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Asus ProArt B660-Creator - i7-12700KF - MSI RX 560 4GB - ThunderboltEX 3-TR

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Aug 14, 2021
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Motherboard
Asus ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming Wi-Fi
CPU
i7-14700KF
Graphics
RTX 3070 Ti
Mac
  1. iMac
  2. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
starghost1100's Build:
Asus ProArt B660-Creator - i7-12700KF - RX 560 - ThunderboltEX 3-TR


IMG_6833.jpg

Contents
Components​
Comments​
BIOS Setup​

Components: NEW

Asus ProArt B660-Creator D4 Socket 1700 ATX DDR4 Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NWCTDTL
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813119546
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/ProArt/ProArt-B660-CREATOR-D4/

Intel Core i7-12700KF Alder Lake 8C/16T + 4E CPU Socket 1700
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FXKHN7M
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16819118345

EKWB AIO 360 D-RGB Liquid Cooler with additional 1700 Socket mounting backplane
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0842YK4L5
https://www.newegg.com/p/9SIAWVVDVF4120
https://www.newegg.com/p/9SIAWVVH260623
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-aio-lga1700-upgrade-kit

CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB PRO 4x16GB DDR4-3600MHZ CL18 CMW64GX4M4D3600C18
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GSSY4J4
[NEWEGG"]https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16820236679[/NEWEGG]

WESTERN DIGITAL SN850 1TB NVMe PCI-e 4.0 x4 SSD DRIVE w/o heatsink
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFS6THF
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16820250161

CORSAIR MP510 960GB NVMe PCI-e 3.0 x4 SSD DRIVE
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084ZWC796
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16820236620

KINGSTON A400 SA400S37/240 SATAIII 240GB SSD DRIVE
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5IB20Q
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16820242400

LIAN LI O11D Mini-S Snow White
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096JF2JT5
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811112595

FRACTAL DESIGN ION SFX 650G Fully Modular SFX-L 650W 80+ Gold Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZQVYCFD
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16817580026

Broadcom BCM94360NG Wi-Fi/BT NGFF M.2 Key A/E Module
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083YXS7VF
https://www.newegg.com/p/0XM-00JK-00083

ASUS THUNDERBOLTEX 3-TR EXPANSION THUNDERBOLT 3 PCI-e 3.0 x4 CARD [Titan Ridge]
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08926P9PV
https://www.newegg.com/p/09Z-01SB-00041

CASE SLIM COOLERS 3 x ID-COOLING NO-12015-XT-ARGB
https://www.newegg.com/p/1YF-01DM-000H1


Already Owned
MSI AERO ITX RX 560 4GB GRAPHICS CARD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072J422CZ
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16814137124


Comments

The Build
I chose this board because it was the cheapest 1700 socket board I was looking for with the connector I needed for the ThunderboltEX3 expansion board. Ultimately, I would like to have a working machine that can connect any Thunderbolt device to it. In addition, I found that the board has an excellent 12 + 1 processor power system for this chipset and a nice appearance, as well as other boards in this line. The board has 3 slots for connecting NVMe drives and one slot for M.2 Wi-Fi, in which I later connected the bcm94360ng module.

Since initially the motherboard does not have Wi-Fi, it also does not have antennas. I had to disassemble one of the PCI-e Wi-Fi boards from the MSI and separate the part with the textolite from the metal bracket for attaching to the PC case. I was lucky that from some other board I still had wiring with spools for screwing in antennas. Otherwise, if you want to do the same, you will have to order a bracket and wires from Aliexpress or eBay. It seems the Fenvi store also sells these sets. I ordered a few of these sets for myself. Let them be.

You can also order the FV-T919 in the PCI-e x1 slot, but then you should think about replacing one of the components: the case or the cooling system. Since the x1 slot is at the very bottom of the board, in my case, the liquid cooling system covers it with fans. This is a PC case problem for the most part. But the choice was made consciously and the PC case is a mATX size box with the ability to install an ATX motherboard in it. In addition, there is room for a water cooling system up to 360mm in size. this usually also requires a bit of PC case height. Installing the cooling system on top, as you might suggest, will not work due to the size of the casing of the I/O ports of the motherboard. That is why thin 15mm case fans were chosen.

