- Joined
- Apr 23, 2014
- Messages
- 46
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H
- CPU
- i7-4770
- Graphics
- GTX 1060
- Mobile Phone
Sisko612's Hack Mini
Gigabyte H170N-WIFI, i5 6500, 16GB RAM, Streacom F1C EVO-WS Case, macOS Sierra
Gigabyte H170N-WIFI, i5 6500, 16GB RAM, Streacom F1C EVO-WS Case, macOS Sierra
Intel Core i5 6500 3.20 GHz Quad Core Skylake Desktop Processor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010T6CWI2/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.jdoqocy.com/click-4902415-10446076?url=//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117563
Noctua NH-L9i 95mm SSO2 CPU Cooler
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VCAJ7W/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608029
GIGABYTE GA-H170N-WIFI LGA1151 Intel H170 Mini-ITX DDR4 Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015CQ8D9Q/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128847
Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM BLS2K8G4D240FSB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UFF7Y4A/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148985
Samsung 850 EVO - 500GB - M.2 SATA III Internal SSD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TGIW1XG/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373
Streacom F1C EVO-WS Mini ITX HTPC Chassis
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00958D9LA/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
http://www.quietpcusa.com/Streacom-F1C-EVO-Mini-ITX-HTPC-Chassis.aspx
Streacom 160W nanoPSU and AC/DC adapter block
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NSQD1A/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
http://www.quietpcusa.com/Streacom-160W-nanoPSU.aspx
Dell Wireless DW1560 WLAN WiFi 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0 M.2 Card - 6XRYC
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X6J4NBY/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=20035
Dell S2715H 27" HD Monitor - Black
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M9B3S0W/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-27-hd-monitor-black/3112028.p?skuId=3112028
Comments
About This Build
My wife's 8-yr old iMac died so I talked her into letting me try to build a scaled down hack-mini for her. I used the SnazzyLabs Mini build as a starting point but it ended up costing a bit more than their total.
Building The System
This was my first mini-ITX build but it came together quickly and without any major difficulties. I followed ammulder's excellent guide which took a lot of the guesswork out of it. The replacement of the M.2 wifi card was easy, as was the installation of the M.2 SSD on the underside of the motherboard. I had originally ordered a picoPSU as recommended by the SnazzyLabs article but it wasn't compatible with the case (the connector for the power brick didn't fit in the hole in the case) so I returned it and got a nanoPSU (which is what the case manufacturer recommends anyway).
I upgraded the BIOS to the latest version (F20). To verify that the hardware was properly connected & working, I installed Windows 10 Home on the SSD first. Everything was good.
I encountered a few hiccups during the Sierra/UniBeast installation:
- "Prohibited" symbol - caused by the combination of a USB 3.0 stick and a USB 3.0 port. Fortunately the new Dell monitor has a 2.0 hub built into it, so I used that.
- Kernel panic/reboot loop - the KP occurred in the Intel graphics drivers. It turned out that the BIOS upgrade had reset the memory allocations for the internal graphics to 32MB(!!) which apparently wasn't enough for the installer to work with. I changed those settings to 1024/MAX.
Once at the desktop, I ran MultiBeast with ammulder's recommended settings as well as applying his Clover settings, kexts, etc. After rebooting I had no audio, no wifi, and the reported HD530 graphics glitches were present in the menu & title bars. All of these issues had the following resolutions, linked here: wifi audio graphics
Everything works except for Messages and iCloud.
UPDATE: After generating a new serial number with Clover Configurator, iCloud is functional, but I get an authentication error while trying to sign in with Messages.
UPDATE #2: I tried enabling the extreme memory profile in the BIOS but that turned out to be a really bad idea. The PC got stuck in a reboot loop, and I couldn't get back to the BIOS to undo the setting. I had to open the case and short the clear-cmos pins to reset everything.
Last edited: