Big Sur 11.7.10 on old ivy bridge

[Sirsasana]

Just want to share my experience...

I have an old sandy bridge desktop running macOS Catalina with this spec:
Sandy Bridge Catalina Hackintosh

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2B3 with f4 bios
Processor Intel i5-2500K 3.7Ghz – 6M cache
Memory Hynix 4GB DDR3
Harddisk WD Blue 500GB
Network card TP-Link TL-WDN4800

SMBios iMac 15,1
Catalina 10.5.7
- Graphics Intel HD3000
- Wifi Atheros
- Sound Apple ALC889
- No Bluetooth so no AirDrop

I had fun with the Hackintosh so much, browsing the internet, listening to music and playing games.
Then I found out that my motherboard can support ivy bridge processor.
I read a lots of threads from this forum and decided to upgrade my old Sandy Bridge.

and here the upgrade components (most of them I bought from used markets, only bluetooth usb is new)

• Processor i3-3225 US$ 22.34
• Network TP-Link Archer T6E US$ 12.94
• Antenna EOTH 2.4Ghz/5Ghz US$ 2.38
• Orico BTA-408 Bluetooth US$ 9.06
• Total US$ 46.72

After upgrading my motherboard bios from f4 to f10 (to support Ivy Bridge Processor), here is my spec:

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2B3 with f10 bios
Processor Intel 3-3225 3.3Ghz – 3M cache
Memory Hynix 4GB DDR3
Harddisk WD Blue 500GB

And here is my macOS Big Sur 11.6
- SMBios iMac 15,1
- Graphics Intel HD4000
- Wifi Broadcom BCM4352
- Bluetooth Broadcom BCM20702 (AirDrop works)
- Sound Apple ALC889

cheers...

 

[Sirsasana]

Today I purchased wireless bluetooth keyboard Logitech K375S and Logitech WebCam C270.

Both connect flawlessly without any additional kexts and any issues.
Now I can use FaceTime and WhatsApp Video Call with my Big Sur.
Even waking up from sleep is working from keyboard.

Cheers,

 

[trs96]

Orico BTA-408 Bluetooth US$ 9.06

These adapters are now on sale for about 1/2 the price on Ebay. They are some kind of off red color if that matters.

Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter Dongle Support Windows8/7/ Vista / XP MAC BTA-408 New | eBay

Condition is New.

www.ebay.com

Here's all the colors they made them in. Red was not the most popular. That's why the price is so low.

They most likely won't work OOB with Monterey. Good deal though for Big Sur or older macOS versions.

 

[trs96]

The BTA408 dongle uses the exact same chipset as the GBU521 from IOGear. Here's the specs from my IOGear dongle. Same 20702A3 chipset from broadcom. Same Product ID: 0x21E8.

 

[trs96]

I bought one of these GBU521 adapters back in 2012 for just under $18. Today they go for $15 USD.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GFX0PY/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[Sirsasana]

I bought one of these GBU521 adapters back in 2012 for just under $18. Today they go for $15 USD.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GFX0PY/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Is this GBU521 works with Monterey OOB?

 

[trs96]

Is this GBU521 works with Monterey OOB?

No, BT is a big problem in Monterey even for real Macs. Apple is working to fix the issues. Best to stay with Big Sur if you need working BT.

 

[Sirsasana]

No, BT is a big problem in Monterey even for real Macs. Apple is working to fix the issues. Best to stay with Big Sur if you need working BT.

well noted, thank you

 

[Sirsasana]

well noted, thank you

Yesterday I tried installing Monterey on a spare hard disk.

Bluetooth works after adding BlueToolFixup.kext
And, Intel Graphics 4000 did not work. But after applying PatchHD4000 then it is ok.
I will make a new post in Monterey Desktop Support later and post the link here.

Cheers,

here is the link to Monterey...

Monterey 12.7.1 on old Ivy Bridge - OC 0.6.9 & OCLP 0.6.8

Yesterday I installed macOS Monterey 12.1 on old Ivy Bridge Desktop and then update it to Monterey 12.2.1. Here is my rig: Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2B3 with f10 bios Processor Intel 3-3225 3.3Ghz – 3M cache Memory Hynix 4GB DDR3 Harddisk Seagate 250GB And here is my macOS Monterey 12.2.1 -...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[Sirsasana]

this is great to hear, love my ivy, stable as a rock

Yeah. Same here, although it is a bit slow yet acceptable. Perhaps I should buy a SSD replacing my HDD.