- Joined
- Jan 30, 2015
- Messages
- 13
- Motherboard
- GA-Z97M-D3H
- CPU
- i7-4790k
- Graphics
- Nvidia GTX 960
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
[SUCCESS] GA-Z97M-D3H - i7-4790k - 32 GB RAM - Intel HD Graphics 4600 - Yosemite 10.10.2
This is my first Hackintosh, but I'm an experience DIYer and hardware hacker. The video card on my mid-2011 iMac died, and rather than spend the hundreds on fixing that (the DIY repair is a pain in the butt), I decided to build up a Hackintosh on commodity hardware so in the future I can more easily fix it. Moreover, I now can easily fit enough drives into the case to be able to run Plex off my Customac and use my NAS just for backups instead.
At any rate, I figured after reading through the forums, it should be a piece of cake to get the thing off the ground. But it wasn't... not until, that is, I found *this* amazing and informative post: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks...-4790k-16gb-ram-intel-hd-graphics-4600-a.html
Until I replicated foxlet's procedure almost exactly (even though I'm installing Yosemite 10.10.2 and not Mavericks), I could not avoid kernel panics and never could get to the installer. But first, the Hardware:
Motherboard: GA-Z97M-D3H
Processor: Intel Core i7-4790k
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4600 (i.e. no discrete GPU)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 16GB kit (x2 for 32GB total)
HD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, HGST Deskstar 3TB
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M (white)
PS: Corsair RM450
Bluetooth: IOGEAR Bluetooth 4.0 USB Adapter (GBU521)
Network: Built-in Ethernet only
Foxlet's build linked to above formed the bulk of my procedure. However, I did have to deviate in a few respects as discussed below. Also, I installed only a single 8GB stick of RAM, and connected ONLY an external USB drive (to receive the yosemite install), the Unibeast USB stick, a USB keyboard, USB mouse and monitor via HDMI. I cannot say for sure that so little hardware is required to get this to work, but I saw many posts recommended it and while flailing about in the beginning, I opted to unplug the other hard drives etc...
BIOS:
Load Optimized Defaults
Turn off Turbo Boost in BIOS (M.I.T >> Advanced Frequency Settings >> Advanced CPU Core Features >> Intel Turbo Boost Technology >> Disabled)
Disable VTd
Set OS Type to Other OS
Initial Display set to IGFX
I tried setting XMP Profile 1 in BIOS, but the system was simply not stable with that turned on, so now I'm operating with it off. [EDIT: See below additional discussion of XMP.]
Install:
Using UniBeast, to get to the installer, booted with -v -x PCIRootUID=1 IGPEnabler=Yes GraphicsEnabler=No
Post-Install:
Use UniBeast to boot into Yosemite. Use boot flags: -x PCIRootUID=1
Multibeast:
QuickStart >> DSDT Free
Drivers >> Audio >> Realtek ALCxxx >> ALC892
[EDIT: Also need Drivers >> Audio >> Optional HDAEnabler >> Audio ID: 1]
Drivers >> Disk >> 3rd Party SATA
Drivers >> Disk >> 10.10.0 TRIM patch
Drivers >> Network >> Realtek >> RealtekRTL8111 (don't remember actual number)
Bootloader >> Chimera v3.0.1
Customize >> Boot Options >> Basic Boot Options
Customize >> Boot Options >> Generate CPU States
Customize >> Boot Options >> Hibernate Mode - Desktop
Customize >> Boot Options >> Use KernelCache
I also installed all available Misc FakeSMC drivers, USB 3.0, probably others I am not remembering...
After Multibeast installed all my drivers, I re-booted into Yosemite with no boot flags and it worked!
From there, I installed the other 3 sticks of ram, and connected my SSD and 3TB spindle. I then created a Fusion Drive per the instructions here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...ion-drive-using-tonymacx86-tools-chimera.html
That Guide says it is for ML, but the guide worked flawlessly for Yosemite. After cloaning my install to the fusion drive (I used SuperDuper!) and making it bootable, I restarted the machine, set the boot order in BIOS to first go to one of the fusion drive devices, and it booted into Yosemite from the fusion drive right off the bat. No problems whatsoever....
