How to build your own iMac Pro [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[mgregrs]

Hello to @ALL,
thanks to @kgp for the great guide...I think to build up a system soon with ASUS x299 Prime Deluxe.
Hope not to be off-topic, but I have 2 questions:
someone have tried the RAID hardware configuration through BIOS setup? can macOS see the RAID Disk/Volume?
other question is about a 10GbE ethernet card...what the best for macOS X?
This: ASUS XG-C100C...it uses the chip aquantia AQC107...maybe the same chip will be used inside iMac Pro...has anyone had the opportunity to try it?
Thank You very much!

I was thinking about RAID 5 at the beginning of this thread and build...
and with @kgp and other people advices I abondoned this project.
Today I'm very happy user of my free Terabytes for backups without any RAID
I have daily/weekly backup on first HDD always in(PC) which is cloned or updated on 2nd HDD twice per month
which is connected only for data manual cloning or update

- everything is formatted on exFat so I can use it on Windows and OS X without additional kext etc...
... so for me it's a beautiful thing... maybe it's not the best way,
maybe sometimes it take few minutes more, but in my opinion (today) it's much better way than my old ideas with RAIDs

and 10 Gb cards you will find on SmallTree site
we all use their drivers for our 2nd lan I211

https://www.small-tree.com/store/10gb-ethernet-cards

 

[kgp]

I was thinking about RAID 5 at the beginning of this thread and build...
and with @kgp and other people advices I abondoned this project.
Today I'm very happy user of my free Terabytes for backups without any RAID
I have daily/weekly backup on first HDD always in(PC) which is cloned or updated on 2nd HDD twice per month
which is connected only for data manual cloning or update

- everything is formatted on exFat so I can use it on Windows and OS X without additional kext etc...
... so for me it's a beautiful thing... maybe it's not the best way,
maybe sometimes it take few minutes more, but in my opinion (today) it's much better way than my old ideas with RAIDs

and 10 Gb cards you will find on SmallTree site
we all use their drivers for our 2nd lan I211

https://www.small-tree.com/store/10gb-ethernet-cards

Brilliant idea concerning the SmallTree 10GB LAN Adaptors!

Nearly all seem to be fully compatible with macOS

 

[kgp]

10.13.1 reinstalled, few benchmarks done and...

- No lag - mentioned by @vikikang, @lucatze , @Bagi1992
- No performance difference with new Geekbench 4,2
- iMsg/FaceTime still don't work
(EmuVariableUefi-64.efi was on my system drive, ethernet -> en0 checked)
config.plist configured properly... - now I'm almost sure my accounts are s**ks (too new or confirmed by SMS, not by other apple device so maybe this is it), not my cfg..
Thank you anyway.. for help and advices few days ago

- Vega bug always exist with, but it's not so big problem for me.. at this moment
- Audio works great :]

BTW: I would like to prepare USB drive with 10.13.2beta installer but I have no Idea how to do it
because it's only update, not a full installer like 13.0 beta versions....
if you have some idea... thx for share..

Your SMBIOS at least looks complete, although there are tiny deviations from mine, which however might not be of relevance, see e.g. Chassis Type and Platform Feature.

However, if Board Serial Number, Serial Number and SmUUID are fine, I cannot judge by means of your config.plist.

You say that sleep wake perfectly works in your case? Can you save your actual BIOS settings and also upload the complete EFI-Folder. I messed up my sleep/wake functionality with the latests intents to run sleep/wake including the TBEX 3...

I need to start from scratch. Your input might be fundmental for this endeavour!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dan968]

- BIOS Hardware RAID impossible!

- You can create a software RAID with OSX...

- and of course there are many alternative and partly extremely costive solutions to create hardware raids to be recognised by OSX

10GB ethernet adapter.. no idea...

Sorry

Thank you,
a pity for hardware raid....I will do some test with SoftRAID.

 

[kgp]

Thank you,
a pity for hardware raid....I will do some test with SoftRAID.

https://www.small-tree.com/store/10gb-ethernet-cards Thanks to @mgregrs

 

[mgregrs]

Your SMBIOS at least looks complete, although there are tiny deviations from mine, which however might not be of relevance, see e.g. Chassis Type and Platform Feature.

