[GUIDE] Catalina on HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini - The Perfect MacMini8,1 Hackintosh - CLOVER & OC

[deeveedee]

Just checked prices on a G4 elite desk mini, you did get a really good deal!. The other chipset manufacturers G4 are really cheap.

External 90W brick. I haven't researched the internal RX560, so I'm not sure if I need to obtain a higher wattage brick to power the RX560. My "new" G4 Mini that I purchase has a vented cover (the cover on my 35W i7-8700T unit is sealed). I suspect the vented cover is required for the internal RX560.

I did get a great deal - and the HP factory warranty is still good for 25 months. These HP EliteDesk G4 Minis are awesome.

EDIT: @craighazan I quickly researched the RX560 option for the EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini. Documentation is sparse, but it appears that the RX560X option is only supported in the G4 Mini when a 35W CPU (e.g. i7-8700T) is used. I'm sure this is a limitation due to cooling and power supply.

 

[deeveedee]

HP released a BIOS update (02.12.00 Rev.A). I have completed this update and have confirmed that it works fine with the EFI attached to Post #1. Not surprisingly, I have also confirmed that the same EFI works equally well with the i7-8700T (35W) and i7-8700 (65W) CPUs.

 

[deeveedee]

I ran GeekBench5 benchmarks on the "new" HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini with i7-8700 (65W) to compare to the i7-8700T (35W). Results are summarized below and screenshots are attached.

GeekBench5 Test	i7-8700T (35W)	i7-8700 (65W)
Metal	5044	5120
OpenCL	5303	5459
CPU	1098 / 5015	1255 / 5523

 

[deeveedee]

I just discovered something very interesting about the HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini performance. CPU performance measured by GeekBench5 improves significantly when both SODIMM memory modules are populated. Attached is the performance of the EliteDesk800 G4 Mini (i7-8700T) with a single 16GB SODIMM (one memory slot empty).

If you are disappointed with your system performance, consider populating both memory slots.

 

[chanquete69]

Nice! The HP EliteDesk Minis have an internal RX560 option. I just purchased another used EliteDesk G4 Mini with an i7-8700 (higher performance / power dissipation than the i7-8700T in my original build) for $419 (great deal, considering it came with 512GB M.2. 2280 SSD and one 16GB DDR4 module. I may consider trying the internal RX560 board in this higher-power unit if I can find a reasonable price).

Are the heatsink and blower on that model the same as on the T processor model? Only 90w external PSU is different?

 

[deeveedee]

EDIT: After I posted the comments below, I discovered that there is also a 95W version of the HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini (i7-8700K).
-----------------------------------------------

Are the heatsink and blower on that model the same as on the T processor model? Only 90w external PSU is different?

The HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini is sold in 35W and 65W versions (I have one of each version). The CPU heatsink on the 65W i7-8700 is copper and is aluminum on the 35W i7-8700T. There may be a motherboard difference between the 35W and 65W units, because the 65W unit issues a boot warning if the SATA drive caddy does not have a separate cooling fan (the warning can be defeated by acknowledging the warning and the unit boots/runs fine without the separate SATA drive cooling fan). The 35W unit does not require the SATA drive cooling fan and boots without warning if the SATA drive caddy fan is not installed. It is possible that the motherboards in the 35W and 65W units are identical and that the motherboard auto-detects the CPU type/wattage. I'm not certain.

The G4 Mini will not boot with the i7-8700 65W CPU and lower wattage brick (the power light flashes red). The RX560X connector is the same on the 35W and 65W motherboards (again, I'm not sure if the 35W and 65W unit motherboards are the same). Both units accept the same BIOS version.

 

[deeveedee]

Just ran GeekBench5 CPU test in Windows 10. Looks like multicore performance of the EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini 65W (i7-8700) is better in Windows 10 than it is in Catalina. Not sure why this would be.

 

[chanquete69]

The HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini is sold in 35W and 65W versions (I have one of each version). The CPU heatsink on the 65W i7-8700 is copper and is aluminum on the 35W i7-8700T. There may be a motherboard difference between the 35W and 65W units, because the 65W unit issues a boot warning if the SATA drive caddy does not have a separate cooling fan (the warning can be defeated by acknowledging the warning and the unit boots/runs fine without the separate SATA drive cooling fan). The 35W unit does not require the SATA drive cooling fan and boots without warning if the SATA drive caddy fan is not installed. It is possible that the motherboards in the 35W and 65W units are identical and that the motherboard auto-detects the CPU type/wattage. I'm not certain.

The G4 Mini will not boot with the i7-8700 65W CPU and lower wattage brick (the power light flashes red). The RX560X connector is the same on the 35W and 65W motherboards (again, I'm not sure if the 35W and 65W unit motherboards are the same). Both units accept the same BIOS version.

Thank you very much for the explanation. Didn't know there were 65w CPU models, having an i9-9900 65w on this machines should be incredible!

One question @deeveedee, I have been using your EFI files since a couple of months now, and I have noticed that after waking from sleep, sometimes one of my 4K monitors starts, but after 2-3 seconds, it turn black again during a couple of seconds, 10 more seconds more or less until it comes back again. Do you have 2 monitors also connected to yours? Have you noticed the same? Thank you!

 

[deeveedee]

Thank you very much for the explanation. Didn't know there were 65w CPU models, having an i9-9900 65w on this machines should be incredible!

One question @deeveedee, I have been using your EFI files since a couple of months now, and I have noticed that after waking from sleep, sometimes one of my 4K monitors starts, but after 2-3 seconds, it turn black again during a couple of seconds, 10 more seconds more or less until it comes back again. Do you have 2 monitors also connected to yours? Have you noticed the same? Thank you!

I just learned that there is also a 95W model with the i7-8700K. The 800 G5 models support the 9th Gen CPUs. HP doesn't claim support for 9th Gen CPUs in the G4 models. It should just be a BIOS change, but I'm not sure that HP has made the BIOS change and haven't seen anyone claim to have 9th Gen CPUs running in their G4s.

I have two 1680x1050 DVI displays (using DP->DVI adapters) and I experience no display / sleep issues other than the one mentioned here (and I have only observed it once). I'd be happy to review your config if you post your problem reporting files as described in Post #1 of this thread. Also, what connector type / cable are you using for your displays?

 

[chanquete69]

You can find debug info on post 133: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ect-macmini8-1-hackintosh.298530/post-2156399
I haven’t change anything but SMBIOS to iMac19,1 as you suggested

Thank you!