[Guide] HP 6300 Pro / HP 8300 Elite - A 100 percent Working and Easily Affordable CustoMac

[trs96]

The DSDT patch and SSDT file should not cause any booting problems. Just follow the directions. You will need to run the script on your HP to make your own SSDT. The I5-3470 SSDT should not be used with an I5-3570. They are CPU specific.

 

[markintosh13]

I've since added this SATA III card, which also worked OOB; I added a 2 1/2" drive in the bay with the SSD:

SYBA SI-PEX40094 2 port SATA III PCI-e card ($15, probably was cheaper after a rebate, don't remember)

Does the SATA 3 adapter provide good throughput?

I was led astray by some HP specs into believing the 6300 SFF had two SATA 3 connectors... it does not, it has one.

So I get better secondary SSD performance via USB 3 than the internal SATA 2 port. Still could be better though.

 

[Micalllee]

You can always copy your entire working EFI folder to the EFI partition of another drive or USB flash drive. Then, if you encounter any problems, you can boot from that drive or flash drive.

I've done that (copied the EFI partition to the clone.) When I boot Clover just shows the boot drive, not the clone. Can I change the boot drive in the BIOS, or is there a way to add the clone in Clover? Sorry for the basic questions, but I was Mac only for a long time.

 

[Micalllee]

The DSDT patch and SSDT file should not cause any booting problems. Just follow the directions. You will need to run the script on your HP to make your own SSDT. The I5-3470 SSDT should not be used with an I5-3570. They are CPU specific.

I think the booting issue I had was when I tried to install VoodooHDA, but I may have had my SIP setting wrong. My question was more a general purpose "what's the easiest way to get back if I mess something up?"

 

[trs96]

I've done that (copied the EFI partition to the clone.) When I boot Clover just shows the boot drive, not the clone. Can I change the boot drive in the BIOS, or is there a way to add the clone in Clover? Sorry for the basic questions, but I was Mac only for a long time.

Have you tried booting with just the clone drive attached ? Try that and see if it will boot.

 

[pastrychef]

I've done that (copied the EFI partition to the clone.) When I boot Clover just shows the boot drive, not the clone. Can I change the boot drive in the BIOS, or is there a way to add the clone in Clover? Sorry for the basic questions, but I was Mac only for a long time.

Clover should show all bootable partitions. If the clone drive is not showing, check that it's connected properly and check that you don't have any settings in config.plist that prevents it from showing.

 

[MrNeedSomeHelp]

My 6300 SFF is coming together as a Aperture photo editor, connected to my 40" 4K monitor.

Bought it as an i7 3770 with 1TB HD, 4GB ram. Replaced the single stick of ram with a 16GB kit. Replaced the HD with a 256GB SSD for boot and apps. Adding a 1TB SSD for photo library on a SATA III port. May use drive caddies to fit the SSDs into the HD drive bay and the empty floppy drive/media drive bay or may just let them sit loose. No need to remove the DVD drive (though probably no reason to have a DVD drive either). Using a traditional HD for photo storage is a sure fire way to slow things down. My Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD is probably going to r/w at about 500-550 MB/s sustained, an HD is probably going to r/w at around 40-80 MB at best. Just say no to HDs.

I wanted an i7 3770, so looked at both the 6300 and 8300 options with that cpu, and found the best price to be a 6300.

The physical difference between the two seems to be mostly that the 8300 has x16, x4 and x1 pci-e slots and a PCI, whereas the 6300 has an x16 and two x1 slots.

If I had been able to find an 8300 i7 3770 in a mini tower, at the same or similar price, I would have gone that route, as used GTX 750 Ti cards are pretty cheap, but the GT 1030 low profile card I went with wasn't particularly expensive either. Either way, the PSU still limits the options to low power cards. If i had a x4 slot, I would have toyed with an x4 PCI-E m2 two slot SSD adapter for faster storage (but I had the 1TB sata ssd already).

If I do decide I want the much faster pci-e m2 storage, as I do not have a spare x4 slot (and do not want to be bottlenecked by pci-e x1 m2 adapters), I'll have to resort to the following: I'll have to use my current x16 slot for the x4 adapter, and will have to move my GT 1030 (which is actually an x4 card) to an x1 slot and take a small performance hit there (and will have to open up the back of the physical slot by grinding out or melting away the plastic). At the moment, my desire to drive the throughput is constrained by a reallocation of budget.

As for GPU, many photo editors don't benefit from a super powerful gpu. For me, the GT1030 is fine, and the cpu and ssd storage is more important.

Thanks, this is a such a great post, for a newbie I've learnt loads already. Given what you said about PCI slots on the 8300 I wondered what configuration I should make to get max photo performance from storage from a 8300 i7 SFF e.g.

pci-e x16 = gpu (is there a x16 compatible gpu that will work?)
Pci-e x4 = m.2 SSD 1TB
Pci-e x1 = empty

Would you still have sperate storage for boot drive? SATA III SSD?

Lastly, the 8300 i7 I'm considering doesn't appear to have an SD card reader what would be the best why to get fast transfers? Pci-e x1?

 

[markintosh13]

responses in bold

Thanks, this is a such a great post, for a newbie I've learnt loads already. Given what you said about PCI slots on the 8300 I wondered what configuration I should make to get max photo performance from storage from a 8300 i7 SFF e.g.

pci-e x16 = gpu (is there a x16 compatible gpu that will work?)

sure. still not relevant to go overboard. GT 1030 / GTX 1050 / 1050 Ti low profile, the last two being x16.

Pci-e x4 = m.2 SSD 1TB

sure. or a SATA 3 raid controller. or some plain jane SATA 3 OS X software raid 0 setup. one reason I decided not to go with an M2 NVME raid 0 is I want the ability to pull the drives out and access them some other way (like in an external USB 3 enclosure) with my Macbook Pro in case this not-exactly-new hackintosh hardware fails -- and I had a 1TB SATA 3 SSD and some external USB3 enclosures sitting around. If you go M2, might not be a bad idea to have an M2 to USB 3 external enclosure on the shelf.

Pci-e x1 = empty

Would you still have sperate storage for boot drive? SATA III SSD?

yes. given my inexperience with hackintoshing, my concern would be having to do fresh OS installs every now and again if a system update breaks something, and I don't want to have my photo library on that drive.

Lastly, the 8300 i7 I'm considering doesn't appear to have an SD card reader what would be the best why to get fast transfers? Pci-e x1?

SD UHS-1 cards have a read speed of ~90MB/s sustained, that's what my best cards can do. A USB 3 card reader should do fine. Even if you need to read UHS-II cards, it would still be fine. Could use an internal one and fill up the empty floppy drive/media reader bay space if you want. I might had an SSD stuck in there, so will go with a $20 usb 3 external reader.

 

[markintosh13]

To get Continuity and Handoff working requires a Broadcom BCM94360CD or similar Wifi/BT combo card that Apple used in an iMac or other Mac.

Know of any low profile solutions? Most of the Fenvi cards I'm finding are full height brackets.

 

[trs96]

Know of any low profile solutions? Most of the Fenvi cards I'm finding are full height brackets.

Buy the adapter and WIFI/BT card separately then you can be sure to get a low profile bracket with the adapter.
Try Ebay. It doesn't have to be a Fenvi branded card. Just make sure to get a genuine BCM94360CD. I don't think
you can use all 4 antennas though with a low profile bracket. Just won't fit with all 4 antennas. You'll have to be
creative to find a solution.