Building a Sandy Bridge CustoMac: Recommended Builds

[Retro-Rec]

Sent you a pm rectape. If anyone else is interested I will be trying these cards soon and will post the results in an audio thread. Pro Tools is awesome on this machine!

 

[jamdox]

Hey folks, here's a wishlist I'm thinking of buying:

wishlist.jpg

I was going to have 1 hd for primary, and the other split between time machine and windows/bootcamp. I was also going to get a case second-hand, over at FreeGeek .

I have the following questions!

-Do I need to use extra kext's?
-I need OPTICAL AUDIO OUT! What's the best mobo for that?
-Does the memory speed(s) matter?
-Are there any compatibility concerns with any of these components?
-Can I build this in an old PowerMac chassis?

Here are some mobos I'm looking at:

mobos.jpg

Some are micro-ATX, other ATX; some have USB3 and others don't. All are listed as having Realtek ALC889 audio and Realtek 8111E networking...

It's important to me that the result be stable. I really do not want to have to reload and edit kext files every time Apple updates the OS.

Thanks a bundle!

 

[Mathi]

Hey Guys,

first of all: thanks to tony and all users, who have spent so much time in solving problems and posting in this forum!!
You helped me a lot in my decisions!!

Now, I wanted to tell my experience of building my first Hackintosh. Here I have a list of parts I bought:

- Intel Core i7 2600K 4x 3.40GHz So.1155 BOX
- Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3
- 8GB (2x 4096MB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 DIMM CL9-9-9-24 Dual Kit
- Gigabyte VP-AMD6870-1024A GV-R687SO-1GD (DVI/HDMI/DP)
- 1000GB Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 7.200U/min 64MB
- Belkin Bluetooth Adapter Mini Class 2 USB 2.0

And I had an old PowerMac G5, which was not working anymore. So I decided to use the case for my new Hackintosh.
I don't have recent pictures yet. But I promise, you will get them!

Going on to my installation process: For SL, everything worked fine. I used the tutorials in this forum and was finally very happy seeing the MacPro 3,1 on the display!
Installing Lion was then a bit tricky:
I wanted to Install Lion on another unused HD. I prepared the installer partition and was able to boot from it. The boot started, but at the Point, when the spinning wheel should hide and the language selection should show up, the computer decided to startup again. Making a long story short, the trick was to use only one hard drive at the moment, during the installation process. After removing the other HD, it worked all fine.

Now I plan to install 10.7.1, but I don't have a backup yet. I think this will come in the next days...

So finally, my message is: using these components will bring you absolutely no Problems. Including the bluetooth adapter, which allows awake from sleep with bt keyboard and magic mouse.

Thanks again to all of you!!

Greetings from Germany...

 

[willeemammoth]

Hey all,

I just finished building CustoMac #1, sandybridge with the i3-2100.

When I turn it on, the HDD spins, it acts Ike it's turning on, but my monitor detects nothing, then it turns off again in 15 seconds. After that it turns back on, and repeats in the endless booting cycle.

I'm sorry I'm new here, I don't mean to post in the wrong section,but I really need some help.

 

[eighteesix]

From this thread: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=29554

Note: I came across this information after deciding to build my first Sandy Bridge Mac rig. I only bring it to this boards' attention in case the recommended builds need to be revised.

I have found numerous reports of the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 motherboard having issues with the recommended Corsair Vengence memory. That particular memory is also not listed on Gigabyte's compatibility list (which I know typically doesn't suggest incompatibility, likely due to product age).

The best source I found was actually numerous edited posts in the review section on newegg's product page for the GA-Z68X-UD5-B3. Essentially, a number of users have found inconsistency in that board's "willingness" to accept the Vengence ram in any combination.

Other Gigabyte boards have had a lot of repeated success, as evidenced by looking through this forum. I also want to point out that not every single Z68X-UD5-B3 has issues with the Vengence ram, but it's been happening frequently.

Point being, perhaps a review of the #4 CustoMac build is necessary? Perhaps a future BIOS will repair the issue, but nonetheless I wanted to get some opinions on this. No sense in having a recommended build cause problems for all the new users. Not only did the information alarm me, but brought me to research other models in the Z68 chipset. (I found that the GA-Z68XP-UD3P has great success with current software using other build #4 hardware).

 

[curiousbuilder]

Hi eighteesix,

Thanks for posting this. I'd like to build my first hackintosh with the i7 2600K CPU and was looking at the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 as well. I see you recommend the:

GA-Z68XP-UD3P

How about the: GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3

Would you recommend one over the other?

Thanks!

