Most compatible Z490 Motherboard Discussion

[anannyo]

So it has been a month till the 10th Gen intel processor in the market, and it seems the most compatible motherboard so far is Gigabyte Z490 Vison D as there are already so many successful builds with this motherboard! Now, Gigabyte motherboards have been discouraged by hackintosh community specifically as the CFG is locked in Gigabyte motherboards, and there is no option to unlock the CFG form BIOS.

That was the main reason I also wanted to go for ASUS motherboard, and as I want to use this i9-10900K build for video editing and rendering tasks; I wanted to use specialized ASUS motherboard ProArt Z490 Creator specifically for this build. But it seems everybody whoever tired so far with this motherboard had so much issues to do so that many of them already gave up and some even discouraging to get this motherboard for hackintosh.

Now of course who has already built hackintosh knows the importance of having CFG unlocked on motherboard; so of course there are other ways to unlock the CFG and those methods are being used to unlock the Gigabyte motherboards. But my question is: how the 2 specific Gigabyte motherboards, Vision D & G, are being so good for hackintosh while the other more supposed to be hackintosh friendly motherboards have not been!!

I know it is still early days for hackintoshing with 10 gen processors & hence motherboards although macOS has 10th gen support already; however, this specific confusion still kept me getting the motherboard!! I have got almost everything, just out of stock & overpriced stuffs like PSU, but what is the point of buying the overpriced PSU while I still can't decide the motherboard for my build!!!

 

[scottkendall]

So it has been a month till the 10th Gen intel processor in the market, and it seems the most compatible motherboard so far is Gigabyte Z490 Vison D as there are already so many successful builds with this motherboard! Now, Gigabyte motherboards have been discouraged by hackintosh community specifically as the CFG is locked in Gigabyte motherboards, and there is no option to unlock the CFG form BIOS.

That was the main reason I also wanted to go for ASUS motherboard, and as I want to use this i9-10900K build for video editing and rendering tasks; I wanted to use specialized ASUS motherboard ProArt Z490 Creator specifically for this build. But it seems everybody whoever tired so far with this motherboard had so much issues to do so that many of them already gave up and some even discouraging to get this motherboard for hackintosh.

Now of course who has already built hackintosh knows the importance of having CFG unlocked on motherboard; so of course there are other ways to unlock the CFG and those methods are being used to unlock the Gigabyte motherboards. But my question is: how the 2 specific Gigabyte motherboards, Vision D & G, are being so good for hackintosh while the other more supposed to be hackintosh friendly motherboards have not been!!

I know it is still early days for hackintoshing with 10 gen processors & hence motherboards although macOS has 10th gen support already; however, this specific confusion still kept me getting the motherboard!! I have got almost everything, just out of stock & overpriced stuffs like PSU, but what is the point of buying the overpriced PSU while I still can't decide the motherboard for my build!!!

Just get the Gigabyte board, if in the future there is a way to unlock instead of bandaid CFG lock @CaseySJ will add a micro-guide to his z490 golden build.

 

[CaseySJ]

@anannyo @scottkendall

Fortunately, unlocking MSR 0xE2 on the Vision D has been wonderfully simplified by using CFGLock.efi. The ZIP files in Post #1 already include this in the OpenCore configuration.

Want to know how we unlock MSR 0xE2 now?

At the OpenCore boot picker we press Spacebar. The second icon from the far right side is "CFG Lock". We press Enter. It asks us if we want to toggle CFG-Lock. We press Y. We reboot. That's it.

In summary:

• OpenCore boot picker
• Press spacebar and select 2nd item from the right edge
• Press Y
• Reboot

 

[tecnicasopr]

So it has been a month till the 10th Gen intel processor in the market, and it seems the most compatible motherboard so far is Gigabyte Z490 Vison D as there are already so many successful builds with this motherboard! Now, Gigabyte motherboards have been discouraged by hackintosh community specifically as the CFG is locked in Gigabyte motherboards, and there is no option to unlock the CFG form BIOS.

That was the main reason I also wanted to go for ASUS motherboard, and as I want to use this i9-10900K build for video editing and rendering tasks; I wanted to use specialized ASUS motherboard ProArt Z490 Creator specifically for this build. But it seems everybody whoever tired so far with this motherboard had so much issues to do so that many of them already gave up and some even discouraging to get this motherboard for hackintosh.

Now of course who has already built hackintosh knows the importance of having CFG unlocked on motherboard; so of course there are other ways to unlock the CFG and those methods are being used to unlock the Gigabyte motherboards. But my question is: how the 2 specific Gigabyte motherboards, Vision D & G, are being so good for hackintosh while the other more supposed to be hackintosh friendly motherboards have not been!!

