- Joined
- May 4, 2017
- Messages
- 8
- Motherboard
- Asus ROG Strix Z270F
- CPU
- i7-7700K
- Graphics
- GTX 1080 + GTX 1060
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
This is not a regular build guide you could expect in this forum, but rather a story of what I learned along the way when building my first hackintosh. Hope that this provides some tips or information for anyone thinking to build Hackintosh, but still quite afraid to make decision to build one.
Background: I am huge Apple fan and like very much about the quality of their hardware and software - and how they really have invented very clever ways to simplify end user process - so that we can focus on being productive instead of tweaking every detail of the computer. I was with Microsoft till Windows Vista, and after that turned to OS X - and also convinced my friends and family to switch to Mac - and after that never received any PC support calls from them that were more than weekly basis with Windows.
That said, the attitude of Apple towards the pro users (I currently have also Mac Pro) have been more than disappointing. The latest announcement that they have something for pro users coming only at 2018 was the final decision maker for me - I'll build the Hackingtosh - to get the great OS X goodness, but still getting fresh hardware - not forced to wait till late 2018 to update my Mac Pro.
***
So, I started to hang around in this forum some month ago. It was quite intimidating at first. All the questions about what's supported hardware, what's MultiBeast, UniBeast, Clover, etc. Had no idea.
Here what were my very noobie questions I had on my head I searched from the forums for answers:
Q1: What motherboard should I buy?
A1: I should check from the forum the info from someone that has successfully build the system and reported that it's working very well
Q2: Oh, most motherboards people report with success has been something-Z170. But some builds are with -Z270. What are those and what's the difference?
A2: Z270 is newer Intel motherboard chipset that came with Kaby Lake infrastructure. That's why most build guides are with Z170 cause that's the previous generation. Even when it's more experimental, it seems that many have successfully build Hackingtosh with that chipset - so let's move forward with the latest and greatest.
Q3: Some builds speak about M.2 NVMe... what's that?
A3: Those are slots for very fast new SSD "sticks" with read speed even over 3000Mb/s - Awesome, use those beasts!!!
Q4: Seems some motherboard share bandwidth for PCIe cards with M.2 slots. Seems not nice when having multiple graphics cards, what to do.
A4: Oh yeah, seems some Asus motherboard M.2. slots shares bandwidth only with SATA. Great, since I'm not using SATA - only M.2 NVMe SSD.
Q5: I would like to use OS X and Windows in my machine. How to do that? Aw, the multiboot tutorial seems so complex that I don't understand it at all at this point - I think can't do that. Would there be any other ways?
A5: YES! Most motherboards seems to have 2 M.2 slots. I'll go and install OS X to other SSD drive and windows to other SSD drive. Then I'll just select from bios (by pressing F8 at boot) from which drive to boot. Simple!
Q6: What is this UniBeast they talk about?
A6: It's the awesome tool to very simply do the bootable OS X installation USB stick. Very easy and convenient to use!
Q7: What is this Clover then???
A7: It's the MOST IMPORTANT TOOL IN THIS WHOLE HACKINTOSH SCENE! It boots the OS X and does the magic that it works with your custom hardware. Build by some geniuses that would really deserve also to be sculptured to Mt. Rushmore! Much of the Hackintosh work is then to tweak the clover configuration files.
Q8: What about this MultiBeast???
A8: Remember - with UniBeast you did system that boots from USB drive. The MultiBeast is needed to make OS X boot from hard drive AFTER you have installed it first. It installs Clover to your hard drive and also some kext files you would need to run your custom system
Q9: You said *kext files*. What are kext files - I'm confused now.
A9: .kext files are essentially drivers for OS X. Remember, Windows, the DLLs... Oh my, I have never ever been in need to install any drivers to my mac in my OS X career. Yes, now you are in that driver business again... but hey, wasn't that also fun with Windows!
Q10: What is that .kext patching?
