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ManHands' Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

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Nov 9, 2011
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Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master
CPU
i9-9900K
Graphics
Vega 56
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
  2. iOS
ManHands' Haswell Build:
i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760


Haswell_AboutThisMac.jpg


Components

Apple OS X Mavericks 10.9.5
iTunes

GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD5H LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel MB
Newegg | Amazon

EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card
Newegg | Amazon

Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
Newegg | Amazon

LG Black 16X BD-R 4MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner WH16NS40
Newegg | Amazon

Crucial Ballistix Tactical 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 Memory BLT4KIT8G3D1608DT1TX0
Newegg | Amazon

Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Black Pearl Silent ATX Mid Tower Case
Newegg | Amazon

CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS GOLD Power Supply
Newegg | Amazon

2 x SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s TLC Internal SSD
Newegg | Amazon

IOGEAR GBU521 USB Bluetooth 4.0 Micro Adapter
Newegg | Amazon

Logitech C920 USB 2.0 certified (USB 3.0 ready) HD Pro Webcam
Newegg | Amazon

Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm Fan - Added to front of case to keep hard drives cool
Newegg | Amazon

Noctua NH-D15 SSO2 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler, NF-A15 x 2 PWM Fans
Newegg | Amazon


Already Owned

5 x Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3030ALA630 3 TB 3.5' Internal Hard Drive
Amazon

2 x Acer S231HL Black 23" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor
Newegg | Amazon

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac
Newegg | Amazon

Apple Magic Mouse
Amazon


Comments

Background

This is my second build; my first is here. My first build went so smooth, support on these forums is so great, and my itch for newer, faster, and shinier things contributed to this build. I planned out this build a little more than the first, and hopefully the results show. Please note, that this build never sleeps. It's my understanding that all components chosen fully support sleep/wake, but I can't comment on it.

One SSD is for OS X, and the other as a clone drive. Went with the Samsung EVO series based on reviews; and, 250 GB vs 120 GB as I found the latter was too small in my last build. I use multiple virtual machines in Parallels, and these tend to eat up space quickly. Also, decided against the PRO series as reviews had me convinced that performance doesn't warrant the price difference.

There's a few applications that drove my choice in components. I'm sure some may be overkill, but I can live with that. They include the Adobe CS6 Master Suite, Plex Media Server, and Parallels Desktop. The GTX 760 has plenty of power/memory for video rendering and room for more displays. The 4770K helps with HD transcoding for Plex. And, the 32 GB RAM is a nice upgrade from 16 GB in running multiple programs including a VM or two while working with the Adobe Suite at the same time.

NOTE - Haswell seems to be less tolerant of older memory used in 6 & 7 series motherboards. Older memory may result in system freezes. Be sure to use new memory on Gigabyte's list of supported memory, or newer memory that is Haswell ready/approved. The Crucial Ballistix Tactical memory used in this build is on Gigabyte's list, as well as Intel's list. The motherboard recognizes the memory and its respective DDR3 1600 parameters with the BIOS XMP parameter set to Profile1.


The Build

My starting point for all of the components was tonymacx86's monthly buying guide. I went with the Gigabyte MB vs other brands because of seamless hackintosh compatibility, and the UD5H because of the number of SATA ports. The EVGA GTX 760 is a great value for performance at it's price point; EVGA because of brand reputability.

Fell in love with the Fractal R4 case right away. It's sleek, quiet, and has tons of space for my drives, quiet 140mm fans, and lots of room for expansion. I probably don't need more than a 650W power supply, but had to bump it up to the 750W for the added SATA connectors. The HX series was the same price as the TX series at the time, so same price for higher efficiency was a no-brainer. I wish there was room left on the bottom for another 140mm intake fan, but the HX750 won't allow for it. The AX760 is not as deep and would allow, but bad reviews due to hissing steered me away.