One issue I can probably somewhat confirm, is apparent system instability when connected to a USB hard drive. My initial install was on a USB hard drive, and the system would, occasionally, just freeze. It was infrequent enough that I could get the fusion drive created and bootable without too awfully many reboots. Once I was booting off the fusion drive, I disconnected the USB drive and have not had a hang since.
I tried to re-enable Turbo Boost, but that resulted in a kernel panic related to ACPI. I started to troubleshoot that, but haven't yet figured out how to get Turbo Boost working (or, frankly, whether that is even possible).
EDIT: XMP works just fine. So, probably the system instability I saw before was unrelated to that. *HOWEVER*, with XMP enabled, the CPU runs MUCH hotter. That makes sense because I see that the CPU throttles up to 4.4 Ghz under full load (BD transcode with Handbrake). With XMP off, the CPU never breaks 4.2 Ghz.
EDIT #2:
I have been unable to reproduce the CPU hitting 4.4 under load. It tops out at 4.2 which, I understand, is what the CPU is supposed to do. Apparently, 1 or 2 cores can, under certain circumstances, hit 4.4. But not when all cores are fully loaded. Turning on turbo boost in the BIOS is not necessary... the CPU throttles frequency up and down just fine without it.
The stock cooler proved to be inadequate. I removed the cooler once to clean and re-apply thermal compound, but at full load and with XMP off, the CPU fan and both case fans maxed, the CPU was still hitting mid to upper 90s. I added the Noctura NH-D15 which cleared the DIMMs and installed effortlessly. Amazing cooler... With just a single heatsink fan and under full load, the temp sits mid to upper 60s. The top of the heatsink will not clear hard drives mounted on the included hard drive bracket. That bracket provides just slightly too much standoff from the side of the case for the drives to clear the heatpipes. Nevertheless, you can still mount two 3.5 inch drives on the bottom of the case. Additional drives would require modifying the bracket to provide slightly less standoff, or adding a 5.25 bay adapter (though that would permit only a single 3.5 inch drive, not two).
I had an intermittent issue with bluetooth where the magic mouse and wireless keyboard would keep disconnecting and reconnecting. Console showed messages related to the disconnect/reconnect. I solved this issue by plugging the GBU521 into a USB 2.0 port instead of USB 3.0. YMMV on this since my GBU521 is connected through an AmazonBasics 7-port USB hub. The computer is actually about 6 feet away from the keyboard/mouse, and the bluetooth range was not sufficient. So, I ran a single long USB cable to the desktop where the USB hub is situated, with the GBU521 plugged into that and no more than a foot or two from the keyboard/mouse. Perhaps having the GBU521 plugged directly into the USB 3.0 port would work. At any rate, if you have issues, try moving it to the USB 2 port.
Edit #3:
This post is getting pretty long, but I want to help others figure stuff out more quickly than I did.
In the setup instructions listed above, selecting DSDT Free in Multibeast will include Customize->Boot Options->Generate CPU States. (Note, EasyBeast does not select that option and may be a better choice... YMMV.)
However, Generate CPU States is incompatible with Turbo Boost. Generate CPU States adds GenerateCStates=Yes and GeneratePStates=Yes to the org.chameleon.Boot.plist. If your chameleon plist contains these flags, enabling turbo boost results in a panic.
There is very little information around about what, exactly, Generate CPU States accomplishes. As near as I can tell, it is supposed to facilitate power management. I removed the GenerateXStates=Yes from my boot plist, enabled Turbo Boost in Bios, set every core with a multiplier of 44 and rebooted. Now, not only will the cores now go to 4.4 Ghz, but the CPU behaves no differently re: voltage and frequency scaling (i.e. the CPU doesn't appear to have any trouble operating in a number of different states). At idle, package power is usually around 5 watts or so, with a very low core voltage and clock freq.
Under full load at 4.4 Ghz, however, the package is dissipating up to 130 watts! The Noctua NH-D15 is keeping this at around 70C which is somewhat toasty (relatively speaking). I'm now going to move onto figuring out just how much I can undervolt the core to pull power down while still running at 4.4 full out. Without Turbo Boost enabled (and the cores capped to 4.2 Ghz), I was able to volt down to about 80-90 watts. ~40% more power consumption for only about 5% gain in Hz is silly. If I can't volt down sufficiently, I will just go back to capping at 4.2 Ghz.