In my build, I used a low-powered video card, since this computer will be occupied mainly with audio work. But you can install any card from the macOS compatible list. However, you must take into account the fact that the hoses of the cooling system I have chosen are not flexible enough and in the end the water block and the bend of the hoses can only be of one shape and position. Looking at the picture at the beginning of this post, note that if the video card were longer, then the hoses would press on it. This is not very good if you do not have a bracket to hold the video card in a horizontal position. In my opinion, cards up to RX 6600 XT would fit without any problems.

I chose the Corsair RAM because there is confirmation that Samsung B-Die memory is located under the radiators, and this is very good if the frequency of 3600MHz seems low to you and you want to take the mark of 4000 or more MHz. This memory will give you that opportunity. Plus it's cute and colorful. Color settings can be made in Windows and saved to a hardware profile. The color profile will be saved even after a reboot. But with @CaseySJ's latest work, you can already control the color of components directly from macOS (I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to).

As for the choice of liquid cooling system, I can say that the choice justified itself completely. I previously read that this particular brand has recently come into all-in-one systems from custom liquid cooling components and their heatsink has better performance than anyone else. And I confirm it. The i7-12700KF with consumption limits turned off stays within 90 degrees Celsius at 240 watts in the CineBench R23 test.

There is not much point in discussing the choice of System SSD, since many people have already chosen the Western Digital SN850 as one of the fastest and most compatible drives to date. The build also contains a disk from Corsair working on PCI-e 3.0 and there will be another one of the same, but two terabytes. Corsair's controller is also macOS friendly and has no problems with TRIM in any of the OS versions, but costs less than Western Digital. Especially a two terabyte disk. Strange for a Corsair, really. Their drive has an excellent IOPS for a PCI-e 3.0 drive. More than the Samsung 970 EVO Plus, for example.

Installation
I took EFI @CaseySJ as a base in his gold build Asus ProArt Z690 Creator and made some minor changes, but I'm still in the process of building a perfectly working machine running macOS Catalina 10.15.7.
I changed the min. kernel setting to 19.0 in the CPU emulation and SMBIOS section on iMacPro1,1 for booting successfully.

Since the models of network cards are different, I don't have any network cards in the list of devices yet. But there is Wi-Fi, which, however, somehow works strangely. It seems to me that the signal reception level is lower than it should be. In Monterey, it was not defined at all. Only Bluetooth. Do I need some kext to fix this module?

After installation, I was surprised to find that the Thunderbolt Bus was initialized and displayed in the system information. After that, I tried to use a ready-made SSDT table for ThunderboltEX3-TP on RP21, but after installing the Hackintool, I found that the board was placed on RP05. I'm still a hackintosh beginner and would like to ask for help with a thunderbolt and some other things I don't understand yet. At the moment, I plan to flash the Thunderbolt card with custom firmware, because, as far as I know, if the board can work with an Apple Thunderbolt display, then I should see the image on it already at the stage of loading the Asus logo. But this does not happen, and therefore my admiration for the active bus Thunderbolt in the list of devices does not give me anything. I checked if the Thunderbolt ports work as USB, but no, they are inactive.