Now on to why I have so many damn drives. As mentioned before, I run a Plex media server for family, friends, and of course myself. With a lot of media, comes the need for a lot of drive space. Two of the 3 TB drives are in an Apple striped RAID array. The other three are also striped, and are used for my Time Machine backup. I went with these drives because of warranty, noise levels, and brand reputation. They're a few years old now and nearing end of warranty status, but I've never had any issues. Everything's also backed up remotely, just in case.

All of the peripherals work out of the box. The Logitech K750 has built in keys for OS X, and is fully customizable in System Preferences. It's also fully supported on boot, and in the BIOS. The Magic Mouse works well when paired with the IOGear GBU521 bluetooth module. As in my previous build, I use a USB extension cable to bring the module closer to the mouse. Despite its range, lag occurs every so often if you have the module hidden behind the case. Also went with the Logitech C920 webcam because of hackintosh compatibility. Works out of the box, and very high quality.


Haswell_InsideCase.jpg


Installation Notes

Prepare your USB drive using this guide. After everything is installed in the case, do not plug in all drives. For installation I only had one SSD, 16GB of RAM installed, and only one of the monitors hooked up to the GTX 760. All other drives, second monitor, and additional RAM can be plugged in and installed once OS X installation is complete.

Use the i210AT ethernet port. It's the one on the bottom closest to the audio ports. It's now natively supported as of the Mavericks update. The i217v controller can be used with the AppleIntelE1000.kext, however it's very buggy and dev support seems to be slowly fading. For some, large file transfers over the network fail. For me, using Plex remotely over time would literally freeze the OS and shut down my entire network. Be safe and use the i210 controller with the native Mavericks kext.

CPU Power Management: Although not necessary, native Mavericks power management is achievable by following this guide. The MultiBeast settings that follow below are designed to use a custom SSDT.aml in the /Extra folder. If you intend to go this route -- which I highly recommend -- please follow the guide by toleda in full, and make sure XCPM mode is working prior to any overclock.


UEFI Settings

  1. Load Optimized Defaults
  2. Set X.M.P. Memory Profile to Profile1
  3. Set Uncore Ratio to 39 (see my post here)
  4. Set Internal Graphics to Disabled (unless you're using)
  5. Save and reboot

MultiBeast Settings

Post installation is easy, as this board doesn't require a DSDT. Use the following settings and reboot following a successful installation. After rebooting, you may find that iMessage will not log in. The workaround that worked for me was found in this guide. I simply downloaded the attached modules.zip, stuck the FileNVRAM.dylib in my /Extra directory, and rebooted.

If you use the iMac 14,2 System Definition as suggested below, you'll notice the infamous audio pop. This is well documented and there are a few workarounds as documented in this post. I recommend using the workarounds than reverting to another System Definition. If you use say Mac Pro 3,1 instead, you'll be using legacy power management. You won't be able to take advantage of the native XCPM mode in Mavericks.

View attachment Haswell_MultiBeast.mb


Haswell_Multibeast.jpg


NVIDIA Web Drivers (optional)

Some NVIDIA cards deal with an issue where the power will ramp up when using OpenCL applications, but will then get stuck and not idle back down; the GTX 760 being one. Prior to 10.9.3, the only way to fix this was to disable GPU OpenCL support. As of 10.9.3, this was fixed by using NVIDIA's Web Drivers. Simply download, install, and reboot. Upon reboot, you can either choose to use the Web Drivers via the NVIDIA system preferences pane, or modify your Boot.plist and reboot again.

Code:
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>nvda_drv=1</string>

In addition, if you're utilizing applications that use CUDA, you can download and install from here.


Overclock (optional)

I've overclocked to 4.3 GHz with the help of Sin0822's Z87/Haswell OC Guide found here. Temps are good and even when ramped up, the Noctua NH-D15 fans are barely audible. I thought about doing water cooling with this build, but temps are fine and it didn't make sense to spend more money when the air cooling set-up was working well. Plus as a home owner, the sight of water frightens me. The overclock should be done AFTER you've installed OS X, ran MultiBeast, and have XCPM mode working. The following UEFI changes were made.

