I'm just about to attempt a dual boot with a very similar setup.
Let me start by saying I was so incredibly thankful I stumbled on your guide because I discovered the 775 to 771 conversion and was absolutely chuffed with that idea so I did it instantly and picked up a E5450 for $30 AU delivered, followed an easy guide, thought I'd nailed it aaaand.... Wouldnt boot.... Looked down and I had forgot to put the RAM back in... That's what you get for tinkering after a few beers. Back in with the RAM and off it went smoothly through the first POST.
Most of this was built with what i had lying around, however my internal seething for HDD's made me splurge for an SSD... But I got myself a nice new fancy one for my Daily PC and chucked my old 840 in the Xeon.
Currently this is the setup...
Xeon E5450 @ 3.0GHz w Hyper 212 Cooler
G41M - COMBO REV 2.0
8GB DDR3 @ 1333 (2 x 4GB GSkill)
ASUS nVidia 9500GT
Samsung 840 PRO SSD
2 x 2TB 7200RPM HDD
550W Cooler Power PSU
Current Mobo 'Intelligent Tweaker' Settings
Clock Chip Control
CPU Clock Ratio: 9x
CPU Fine Clock: +0.0
CPU Host Frequency: 333
CPU Frequency: 3.00GHz
PCI Express frequency: 'Auto'
CPU Vcore: 1.18v
CPU Termination: 1.20v
DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance: Extreme
(G)MCH Frequency Latch: Auto
System Memory Multiplier (SPD): 4.00A
Memory Frequency: 1333MHz
DRAM Voltage: 1.5v
It was very very hard to find info on this, or a similar config build, even using it for Windows etc..
My questions are:
Have you or anybody had any luck overclocking the E5450 on this board? I have not... Not even with a single setting (Not even 0.5 Fine CPU Clock Ratio) The board has some reasonable tweaking features for an energy saver, I'm not sure if its my lack of knowledge, or a restricted config, mobo etc..
Also I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card for light gaming but mainly multi-monitor support (Minimum 3) What would you recommend? Budget around $150 and Yosemite/Hackintosh Friendly.
And is it possible to integrate a 7 port USB 3.0 VIA controlled PCI-E expansion card working in Yosemite?
Any help is muchly appreciated, Cheers
(I have posted a similar thing to this on another forum)