ASUS Essentio CM6870-US-3AD Desktop PC

xodus31 · Sep 20, 2012

Hello,
This is my first post. I am switching from a Apple Late 2008 model MBP to a new desktop I bought. I have been wanting to play more games, yet still want to use my OS X for work(I am a web developer). I want to make a dual boot system with Win7 and OS X. I picked up this nice PC and was wondering if it would be a easy candidate for a hackintosh.

http://usa.asus.com/Desktop/Entertainment/CM6870/#specifications

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3234272&Sku=A50-13000

I chose this PC because I have been a big fan of ASUS when I used to build PC's and it is a brand I trust.

Does anyone have any experience hackingtoshing one of these systems? A search only yielded a member's profile on here.

I will be spending more time going through the threads once the system arrives on monday so I can get the exact motherboard specs, etc, and go from there but if anyone has any advice I would be grateful.

-Chris

totenkopf4 · Sep 21, 2012

xodus31 said:
Hello,
This is my first post. I am switching from a Apple Late 2008 model MBP to a new desktop I bought. I have been wanting to play more games, yet still want to use my OS X for work(I am a web developer). I want to make a dual boot system with Win7 and OS X. I picked up this nice PC and was wondering if it would be a easy candidate for a hackintosh.

http://usa.asus.com/Desktop/Entertainment/CM6870/#specifications

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3234272&Sku=A50-13000

I chose this PC because I have been a big fan of ASUS when I used to build PC's and it is a brand I trust.

Does anyone have any experience hackingtoshing one of these systems? A search only yielded a member's profile on here.

I will be spending more time going through the threads once the system arrives on monday so I can get the exact motherboard specs, etc, and go from there but if anyone has any advice I would be grateful.

-Chris

xodus31
ASUS motherboards have generally been accepted as the #2 MotherBoard after Gigabyte and this should have a potential success rate but their are several potential unknows. Those being the Network card or onboard chipset it has. The other is what is the CPU and the GFX video card that was ordered as this has the greatest effect on a working hack.
You also may not get the USB3 ports to work - again due to the chipsets on the motherboard.
I guess whats needed is to know if this unit has a comerically available motherboard in the box which is the same type as what you can buy in a store etc.
So if you can get the complete specs of the box and post back that way we may try to answer more !
If you intend to do a dual boot - I suggest a completey seperate Hard drive for the Mac OS to boot from - as I am sure that your System will not come w a Retail Copy of Windows to do a reinstall - only a partition on the drive to restall the W7 OS. - Say 500 GB would do....
Also you didnt specify which OSX version you were planning to use. Your Restore DVD from your 2008 MBP will not qualify as an version of the OSX that can be used for a hack.

xodus31 · Sep 21, 2012

totenkopf4 said:
xodus31
ASUS motherboards have generally been accepted as the #2 MotherBoard after Gigabyte and this should have a potential success rate but their are several potential unknows. Those being the Network card or onboard chipset it has. The other is what is the CPU and the GFX video card that was ordered as this has the greatest effect on a working hack.
You also may not get the USB3 ports to work - again due to the chipsets on the motherboard.
I guess whats needed is to know if this unit has a comerically available motherboard in the box which is the same type as what you can buy in a store etc.
So if you can get the complete specs of the box and post back that way we may try to answer more !
If you intend to do a dual boot - I suggest a completey seperate Hard drive for the Mac OS to boot from - as I am sure that your System will not come w a Retail Copy of Windows to do a reinstall - only a partition on the drive to restall the W7 OS. - Say 500 GB would do....
Also you didnt specify which OSX version you were planning to use. Your Restore DVD from your 2008 MBP will not qualify as an version of the OSX that can be used for a hack.

Thanks for your reply.
I will post the exact motherboard model once the pc arrives. The GFX card is a GEFORCE GT 620, Processor is a 3rd Gen Intel 3.4ghz i7 3770 H77 chipset.
As far as OS X version I have my retail copy of 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. I was planning on picking up another hard drive, so thanks for the heads up.

Thanks again.

flem0061 · Oct 22, 2012

I'm considering purchasing the very same machine. Did you ever get this one to work?? Thanks

zaledar · Mar 20, 2013

Hello,

I bought an ASUS CM6870 with an ATI 6870 Sapphire and I installed a 10.8.3 on it.

Everything is working fine, sleep OK.

Bootloader : Chimera 2.0.1 with only Graphics Enabler and EthernetBuilt-in.
SMBIOS : imac 12.2
SOUND : To make it work use Multibeast 5.2.1 and install AppleHDA patched for ALC892
NETWORK : Lnx2Mac's Realteck 81xx works but card doesn't wake from sleep. I used RealtekR1000SL.Kext.zip (Attached File) and Network + Sleep work fine
CPU Power Management : No need NullCPUPowerManagement kext
Video Card : ATI 6870 Sapphire, work OOB and Graphics Enabler, DVI ports, Duckweed, Ports 4
FakeSMC : Plugins is needed
Disk : TRIM Enabler
DSDT : Attached File
USB 3.0 : Works

First install with 10.8.0.
After upgrade to 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 you have to replaces the current AppleACPIPlatform.kext in /System/Library/Extensions with the 10.8.1 version.
You can also do it with with Multibeast 5.2.1, AppleACPIPlatform roll back.

Macvolts · May 16, 2017

zaledar said:
Hello,

I bought an ASUS CM6870 with an ATI 6870 Sapphire and I installed a 10.8.3 on it.

Everything is working fine, sleep OK.

Bootloader : Chimera 2.0.1 with only Graphics Enabler and EthernetBuilt-in.
SMBIOS : imac 12.2
SOUND : To make it work use Multibeast 5.2.1 and install AppleHDA patched for ALC892
NETWORK : Lnx2Mac's Realteck 81xx works but card doesn't wake from sleep. I used RealtekR1000SL.Kext.zip (Attached File) and Network + Sleep work fine
CPU Power Management : No need NullCPUPowerManagement kext
Video Card : ATI 6870 Sapphire, work OOB and Graphics Enabler, DVI ports, Duckweed, Ports 4
FakeSMC : Plugins is needed
Disk : TRIM Enabler
DSDT : Attached File
USB 3.0 : Works

First install with 10.8.0.
After upgrade to 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 you have to replaces the current AppleACPIPlatform.kext in /System/Library/Extensions with the 10.8.1 version.
You can also do it with with Multibeast 5.2.1, AppleACPIPlatform roll back.

Would you help to let me know what's you BOIS setting? I have your same motherboard, but the UniBeast won't work booting up on ASUS CM6870.

Macvolts · May 31, 2017

I get it done, and installed Sierra.

- Clover UEFI for 1st boot and install Sierra to my SSD, Clover Legacy boot won't work on this Mother board
- But multiBeast loader to my SSD need Legacy
- Display HD2500 / HD4000 won't work. I tried all of them 0x0166000x ..... and match the BOIS Vram size setting for ig-platform-id, try all ports VGA/DVI/HDMI but still not work for this motherboard. It only works on 0x01660005 but only assign 7M Vram.

Happy ending, I used my old GT9800 and change the config plist to VRAM 512 and working good now. GT9800 works VGA port only, I don't know how to make it work on DVI port.

- USB2&3/ Network / audio / bluetooth dongle bcm20702 works too
- Because of that's desktop I haven't test the wakeup, I alway disable sleep.

Asus P8H77-M pro cm6870 refurb motherboard / i5 3rd gen 4 cores / DDR3 still are available order online, good deal for building a i5 4 cores Mac.

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ASUS Essentio CM6870-US-3AD Desktop PC

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