Custom system (mid-range)

[jayco437]

G'day

I would be really interested to find out performance comparison between.

GB "P55M-UD4" vs "x58A-UD3R" which also involving i7 860 / i7 930

Once I get it set up I'll look at running some of the benchmarks.

Good luck on your build and please update us !

The case arrived today, the rest arrives tomorrow. This case is huge. Should be plenty of room for whatever I need to put in there.

I should get it put together by Friday night, all things considered. I hope re-using my LG DVD-ROM doesn't bite me...

 

[jimx86]

I should get it put together by Friday night, all things considered. I hope re-using my LG DVD-ROM doesn't bite me...

Hey, the worst thing it could do is cause a kernel panic and force you to shell out an extra $20. I'm pretty sure you'll still be able to install Snow Leopard, just unplug the driver afterwards so you don't get errors.

 

[jayco437]

Took me a while, but I've got the OS X install screen loading right now so I think I'm almost home. Couple issues I had or things I didn't realize:

The instructions on the mobo weren't detailed enough for me. I figured it out for the most part, but I had to take the mobo off once to mount the mounting plate for my cooler, and again to get the back plate on, the one where all the ports are at (which I didn't do because of the hassle). I wish I had known both of those things ahead of time (particularly the plate on the back).

I also couldn't figure out for the life of me why my video card wouldn't work. Apparently you need to run power to video cards these days ;-)

Once I got that all figured out, I popped out a stick of RAM and used this guide: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=931

Only thing I changed so far is to enable the USB keyboard in Integrated Peripherals menu in the BIOS (don't try and switch USB ports, it won't work). The USB devices work fine after enabling them.

This is a nice set up. The case has plenty of room, it's quiet, even with 5 fans going (3 case fans, 1 cpu fan, 1 power supply). Only issue so far is the CPU fan is a little bit cock-eyed--I think I got it on straight but it looks like the fan just sits funny between the cooling fins. Also, it's the first time I had to use thermal paste in a long time and I may have under-did it.

A couple minor issues, haven't gotten networking set up just yet but I'll either get a card this weekend, or run some cable. Defaulted to 1080i for some reason, but my monitor runs 1080p. Once I changed it, the screen was back to normal.

I must have had a momentary loss of sanity when I picked up the trendnet tbw-105UB bluetooth adapter--it doesn't look like it's OS X supported at all. I'm not quite sure why I added it to my cart... Regardless of whether it works or not, the driver package (which doesn't clearly indicate either way) is 194MB. For a bluetooth driver?

My LG drive worked just fine, at least to get me up and running. I'll try to remember to post the specs when I get the computer connected back to the internet and if I get a chance to test burn some CD's/DVD's.

Now all that's left is a wifi card and a bluetooth adapter. And maybe an extra hard drive. And a built-in card reader.

 

[jimx86]

Took me a while, but I've got the OS X install screen loading right now so I think I'm almost home. Couple issues I had or things I didn't realize:

The instructions on the mobo weren't detailed enough for me. I figured it out for the most part, but I had to take the mobo off once to mount the mounting plate for my cooler, and again to get the back plate on, the one where all the ports are at (which I didn't do because of the hassle). I wish I had known both of those things ahead of time (particularly the plate on the back).

Yeah, the Gigabyte manuals aren't usually the best, but Gigabyte is a Taiwanese brand, so maybe it was just lost in the translation process
And you sorta just have to know that backplates go on before the motherboard, I don't think any mobo manuals will say that.

Also, it's the first time I had to use thermal paste in a long time and I may have under-did it.

Don't worry about under-doing it, most people put too much on! Just remember with thermal paste, less is more. You really only the size of an uncooked grain of rice.

I must have had a momentary loss of sanity when I picked up the trendnet tbw-105UB bluetooth adapter--it doesn't look like it's OS X supported at all. I'm not quite sure why I added it to my cart... Regardless of whether it works or not, the driver package (which doesn't clearly indicate either way) is 194MB. For a bluetooth driver?