Code:
Clock Ratio => 43
Uncore Ratio => 40
VRIN Loadline Calibration => Extreme
VRIN External Override => 1.80V
Vcore => 1.30V
RING Voltage => 1.15V
System Agent Voltage => +0.150V

My SSDT.aml was generated using the following:

Code:
sudo ./ssdtprgen.sh -turbo 4300


Credits

A big special thanks to all those who helped make this possible!

tonymac86 - UniBeast
MacMan - MultiBeast
jaymonkey - How to Fix iMessage
toleda - Native CPU/IGPU Power Management
MacAndor - Fix for OpenCL
toleda - Audio - Realtek ALC AppleHDA
king13p - Mod About This Mac


Benchmarks - Geekbench 3, LuxMark, and Unigine Heaven


Haswell_GeekBench.jpg LuxMark.jpg UnigineHeaven.jpg



Changelog

05/29/14 - Updated to 10.9.3. Instructions here.
06/22/14 - Upgraded CPU Cooler to Noctua NH-D15. Post here.
07/03/14 - Updated to 10.9.4. Instructions here.
09/25/14 - Updated to 10.9.5. Instructions here.
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

Nice build and guide man! Got a similar setup except for the graphics card, might follow your steps for overclocking but I need to setup the Windows partition first.

Have you run into any problems with your build so far? My only hiccup is HDMI audio but there are plenty of documented guides on how to fix this.
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

Have you run into any problems with your build so far? My only hiccup is HDMI audio but there are plenty of documented guides on how to fix this.

I can't comment on the HDMI audio issues. I use an external 2.1 speaker set-up plugged into the audio jack on the MB. No real hiccups other than the known OpenCL issues introduced w/ Mavericks noted in the OP. Easy fix though. Hopefully subsequent OS updates will fix this permanently.

EDIT - A combo of 10.9.3 plus NVIDIA alternate graphics drivers has fixed the OpenCL issue.
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

Updated to 10.9.3. Installation of this update along with the updated NVIDIA alternate graphics drivers, the power management issue on the GTX 760 when using OpenCL apps has been resolved. You can download them here. Instructions:


  1. Download Combo Update here
  2. Backup using your preferred method
  3. Repair permissions
  4. Install Combo Update
  5. Use MultiBeast to re-install Audio drivers and TRIM patch
  6. Install CUDA drivers from here (if not already installed)
  7. Install NVIDIA alternate graphics drivers
  8. To enable NVIDIA drivers: enable in System Preferences Pane, or add the following to chameleon.org.Boot.plist:

Code:
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>nvda_drv=1</string>
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

Thanks for posting this. Helped me a whole lot troubleshooting my rigs. Many thanks.
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

The only thing left to upgrade from my previous build was the CPU cooler. I was content at first with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. However, Noctua has recently released the NH-D15. The 212 EVO fans were showing signs of wear, and were getting rather loud when ramped up. Since the NH-D14 got such great reviews over the years, and the NH-D15 getting rave reviews as well, I jumped on one.

Noctua NH-D15 SSO2 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler, NF-A15 x 2 PWM Fans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608045


hackintosh.jpg


Install was simple, and I was able to install both fans. Anything over 32mm for RAM, and you'll need to either raise the fan (if the case allows), or only use one fan.
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

Thanks for the guide! Im about to embark on a similar build with the same board and the i7 4970k.

Can I ask which set of SATA ports you opted to use for your OSX installation please? I won't be running RAID and wondered if you had experience or opinion to offer which of them may be best for an SSD.

Grey ones or the black ones?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

Thanks for the guide! Im about to embark on a similar build with the same board and the i7 4970k.

Can I ask which set of SATA ports you opted to use for your OSX installation please? I won't be running RAID and wondered if you had experience or opinion to offer which of them may be best for an SSD.

