gambcl's Sandybridge Build - Core i7-2600K - GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3

[gambcl]

gambcl's Sandybridge Build - Core i7-2600K - GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 - 8GB DDR3 RAM - Apple Radeon 5870

Cosair Special Edition Graphite Series 600T Case (White)
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cosair-Special-Graphite-Mid-Tower-Gaming/dp/B004O0PAKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Corsair CMPSU-850AXUK Professional Series Gold 850W Power Supply
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMPSU-850AXUK-Professional-Power-Supply/dp/B003QP417O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Motherboard (Rev 1.3)
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3-LGA1155-Socket-Chipset/dp/B005Z10770/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Intel Sandybridge Core i7-2600K Quad-Core Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache, Socket 1155)
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandybridge-i7-2600K-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B004FA8NOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Corsair CWCH60 Water Cooler
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CWCH60-Water-Cooler/dp/B004MYFOE2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B 8GB 1600Mhz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Module Kit (2 x 4GB)
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B-1600Mhz-Vengeance-Memory/dp/B004QBUL1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Apple Radeon 5870
Apple Store

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Sound Card
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Sound-Blaster-X-Fi-Titanium/dp/B003RRY3WO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]
NOTE: Only works in Windows!

Sonnet Presto Gigabit Pro PCI Express Card
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sonnet-Presto-Gigabit-Express-Card/dp/B0017K6BR8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Pioneer DVR-S19LBK 24x Internal SATA DVDRW
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-DVR-S19LBK-Internal-DVDRW-Retail/dp/B004FJG8R6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Antec Hot Swap Hard Drive Caddy with eSATA Port
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-Swap-Drive-Caddy-eSATA/dp/B00292BT8O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Ultron UBA-130 Micro V3 Bluetooth Dongle
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultron-UBA-130-Micro-Bluetooth-Dongle/dp/B0041XPNL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]


Already Owned:

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2
Mac App Store (used UniBeast for installation)

Apple 27" LED Cinema Display
Apple Store (NOTE: This is NOT the current Thunderbolt model, it is the previous generation with mini-DisplayPort, USB)

3 x Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green disks
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Caviar-3-5-inch-Internal/dp/B003SLE8HE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8[/amazon-uk]

Apple USB Keyboard
Apple Store

Apple Mighty Mouse
Apple Store

Comments:

I built this system because I needed a Windows dev machine (and also for the occasional game) and I wanted to use
my existing Apple Cinema Display. I decided to use the Apple Radeon 5870 to ensure that I had no problems driving
the Cinema Display and chose the other components to ensure a working Hackintosh, which I can dual-boot into either OS.

I chose the Sonnet ethernet card because I had read about various issues when using the onboard Realtek LAN port,
and I knew that the Sonnet would just work out of the box, and I can always move it to my next hackintosh and never have to
worry about driver issues.

Here is the installation process I followed:

• 
  - Create BootCamp drivers disc from a working Lion install
  - Use UniBeast to create a USB installation disk using Lion 10.7.2 downloaded from the Mac App Store
  - Put latest MultiBeast, Chameleon, BIOS update F10, BIOS DSDT file onto USB stick
  - BIOS: Update to version F10 for motherboard rev 1.3
  - BIOS: Load optimized defaults
  - BIOS: Configure BIOS for Lion http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/07/optimal-bios-configuration.html
  - BIOS: Disable onboard video, Realtek LAN (I'm using my Sonnet ethernet)
  - BIOS: Save settings, test cold boot
  - Disconnect all hard disks except the one I want to install Windows onto
  - Install Win7 64-bit
  - Update Win7 (Sonnet ethernet recognised out of the box by Windows 7)
  - Install Win7 motherboard drivers
  - Install Win7 BootCamp drivers and updates
  - Install Win7 CreativeLabs drivers and updates
  - Connect remaining hard disks
  - Boot from UniBeast USB drive
  - Install Lion onto 1st unused hard disk, reboot to Lion hard disk using USB bootloader (F12 to choose at startup)
  - Copy Multibeast, Chameleon, DSDT.aml to Desktop
  - Run MultiBeast using settings from Gordo74's build http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=168&t=32306 (see note below about bootloader issues)
  - Install latest Chameleon
  - Test dual boot into Win7/MacOSX
  - Setup TimeMachine on remaining unused disk

The one installation issue I had was that MultiBeast kept failing to install the bootloader. After some
research I found that it is a "feature" of the Western Digital Green disks, but fortunately I found a fix
which worked perfectly: http://www.mymac4music.com/2011/10/boot0-error/

The bluetooth and Sonnet ethernet were recognised out of the box in Lion, even wake-on-LAN works. Shutdown/restart works
fine and so does everything else I have tried so far. iCloud, App Store all working fine.

