corneredbeast's build [P9X79 PRO | 3930K | XFX 6870]

[corneredbeast]

Corneredbeast's Build - Core i7 3930K - P9X79 PRO - 16GB RAM - XFX6870

Components...

Apple OS X Lion @ Mac Apps Store
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-lion/id444303913?mt=12

ASUS P9X79 PRO LGA 2011 Intel X79 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0061XSBXI/

XFX AMD Radeon HD6870 2GB 2xDVI 2xMiniDP 1xHDMI Video Card
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FPT37Q/

Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116492

LG Electronics WH12LS39K M-Disc 12X Internal SATA Blu-Ray Rewriter - OEM
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00632U162/

Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RFBIUU/

Corsair CC600TWM-WHT Special Edition Graphite Series 600T Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case - White
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004O0PAKW/

Corsair Professional Series Gold 850-Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified High-Performance Power Supply - CMPSU-850AX
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PJ6QW4/

Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CWCH100)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051U7HMS/

Tango Express 800 Firewire 800/USB 2.0 Combo PCI Express Card
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HJ24TW/

SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16 GB Flash Drive - SDCZ33-016G
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FYNSZA/


Already Owned...

Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 16 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST500DM002
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CT56R6/

Dell 24" 2405FPW LCD Monitor
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... Categories

Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110 ... topSellers

Razer Pro Click v1.6--1600 dpi Mouse
Damn my mouse is old


Comments:

My Mac Pro 1,1 was getting a little long in tooth, and I wasn't ready to pop for $5K, $6K, + on a new one so, after a little reading here, I decided to 'settle' for a home-grown Mac Pro. I have fooled around with hackintoshes before, but that was ~2007-2008 when it was a lot more cumbersome. The Unibeast install process is a quantum leap forward from those days.

I intended to build a "mainstream" 2600k/Gigabyte system, but then I noticed that a few good souls were trying out the X79 boards; that seemed to be a little more in line with what I wanted out of a build. I decided to go with the P9X79 Pro from ASUS, combined with 16GB of Corsair memory. Even though it's been about 7-8 years since my last PC build, I have used nothing but ASUS systems boards for 15 years now - without disappointment.

I need to mention that my first build included the Gigabyte GV-R687OC-1GD suggested in the CustoMac buying guide, but that card died about six hours after I loaded Windows 7 for system validation. I've never been a big Gigabyte fan and, after reading numerous complaints about video artifacts from users, I decided to go in a different direction and replaced it with the XFX card. It is a *little* louder with a single fan instead of three, but it has worked flawlessly and it hasn't blown up. I wanted out-of-the-box functionality in a video card, and the 6870 and Lion delivered.

The install was uneventful. I used kurtface's post here as a guide for my install. I made the usual UEFI changes for AHCI, etc, and chose the ASUS performance setting with the default CPU speed and XMP profile #1 (the only one available for my memory) for the install. Created the Unibeast install flash drive from the old Lion 10.7.0 App I purchased last November, and I did not need to use the "PCIRootUID=1" parameter during the boot process. YMMV. After the installation was complete, I downloaded and applied the 7.3 combo update, followed by running MultiBeast again (the 7.3 update breaks the audio).


MultiBeast Configuration for Lion:
InstallerScreenSnapz001.jpgInstallerScreenSnapz002.jpg


Post-installation:

After installation, the following issues remain:

1. - No sleep, except for the display (there is a post about making this work, but I haven't tried it yet)
2. - Bluetooth is playing hide and seek
3. - No CPU power management
4. - I have not experimented with the USB 3, but I'll get around to it soon.

None of these issues are important to me but, again, YMMV.


Performance:

The system is currently stable at 5GHz, here are a couple of benchmarks:

32 Bit Geekbench:
GeekbenchScreenSnapz001.jpg
GeekbenchScreenSnapz002.jpg

Cinebench:
CINEBENCH OSXScreenSnapz001.jpg
CINEBENCH OSXScreenSnapz002.jpg



To be done:

The next step is to install a PCI-E SSD device, maybe the new one from OWC, although I might wait until they have a 4 channel device instead of the current 2 channel. Does anyone have experience with the Revo series from OCZ and OSX?


EDIT(S): Re-ran Geekbench without Firefox and Snapz Pro X running.

 

[slv335i]

Nice build. Also interested in the Pci-e ssd drive choice.

 

[Stork]

As of today, tonymacx86 and MacMan want you to know:

NOTE TO EARLY ADOPTERS: Power management isn't working yet on Socket 2011, so you'll still have to use NullCPUPowermanagement.kext with a DSDT. Because of that you won't be able to sleep the system and there is no speedstep functionality.

 

[showkingpup]

better keep it overclock in 4.2GHZ it is stable.. many people get good results and not spoiling their processer ..

 

[pahoran]

Beast of a build!

Noob question, what do u need PowerManagementCPU for? Wats if for?
Also how come the geekbench test is 32bit? Ur not running a 32bit system right?

Congrats!

P0w

 

[Peposo]

I got almost the same setup. How did you overclock yours? Can you explain?

Thanks!

 

[mikey101]

Fast build! I plan on making on almost exacltly the same, but am waiting power management, usb3 and sleep to be supported.

 

[yxb_25]

how you fix the Bluetooth problem??

 

[Staples262]

Hi, i am looking to build the same machine apart from hdd's and power supply and possibly the Deluxe version of the Mobo. Have you had any luck getting the USB 3.0 to work yet or have you not experimented with it.

Cheers

 

[Peposo]

Hi, i am looking to build the same machine apart from hdd's and power supply and possibly the Deluxe version of the Mobo. Have you had any luck getting the USB 3.0 to work yet or have you not experimented with it.

I regret a little buying the Deluxe version. Both the bluetooth and wifi are disabled in my bios as they were giving me kernel panics. If I were to buy something again, I go for the pro version and if I need something I would just buy a seperate usb dongle for wireless for example. Just some advice!

I'm still not sure about my USB 3 ports working or not, because I don't own any USB3 devices to test with.