I know it is still early days for hackintoshing with 10 gen processors & hence motherboards although macOS has 10th gen support already; however, this specific confusion still kept me getting the motherboard!! I have got almost everything, just out of stock & overpriced stuffs like PSU, but what is the point of buying the overpriced PSU while I still can't decide the motherboard for my build!!!

The latest UEFI/BIOS firmware for Gigabyte Z490 Vison D, which is: f5a, it's already unlock.

I want to mention that CFGLock.efi also works with clover.
And to finish, Gigabyte is Back on track with the hackintosh community with their new UEFI/BIOS firmwares.
I wonder if these new UEFI/BIOS firmwares allows us to swap Intel WIFI cards for Broadcom m.2 cards.
It would be the final touch for Gigabyte to be again one of the most recommended boards for hackintosh and even maybe the best one.
Those board sales will skyrocket if they give to the hackintosh community what they want.
Edit: I was wrong because of a fast interpretation. These UEFI firmwares are still lock.

 

[CaseySJ]

@tecnicasopr,

Unfortunately, the screenshot shows Enabled 0x01 (default). This means CFG-Lock is Enabled. I installed BIOS F5a yesterday and had to unlock it...

 

[tecnicasopr]

@tecnicasopr,

Unfortunately, the screenshot shows Enabled 0x01 (default). This means CFG-Lock is Enabled. I installed BIOS F5a yesterday and had to unlock it...

Yes, you are right. I again, get confuse with 0x01 which means Yes or True, but it means precisely that is true that the CFG Lock is on. I'm glad that the CFGLock.efi can handle this very easily.
The reason I get confuse again is because I remember I read this some where in the internet. Then trying to confirm it, I decided to extract the information from the latest UEFI firmware, but after looking at it I judge to fast, instead of looking carefully, which made me fail on my conclusion.

 

[anannyo]

@anannyo @scottkendall

Fortunately, unlocking MSR 0xE2 on the Vision D has been wonderfully simplified by using CFGLock.efi. The ZIP files in Post #1 already include this in the OpenCore configuration.

Want to know how we unlock MSR 0xE2 now?

At the OpenCore boot picker we press Spacebar. The second icon from the far right side is "CFG Lock". We press Enter. It asks us if we want to toggle CFG-Lock. We press Y. We reboot. That's it.

In summary:

• OpenCore boot picker
• Press spacebar and select 2nd item from the right edge
• Press Y
• Reboot

Hey @CaseySJ, yeah I saw many success post with Z490 Vision D & G. I also studied the method of unlocking CFG, just being a bit too much obsessed I think about choosing the most native motherboard

 

[DJMrSleepy]

I've got my card and CPU (i9-10900k + 5700xt) sorted.. im just waiting to see a few more successful builds on platforms other than Vision D. To be honest, its fantastic with it's I/O but its VRM heatshield and memory topology is less than desirable.. Plus i really hate gigabyte boards after becoming a happy bootloop free MSI user..

im happy to wait a month before i pull the trigger on a motherboard.. I would love to use the MSI z490 unify as its got all the nice bios features, I might buy it and try.. if not i can fall back on whatevers proven to work.

 

[anannyo]

I've got my card and CPU (i9-10900k + 5700xt) sorted.. im just waiting to see a few more successful builds on platforms other than Vision D. To be honest, its fantastic with it's I/O but its VRM heatshield and memory topology is less than desirable.. Plus i really hate gigabyte boards after becoming a happy bootloop free MSI user..

im happy to wait a month before i pull the trigger on a motherboard.. I would love to use the MSI z490 unify as its got all the nice bios features, I might buy it and try.. if not i can fall back on whatevers proven to work.

Exactly my thoughts. This is the another reason I still did not buy Vision D even though it has 3 M.2 slots compared to 2 in ASUS motherboard. I am also going to wait till I am full satisfied with the motherboard choice. Presumably this could be the last or second last gen of intel processor for hackintosh. So I want to enjoy it to the fullest as long as it last

 

[anannyo]

Exactly my thoughts. This is the another reason I still did not buy Vision D even though it has 3 M.2 slots compared to 2 in ASUS motherboard. I am also going to wait till I am full satisfied with the motherboard choice. Presumably this could be the last or second last gen of intel processor for hackintosh. So I want to enjoy it to the fullest as long as it last

Hey @DJMrSleepy, by the way, currently MSI motherboard brand is also in the avoid list along with AsRock and Gigabyte due to weird memory layout. The list has not been updated for Z490 motherboards yet though. Not expecting it to be updated till August