<< Solved >> First ever build - wifi/bluetooth question

[danlarsson]

Hi there!

After having spent many hours doing component and installation research, I am about to order to following components to build my first ever Hackintosh. There's one thing however that I couldn't get my head around and could use your help.

With the motherboard highlighted below, which has wifi and bluetooth support, will I still have to buy the BCM943602CS bluetooth/wifi PCI card?
If I still need to buy the BCM943602CS, should I rather go for the motherboard without the Wifi support?

Here's the component list:
Based on my research here on tonymacx86, the items should be compatible to run a Windows/Mojave System, mainly to be able to edit with final cut pro.

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K CPU
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB
Motherboard: Asus TUF Z390M-PRO Gaming (Wi-Fi)
Memory: 16GB DDR4 2400MHz Memory
SSD: 2x Samsung 860 EVO Solid State Drive
CPU-Cooler: Corsair Hydro H75 CPU Cooler
Case: Corsair Carbide Air 240 Case
Power: Corsair RM650x

Thanks a lot for your advise and feedback. Means a lot!
Cheers
Dan

 

[gino8080]

Hello!

did you got it working audio, wifi and bluetooth with this mobo?

thank you

 

[thecrusher]

Hi,

I'm still a "noob" with respect to current practices — I've done two laptops over the past several years but I'm about to build my first ever desktop. As such I've been researching this exact issue.

To the best of my knowledge, no Z390 motherboards include chips with working Wifi and Bluetooth both out of the box. There MAY be some Z390 motherboards in which Wifi works but bluetooth doesn't (or vice versa). I don't have complete information on this. But if this turns out to be the case for your chosen motherboard, then you would only need a WiFi solution, or only a bluetooth solution. There are WiFi PCIe cards that are available that provide only WiFi that is native Mac supported, and there are USB bluetooth dongles that you can just leave always plugged in.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, there are no Z390 motherboards that allow direct replacement of the provided WiFi/bluetooth modules, because they all seem to use a M.2 format card for WiFi that is based on CNVI. There's no adaptor for this either, because, as I understand it, CNVI is a standard that moves part of the wifi/bluetooth functionality into the Z390 chipset, and so the CNVI Wifi cards are not even the same kind of animal as other Wifi/Bluetooth cards.

So (again as far as I know), buying a Z390 motherboard with WiFi doesn't help you, unless it provides one or the other working out of the box, or unless it also has other features you need, and you're happy to just ignore the WiFi.

If you need both, which I think is the typical case, that leaves you with two options that I am aware of. You CAN get a M.2 adaptor for the either the BCM94360 (which I think is Wifi "ac") or BCM94331 (which I think is Wifi "n"), and while you can't use it in the CNVI M.2 port, you CAN use it in one of the other M.2 ports that are designed for SSDs. I don't think there's an all-in-one solution here, I think you need to get the M.2 adaptor and the Wifi/Bluetooth card separately.

Or you can get a PCIe x1 card for Wifi/Bluetooth. I am aware of some adaptors that let you use your own provided BCM94360 or BCM94331 cards in them, but I haven't heard of people's success rates with these. The more recommended path seems to be the Fenvi T919 card, which is an already assembled PCIe card that comes with the BCM94360 already installed (I don't know if there is a BCM94331 version), and is available on Newegg.

For completeness, there is a third option to get both where you get a separate WiFi-only card, and a bluetooth USB dongle, and install both, but since all-in-one solutions exist I'm not sure why you'd go this way.

I am planning on going with the Fenvi T919. To me, the choice is whether you want to tie up an extra M.2 disk slot, or an extra PCIe riser slot, with your wifi/bluetooth solution.

 

[danlarsson]

Bluetooth on the Asus Mainboard worked in IOS, but very unreliably. A shutdown had me go back into Windows (i run dual boot), then into Mac to make it accessible again. For Wifi I went down the route of buying a usb dongle, which annoyed me as the speed i was getting was slow plus it took some time after restart to connect.

LONG STORY CUT SHORT, ended up getting the Fenvi T-919 and am very happy with it! Had a bit of struggle getting it into my case but now everything is working out of the box!

I am running Mojave 10.14.5 with SMBIOS 19,1, IGPU enabled! The best SMBIOS i could identify for my use (especially as i use FCPX on a regular basis, which crashed in imacPro1,1 smbios)...

Anyway..whoever's reading that...reach out if you got any more questions..hope that info helps! Have fun with your hackintosh! Case closed!