I've been able to successfully patch 5601. I ran into two problems that are worth describing for the benefit of anyone else with this motherboard.
The first problem is that the video says to download afuwin v4.x.x. If you google afuwin, you'll find that version 4.4.8 is currently available. However, this is not the right version for this motherboard as it is for AMIBIOS8. Our board uses an APTIO bios and the version of afuwin that is currently available is 5.05.04. If you get the error message "error flash part is not supported" its because you downloaded the wrong version of afuwin. It's confusing because both applications are named afuwin and the video says to download version 4.x.x.
The second problem is with UEFITool. The current version on github is named UEFITool_NE A21. I've tried both the mac version and the windows version. Both enable you to edit the rom file, but this version will not enable you to "replace body" as the video instructs you to do. Right clicking on the PE32 image section produces a menu in which "replace body" is greyed out.
The solution is to find an older version of UEFITool. I found UEFITool v0.21.5 with google. In this version, the menu item to "replace body" is not greyed out.
After finding the right versions of afuwin and UEFITool, modifying the bios went about as smoothly as can be; just like in the video. I actually ended up using afudos from a bootable flash drive to avoid having to install Windows 7 just to mod the bios. Used NikeZZZ's method described in post 173 (page 18) of the SalPro Dual Xeon thread and the kexts he posted in post 103 (page 11) of the same thread.
The patched 5601 bios is working great. I was never able to get to the mavericks install screen with 5802. I bought a bios chip from ebay with 5601 on it and was able to boot with it and use ezflash to put 5601 on the original bios chip so I would have a backup. I thought it was impossible to downgrade the bios, but it seems that you can. Here's how I did it.
Step 1: download bios 5601 from Asus support site and put it on a flash drive.
Step 2: boot with the bios chip purchased from ebay with 5601 already installed on it.
Step 3: press delete key during boot to enter bios setup.
Step 4: insert flash drive with bios downloaded from Asus site.
Step 5: go to tools menu of bios setup and select ezflash, navigate to the folder where the downloaded bios is.
Step 6: with the computer running, remove the bios chip and replace it with the other one (presumably with 5802 on it).
Step 7: flash the bios
You should now have 5601 on the bios chip that used to have 5802. I should note that I have not tried to flash a bios earlier than 5601 after booting with 5601. I have a feeling this will not work. It may make sense to buy a chip with 0703 on it so we can flash to any bios that came later.
Note: ImmortalJman says to disable vt-d. There are actually two places in the bios setup screens where vt-d has to be disabled. One is on the CPU settings and the other is on the same page where you find CPU IIO Bridge Configuration option -- its about 2 lines down. If you miss one or the other setting, you can still boot if you have dart=0 in your boot options.
Boot options to get to installer when booting with onboard VGA: -v -x npci=0x2000 PCIRootUID=1
Boot options when booting with onboard VGA with Chimera: npci=0x2000 PCIRootUID=1
Update: 3/5/16
Geekbench 32 bit Score: 32000
Internet and USB3 are working.
Galaxy GT430 graphics card is working in slot 1. Dual monitors work with Mac driver, but Nvidia's web driver will only turn on the monitor connected to the DVI port. Went back to Mac drivers for dual monitor support. A problem worth mentioning is that the graphics card would boot to a black screen with PCIRootUID=1. Had to change that to PCIRootUID=0 before the card would boot to the desktop.
Boot options when booting with GT430: npci=0x2000 PCUIRootUID=0, GraphicsEnabler=Yes
The Realtek 898 sound chip is not working. I'm still working on this. But, a USB dongle with sound outputs does work.
Sleep is not working. But, the computer boots so fast, I can live with having to turn it off.
I have not used the SSDT options as I believe this only works for Ivy Bridge CPUs and I have a pair of Sandy Bridge Xeon 2670 v1 CPUs which I bought on Ebay for $65 each. I am quite happy with the performance of these CPUs in this motherboard as a hackintosh running Mavericks 10.9.5.
I'm going to hold off moving to Clover and El Capitan. Mavericks is what my current workstation is running now, and I don't want to go through the hassle of upgrading all my apps to versions compatible with El Capitan just yet.
I want to thank those who have posted their knowledge about this motherboard, particularly Paradigm99, Salcazar, ImmortalJMan, Drnoodle, and NikeZZZ. I've learned a lot from the messages you've left here. Although it seems that this thread is inactive, I'll be around to pass along what I've learned from you all to others who want to take advantage of today's low priced xeon 2670s to build a really powerful hackintosh with this motherboard. Without the knowledge you posted here, I would not have attempted to do this build no matter how good a deal the CPUs were.
Update 3/9/16
Had another look at Piker-Alpha's ssdtPRgen.sh script link was on post 588 page 59. Once installed executed ./ssdtPRgen.sh -cpus 2 -p E5-2670v1. Hardware monitor shows the cpu speeds changing now. Looks like the mac is able to turbo boost and speedstep now. Contrary to my earlier belief that would only benefit ivy-bridge cpus, it appears that it should also work for sandy-bridge.
However, after generating the ssdt and clicking on the box in MB to drop ssdt, I am not seeing any of the cores turbo-boosting. I see the cores switching between 1.2 Ghz and 2.6 Ghz which is still an improvement.
Also got WOL working following the instructions from:
https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1001019/
Oddities about this build:
1) I have a GT430 in slot 1. If I boot with PCIRootUID=1, I get a blackscreen and the computer is not reachable via screen sharing when using osx or nvidia video drivers.
If I use nvidia drivers and boot with PCIRootUID=0, I get a blackscreen, but I am able to connect via screen sharing to set it back to osx drivers. Booting with PCIRootUID=0 with osx drivers works perfectly.
It seems that everyone else here boots with PCIRootUID=1, uses the nvidia drivers, and places their video card in slot 3, 5, or 7. I have my video card in slot 1 and have to boot with PCIRootUID=0. Could it be that slots 3,5 and 7 are on PCIRootUID 1 but slot 1 is on PCIRootUID 0? Wish there were a few more people trying to work with this motherboard to collaborate with.
2) Quite a few people in this thread said they were able to get native sound working with the driver for 898 in multi-beast. I'm using Multibeast v6.5.1 and the 898 driver does not work. I also tried the driver to add hdmi sound and it did not work either. This is not a problem because a USB sound dongle works out of the box. I mention it as an oddity because so many others here reported it working, but not for me.
Remaining issues:
1) Sleep. I don't mind having to turn off the machine, but I would like sleep to work. Reading through this thread, it is not clear whether anyone has gotten sleep working without using sleepenabler. I'm going to try sleepenabler next.
Update 3/15/16
Native sound is working. I noticed that in the salpro thread, he mentioned using multibeast v5.5.4. I could only find 5.5.5, but checking the realtek driver for 898 and the option for 3 ports got my sound working. Checking the same options on Multibeast v6.5.1 does not work.
Sleep is still an issue. ImmortalJman's instructions said to install NullCpuPowerManagement. I think this is why sleep is not working and it also preventing me from getting the benefit of Speedstep and Turboboost. Still looking into this but wanted to update this post to document how to get the audio working.
Update 3/16/16
Upon rebooting, the sound drivers from MB 5.5.5 are not compatible with Chameleon v3.0.1. Machine will not boot back to desktop with audio drivers from MB5.5.5 installed using chameleon 3.0.1 as the bootloader. Going back to the USB sound solution.
