pierick13113's mATX BLACK CUBE : GA-Z87MX-D3H - i7-4770 - HD 4600

pierick13113's mATX BLACK CUBE : GA-Z87MX-D3H - i7-4770 - HD 4600

​

Components

Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Motherboard with DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and D-Sub Connections
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CU4L4XG/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128601

Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell 3.4Ghz
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO8TBQ0/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116900

Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B004CRSM4I/

Be Quiet 530W CM L8-CM-530W Pure Power 80 Plus Bronze
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JS580A/

Cooltek Coolcube Maxi (mAtx) Computer Case
[AMAZON-fr]http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00CUD4GLE[/AMAZON-fr]

Iiyama ProLite XB2779QS-B1
[AMAZON-fr]http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00GICH3JK/[/AMAZON-fr]

IOGear Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GFX0PY/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833139027


Already Owned

Samsung SSD 840 120Gb
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NHAF06/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ11K3235

Seagate HDD 3.5" SATA 7200 1TO


Apple Magic Mouse Bluetooth
[AMAZON-fr]http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B002NX0M8C/[/AMAZON-fr]

Apple Keyboard Bluetooth
[AMAZON-fr]http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005DPEHK6/[/AMAZON-fr]

Mac OS X.9 from App Store


Comments

I have always been using Macintosh systems since the first MacPlus. I bought an iMac Core i7 late 2009 in November 2009 for the Black Friday, and unfortunately it died in November 2013. Maybe I will fix it, but the problem of the "all in one" concept made me feel very disappointed concerning the fix. My first move, was to buy the new iMac Core i7 late 2013 with FD, which represent 2400 euros. I already build a hackintosh for a friend of mine last year, and I thought it was time to make it for me.

My goal was to get an iMac like, not "all in one", but equally powerful.. so Core i7 Haswell, DisplayPort, Fusion Drive, 27' Screen WQHD 2560*1440... the only difference was in the choice of using the Intel GPU 4600 HD instead of a graphic card... for the moment. I didn't need any Thunderbolt.

The Computer Case was a different problem for me. I wanted something small enough (but not too much), nice design (in my opinion), and mAtx... I didn't need any 5.25 extension bay. The cooltek (brand for EU) Coolcube Maxi was the best deal for me.

Be careful with the motherboard anyway... the SATA Ports are located in a special way... and it was very hard to plug my SATA Cable, because the front side of the PC Case is almost on the SATA Port...

Installation Notes

I have been using the excellent thread located here :
http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-bu...-matx-ga-z87mx-d3h-i7-4770k-hd-4600-a-45.html

So (Copy/paste for the thread of TonyMac) :

UEFI Settings
1. To access UEFI Setup, press and hold Delete on a USB Keyboard while the system is booting up
2. Set to Optimized Defaults.
3. Set X.M.P. Memory Profile to Profile1
4. Disable vt-d (for the non k processor like mine)
5. Save and exit.

Everything has been so easy... like on Macintosh !

Mavericks 10.9 - MultiBeast 6.0
.mb Config: GA-Z87MX-D3H.mb
Concerning the Fusion Drive, no need to explain you how because I have been using this other excellent thread located here :
http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...-drive-using-tonymacx86-tools-chimera-28.html

After that, the Black Cube is working at 98%. Only iMessage and iCloud are not working. Need to fix it, but it's complicated with the Fusion Drive.

Benchmarks

First, my benchmarks were very low, and my fan was noisy when I started geekbench. With HwMonitor I saw that the temperature of my processor was too high... nearly 100°C... I was about to buy the Noctua NHL-12 but I noticed that I didn't correctly put the Intel Fan. Now The temperature is around 30°C in Idle, and 50/60°C after playing to Lego's Lord of the Ring. And the real benchmark is down here :
General system benchmarks from Geekbench 3

OpenGL test results from Unigine Heaven for Intel HD 4600 graphics at 2560*1440



A few more screenshots :

I am 100% satisfied about the BLACK CUBE. It's quiet, powerful, and Mac OS X Mavericks is working good on. The price is exactly 50% of the price I should have payed to Apple Computer for the new 27' iMac Late 2013 with Core i7 and Fusion Drive (almost 1200 euros for the BLACK CUBE and 2400 euros for the iMac)
My next Step :

- I have to make a recovery Partition. I found the tutorial on the Fusion Drive thread.
- Fix the iMessage and iCloud Problem.
- Buy the Asus Nvidia Geforce GTX 760 2GB GDDR5 DirectCU II Mini Graphic card.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nvidia-GeForce-DirectCU-Graphics-Express/dp/B00EJ751NQ

I would like to thank this fantastic website for all the precious informations I could find here. This community is the true spirit of Apple Computer. I would like to thank the people that read this thread about the BLACK CUBE, and if my english is not strong enough, I would like to apologize in advance !

For the French readers, the link on the forum of Macbidouille...
http://forum.macbidouille.com/index.php?showtopic=377530&st=0

Great that you posted your solid build here.

You really inspired me and my next one will be a Cooltek also. (as soon as I get the budget)

You're welcome ! Glad to help you for the case !

Update February 2014 :

I finally activated iMessage and iCloud... by changing the details about my BlackCube using Chameleon Wizard. Need to fill all the informations with a new serial number from the smbios.plist AND copy the Extra folder to each BOOT partitions. This fixed the problem, and now everything is working fine. I can enjoy my music on every device at home from the iTunes sharing, I could subscribed to iTune Match and share my pictures with iPhoto with my iCloud.

The recovery Partition will wait a bit...