Asus X79 Rampage IV Extreme | Core i7-3930K (Successful)

[MK500]

I've tried following the guide, but I can't seem to get the audio to work.

I've done it both the original way and with the MultiBeast 4.4.1.

I've double checked with two optical cables and the 3 headphone jack cables.

All of them work under windows.

OSX reports the optical out and such under "About this Mac", but nothing is showing up under the audio control panel and there is no glow coming from the optical cable/port under osx

Any suggestions?

Make sure you are using the specified BIOS version and DSDT. That's the only thing I can think of that might cause your issue.

 

[MK500]

I have the same build except for hdd which i am using vertax 4 and my write speed is horribly slow at 180 plus.

If your Vertex 4 is the 128GB variety, I think the specs for write speed are about 200MB/s. So 180 wouldn't be too far off the mark. There is a new firmware that is in testing (release candidate) that appears to double the write speed:

http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_vertex_4_ssd_review_firmware_v14rc

Just make sure you are connected to one of the SATA 6 ports on the primary controller, and check out that firmware when it gets out of beta -- should be out within a few weeks.

Another thing that didn't manage to work is the Parallels Desktop, after installation, and reboot it just hangs at the grey apple screen (with spinning wheel spinning forever).

I do quite a bit of virtualization on my machine with both VMWare Fusion 4.1.2 and VirtualBox 4.1.14. Both work extremely well; and they are one of the primary uses for my machine. I haven't tested Parallels on it; but here are a few suggestions:

1) Look through my BIOS pictures. I think you need to turn on the VTT extension or something like that for virtualization.
2) Make sure you are on the newest version of Parallels. If your whole machine is locking up at boot after installing Parallels, I would guess Parallels installed a buggy Kext.

 

[ggeorge]

Make sure you are using the specified BIOS version and DSDT. That's the only thing I can think of that might cause your issue.

It seems to have been a combination of two things.

First, it looks like I did something when trying to get the sound to work earlier. As the no devices issue kept cropping up again when I tried migrating anything from one of the old installations I was working with to one where I had the sound working.

Second, you should update the audio section to make it clear that you need to install the "AppleHDA Rollback" kext. This is made clear in the link about "7) Install 898 Audio Kext from here using your favorite Kext installer.", but your guide doesn't currently mention anything about it. This is why some of the early fresh installs didn't work.

But I have it all working now and it's glorious running WoW and DeusEx

Do you know if Cinebench favors AMD/ATI cards over nVidia? The benchmarks I've seen indicate my 560 Ti 448 should be significantly faster than your 6870, but I was only getting roughly 32 fps vs your 53 fps.

Now to finish the software installation (then back it up) and on to the overclocking.

Once I've got everything nailed down, I'll be installing Parallels and I'll let you know how it works.

Thanks a lot for the guide BTW, it's been very helpful.

 

[MK500]

Second, you should update the audio section to make it clear that you need to install the "AppleHDA Rollback" kext. This is made clear in the link about "7) Install 898 Audio Kext from here using your favorite Kext installer.", but your guide doesn't currently mention anything about it. This is why some of the early fresh installs didn't work.

Thanks for the feedback; I may grab a hard drive and do a test install to verify my instructions. I did not do the AppleHDA Rollback as far as I know; just the exact steps in my tutorial. For the "favorite Kext installer", I used "Kext Utility" version 2.5.1 -- but I know there are a lot of others out there including one provided by tonymacx86. I don't believe it would have done any Rollback; it should have just installed the "AppleHDA.kext" contained in the zip file I linked to in step 7.

Anyway; I think I need to do a full update to the process with 10.7.4 and MultiBeast 4.3.2. I should be able to simplify the instructions considerably.

Not sure about the NVidia performance issues. Maybe the CPU is coming into play; as you haven't overclocked yet.

 

[subaro0o]

Make sure you are using the specified BIOS version and DSDT. That's the only thing I can think of that might cause your issue.

It seems to have been a combination of two things.

First, it looks like I did something when trying to get the sound to work earlier. As the no devices issue kept cropping up again when I tried migrating anything from one of the old installations I was working with to one where I had the sound working.

Second, you should update the audio section to make it clear that you need to install the "AppleHDA Rollback" kext. This is made clear in the link about "7) Install 898 Audio Kext from here using your favorite Kext installer.", but your guide doesn't currently mention anything about it. This is why some of the early fresh installs didn't work.

But I have it all working now and it's glorious running WoW and DeusEx

Do you know if Cinebench favors AMD/ATI cards over nVidia? The benchmarks I've seen indicate my 560 Ti 448 should be significantly faster than your 6870, but I was only getting roughly 32 fps vs your 53 fps.

Now to finish the software installation (then back it up) and on to the overclocking.

Once I've got everything nailed down, I'll be installing Parallels and I'll let you know how it works.