BIOS Settings
  • Ai Tweaker
    • Ai Overclock Tuner → XMP I for activate 3600mhz (before flash the BIOS on latest version. first release has compatibility problem with 3600 mhz memory)
  • Advanced → System Agent Configuration
    • VT-d → Enabled
    • Control Pre-boot IOMMU Behavior → Enable IOMMU during boot
  • Advanced → System Agent Configuration → Memory Configuration
    • Memory Remap → Enabled (enables Above 4G Decoding)
  • Advanced → Thunderbolt Configuration
    • Discrete Thunderbolt(TM) Support → Enabled
    • Wake From Thunderbolt(TM) Devices → Enabled
  • Advanced → Thunderbolt Configuration → Discrete Thunderbolt(TM) Configuration
    • DTBT Go2Sx Command → Enabled
    • Windows 10 Thunderbolt support → Enable + RTD3
  • Advanced → Trusted Computing
    • Security Device Support → Enable
  • Advanced → USB Configuration
    • XHCI Hand-off → Enabled (default)
  • Advanced → Network Stack Configuration
    • Network Stack → Disabled (default)
  • Advanced → Onboard Devices Configuration
    • HD Audio → Enabled
    • Intel LAN → Enabled
    • Wi-Fi Controller → Enable
    • Bluetooth Controller → Enable
    • Serial Port Configuration → Disabled
  • Boot → CSM (Compatibility Support Module)
    • Launch CSM → Disabled
  • Boot → Secure Boot
    • OS Type → Other
    • Secure Boot Mode → Custom
  • Boot → Boot Configuration
    • Fast Boot → Disabled (you can choose Enable, but it seems to me that when this is off, my board initializes and shows the asus logo faster. )
  • Tool → ASUS User Profile
    • Profile Name → (Enter name of profile in order to save current BIOS configuration)
    • Save to Profile → (Up to 8 profiles can be saved)
  • Exit
    • Save Changes & Reset (choose this option when BIOS configuration is done)
What Works
All based functions are working.
Shutdown, Restart.​
All USB Ports on motherboard.​
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airdrop.​
FaceTime / Messages​

What Doesn't Work
Sleep not tested yet. Need USB Mapping.​
ThunderboltEX3-TR USB and TB.​

Benchmarks with PL1:

Geekbench 5.4.4

Single Core - 2002​
Multi-Core - 14019​

Perhaps on MacPro7,1 the result would be higher, but I use Catalina and cannot select this SMBIOS.
 

Attachments

  • EFI beta B660-CREATOR Opencore 0.7.8.zip
    15.3 MB · Views: 648
  • iMacPro ioreg.zip
    1 MB · Views: 316
Breaking news!

Today I went to one person who has equipment for flashing and he flashed a microchip for me on a Thunderbolt board. I plugged it into my computer and my Thunderbolt monitor started working.
I wanted to ask @CaseySJ what these tables do:
SSDT-XH_ADLS3.aml
SSDT-DTbtSsdt.aml (this one is similar in name to the short name for Thunderbolt)

After installing the board with the firmware, I did not add SSDT tables for the Thunderbolt to work. But I turned off Control Pre-boot IOMMU Behavior for now. I will turn it on and see if there is an image. It only appeared when macOS was loaded. earlier, on Z490 boards, I saw an image already at the BIOS stage. This is the difference between Z490 and Z690 (B660 in my case).
Also from the unpleasant, I have a very long Asus logo, about a minute. Maybe I'll try a few different BIOS version or Thunderbolt settings. Somewhere I came across fine-tuning the digital values for the Thunderbolt in relation to the X299 Deluxe-2 board. I will look for them again and put these values in my motherboard.

Update:
Control Pre-boot IOMMU Behavior does not affect the Apple Monitor in any way and neither on the motherboard boot speed, too.
After the first boot into macOS, the picture on the Apple monitor appears starting with the Asus logo.
 
Last edited:
To reduce boot time on Asus B660, please try checking this on:
Screen Shot 2022-02-24 at 12.56.57 PM.png
 
Hello @CaseySJ!

I can't find... which SSDT should I use for hot plugging? I found out that your table SSDT-DTbtSsdt.aml is suitable for me, but I need another one for it, and I don't know which one.
Without it, as expected, hot plugging does not work and sleep leads to a freeze. The screen goes blank, but the coolers are spinning, and, when I want to wake it up, nothing happens. only reboot from the button.
 
