Hi Pastrichef!
Thank you very much for your great build, for all the work you have put into it, and are still putting into this build, for guiding and helping us. You can count with another SUCCESSFUL pupil's build.
I am a “late 2012 Mac Mini” 16GB 2 SSD drives very happy user, but getting to the point where I am in need of a future upgrade, mainly due to the intel motherboard graphics which can’t deal with my two display setup Wacom 22HD CiintQ and a
LG 34UM88 (3440x1440) at the same time.
I don’t think Apple is going to release an updated and powerful version of the Mini, they’ll want to sell the iMac Pro, or the upcoming Mac Pro. I don’t need an iMac Pro, I do concept art, draw, use After Effects some editing now and then, Photoshop , some Cinema 4d as a layout tool. I also use now and then FCP 7.3 on ElCapitan, it won't run from Sierra and I get from this forums FCP X is givving a hard time to nVidia users.
I am getting to work in rather big canvases 8k, 12k+ as production is moving towards the 4k standard I will be getting several 4Ks in some board.
I tried the path of the eGpu for a couple of years hacking the Mini with
Goalque’s script, and with an external Villagetronics PCMCIA enclosure to sonnet PCMCIA to Thunderbolt 1 into the Mini, a serious bottleneck for what I read afterwards. Last year right after buying the LG monitor, something changed in Yosemite and the system would crash, going to absolute off, dead. Had to go back to previous config, Mini, CintQ and an old 2560x1440 Dell as I couldn't spoil more time.
Last Xmas I started reading Tonymacx86, and maybe it was around Xmas Eve that I found your build.
It sounded very appealing to me, your explanations are among the best in the forum (for my understanding) , I could see you are attentive, fast answering. I had never built a computer, but my brother -a Steadycam operator- built one hack two years ago (thanks to tonymacx86 ), this gave me the confidence to try and see. Take it as a test, see if I get it running and maybe leave my port-dear mini for FCP 7.3.
So I dove into it. Almost same components, for GPU I am using for now the one I had in the external box, I might want to use a GPU rendering soft like Octane or RedShift, which for now require nVidia.
My config:
Case
Jonsbo UMX4 JONSBO eu site
RAM
F4-3200C16D-32GTZSW https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232416
SYS SSD
Crucial MX300 2.5" 275GB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for the OS
WORK SSD
SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 500GB NVMe for current works and cache
PSU
Corsair RM650X
GPU
Gigabyte GeForce 970 Windforce 4GB
So last monday I started the physical build.
Thanks to your BCM94360C2 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card w/ M.2 adaptor pictures and notes I found the way to fit the MB, a bit of fan shaving with a cutter did the trick. I had bought a pigtail antenna as you did mention the length of the original was short; I only changed one and kept the other.
The rest of the mounting went smoothly and without issues.
I placed the
RAM banks as recommended instead of following Asus’ recommendation.
It was a kind of magical moment for a newbie when I turned it on and the BIOS popped up!
I am calling her "Jack" (Sparrow
) the iMack.
Next first thing I did was updating the MB BIOS to 606. Easy procedure following Asus’ directions.
Thanks to your thorough directions and your EFI install went smooth at the very first try, no issues!
RAM fix: all is OK. I discovered that
SlotCOunt must reflect the physical slots of the MB for the “About this Mac” to reflect the correct info. And that having only 2 slots populated I had to number them as 0 and 2 for the memory to be recognised.
iMessage fix all OK. Was I nervous while performing the operations! And deliberately made it really slow, double checking every step.
I deleted the Lib files indicated, but also -as read in another forum - deleted /Library/Messages and com.apple.Messages
When in SMBIOS I did also generate a new board serial using "simpleMLB.sh" as your EFI came with a number on it.
One thing I think saved me from falling is that I did NOT log out of iCloud on my iPhone. The moment I logged into my iCloud account in the hack I did get the message that it was locked, that I could unblock it using my phone number.
It became then what seemed to me like 20 minutes of confirmations, security codes sent to my phone, a change of password imposed by Apple, etc. (maybe it was much less but I perceived it as long stressful time). But it all worked well in the first try, I just had to relog in my iPad and Mini with the new password.
Power Management fix following method 2 seems to be OK. No problem waking up after 8hours + of sleep.
USB fix OK. Follow your instructions on post
#310, I had One doubt: whether I should copy your Strix Z370 USB ports.dsl into /EFI/EFI/Clover/ACPI/patched/ folder. I did. As I did not follow your other instructions on post
#646 from 10.11.0-10.11.3 Skylake Starter Guide I did not “Added the the IOAPCI fix to KextsToPatch in my config.plist”
But everything seems to be working fine though.
Audio loss after sleep I downloaded “CoodecCommander.kext and use KextBeast to install it to /Library/Extensions/“ but I need to thoroughly check ‘cause
audio is sometimes gone after a long sleep. I’ll have to follow your directions in post #391, maybe tomorrow I´ll have some time.
Audio through DIspplayPort is working!, this is sooo cool! I do get sound through the DP > LG ultrawide.
Bluetooth and Wifi work from the very beginning.
HEVC decoding with UHD630 working fine . I tried yesterday the 4K movie you linked and it does run buttery smooth.
At the begging of the clip there is a couple seconds of weird stuttering, Do you also see it? I thought it might be in the clip…
I updated yesterday to 10.13.13, my system became really slow after the update and nVidia drivers install (I did update Cuda today after reading this
post).
I think it has to do with a process named photoanalisysd which I believe is related to iphoto libraries analysis. So I am not worried so far, just letting it run while I continue to install the rest of my apps, after 10 years+ of migrating systems I have taken the High Sierra chance to start from scratch with a brand new installation,
Now, being a newbie, and with a very limited understanding of most of this I have some doubts, I rather ask than spoil the system.
1-My 2 RAM modules are 3200, but BIOS says they are 2133MHz. Should I activate
XMP? If so, should I also change any other setting in BIOS etc. or is it just as easy as enabling it?
2-
OC. I would like to try OC my CPU, right now normal temp is around 36º C. Cpu seems to be running now at a max of 4’6 . This was the max value I could find in a log from Intel Power Gadget.
Have no idea what the procedure is, have not been able to find any step by sptep info or guide, just comments about many different stuff live volts, max MHz most of them to complex to understand. I understand I could fry my CPU or MB etc, so I don’t want to just start playing.
3-BIOS: Should I get any benefits from enabling
Boot/CSM (Compatibility Support Module)/ Launch CSM - Enabled.
4-Would you recommend I do your Update #1 (January 20, 2018)?
(I found out that the Clover r.4380 includes OsxAptioFix3Drv-64.efi. This version restores native NVRAM!!)
Thanks again for all your help, I feel very happy with this build, I have already started working with it (Clip Studio Paint so far) and it does feel smooth and nice.
These are my scores so far, I don't know if or how Ram speed, OC if there is any are affecting the results.