For audio, in Lion I usually use the USB "Display Audio" built into the Cinema Display, but I could also use the onboard
"Azalia" if I wanted to. In Windows I can use all of the above plus the Creative Labs Soundblaster.

The 27" LED Cinema Display works great, with fully working audio and facetime, but please note that I am using the older model
(i.e. NOT the current model with Thunderbolt). It is possible that the new Thunderbolt model might require a Thunderbolt-equipped graphics card and I wasn't willing to risk it as I already had my original LED Cinema Display.

Remaining Issues:
Only minor issue so far, I will update this post if I solve them:

• 
  - Machine sleeps and wakes fine, but it will usually wake itself after sleeping for about 10 minutes and I don't know what is causing that yet.
  - The bluetooth dongle takes ages to find my Magic Mouse after a reboot/sleep. When it's paired and working it works great, but I might try a few more bluetooth dongles to get the best experience.

Conclusions:
I am really enjoying this machine so far. It makes a great development machine and runs Windows games very well.
Mac OS X really flies on it.

I do find the machine slightly noisier than I would like, but then I am used to using real Macs which are usually
almost silent in comparison. It might just be due to the case as it has large open mesh panels on the top and front
which might be letting out a lot of the fan noise, so I would consider changing the case at some point.

Also, there is always the temptation of SSDs, which would also help with the noise issue.

It's not really noisy, I am being picky, but if I can find another case I like which is quieter, it will be an almost perfect machine for my needs.

 

[Halloween_Man]

Great Build - How did you manage to get a rev 1.3 Mother board ? Amazon.co.uk are only showing rev 1.0

 

[gambcl]

I actually got my board from http://www.ebuyer.com, which didn't specify any version number so I had to buy and hope. It turned out to be a 1.3. I don't know if there's actually much difference between the 1.0 and 1.3 though.

 

[Z3us68]

One question.
The Apple Cinema display works on windows 7 with cam and audio??? I need bluetooth dongle??
Thank You

 

[gambcl]

I just tested Skype in Win7 and it works fine, sound/video/microphone all working through the LED Cinema Display.

You don't need a bluetooth dongle unless you want to use bluetooth, I only got one because I wanted to use my Magic Mouse.

 

[Z3us68]

thank you very much....
now i'm worried for only one thing:
i don't know if the ACD 27 can display the BIOS screen with my Gigabyte 6870 trough mini display port....
Nobody have tested it.... and i need this feature because i have to boot the system by pressing F-12 key during POST.
Can you help me??
bye

 

[powerpcg5]

I chose the Sonnet ethernet card because I had read about various issues when using the onboard Realtek LAN port,
and I knew that the Sonnet would just work out of the box, and I can always move it to my next hackintosh and never have to
worry about driver issues.

I'm noticing my Gigabyte onboard NIC dying at heavy network loads (found it while testing FreeNAS server), and requires restarting the NIC to get it working again.

How's your Presto card doing? Have you noticed any issues with it?
Did you have to install a kext or is it supported OOB by OSX Lion? Thanks!

 

[gambcl]

No problems at all with the Presto.
Worked OOB with no extra kexts needed. Just plug in and go.

 

[powerpcg5]

Thanks! I appreciate it.

 

[gabara]

I do find the machine slightly noisier than I would like, but then I am used to using real Macs which are usually
almost silent in comparison.

I have the 600T Black edition. It also was a bit too noisy, so I've put a 12V to 7V
Molex adapter on the front fan, which makes it very quiet. You may want to try
the same. The PC is not "silent", but it's bearable. Might do the same on the top
fan or try a 12V to 5V adapter, but then that may not be enough for the fan to even
turn on.