Not sure about your bluetooth, does it say it has OS X support on the packaging?

My LG drive worked just fine, at least to get me up and running. I'll try to remember to post the specs when I get the computer connected back to the internet and if I get a chance to test burn some CD's/DVD's.

The problem usually occurs when you're running CD's/DVD's inside OS X, but you never know, your LG might just work!

Now all that's left is a wifi card and a bluetooth adapter. And maybe an extra hard drive. And a built-in card reader.

Good luck with that! By the way, try not to put the hard drives in RAID, I don't think OS X likes that. You can try it, I guess - and if it messes up just reinstall!

 

[Lnx2Mac]

My LG drive worked just fine, at least to get me up and running. I'll try to remember to post the specs when I get the computer connected back to the internet and if I get a chance to test burn some CD's/DVD's.

The problem usually occurs when you're running CD's/DVD's inside OS X, but you never know, your LG might just work!

Haven't seen any report about these NOT WORKING on OSX... As far as reading/burning, these are functional drives.

The problem in OSX is actually when you have NO CD/DVD in the drive... The drive momentarily spins-up for no reason...

 

[jimx86]

Haven't seen any report about these NOT WORKING on OSX... As far as reading/burning, these are functional drives.

The problem in OSX is actually when you have NO CD/DVD in the drive... The drive momentarily spins-up for no reason...

Whoopsy-daisy :?
Sorry about that, well I guess your DVD burner should be fine, then jayco!

 

[jayco437]

I picked up an ioGEAR Bluetooth 2.1 USB Micro Adapter for $20 at Wal-mart. Plug and play--best $20 I've spent so far.

I'm trying a Netgear WN311B for wifi, once I get some of the "other" issues figured out. On my 3rd or so OS X install (starting to feel like I'm on Windows again...) It's trial and error at this point, but I think my two SATA drives hooked up at once are making it crap out at a "Verifying DMA Pool Data.... Update Success" screen. I'm going to go play around some more and then I might jump over to the troubleshooting screen.

Edit: The "Verifying DMA Pool Data" is because I didn't plug my CD-ROM back in when I was re-arranging my SATA cables. D'oh!

Edit: F'ing Staples and Netgear. The wrapped and boxed WN311B (Broadcom chipset) that I bought had a WN311T (Marvell Chipset) inside. The best part is the T has been EOL'd, so it's not like I even got a deal or have some drivers to wait for.

 

[jimx86]

Edit: F'ing Staples and Netgear. The wrapped and boxed WN311B (Broadcom chipset) that I bought had a WN311T (Marvell Chipset) inside. The best part is the T has been EOL'd, so it's not like I even got a deal or have some drivers to wait for.

Wow that's happened twice in the past 2 days. Yesterday someone ordered a P55-UD3 and got a P55-UD3L. Hey, at least it wasn't an online store, and all you have to do is drive there and get another box.

 

[jayco437]

I returned it at Staples and picked up an actual WN311B from Best Buy. I was able to successfully get 10.6 installed, so I'd say this was a successful build. Now to get it upgraded to 10.6.4....

Thanks for your help and feedback!

 

[jayco437]

As an FYI for anyone that might come across this thread:

I upgraded to 10.6.4 and ran multibeast (following the steps found in various threads). After reboot, I had no video. I found this thread: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... linearplus

Following post #25, editing the NVDAResman.kext to add my device ID helped me get my video back up at least, but only at 1024x768. I also found that it appeared a number of the devices had their ID improperly escaped (the ampersand wasn't just an ampersand, it appeared as an HTML entity: an & symbol followed by amp I switched those back as well, but I think adding my device ID was the kicker.

I'm going to try and experiment with the other settings to get my stuff back. I think I also need to add the ID to the other NVDA kext and maybe try NVEnabler again.

There isn't much info out there on revision 2 of this board.

So far my only hiccup has been getting a network card working. I'm set on getting this WN311B going though....