Grey ones or the black ones?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

Do you mean the i7-4790K? If so, let me know how things go. It's my understanding they just added them to the supported list of some Gigabyte Z87 boards. Curious to hear about real world experience though.

Use the black Intel SATA ports; preferably the SATA3_0 port. I didn't attempt to use the GSATA ports this time around; however, I did on my last build (Z68 board) with bad results. It works fine, but the Marvell controller is incredibly slower in benchmarks. Not sure if this is due to the 3rd party kext or if it's just the controller itself.

I'd recommend not using the Marvell grey ports unless you need more than the six black Intel ports. Personally, since I have so many drives, I use the Marvell ports for my Time Machine RAID array. Speed isn't much of concern for my backups.
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, of course the 4790k, I was getting messing with my ATI 7970 earlier and well, it all gets in a jumble.

Anyhow news from the front. I type this from the new build **HOWEVER**

The 4790k simply will not boot after Multibeast with Turbo Boost enabled for now. Initially I believed it to be a definitions issue, so on a second reinstall just stayed with Mac-Pro 3,1 (which I'm using as I type, as I'm not reinstalling again right this second) :headbang:

I still have EIST working and HW monitor is reporting proper steps up and down, but as soon as Turbo-Boost is turned on, the system will not boot with a Applekeysomething hang...I guess I need a SMBIOS for my chip..

But for now here I am at 4ghz....Do you think I could use the pike script you used for an SSDT and see if that'll fix it? If there's someway to force it 4400...? I dunno...? :beachball:

I went with your SATA port advice. So, how to crack this Turbo-Boost and get my 4.4ghz?

Onward! And thanks for the advice, it was sound.

Cheers!
 
skirk08's Haswell Build: i7-4770K - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - GTX 760

The 4790k simply will not boot after Multibeast with Turbo Boost enabled for now. Initially I believed it to be a definitions issue, so on a second reinstall just stayed with Mac-Pro 3,1.

I still have EIST working and HW monitor is reporting proper steps up and down, but as soon as Turbo-Boost is turned on, the system will not boot with a Applekeysomething hang...I guess I need a SMBIOS for my chip..

But for now here I am at 4ghz....Do you think I could use the pike script you used for an SSDT and see if that'll fix it? If there's someway to force it 4400...? I dunno...?

Lots of things going on here. If you're able to boot with the Mac Pro 3,1 definition, what does your boot.plist look like? For legacy power management with the 3,1 definition, it should look like this:

Code:
<key>DropSSDT</key>
<string>No</string>
<key>GenerateCStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GeneratePStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>

For testing purposes, make sure Optimized Defaults are set in the BIOS and all Advanced CPU features are set to Auto. It's also known Hardware Monitor doesn't properly report CPU states and stepping. You'll need install Intel Power Gadget to see what's going on. Verify if Turbo is working and you're able to get to 4.4 MHz.

If you can, the next step will be to see if you can get native XCPM mode working with the SSDTPRGen script. The script fully supports the 4790K CPU, but the question will be if the system definition recognizes it; that I don't know. For XCPM, you need a combination of a custom SSDT.aml placed in your /Extra directory, the proper definition set, and modifications to the boot.plist.

Try the following steps. Latest SSDTPRGen script can be downloaded from here.


  1. Changes your sysdef to iMac 14,2 using MultiBeast
  2. Reboot
  3. Run script in Terminal using:
    Code:
    sudo ./ssdtprgen.sh
  4. Modify your boot.plist to:
    Code:
    <key>DropSSDT</key>
    <string>Yes</string>
    <key>GenerateCStates</key>
    <string>No</string>
    <key>GeneratePStates</key>
    <string>No</string>
  5. Reboot

If the iMac 14,2 definition doesn't work, you could try others. For Haswell, the other options are:


  • iMac14
  • MacBookPro11
  • MacBookAir6

Hope this helps. Let me know how things go.
 
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