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

[chanquete69]

You deserve the credit for that catch - not me. I overlooked the generation difference between your i5-9500T and my i7-8700T and suspect that is the problem. Your use of CPUFriend is clever.

There are differences using SMBIOS iMac19,1:

Clearly better than Macmini8,1 (Core Min in this case is 1,2, lower than 1,5 in macmini), but clearly higher than 0,8 with CPUFriend and macmini8,1 SMBIOS. What do you think? Which option seems better from your point of view?

 

[deeveedee]

There are differences using SMBIOS iMac19,1:

Clearly better than Macmini8,1 (Core Min in this case is 1,2, lower than 1,5 in macmini), but clearly higher than 0,8 with CPUFriend and macmini8,1 SMBIOS. What do you think? Which option seems better from your point of view?

I prefer a "vanilla" macOS installation to the extent possible, so my personal preference would be iMac19,1 without CPUFriend. Since I think this is a personal preference, I suggest that you test the two and choose the configuration that works best for you.

 

[deeveedee]

I hadn't run GeekBench 5 for a while. Attached are my latest GeekBench 5 graphics scores (OpenCL and Metal). These are consistent with what I first posted in Post #1 of this thread.

EDIT: These benchmarks were collected with the additional IGPU graphics attributes discussed in the next post.

 

[deeveedee]

I have added the IGPU graphics attributes described here and am currently running with these defined on my system. I have not noticed any behavioral differences. If anyone else wants to experiment with these attributes defined on your system, I'd be curious to know if you find any reason that these attributes should be defined on the HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini.

EDIT: Attached is an updated CLOVER config.plist with the additional IGPU device properties. You must replace the XX-MASKED-XX values in the config.plist with your own.

 

[deeveedee]

I have upgraded kexts as follows. I'm observing improved performance as noted in the next post.

• AppleALC.kext: v1.5.0 -> v1.5.1
• Lilu.kext: v1.4.5 -> 1.4.6
• NVMeFix: 1.0.2 -> 1.0.3
• WhateverGreen.kext: 1.4.0 -> 1.4.1

I have not yet included these new kexts in the EliteDesk.zip archive attached to Post #1 and will update this archive after further testing.

 

[deeveedee]

I initially thought that the WhateverGreen / Lilu update here made no difference. I stand corrected. My Metal and OpenCL GeekBench5 scores are better. See new scores attached to this post, see previous scores attached here and see comparison below.

GeekBench5 Test	WEG 1.40 / Lilu 1.4.5​	WEG 1.4.1 / Lilu 1.4.6​
Metal​	4937​	5044​
OpenCL​	5248​	5303​

 

[deeveedee]

I hadn't run the Unigine Heaven Benchmark for a while. The latest test with results attached shows an improvement in the Max FPS over the results I attached to Post #1. Since I hadn't run this since my first successful installation of Catalina on this rig, I don't know whether the recent WEG upgrade deserves credit for this FPS performance improvement (the latest test having a Max FPS of 35.8 vs. the originally tested Max FPS of 29.9).

While not anywhere near the performance of my Sapphire Pulse RX580 here, this UHD 630 graphics engine on a 35W integrated CPU/GPU is very respectable.

 

[deeveedee]

The upgrade to 10.15.6 19G2021 was easy with the steps below. During the upgrade, don't be surprised if displays flash on and off. Also, pay attention to the selected volume when the system reboots during the upgrade.

1. Backup! Use Carbon Copy or your favorite backup utility.
2. If you have installed your 3rd-party kexts in EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other and not in /Library/Extensions, proceed to Step 3.
   If you have installed your 3rd-party kexts in /Library/Extensions as I have done, create a USB boot disk, install Clover r5119 on the USB drive and install your EFI on the USB drive. Copy all 3rd-party kexts to EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other on the USB drive. Leave your USB drive inserted so that your system reboots from the USB drive. All 3rd-party kexts must be located in EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other for the macOS upgrade.
3. Select About This Mac -> Software Update and start the update. Your system will begin the update.
4. After your system reboots the first time, select the "Install macOS from Catalina Data" Volume
5. After your system reboots the second time, select the "Install macOS from Catalina Data" Volume
6. After your system reboots the third time, boot from your Catalina Volume (now updated). If you created a USB boot drive, you may now remove it.
7. Welcome to Catalina 10.15.6 19G2021!

 

[deeveedee]

I needed to temporarily move my HackMini8,1 to a different desk with different LCD displays (1440x900 instead of the original 1680x1050). When I booted after connecting the new displays, my hack did not auto-detect the display resolution and one of the displays booted to black screen. I could recover the screen and force auto-detection of the black display by cycling power on the black display.

The "fix"for this black screen problem was to change the CLOVER Screen Resolution to 1440x900 (to match the native display resolution of the new displays). I used CLOVER configurator to change the CLOVER Screen Resolution.

 

[insurgensy]

I was successful installing Mojave 10.14.6 using your EFI folder and guide. Thanks a mil! Truly perfect Hack Mini