erik's 5ghz Coffee Lake Build: i7-8700k - Asrock Z370 Extreme 4 - GTX 960 - 64gb RAM

[erik]

Hey Erik, lovely build there! Strangely enough my Hackintosh history is much the same as yours. Started with high core count machines that were a pain to get working (X99 meanies) and found lower end builds with faster single-core cpus were performing better. So was about to go with a 7700K when I found your build guide. Hell we even have the same monitors and case!

Wondering if you can suggest any different hardware purchases for 8700K Hackintoshes? Particularly with regard to motherboards? Also, any reason why this might not work if going with Sierra instead of High Sierra?

Thanks!

Sounds like you have good taste

Yeah, I'd go with the 8700k. Motherboards are the same cost, the CPU is like $80 more at Newegg, and you get a better CPU. The Z370 chipset is basically identical to the Z270.

High Sierra has been seamless for me. But I booted my old install into Sierra and it loaded fine, so I wouldn't worry about it not working with Sierra.

 

[Heinrich]

this thread/build is exciting. this may be my next step. awesome.

 

[Macboy123]

Sierra might need some sort of extra work on NVMe drivers, and only latest 10.12.6 has compatibility with Kaby Lake.
But, everything else should be working. As already said, Motherboards use pretty much the same components nowadays. So, it is not really a Gigabyte thing anymore. You will be fine with all the ASUS, AsRock, MSI builds in the recommendations.

 

[Macboy123]

Right, I know some of the ASUS mobos with MCE were doing crazy volts.

I OCed by 2133 ram to 2666. It can go a little faster but who cares. It's not something I'll ever notice. I'm happy at 8700k stock memory speed.

I considered upgrading to RAM rated at 3000 or so. But the prices now are absurd. I bought this 64gb DDR4 2133 kit for $230 two summers ago. THE SAME KIT is selling for $675 now. Absurd. I'm happy with my modest overclock instead of dumping a pile of money into an upgrade.

RAM pricing is really totally crazy ATM. I stay at 16 GB until gets cheeper again, then i upgrade the 2 more slots.

 

[xdyl]

Hey! Nice build, I am going to be building ultimately the same machine, but I wanted to know if your CPU was displaying "Unknown" or not, because I would really want it to show.

(I'll probably be back here in a week or so asking for help, kinda nub :/)

 

[HerculePoirot]

I have a question about the build. Concerning the front rad, did you set up a push-pull, or just a pull config. I can only see one fan in the pull config.

 

[erik]

Hey! Nice build, I am going to be building ultimately the same machine, but I wanted to know if your CPU was displaying "Unknown" or not, because I would really want it to show.

(I'll probably be back here in a week or so asking for help, kinda nub :/)

Yes, it displays as Unknown. Shrug -- IMO not worth worrying about. There are ways to edit this but it involves gross hex-editing of kexts and hardly seems worth the trouble. In time, it will be supported I'm sure. I imagine refreshed iMacs will use the 8700k. And it may update before then as they prepare for those builds (or just release Coffee Lake products).

I have a question about the build. Concerning the front rad, did you set up a push-pull, or just a pull config. I can only see one fan in the pull config.

There are three fans, two noctuas between front of case and radiator pulling air, then 1 in front top, also pulling. This pulls air across the radiator. There's a case fan in the back, pulling air across the interior and pushing out the back. Temps have been good with this setup, idles around 30c. Thermals have never been an issue OCing (within reason) to reasonable levels.

 

[ibash]

Hi Erik!

Any chance you can post your config.plist or efi folder? I haven't been able to get my hack to recognize the SSDT.aml generated with ssdtprgen (despite being the one to add the coffee lake data on github ).

Thanks!


EDIT:
Didn't read the first post back to back - thanks for the zip!

 

[digiboy]

Hi there — It’s been awhile since my last hackintosh, but it’s good to be back and see a lively thread of Coffee Lake users. I’m trying to get an 8700k to work with an ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 GAMING-ITX/AC,

I started by creating a High Sierra USB installer and using Erik’s files from the initial post.

I loaded the default ASRock BIOS and then exited and booted up. I stared up the installer from Clover and everything was progressing nicely until I hit into a ‘null’ circle with a big ‘0’ with a line through it, I never made it to the system installer. Any thoughts on what I can try next?

 

[Macbooky]

Hi there — It’s been awhile since my last hackintosh, but it’s good to be back and see a lively thread of Coffee Lake users. I’m trying to get an 8700k to work with an ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 GAMING-ITX/AC,

I started by creating a High Sierra USB installer and using Erik’s files from the initial post.

I loaded the default ASRock BIOS and then exited and booted up. I stared up the installer from Clover and everything was progressing nicely until I hit into a ‘null’ circle with a big ‘0’ with a line through it, I never made it to the system installer. Any thoughts on what I can try next?

Are you using the USB 2.0 port ... you should!