Thanks a lot for the guide BTW, it's been very helpful.

That's a FERMI card, that why the benchmarks aren't giving you the correct information from what I understand from seeing that posted EVERYWHERE

 

[Gene07777]

I did everything by the book but just one tiny error, I bought the GTX 680. I took the risk thinking the ML could include drivers for nVidia series 600. But at this point I'm not sure if I should wait or return it, and buy the GTX 580. I use After Effect and Premier very frequently and I'm readying so many complaint about the series 600 being slower than GTX 580 processing CUDA. I really don't know if I should return the 680 and go with the GTX 580 with PCE 2.1.

Btw I test this system with 2 GTX 275 and work flawlessly!! Good Job!

 

[ggeorge]

Thanks for the feedback; I may grab a hard drive and do a test install to verify my instructions. I did not do the AppleHDA Rollback as far as I know; just the exact steps in my tutorial. For the "favorite Kext installer", I used "Kext Utility" version 2.5.1 -- but I know there are a lot of others out there including one provided by tonymacx86. I don't believe it would have done any Rollback; it should have just installed the "AppleHDA.kext" contained in the zip file I linked to in step 7.

Sorry I think I was insufficiently clear. I was using the Multibeast 4.4.1 to install stuff and in the link you included to the guide on the AppleHDA.kext, it said to install the rollback kext.

Installation
Option 1: MultiBeast 4.4 & newer (automatic installation)
1. Select: Drivers & Bootloaders/Kexts & Enablers/Audio/Realtek ALC8xx/ALC8xxHDA and AppleHDA Rollback

It wasn't until I did that that I got the sound working, but given the issues I was having with something that got installed causing problems with the sound. It's possible that it might have been coincidental. In any case it is at least working just fine with the rollback kext installed.

I did everything by the book but just one tiny error, I bought the GTX 680. I took the risk thinking the ML could include drivers for nVidia series 600. But at this point I'm not sure if I should wait or return it, and buy the GTX 580. I use After Effect and Premier very frequently and I'm readying so many complaint about the series 600 being slower than GTX 580 processing CUDA. I really don't know if I should return the 680 and go with the GTX 580 with PCE 2.1.

Btw I test this system with 2 GTX 275 and work flawlessly!! Good Job!

This has some interesting benchmarks on the 680 vs 580, summary seems to be that for single precision 680 does fine and it sucks at double precision.
http://blog.accelereyes.com/blog/2012/0 ... r-gtx-680/

IIRC, graphics stuff is mostly single precision. I believe it's scientific calculations and math problems which need the double precision.

Well Apple may well introduce 6xx series support when they introduce new machines, probably at the WWDC (6/15). Apparently some of the benchmark websites have had results posted from what look to be new macs. One of the presumably new macbook pros used the nVidia 650M, which is a kepler (6xx) based mobile chip.

 

[Collymore]

I have the same build except for hdd which i am using vertax 4 and my write speed is horribly slow at 180 plus.

If your Vertex 4 is the 128GB variety, I think the specs for write speed are about 200MB/s. So 180 wouldn't be too far off the mark. There is a new firmware that is in testing (release candidate) that appears to double the write speed:

http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_vertex_4_ssd_review_firmware_v14rc

Just make sure you are connected to one of the SATA 6 ports on the primary controller, and check out that firmware when it gets out of beta -- should be out within a few weeks.

Another thing that didn't manage to work is the Parallels Desktop, after installation, and reboot it just hangs at the grey apple screen (with spinning wheel spinning forever).

I do quite a bit of virtualization on my machine with both VMWare Fusion 4.1.2 and VirtualBox 4.1.14. Both work extremely well; and they are one of the primary uses for my machine. I haven't tested Parallels on it; but here are a few suggestions:

1) Look through my BIOS pictures. I think you need to turn on the VTT extension or something like that for virtualization.
2) Make sure you are on the newest version of Parallels. If your whole machine is locking up at boot after installing Parallels, I would guess Parallels installed a buggy Kext.

Tried VMWare Fusion 4 later that day and it worked well, not too sure why parallel is giving problems thou. Thanks for your advice~!

 

[stefanhuberfilms]

Hi!

Another question, which thermal paste did you use?

regards SH

 

[ggeorge]

Hi!

Another question, which thermal paste did you use?

regards SH

I've seen a number of roundups of thermal paste that basically said "There's no effective difference in the real world". You can see differences in testing set ups designed to do it, but in practical terms, it just isn't that important.

You really need to worry about the Goldilocks zone, not too much paste, not too little. Many people put on wayyyy too much, which is as bad or worse than too little.

How good the contact is between your heatsink and the top of the chip is easily more important. Also having nice even pressure across the chip is important. An ideal contact would in fact, not require any thermal paste.