[Success] GA-Z170XP-SLI - i7-6700K - GTX 960 - M.2 Drive

[tomkz]

tomkz's Build: i7-6700K - Z170XP-SLI - Gigabyte GTX 960​

Components

Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012AQGL4A/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128841

Intel i7-6700K Processor

Corsair 212 EVO Processor Cooler

GSkill Ripjaws 32GB (2x16GB) F4-2800C15D-32GVR

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB WindForce 2X OC Edition (GV-N960OC-4GD)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013LDXPFO/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125802

Evo Supernova G2 750 PSU

TP-Link Archer T9E AC1900 Wireless PCIe Card

Primary HD: Samsung 950 m.2 - MZ-V5P256BW

Secondary HDs: 2x Samsung 850 - MZ-75E250B/AM


Comments

Preliminary Hurdles:
- The M.2 drive wasn't visible until I updated the MB BIOS to F6 - the MB has a good utility that made this easy. Also needed to add the NVMeGeneric kext.

- This Video Card Bios has a revving glitch - also needed a BIOS update... but it had to be done from Windows. As I don't want MS anywhere near this rig, I took it to a shop that had a Windows Live USB boot stick... and they updated it. Other than that - it's the normal turn nvdrivers off during install... add the drivers from nvidia... and then tell the system to use them in the boot config.

Config Boot Flags (it was 2 weeks ago, so i'm a little hazy)
-v nv_disable=1

Once inside... run MultiBeast - inject audio ACL 1150
Update the latest NVidia drivers

I used Clover Configuator (CC) to define my RAM - as it was only picking up half of it.

In CC, I also:
Boot - turned on -v and nvdra_drv=1
Set my SMBios to mac pro 3,1 - I've tried a bunch - this one seems to be most stable - and the only one where I don't lose audio when the rig sleeps. If you pick one that isn't stable (won't boot) - you can always override the SMBIOS in clover options during bootup...

Of course... that's once I got through the learning curve... There was no audio at first, one of the main threads on this problem resolved that. Then I tried different SMBios settings... the iMac ones, and found 14,1 most stable, but it was losing audio on sleep... and sometimes needed to double or triple boot to actually open. I experimented with a lot of audio fixes for the sleep problem - so not sure if some of those played a part in the current config working... but it's too messy to remember. (more than happy to help others with this build sort it out if needed.


Some other notes:

- When I first booted - the video performance was terrible... a lot of screen tearing. This was fixed with the nvidia drivers.
- Do not inject Nvidia during the install ... seems like a good idea... cost me many hours of pain.
- I was very happy to see my wifi card working right away.
- I was getting a lot of extra partitions being made like many others... just follow the instructions on removing the crappy ones... and this goes away when you have things setup properly.
- Had sound being lost on sleep/wake - i think the HDA enabler1 and 2 kexts resolved this - but it does seem to glitch out once in a while still.

HUGE THANKS to all who made these tools and threads!

 

[Mr2sday]

Please help...how did you get past all the hardware issues...I can't seem to get my network working.

 

[tomkz]

Please help...how did you get past all the hardware issues...I can't seem to get my network working.

I had my network working right away because i bought a wifi card... Ethernet required adding RealtekRTL8111.kext

 

[EddyMac]

Please help...how did you get past all the hardware issues...I can't seem to get my network working.

Run Multibeast again and choose the Realtek network driver.

 

[cmrabe1939]

I have this same build except a different graphics card, I can not get the computer to recognize the m.2 drive.

I am trying to install Sierra, did you do this build on el cap?

 

[tomkz]

To get the M.2 drive detected, i needed to add this kext: NVMeGeneric.kext

I'm on El Capitan.

I can help you with most of the issues.... my most noticeable problem remaining is losing sound on sleep... Have tried a lot of the solutions - but none seem to work all the time. (Some seemed to work some of the time...). My work around for this at the moment is only letting my monitors sleep.

 

[cmrabe1939]

To get the M.2 drive detected, i needed to add this kext: NVMeGeneric.kext

I'm on El Capitan.

I can help you with most of the issues.... my most noticeable problem remaining is losing sound on sleep... Have tried a lot of the solutions - but none seem to work all the time. (Some seemed to work some of the time...). My work around for this at the moment is only letting my monitors sleep.

I have gotten everything working except for the graphics. The nvidia web drivers are installed, but they are not working because my dislay is not correct resolution and i have tons of screen tear ect... any ideas?

 

[tomkz]

I don't think it's a resolution issue (could be wrong though). If you're seeing screen tearing - my experience makes me think that you do NOT actually have the nvidia driver enabled... I only had screen tearing until the driver was turned on.

There is a setting for this in the clover config app, and you can experiment with it via the option flags when booting up. IIRC it's something like nvda_drv=1 ... you also want to make sure that you aren't using nv_disable=1

 

[Kromsky]

Hello everyone,

I want to make a build with the same Mobo and since I'm shipping the hardwares from USA, I want to be sure about some questions before trying the build.

Mobo : Gigabyte LGA 1151 GA-Z170XP-SLI
CPU : Intel Core i7-7700K (4.2 GHz)
Graphics : Gigabyte GeForce GV-N960OC-4GD
RAM : GSkill Ripjaws 32GB (2x16GB) F4-2800C15D-32GVR (x2)
SSD Drive : Samsung SSD 950 PRO M.2 PCIe 512 Go
HDD Drive:
PCI-e WD40RUNVS 4TB / 128GB SSD (x3)
Cooler :
Corsair 212 EVO Processor Cooler (x2)
Power :
Evo Supernova G2 750 PSU
Wifi Card :
TP-Link Archer T9E AC1900 Wireless PCIe Card
Case :
Carbide Series® Clear 600C Inverse ATX Full-Tower Case

Not so different you would say. I just changed the CPU and the SSD Drive (verified compatibility).
I want to change the SSD Drive by one with more capacity but in the mobo website, since they didn't update the list of compatible SSD Drives since March 2016 I couldn't find a " Samsung SSD 950 PRO M.2 PCIe 2 To " drive on the list. Should I try and buy it anyway ?

Can I add one more Graphic card without problem ?

Beside that, I think it should be ok... I don't know what you think...
Did I make a mistake somewhere ? The power supply maybe ?

I want to build this machine for editing. Mostly for big Data and up to 5k definition. Any advice would be really helpful.

One more question : I want to instal a Windows partition. How to do that ?

I know that I'm not the first one to ask begginers questions but I would be really thankful for any advice.

Thank again

 

[tomkz]

I'm speaking with very little experience outside of my build... but as far as I know, as long as you have the kext for m2, I would assume a bigger one would be fine.

I only have the one video card, so don't know about that... if one works though, you'd think two would as well, but it may take a different profile (imac, macpro, etc...) to get stability. Have there been any updates on the 10 series video card drivers? I would much prefer to upgrade my 960 over getting two of them.... If you do get that video card, mine needed a firmware update to not be irritating as hell... (fans kept speeding up for 10 seconds every 30 seconds).

Don't know anything about getting windows on it... I temporarily used parallels to get access to the data in a couple of programs, but haven't opened it in months.... a friend helped me get linux on there instead... but I gave it it's own SSD.

Not much help for you unfortunately...