However, if Board Serial Number, Serial Number and SmUUID are fine, I cannot judge by means of your config.plist.

You say that sleep wake perfectly works in your case? Can you save your actual BIOS settings and also upload the complete EFI-Folder. I messed up my sleep/wake functionality with the latests intents to run sleep/wake including the TBEX 3...

I need to start from scratch. Your input might be fundmental for this endeavour!

Thanks in advance!

BIG Thank you for checking my cfg.!!
I forgot to uncheck rest of ACPI things, which are "on" now and everything works really nice
I will wait next month for apple devices at home at il will be much easier

about...
Sleep/wake - tested 11-12 times, sleep in max 10sec, wake up max 8 sec

You should meet a cool guy KGP and his great guide to do it
it's 1h of reading but it's worth! It will works great!

... I'm quite interested how it was saved....
2 files - from my bios first with actual setting and 2nd with "everything?"
you have to check it... first txt file is my actual profile
and if you take 2nd is .CMO file (- that 5th profile is actual (named: 10.13.1perf..))

* I have only XMP 3000 profile, different than your 3200 Mhz
the rest of CFG is configured with your guide,
because today I reconfigured everything for new test, when I was thinking about last problems ( with new BIOS implementations)
Works great so... at this moment we shouldn't want more than that

 

[Dan968]

https://www.small-tree.com/store/10gb-ethernet-cards Thanks to @mgregrs

Ehh I know small-tree...but with the same features...we have $559 vs $100

 

[mgregrs]

Ehh I know small-tree...but with the same features...we have $559 vs $100

Personally I never saw good 10 Gb LAN cards with better price than 230-340$ (even simple, s#1t only for windows),
so... I would like to help, but in Europe it can be very very difficult to find something cheaper than 250-300$ **with OS X support
The cheapest cards: ASUS XG-C100C -150$ or TRENDnet TEG-10GECSFP -200$ for Windows and I saw nothing about OS X support

BTW: If you want use 10 Gb LAN you have to use only good SSD with a great PC, with great Router/swich etc... witch is not cheap... so 250-300$ for one card should't be a lot for you

 

[kgp]

BIG Thank you for checking my cfg.!!
I forgot to uncheck rest of ACPI things, which are "on" now and everything works really nice
I will wait next month for apple devices at home at il will be much easier

about...
Sleep/wake - tested 11-12 times, sleep in max 10sec, wake up max 8 sec

You should meet a cool guy KGP and his great guide to do it
it's 1h of reading but it's worth! It will works great!

... I'm quite interested how it was saved....
2 files - from my bios first with actual setting and 2nd with "everything?"
you have to check it... first txt file is my actual profile
and if you take 2nd is .CMO file (- that 5th profile is actual (named: 10.13.1perf..))

* I have only XMP 3000 profile, different than your 3200 Mhz
the rest of CFG is configured with your guide,
because today I reconfigured everything for new test, when I was thinking about last problems ( with new BIOS implementations)
Works great so... at this moment we shouldn't want more than that

One additional question: you don't use the SSDT-X299.aml, do you? And you have all ACPI DSDT Replacement Patches enabled? Would you mind to also upload your EFI-Folder?

Thanks!

 

[Dan968]

Personally I never saw good 10 Gb LAN cards with better price than 230-340$ (even simple, s#1t only for windows),
so... I would like to help, but in Europe it can be very very difficult to find something cheaper than 250-300$ **with OS X support
The cheapest cards: ASUS XG-C100C -150$ or TRENDnet TEG-10GECSFP -200$ for Windows and I saw nothing about OS X support

BTW: If you want use 10 Gb LAN you have to use only good SSD with a great PC, with great Router/swich etc... witch is not cheap... so 250-300$ for one card should't be a lot for you

I think the Aquantia chip has changed a bit the scenario:
http://www.aquantia.com/products/client-connectivity/aqtion-aqc107/
look at last dot: "Extensive software support – Windows, MAC OS X, and Linux drivers"
Now on Amazon.it the Asus XG-C100C is about 110euro.
Today news:
http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gi...it-lan-card-bases-on-aquantia-gc-aqc-107.html
I think we will see the proliferation of these kind of cards!