This is my first Hackintosh, but I'm an experience DIYer and hardware hacker. The video card on my mid-2011 iMac died, and rather than spend the hundreds on fixing that (the DIY repair is a pain in the butt), I decided to build up a Hackintosh on commodity hardware so in the future I can more easily fix it. Moreover, I now can easily fit enough drives into the case to be able to run Plex off my Customac and use my NAS just for backups instead.
At any rate, I figured after reading through the forums, it should be a piece of cake to get the thing off the ground. But it wasn't... not until, that is, I found *this* amazing and informative post: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks...-4790k-16gb-ram-intel-hd-graphics-4600-a.html
Until I replicated foxlet's procedure almost exactly (even though I'm installing Yosemite 10.10.2 and not Mavericks), I could not avoid kernel panics and never could get to the installer. But first, the Hardware:
Motherboard: GA-Z97M-D3H
Processor: Intel Core i7-4790k
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4600 (i.e. no discrete GPU)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 16GB kit (x2 for 32GB total)
HD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, HGST Deskstar 3TB
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M (white)
PS: Corsair RM450
Bluetooth: IOGEAR Bluetooth 4.0 USB Adapter (GBU521)
Network: Built-in Ethernet only
Foxlet's build linked to above formed the bulk of my procedure. However, I did have to deviate in a few respects as discussed below. Also, I installed only a single 8GB stick of RAM, and connected ONLY an external USB drive (to receive the yosemite install), the Unibeast USB stick, a USB keyboard, USB mouse and monitor via HDMI. I cannot say for sure that so little hardware is required to get this to work, but I saw many posts recommended it and while flailing about in the beginning, I opted to unplug the other hard drives etc...
BIOS:
Load Optimized Defaults
Turn off Turbo Boost in BIOS (M.I.T >> Advanced Frequency Settings >> Advanced CPU Core Features >> Intel Turbo Boost Technology >> Disabled)
Disable VTd
Set OS Type to Other OS
Initial Display set to IGFX
I tried setting XMP Profile 1 in BIOS, but the system was simply not stable with that turned on, so now I'm operating with it off. [EDIT: See below additional discussion of XMP.]
Install:
Using UniBeast, to get to the installer, booted with -v -x PCIRootUID=1 IGPEnabler=Yes GraphicsEnabler=No
Post-Install:
Use UniBeast to boot into Yosemite. Use boot flags: -x PCIRootUID=1
Multibeast:
QuickStart >> DSDT Free
Drivers >> Audio >> Realtek ALCxxx >> ALC892
[EDIT: Also need Drivers >> Audio >> Optional HDAEnabler >> Audio ID: 1]
Drivers >> Disk >> 3rd Party SATA
Drivers >> Disk >> 10.10.0 TRIM patch
Drivers >> Network >> Realtek >> RealtekRTL8111 (don't remember actual number)
Bootloader >> Chimera v3.0.1
Customize >> Boot Options >> Basic Boot Options
Customize >> Boot Options >> Generate CPU States
Customize >> Boot Options >> Hibernate Mode - Desktop
Customize >> Boot Options >> Use KernelCache
I also installed all available Misc FakeSMC drivers, USB 3.0, probably others I am not remembering...
After Multibeast installed all my drivers, I re-booted into Yosemite with no boot flags and it worked!
From there, I installed the other 3 sticks of ram, and connected my SSD and 3TB spindle. I then created a Fusion Drive per the instructions here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...ion-drive-using-tonymacx86-tools-chimera.html
That Guide says it is for ML, but the guide worked flawlessly for Yosemite. After cloaning my install to the fusion drive (I used SuperDuper!) and making it bootable, I restarted the machine, set the boot order in BIOS to first go to one of the fusion drive devices, and it booted into Yosemite from the fusion drive right off the bat. No problems whatsoever....
One issue I can probably somewhat confirm, is apparent system instability when connected to a USB hard drive. My initial install was on a USB hard drive, and the system would, occasionally, just freeze. It was infrequent enough that I could get the fusion drive created and bootable without too awfully many reboots. Once I was booting off the fusion drive, I disconnected the USB drive and have not had a hang since.
