- Joined
- Dec 3, 2011
- Messages
- 438
- Motherboard
- HP Elite X2
- CPU
- i5-7600U
- Graphics
- HD 620, 2736x1834
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Haven't built a hack in quite awhile and this will probably be my last one but MicroCenter has this board / processor bundled with 32GB of RAM for a mere $399. Not a bad deal at all. The installation is straight forward and there are many guides for creating an installation USB so I won't duplicate that here. I did update the BIOS to the latest prior to installation and it didn't cause any issues. All cores / HT are active. Vt-D is disabled as well as Thunderbolt / PCIE over USB4. Built in Wifi/BT are disabled. I think CSM is disabled as well but I don't remember, if you have this board and get stuck I'll go through the BIOS but I don't have anything weird set in there.
My system --
ASUS Z790-V Wifi
Intel Core I-9 12900K (Alder Lake)
32GB G Skill DDR5 (2x16GB)
Intel AX210S pcie card
XFX Radeon RX6950XT
WD SN850X 1TB SSD (x3) -- I bought the ones with heatsinks since the board doesn't come with any but I'm not sure it's a big deal either way.
Notes --
You'll need to generate your own serial, etc for a Mac Pro 7,1.
The attached EFI will work for Ventura or Sonoma but you'll need to adjust the WIFI/BT kexts or eliminate them as needed for your situation. The ones included in the EFI are meant for 14.4. The USB map leaves the AURA out but enables both USB2 headers along with the USB3 and USB-C internal headers. Everything on the back is enabled as well other than USB2 for the high speed USB / USB-C ports. Also, disable the 6950 spoof if you are using a different card. I'm triple booting Sonoma/Windows 11/Ubuntu but if you aren't, you can ditch the Linux drivers as well. I originally was using this on Ventura with a BCM94360 based card but switched to Intel for the upgrade to Sonoma. Airplay, Universal Clipboard, and some Hand-Off features are working just fine. The clipboard and airplay were all I cared about. The built-in wifi/bt appear to be RealTek based so I didn't bother messing with it given how inexpensive it is to get an AX210S card. They are both disabled in the bios. Shutdown/Restart/Sleep/Wake are all functioning. GB6 scores for the CPU are 2687 / 15640. The multicore score seems a little low to me so additional tweaking of CPUFriend may be needed. Metal scores for the 6950xt have been anywhere from 225K to 247K.
My system --
ASUS Z790-V Wifi
Intel Core I-9 12900K (Alder Lake)
32GB G Skill DDR5 (2x16GB)
Intel AX210S pcie card
XFX Radeon RX6950XT
WD SN850X 1TB SSD (x3) -- I bought the ones with heatsinks since the board doesn't come with any but I'm not sure it's a big deal either way.
Notes --
You'll need to generate your own serial, etc for a Mac Pro 7,1.
The attached EFI will work for Ventura or Sonoma but you'll need to adjust the WIFI/BT kexts or eliminate them as needed for your situation. The ones included in the EFI are meant for 14.4. The USB map leaves the AURA out but enables both USB2 headers along with the USB3 and USB-C internal headers. Everything on the back is enabled as well other than USB2 for the high speed USB / USB-C ports. Also, disable the 6950 spoof if you are using a different card. I'm triple booting Sonoma/Windows 11/Ubuntu but if you aren't, you can ditch the Linux drivers as well. I originally was using this on Ventura with a BCM94360 based card but switched to Intel for the upgrade to Sonoma. Airplay, Universal Clipboard, and some Hand-Off features are working just fine. The clipboard and airplay were all I cared about. The built-in wifi/bt appear to be RealTek based so I didn't bother messing with it given how inexpensive it is to get an AX210S card. They are both disabled in the bios. Shutdown/Restart/Sleep/Wake are all functioning. GB6 scores for the CPU are 2687 / 15640. The multicore score seems a little low to me so additional tweaking of CPUFriend may be needed. Metal scores for the 6950xt have been anywhere from 225K to 247K.
