New Hackintosh Build. i7 3770K, Asrock z77 Extreme4m, NVIDIA 660ti MSI Twin Frozr 4

[Mac_Daddy2012]

Hello, I am new to the community and I am currently selling my MacBooks to build a dual boot desktop Hackintosh gaming machine. I have looked at the instructions for building on Life Hacker and have a few questions. The biggest compatibility issues seem to me to be the motherboard and graphics card (as I expected). I want to make sure that my hardware will work with OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion. I have heard tell of successful builds on my Mobo in the community, however I have seen mixed methods as to how. I am a huge fan of the on board BIOS, and thus I'd like to try a DSDT instead of a custom BIOS. I've seen the link to the forum everyone keeps sharing about the Asrock z77 Extreme4, but I didn't find it helpful, please don't share that with me again. I'm asking here, if anyone can confirm a successful boot from this motherboard and if so, could you please provide a direct link to the DSDT file for download reference?

That out of the way, the graphics card I intend to use for gaming on the windows side will be the MSI Twin Frozr 4 NVIDIA 660ti power edition 2gb. Can anyone confirm a successful boot with this card and if so, what settings did you use to achieve compatibility? Did you just turn off Graphics enabler? What must I do to get this card to work? I suspect OSX 10.8 is compatible with most of the NVIDIA 600 series anyway, I just want to make sure I'm right.

Aside from the DSDT and compatibility of the graphics card, is there anything else I need to consider? I know about Unibeast and Multibeast and am prepared to make a legit OSX 10.8 bootable drive.

The rest of my hardware is 16gb of Corsair Dominator 1600mhz RAM, i7 3770k, the Corsair HX 750, WD 1tb Black, and OCZ Agility 3 Max IOPS edition 128gb SSD. I don't suspect any of this other hardware is all too relevant to the build of a Hackintosh and I doubt that any of this will cause me trouble. Correct me if I am wrong. Otherwise, this information is simply here for the sake of completeness and for your consideration. Thank you for any help you can provide, I am looking forward to my completed Hackintosh.

 

[Solidww]

There is a 660 Ti complete discussion that a quick search would locate. I would post the link for you and I believe learning how to use the search function will be very useful on this forum.

Any motherboard with a locked MSR will need the custom BIOS. No way around it that I have foreseen.

All your other parts should be fine. HX750, are you sure you need so much. It is doubtful unless your going to run about 8 drives or a second 660 Ti. Good luck and have fun getting your machine up and running. Just ask if anymore help is needed.

 

[Mac_Daddy2012]

What exactly is it that you mean by a locked MSR? I wanted to keep the stock BIOS since I am a fan of the overclocking abilities and other settings contained therein. Does the custom BIOS retain the look, feel , and function of the stock BIOS with the OSX compatibility flashed in? Or is it a complete redesign?

I'm getting an HX750 because it is the lowest wattage modular PSU from Corsair as best I know, and because I will be overclocking and perhaps running SLI in the future so I need the overhead.

 

[samisnake]

not a 'custom bios'.

its 99.99% the same. only a very slight difference. apart from allowing you to boot with the native power management kext, there is no difference with stock

also, the modded bioses dont change the need/lack of need for dsdt edits.
your board will need a dsdt edit for sleep to work

 

[Solidww]

not a 'custom bios'.

its 99.99% the same. only a very slight difference. apart from allowing you to boot with the native power management kext, there is no difference with stock

also, the modded bioses dont change the need/lack of need for dsdt edits.
your board will need a dsdt edit for sleep to work

I couldn't have said it better. On the PSU, I was making sure that was a plan. Yes, get a Large PSU.

 

[Mac_Daddy2012]

Thanks for the clarification there. Do you happen to have a download link to the DSDT and custom BIOS that I would need to flash to the Extreme4?

 

[samisnake]

I've seen the link to the forum everyone keeps sharing about the Asrock z77 Extreme4, but I didn't find it helpful, please don't share that with me again.

use that guide that you mentioned (also post it here, ill have a look at it for you to make sure the info is relevant and there isnt any mistakes).

now you know the 'custom bios' isnt that custom, you can follow that guide with the knowledge you arent gonna mess up your system.

for the dsdt, you wont find a 'ready made' dsdt file to just download. thats not the way it works.
i suggest you do some reading.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/dsdt/71307-modified-uefi-rom-faq.html to understand what the modded bioses are and why you need them, then you can get the modded bios for your board from www.biosrepo.wordpress.com

this thread for sleep, but specifically this post http://www.tonymacx86.com/dsdt/3940...srock-z68-motherboards-lion-5.html#post443419

 

[Mac_Daddy2012]

Thanks for the references to the modified UEFI page and the custom BIOS page, and the Sleep page, they helped. The two Asrock z77 Extreme 4 pages I've seen a lot of are these

http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...880-asrock-z77-extreme-4-m-mountain-lion.html

And this one

http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-lion-desktop-support/75888-help-asrock-z77-extreme4-2.html

Neither had helpful guides on them that I could follow. From what I gather on the BIOS page you referenced, the addition of a modified BIOS to the Mainboard removes the need for a DSDT in most cases "Most UEFI boards do not need a modified DSDT, and those that do only require a slight alteration in most cases." Would you concur with that?

 

[Mac_Daddy2012]

However, the sleep thread deals with the z68 Mainboard line, not the Z77. Someone in the thread claims to have a solution for the extreme 6, but not the 4.

 

[Mac_Daddy2012]

Alright, thanks so much for providing the detailed info. I have read that Gigabyte boards do not need much modification, I guess I carried that post too far. I'll go take a look at the posting on the Sleep Wake Thread with relation to the Extreme 6.

Here I would like to check and make sure my understanding of the whole process is what it needs to be for the overall build.

This is the overall guide I'm following for the install. I do not have all my components yet, I'm just wanting to be able to hit the ground running when I get them.

http://lifehacker.com/5841604/the-always-up+to+date-guide-to-building-a-hackintosh

So in general, I follow their guide with Unibeast and make a bootable 10.8 flash drive.

First I enable and disable the proper settings in the UEFI, boot the Hackintosh from that flash drive, then partition the drive, then install OSX with the proper drivers using MultiBeast.

When is it that I flash the custom BIOS to the Extreme4? Is it after I have OSX installed or somehow before?