A10: Seems it's some magic that you just little bit tweak the driver files before loading those. That way you don't need to install new files to your system - instead you just tweak them a little. In the future it could be easier to update the system if it replaces some of the .kext files you would have modified. Not really sure about this though, hope some day I understand this concept better.
Q11: What means that they say that put these new .kext files to /S/L/E or to /L/E ???
A11: To install the drivers (.kexts) you must put them to somewhere.
/S/L/E means /System/Library/Extensions folder
/L/E means /Library/Extensions folder
Those are places where the .kexts are living in OS X system. Tools like KextBeast that just moves the files to right place and sets their permission. KextBeast is great.
Q12: I'm VERY afraid to spend much money to this cause I don't understand enough of what really matters does the system run OS X well or not. I think I just pick some user build and build EXACTLY the same machine. BUT! Seems my local supplier doesn't provide the exactly same memory modules.. and also can't find the supported power.
A12: RELAX! The most important thing is to choose confirmed Motherboard, CPU and GPU. The other components - just pick any that works with the system. The working system consists of following components: Chassis, Motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, Graphics card, memory sticks, HDD (M.2 NVMe sticks in my case), OS X compatible network card
Q13: What is NVRAM? Do I really need to have motherboard that supports NVRAM?
A13: NVRAM is just persistent (keeps it state even when power off) RAM storage to some OS X settings. If your motherboard does not support it, it can be emulated by installing some kext. It's very important to have NVRAM - if you have no emulation or real NVRAM for example Nvidia graphics card drivers do not stay enabled.
Q14: There is LOTS of talk about EFI - mount EFI, etc. What EFI?
A14: That EFI system partition (ESP) is partition in your hard drive (or USB stick) that contains bootloader, can contain drivers, etc. It used to boot the system. That's why it's very important in this Hackintosh business, cause Clover and it's configuration is living there. And remember what Clover is for Hackintosh? (see Q7)
Q15: I need to change some Clover files from EFI, but I don't see the EFI drive anywhere?
A15: You need to install EFI Loader or Clover Configurator app to your Hackintosh and those will mount you the EFI
***
So, those are the biggest things I needed to figure out soon when building the Hackintosh. Now I have nicely working system with following parts:
Chassis
NZXT H440W New Edition Silent Ultra, ATX midi tower
Notes: Very poor quality, don't like at all. I have had much better chassis even 10 years ago.
Mobo
Asus ROG STRIX Z270H GAMING
CPU
Intel Kaby Lake i7-7700K, LGA1151, 4.2GHz, 8MB, Boxed
CPU cooler
Noctua NH-D14
Notes: NH-D15 would have been much nicer (according to reviews, it can keep the temperature 2 degrees lower) but was out of stock.
Memory
Kingston 16GB(2x8GB) HyperX Fury DDR4 2666 MHz, CL15
PSU (Power Supply Unit)
Corsair 750W RM750x, modular PSU
Notes: Modular PSU means that not all cables are preinstalled. Instead you have bunch of cables you can attach to PSU and to your system just what you need. This decreases the cable mess.
GPU
2 x Asus GeForce GTX 1060 DUAL 6GB GGDR5
SSD
For OS X: Samsung 1TB 960 PRO SSD M.2, NVMe
For Windows: Samsung 250GB 960 EVO SSD, M.2 NVMe
Network card
I ordered these from eBay. I got WiFi work out of the box, but Bluetooth did not work (yes, I remembered to connect the USB cable). So I bought HAMA Bluetooth USB 4.0 adapter and plugged it to USB port. Bluetooth started working with it, but not the Hands-off features...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191922076193
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BCM94360CD-...-Adapter-for-hackintosh-and-PC-/332232347867?
***
To make Hackintosh I followed this awesome guide (huge respect to the author!):
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-strix-i7-7700k-hd-630-4k-m-2-alc1220.216999/
Also I followed from other sources how to install the Nvidia latest Pascal supporting drivers.