From this thread: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=29554

Note: I came across this information after deciding to build my first Sandy Bridge Mac rig. I only bring it to this boards' attention in case the recommended builds need to be revised.

I have found numerous reports of the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 motherboard having issues with the recommended Corsair Vengence memory. That particular memory is also not listed on Gigabyte's compatibility list (which I know typically doesn't suggest incompatibility, likely due to product age).

The best source I found was actually numerous edited posts in the review section on newegg's product page for the GA-Z68X-UD5-B3. Essentially, a number of users have found inconsistency in that board's "willingness" to accept the Vengence ram in any combination.

Other Gigabyte boards have had a lot of repeated success, as evidenced by looking through this forum. I also want to point out that not every single Z68X-UD5-B3 has issues with the Vengence ram, but it's been happening frequently.

Point being, perhaps a review of the #4 CustoMac build is necessary? Perhaps a future BIOS will repair the issue, but nonetheless I wanted to get some opinions on this. No sense in having a recommended build cause problems for all the new users. Not only did the information alarm me, but brought me to research other models in the Z68 chipset. (I found that the GA-Z68XP-UD3P has great success with current software using other build #4 hardware).

 

[brgale]

Looks like the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 has been deactivated at Newegg and out of stock at Amazon. I was hoping to pull the trigger this week on customac #4 for my first hackintosh. Now I'm not sure what to do!? Is the GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD5 a worthy (and more importantly, compatible) replacement?

 

[gp92300]

Hi Folks.

Here is my build :

Intel Core i7 2600K
Noctua NH-D14
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 (F5)
Corsair Vengeance 1 x 4 Go 1600 Mhz C9
DVD 22x LG GH22NS50
Sapphire AMD Radeon 6870 1Go DDR5

I've followed so far BIOS setup, iBoot + MultiBeast tutorial, UpdateHelper installation, Update Combo 10.6.8 v1.1 installation, MultiBeast setup with motherboard's DSDT on the desktop but at the end, after reboot, I get a black screen (still there is HDD activity for a few minutes).

I feel confused in front of all the options available in MultiBeast

Could anyone with a similar build guide me through this final step or point me to the right direction ?

UPDATE: my build now works. I will soon write down a guide for GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 (rev 1, f5).

 

[Martytoof]

Tony, why you suggest HD6670, if thats not working?

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=28464&p=181268#p181268

That aside, this card is still not fully functional. It looks like at least two of us are experiencing our 6670 not being able to put the monitor to DPMS sleep.

I would strongly advise against the 6670 unless you know you'll be turning your monitor off by hand every time you step away from the computer, or just don't care if your monitor never goes to sleep.

As such, I would probably recommend that this build be updated with a card that is know to be 100% working so people don't get something they weren't bargaining for. I bought my 6670 based on this build recommendation and came away disappointed.

 

[antbanks24]

Hey All,

First time builder here and I gotta say I've never had so much fun building a PC before today. I've built other machines but this one running Mac OS X SL 10.6.8 is by far the best.
Thanks to tonymac and the rest of your team, my build went extremely smooth. You guys are awesome.

Here's my build:

Intel Core i5 2500k @ 3.4ghz - have not o'clocked yet but will try soon
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 MB w/ F7 bios
Crucial 16gbs of ram @ 1333 mhz - going to upgrade to Corsair vengence 16gb @ 1600mhz - can't really overclock the mem I got.
Corsair H60 Hydro CPU Cooler
Corsair Enthusiasts Series 850 watt PSU
Corsair Force 3 series SSD 60gb
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HD
Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 6850 GPU
Cooler Master HAF 922 case - A BEAST OF A CASE!! LOVE IT!!

Ok so I used the iboot method to intstall my SL retail DVD ver 10.6.3. At desktop used thumb drive to install Updatehelper, seeing as though I was going straight to 10.6.8. After Updatehelper installed, I rebooted with the iboot disk. Booted back into SL, ran the 10.6.8 combo upadate with custom DSDT on desktop. VERY IMPORTANT! Don't reboot!! Ran Multibeast and then I rebooted. Make sure you go back into your BIOS to change the boot order to boot your new Mac HD first. It booted into SL with no problems. Got to desktop and noticed that my ethernet was not working. Just ran multibeast again and installed kext. Worked perfect after that. Sound, internet works perfect and video using the DisplayPort on my video card works beautifully @ 1080P. Hope all goes well with your builds as it did with mine.

Update : Installed FakeSmcplugins through Multibeast. iStat now reads all. CPU, Hard drive temps. As well as CPU and memory usage. SL running super stable!!! Loving it. Not sure if I want to update to Lion just yet. What do you guys think?