port on the rear?
 
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