Note:
Sleep/Wake didn't work using only intel built-in graphics HD630. After I disabled it and only started to use my dual NVidia GTX 1060 cards the Sleep/Wake started working
Background: I am huge Apple fan and like very much about the quality of their hardware and software - and how they really have invented very clever ways to simplify end user process - so that we can focus on being productive instead of tweaking every detail of the computer. I was with Microsoft till Windows Vista, and after that turned to OS X - and also convinced my friends and family to switch to Mac - and after that never received any PC support calls from them that were more than weekly basis with Windows.
That said, the attitude of Apple towards the pro users (I currently have also Mac Pro) have been more than disappointing. The latest announcement that they have something for pro users coming only at 2018 was the final decision maker for me - I'll build the Hackingtosh - to get the great OS X goodness, but still getting fresh hardware - not forced to wait till late 2018 to update my Mac Pro.
***
So, I started to hang around in this forum some month ago. It was quite intimidating at first. All the questions about what's supported hardware, what's MultiBeast, UniBeast, Clover, etc. Had no idea.
Here what were my very noobie questions I had on my head I searched from the forums for answers:
Q1: What motherboard should I buy?
A1: I should check from the forum the info from someone that has successfully build the system and reported that it's working very well
Q2: Oh, most motherboards people report with success has been something-Z170. But some builds are with -Z270. What are those and what's the difference?
A2: Z270 is newer Intel motherboard chipset that came with Kaby Lake infrastructure. That's why most build guides are with Z170 cause that's the previous generation. Even when it's more experimental, it seems that many have successfully build Hackingtosh with that chipset - so let's move forward with the latest and greatest.
Q3: Some builds speak about M.2 NVMe... what's that?
A3: Those are slots for very fast new SSD "sticks" with read speed even over 3000Mb/s - Awesome, use those beasts!!!
Q4: Seems some motherboard share bandwidth for PCIe cards with M.2 slots. Seems not nice when having multiple graphics cards, what to do.
A4: Oh yeah, seems some Asus motherboard M.2. slots shares bandwidth only with SATA. Great, since I'm not using SATA - only M.2 NVMe SSD.
Q5: I would like to use OS X and Windows in my machine. How to do that? Aw, the multiboot tutorial seems so complex that I don't understand it at all at this point - I think can't do that. Would there be any other ways?
A5: YES! Most motherboards seems to have 2 M.2 slots. I'll go and install OS X to other SSD drive and windows to other SSD drive. Then I'll just select from bios (by pressing F8 at boot) from which drive to boot. Simple!
Q6: What is this UniBeast they talk about?
A6: It's the awesome tool to very simply do the bootable OS X installation USB stick. Very easy and convenient to use!
Q7: What is this Clover then???
A7: It's the MOST IMPORTANT TOOL IN THIS WHOLE HACKINTOSH SCENE! It boots the OS X and does the magic that it works with your custom hardware. Build by some geniuses that would really deserve also to be sculptured to Mt. Rushmore! Much of the Hackintosh work is then to tweak the clover configuration files.
Q8: What about this MultiBeast???
A8: Remember - with UniBeast you did system that boots from USB drive. The MultiBeast is needed to make OS X boot from hard drive AFTER you have installed it first. It installs Clover to your hard drive and also some kext files you would need to run your custom system
Q9: You said *kext files*. What are kext files - I'm confused now.
A9: .kext files are essentially drivers for OS X. Remember, Windows, the DLLs... Oh my, I have never ever been in need to install any drivers to my mac in my OS X career. Yes, now you are in that driver business again... but hey, wasn't that also fun with Windows!
Q10: What is that .kext patching?
A10: Seems it's some magic that you just little bit tweak the driver files before loading those. That way you don't need to install new files to your system - instead you just tweak them a little. In the future it could be easier to update the system if it replaces some of the .kext files you would have modified. Not really sure about this though, hope some day I understand this concept better.
Q11: What means that they say that put these new .kext files to /S/L/E or to /L/E ???
A11: To install the drivers (.kexts) you must put them to somewhere.
