- Joined
- May 12, 2013
- Messages
- 21
- Motherboard
- GIGABYTE GA-Z270X-G9
- CPU
- i7 7700k
- Graphics
- EVGA GTX 1080
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Gigabyte Z270X Gaming 9 - i7 7700k - GTX 1080 - High Sierra & Win 10
ComponentsIntel i7-7700K CPU
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXSI216/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117726
Corsair H60 CPU Water Cooler
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0HZMGA/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181030
Gigabyte Z270X Gaming 9 Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4F25ZH/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128961
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit (16GBx4) DDR4 2666
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B4F3MNQ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820164039
SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2 512GB NVMe SSD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LXS4TYB/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147596
EVGA GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X Graphics Card (08G-P4-5180-KR)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K1JW8CW/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487278
Enermax Revolution SFX 650W 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS0A71O/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP58K2006
iStarUSA E-40/ATX (steel chassis)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005SZ4RZ6/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811165177
Comments
The primary purpose of this build is to have a decent video/data processing system that is still portable and relatively inexpensive, I had hoped for multiple thunderbolt ports but Gigabyte recently removed the Z270X Gaming 9 motherboard from the compatibility lists of it's thunderbolt add-on cards, guess the thunderbolt header is a waste of x4 PCI-e lanes.
The case is a compact steel chassis, a handle and extra case fans were added for better air flow and portability, it has one integrated thunderbolt 3 port. One USB 3.1 C port from an onboard header. Two eSATA ports from the onboard ASMedia SATA controller. Also runs an Areca HBA controller and (x8) 2.5" internal SAS drive RAID5 - 7 TB (read 800 MB/s write 700 MB/s).
Working
- USB 3.0 and 3.1 ports
- Thunderbolt 3
- Removed onboard killer wifi/bt card (added an OSXWifi card)
- Sound through Blackmagic 4k Monitor output card
- Thunderbolt 3
- Removed onboard killer wifi/bt card (added an OSXWifi card)
- Sound through Blackmagic 4k Monitor output card
Didn’t Work
- Creative Sound Core 3D Audio (Works over HDMI only for now)
- Additional Gigabyte Thunderbolt 3 add on card is detected but doesn't work with current BIOS
- This motherboard was recently removed from the thunderbolt add-on card list
- Unable to install windows 10 from USB flash drive, had to install from a DVD
- Additional Gigabyte Thunderbolt 3 add on card is detected but doesn't work with current BIOS
- This motherboard was recently removed from the thunderbolt add-on card list
- Unable to install windows 10 from USB flash drive, had to install from a DVD
Installation Notes
Duel boot macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 and Win 10, each on an M.2 512 GB NVMe.
Mac OS High Sierra: after installing the Fakesmc plugin options for HWSensor in MultiBeast remove the FakeGPU.kext or it causes a kernel panic, before you reboot, go to Library/Extensions and delete the FAKEGPU.kext. I had a lot of trouble with the iGPU HD630 and finally disabled it in favor of only using the GTX 1080 GPU.
Win 10: install a mac partition first, and include a primary (fat32) partition that will be used for the windows 10 boot drive later. Install windows in order to activate motherboard features and chipset firmware, such as the integrated thunderbolt 3 controller.
Installation
Rolled back the BIOS to F5, (the newer F6 and F7b didn't seem stable) then loaded optimized settings. I followed a couple of suggestions from a few of the 7700k Gigabyte Gaming 5 or 7 User Builds, but I primarily followed the macOS 10.13 installation guide (reference), as well as the trouble shooting guides at the bottom.BIOS TAB
BIOS Features > Windows 8/10 Features > Other OS
BIOS Features > Storage Boot Option Control > UEFI Only
BIOS Features > Boot Option #1 > UEFI USB Drive
BIOS Features > Storage Boot Option Control > UEFI Only
BIOS Features > Boot Option #1 > UEFI USB Drive
Peripherals TAB
Initial Display Output > PCIe 1 Slot
Peripherals > XHCI Hand-off > Enable
Network Stack > Disabled
Thunderbolt Security Level > No Security
Peripherals > XHCI Hand-off > Enable
Network Stack > Disabled
Thunderbolt Security Level > No Security
Chipset TAB
VTd > Disabled
Internal Graphics > Disabled
Internal Graphics > Disabled
Testing
Geekbench 4 testing average out to around 21K, at the base 4.2/4.5 GHz clock speed. The system is able to view/playback 8K R3D clips in Redcine 50 at real time at 1/4 resolution. Full R3D Raw 8k playback in Davinci 14, at 1/4 resolution on a 4k time line.
Redcine50 transcoding tests, able to transcode 8k R3D files at 1/4 resolution to 1080p ProRes 422HQ at realtime or better, around 24 fps. Able to transcode 8k R3D files at 1/2 resolution to 4kHD ProRes 422HQ at around 15-18 fps.
Updates 11-07-2017
Multibeast 10.1 for High Sierra
GC-ALPINE RIDGE & OTHER NOTES
1. I'm annoyed with Gigabyte, I picked up the GC-ALPINE RIDGE thunderbolt 3 addon card since (gen1 and 2) were listed as compatible with this Motherboard and this Motherboard has a TB header, after a few days of not getting it to work I contacted Gigabyte after a lot of difficulties and they eventually responded by saying no thunderbolt addon cards were compatible with this motherboard and then the next day this motherboard was removed from the compatibility list of all their GC-ALPINE RIDGE cards, so I guess the thunderbolt header is completely useless.
2. Additionally any USB-C cable attached to the onboard motherboard 3.1 header does nothing, it doesn't work, no connection or power provided, but it does short-out your motherboard or prevent it from booting up.
3. And this motherboard does not have one of the more standard integrated sound cards, so no luck with getting working onboard sound on the Mac Side. HDMI audio output does work at least.
4. Also this motherboard is not compatible with 64 GB RAM, not matter what I tried, different RAM and different motherboards (after a two week RMA), 64 GB RAM causes constant corruption and random reboot or failure to boot, So stick with 32 GB RAM.
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