Based on your IOReg, SSDT-TBOLT3.aml should point to \_SB.PC00.RP05. Try this one:
 

Attachments

  • SSDT-TBOLT3.aml
    2 KB · Views: 152
Based on your IOReg, SSDT-TBOLT3.aml should point to \_SB.PC00.RP05. Try this one:
hi @etorix!
I tried, but the effect is partial.
information about connected devices appeared in the PCI, but the USB connection is inactive (only if connected before the system boots) and I think the TB is hot connected too.
If you edited that SSDT-TBOLT3 file that was in my folder, then it is probably from the Alpine Ridge and therefore it is displayed in the system.
I attached a new ioreg and a screenshot. I will be eternally grateful for your help with this.
 

Attachments

  • 111.png
    111.png
    119.1 KB · Views: 216
  • ioreg.zip
    1.1 MB · Views: 155
If the card is still in the same slot, the ACPI path is still correct.
The first SSDT-TBOLT3 was indeed based on the Alpine Ridge SSDT in your EFI folder, and should be correct for an Alpine Ridge controller. If you swap cards for a Titan Ridge, you need a Titan Ridge SSDT.

With the Titan Ridge card in the same slot, try SSDT-TB3-TITAN.aml to replace SSDT-TBOLT3.aml.
I suggest renaming the above SSDT-TBOLT3.aml to SSDT-TB3-ALPINE.aml and adapting OpenCore config.plist to point to the right SSDT-TB3-xxxxx.aml depending on which card is in the slot. You may alternatively rename SSDT-TB3-TITAN.aml to SSDT-TBOLT3.aml and just drop it in the ACPI folder to replace the Alpine Ridge version, but keeping track of which is what if you ever swap Thunderbolt cards again is going to be a nightmare.
(You can keep both SSDT-TB3-ALPINE and SSDT-TB3-TITAN in your ACPI folder, but because they both target the same slot and the same ACPI devices, only one can be "Enabled:True" in config.plist at any time.)
 

Attachments

  • SSDT-TB3-TITAN.aml
    2.2 KB · Views: 143
  • SSDT-TB3-ALPINE.aml
    2 KB · Views: 135
If the card is still in the same slot, the ACPI path is still correct.
The first SSDT-TBOLT3 was indeed based on the Alpine Ridge SSDT in your EFI folder, and should be correct for an Alpine Ridge controller. If you swap cards for a Titan Ridge, you need a Titan Ridge SSDT.

With the Titan Ridge card in the same slot, try SSDT-TB3-TITAN.aml to replace SSDT-TBOLT3.aml.
I suggest renaming the above SSDT-TBOLT3.aml to SSDT-TB3-ALPINE.aml and adapting OpenCore config.plist to point to the right SSDT-TB3-xxxxx.aml depending on which card is in the slot. You may alternatively rename SSDT-TB3-TITAN.aml to SSDT-TBOLT3.aml and just drop it in the ACPI folder to replace the Alpine Ridge version, but keeping track of which is what if you ever swap Thunderbolt cards again is going to be a nightmare.
(You can keep both SSDT-TB3-ALPINE and SSDT-TB3-TITAN in your ACPI folder, but because they both target the same slot and the same ACPI devices, only one can be "Enabled:True" in config.plist at any time.)
My controller is a Ttitan Ridge, I just tried different options and found SSDT already compiled earlier. the last one was the one you saw in my EFI folder, but it was for Alpine Ridge, which I didn't notice right away.
Now I'm trying your ssdt-tb3-titan.aml

Update:
With the new SSDT, the controller is displayed correctly, but connecting the USB to a hot one does not work, unfortunately.
Disconnecting and reconnecting the Thunderbolt display also doesn't work.
what does SSDT-DTbtSsdt.aml do from the CaseySJ folder? Maybe it needs to be turned off and removed completely? Until I had your ssdt-tb3-titan.aml without the table ssdt-dtbtSsdt.aml my Thunderbolt display worked but flickered every second or two.
 
Last edited:
I will try port mapping. I'm not sure if this is the case, but I'll try. currently using usbinjectall and port limit quirk. For Catalina, this is usually not a problem, am I right?
in hackintool i see both controllers and 4 ports for my usb-c on the thunderbolt card. but the connection of the device to these ports is not initialized.
 
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