/S/L/E means /System/Library/Extensions folder
/L/E means /Library/Extensions folder
Those are places where the .kexts are living in OS X system. Tools like KextBeast that just moves the files to right place and sets their permission. KextBeast is great.
Q12: I'm VERY afraid to spend much money to this cause I don't understand enough of what really matters does the system run OS X well or not. I think I just pick some user build and build EXACTLY the same machine. BUT! Seems my local supplier doesn't provide the exactly same memory modules.. and also can't find the supported power.
A12: RELAX! The most important thing is to choose confirmed Motherboard, CPU and GPU. The other components - just pick any that works with the system. The working system consists of following components: Chassis, Motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, Graphics card, memory sticks, HDD (M.2 NVMe sticks in my case), OS X compatible network card
Q13: What is NVRAM? Do I really need to have motherboard that supports NVRAM?
A13: NVRAM is just persistent (keeps it state even when power off) RAM storage to some OS X settings. If your motherboard does not support it, it can be emulated by installing some kext. It's very important to have NVRAM - if you have no emulation or real NVRAM for example Nvidia graphics card drivers do not stay enabled.
Q14: There is LOTS of talk about EFI - mount EFI, etc. What EFI?
A14: That EFI system partition (ESP) is partition in your hard drive (or USB stick) that contains bootloader, can contain drivers, etc. It used to boot the system. That's why it's very important in this Hackintosh business, cause Clover and it's configuration is living there. And remember what Clover is for Hackintosh? (see Q7)
Q15: I need to change some Clover files from EFI, but I don't see the EFI drive anywhere?
A15: You need to install EFI Loader or Clover Configurator app to your Hackintosh and those will mount you the EFI
***
So, those are the biggest things I needed to figure out soon when building the Hackintosh. Now I have nicely working system with following parts:
Chassis
NZXT H440W New Edition Silent Ultra, ATX midi tower
Notes: Very poor quality, don't like at all. I have had much better chassis even 10 years ago.
Mobo
Asus ROG STRIX Z270H GAMING
CPU
Intel Kaby Lake i7-7700K, LGA1151, 4.2GHz, 8MB, Boxed
CPU cooler
Noctua NH-D14
Notes: NH-D15 would have been much nicer (according to reviews, it can keep the temperature 2 degrees lower) but was out of stock.
Memory
Kingston 16GB(2x8GB) HyperX Fury DDR4 2666 MHz, CL15
PSU (Power Supply Unit)
Corsair 750W RM750x, modular PSU
Notes: Modular PSU means that not all cables are preinstalled. Instead you have bunch of cables you can attach to PSU and to your system just what you need. This decreases the cable mess.
GPU
2 x Asus GeForce GTX 1060 DUAL 6GB GGDR5
SSD
For OS X: Samsung 1TB 960 PRO SSD M.2, NVMe
For Windows: Samsung 250GB 960 EVO SSD, M.2 NVMe
Network card
I ordered these from eBay. I got WiFi work out of the box, but Bluetooth did not work (yes, I remembered to connect the USB cable). So I bought HAMA Bluetooth USB 4.0 adapter and plugged it to USB port. Bluetooth started working with it, but not the Hands-off features...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191922076193
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BCM94360CD-...-Adapter-for-hackintosh-and-PC-/332232347867?
***
To make Hackintosh I followed this awesome guide (huge respect to the author!):
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-strix-i7-7700k-hd-630-4k-m-2-alc1220.216999/
Also I followed from other sources how to install the Nvidia latest Pascal supporting drivers.
Note:
Sleep/Wake didn't work using only intel built-in graphics HD630. After I disabled it and only started to use my dual NVidia GTX 1060 cards the Sleep/Wake started working
I also am looking to build a very similar machine (kaby lake, gtx 1060, etc.) - I have made a thread in this forum. I also found your question and answer portion very informative. I often am searching on multiple forums for many answers (I still have many questions about picking parts based on my needs and will update my own thread tonight). Very happy you conquered your fears, as they are very real and similar fears that are shared by many people, especially for first time builders. Reading posts like this gives me the confidence to press onward!