GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Success! LifeHacker Builders Unite!

[micahman33]

Amazing. Sierra is up and running on the original LifeHacker build which I purchased and put together in Nov 2009. Everything still works - sleep, bluetooth, sound, built in wireless...I keep saying that I want to build a new hackintosh, but My God this thing is bulletproof. I consistently have 30+ tabs open in chrome plus photoshop + intelliJ with absolutely no issues.

System Specs:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P
Intel Core 2 Quad 9650 Yorkfield
GeForce 9800 GTX+
8GB Ram
256GB SSD (the only non-spec'd hackintosh component)

As for the actual upgrade, I literally just went off the tonymac install/upgrade guide. Upgraded my system definition to 14,2, Upgraded clover, did a straight system update through the app store, and everything went smoothly. Ran multibeast after the upgrade to make sure everything was set...and I have been fine ever since. While the system has been great, my only qualm with it is that the 9800 GTX+ doesn't have hdmi...and my monitors only have HDMI + VGA. So right now, I have to use a DVI to VGA adaptor for my display. Works great, but sometimes I see some weird-ness.

Anyone have any recommendations on a compatible video card that might get me to HDMI? I've tried the DVI to HDMI adaptor. It starts to boot fine, but somewhere in the middle of the apple loading screen, the video cuts out, and my monitor says no signal from that point on.

 

[slim.jim]

Amazing. Sierra is up and running on the original LifeHacker build which I purchased and put together in Nov 2009. Everything still works - sleep, bluetooth, sound, built in wireless...I keep saying that I want to build a new hackintosh, but My God this thing is bulletproof. I consistently have 30+ tabs open in chrome plus photoshop + intelliJ with absolutely no issues.

System Specs:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P
Intel Core 2 Quad 9650 Yorkfield
GeForce 9800 GTX+
8GB Ram
256GB SSD (the only non-spec'd hackintosh component)

As for the actual upgrade, I literally just went off the tonymac install/upgrade guide. Upgraded my system definition to 14,2, Upgraded clover, did a straight system update through the app store, and everything went smoothly. Ran multibeast after the upgrade to make sure everything was set...and I have been fine ever since. While the system has been great, my only qualm with it is that the 9800 GTX+ doesn't have hdmi...and my monitors only have HDMI + VGA. So right now, I have to use a DVI to VGA adaptor for my display. Works great, but sometimes I see some weird-ness.

Anyone have any recommendations on a compatible video card that might get me to HDMI? I've tried the DVI to HDMI adaptor. It starts to boot fine, but somewhere in the middle of the apple loading screen, the video cuts out, and my monitor says no signal from that point on.

There are a number of cards that will give you HDMI. Depends on your budget and how much power you want.

 

[micahman33]

There are a number of cards that will give you HDMI. Depends on your budget and how much power you want.

Do you mind providing any examples? It looks like the board only supports PCI-E 2x16...all of the tonymac graphics cards seem to be PCI-3 from what I saw

 

[trs96]

Do you mind providing any examples? It looks like the board only supports PCI-E 2x16...all of the tonymac graphics cards seem to be PCI-3 from what I saw

It is still capable of using a 3.0 X 16 graphics card. That's the beauty of built in backwards compatibility.
You could buy an inexpensive GT710 that works well with Sierra and has HDMI output. If all you need is basic graphics.

I have to agree that many of those now ancient tmx86 original builds are still golden. Who would have ever dreamed of getting eight years or more out of one of those ?

 

[micahman33]

Awesome, thanks @trs96 - I will for sure grab one of those. With the exception of the wonky video from my dvi to vga adapter, the machine has really solid.

 

[micahman33]

Just a quick update for anyone seeing this later - the GT710 suggested by @trs96 worked perfectly. I added the nvda_drv=1 boot flag during boot and everything is great. Sleep/sound still work and the display looks crisp. Thanks again to everyone for the help.

 

[slim.jim]

Just a quick update for anyone seeing this later - the GT710 suggested by @trs96 worked perfectly. I added the nvda_drv=1 boot flag during boot and everything is great. Sleep/sound still work and the display looks crisp. Thanks again to everyone for the help.

FWIW, nvda_drv=1 doesn't do anything in Sierra. The GT 710 works without any flags and the native drivers