I tried to re-enable Turbo Boost, but that resulted in a kernel panic related to ACPI. I started to troubleshoot that, but haven't yet figured out how to get Turbo Boost working (or, frankly, whether that is even possible).
EDIT: XMP works just fine. So, probably the system instability I saw before was unrelated to that. *HOWEVER*, with XMP enabled, the CPU runs MUCH hotter. That makes sense because I see that the CPU throttles up to 4.4 Ghz under full load (BD transcode with Handbrake). With XMP off, the CPU never breaks 4.2 Ghz.
EDIT #2:
I have been unable to reproduce the CPU hitting 4.4 under load. It tops out at 4.2 which, I understand, is what the CPU is supposed to do. Apparently, 1 or 2 cores can, under certain circumstances, hit 4.4. But not when all cores are fully loaded. Turning on turbo boost in the BIOS is not necessary... the CPU throttles frequency up and down just fine without it.
The stock cooler proved to be inadequate. I removed the cooler once to clean and re-apply thermal compound, but at full load and with XMP off, the CPU fan and both case fans maxed, the CPU was still hitting mid to upper 90s. I added the Noctura NH-D15 which cleared the DIMMs and installed effortlessly. Amazing cooler... With just a single heatsink fan and under full load, the temp sits mid to upper 60s. The top of the heatsink will not clear hard drives mounted on the included hard drive bracket. That bracket provides just slightly too much standoff from the side of the case for the drives to clear the heatpipes. Nevertheless, you can still mount two 3.5 inch drives on the bottom of the case. Additional drives would require modifying the bracket to provide slightly less standoff, or adding a 5.25 bay adapter (though that would permit only a single 3.5 inch drive, not two).
I had an intermittent issue with bluetooth where the magic mouse and wireless keyboard would keep disconnecting and reconnecting. Console showed messages related to the disconnect/reconnect. I solved this issue by plugging the GBU521 into a USB 2.0 port instead of USB 3.0. YMMV on this since my GBU521 is connected through an AmazonBasics 7-port USB hub. The computer is actually about 6 feet away from the keyboard/mouse, and the bluetooth range was not sufficient. So, I ran a single long USB cable to the desktop where the USB hub is situated, with the GBU521 plugged into that and no more than a foot or two from the keyboard/mouse. Perhaps having the GBU521 plugged directly into the USB 3.0 port would work. At any rate, if you have issues, try moving it to the USB 2 port.
Edit #3:
This post is getting pretty long, but I want to help others figure stuff out more quickly than I did.
In the setup instructions listed above, selecting DSDT Free in Multibeast will include Customize->Boot Options->Generate CPU States. (Note, EasyBeast does not select that option and may be a better choice... YMMV.)
However, Generate CPU States is incompatible with Turbo Boost. Generate CPU States adds GenerateCStates=Yes and GeneratePStates=Yes to the org.chameleon.Boot.plist. If your chameleon plist contains these flags, enabling turbo boost results in a panic.
There is very little information around about what, exactly, Generate CPU States accomplishes. As near as I can tell, it is supposed to facilitate power management. I removed the GenerateXStates=Yes from my boot plist, enabled Turbo Boost in Bios, set every core with a multiplier of 44 and rebooted. Now, not only will the cores now go to 4.4 Ghz, but the CPU behaves no differently re: voltage and frequency scaling (i.e. the CPU doesn't appear to have any trouble operating in a number of different states). At idle, package power is usually around 5 watts or so, with a very low core voltage and clock freq.
Under full load at 4.4 Ghz, however, the package is dissipating up to 130 watts! The Noctua NH-D15 is keeping this at around 70C which is somewhat toasty (relatively speaking). I'm now going to move onto figuring out just how much I can undervolt the core to pull power down while still running at 4.4 full out. Without Turbo Boost enabled (and the cores capped to 4.2 Ghz), I was able to volt down to about 80-90 watts. ~40% more power consumption for only about 5% gain in Hz is silly. If I can't volt down sufficiently, I will just go back to capping at 4.2 Ghz.
Last edited:
