[Guide] El Capitan on the Skylake H170N-WIFI

[ammulder]

Of course... But for the cases where it's not practical, I'm trying to provide an alternative.

 

[busanut]

I have noticed when watching movie files on mxplayer or watching tv through the eyetv app the cpu runs at 3600ghz and when I shut the apps down it stays at 3600ghz.I have to restart the computer so it will speedstep again.

Also when running geekbench and using my generated ssdt geekbench doesn't go past 3600ghz,when I remove my ssdt and run geekbench again I get the same results,It doesn't go past 3600ghz.So I am getting speedsteps from 900 to 3600ghz

 

[busanut]

Of course... But for the cases where it's not practical, I'm trying to provide an alternative.

I have attached my generated ssdt for the i5 6600k on the H170n-wifi motherboard which you are welcome to use in your attached ssdt files.

 

[saihv]

I have a 6600K on an MSI Z170A motherboard, and I have 10.11.1 installed according to your Skylake starter guide. As of now, I have my Radeon graphics working, still trying to figure out audio, ethernet, USB3 speeds etc. Can I use these 6600K power management files for my setup?

 

[ammulder]

Yes, you should be able to.

 

[saihv]

I copied the 6600K aml files to my EFI partition, and I noticed an increase in my geek bench scores (4337 single core, 14200 something multi). Although in Intel Power Gadget, the processor reaches the full OC speed and maintains it, but the frequency never goes under 1.10 GHz, and the idle temperature is 40 degrees C : is this fine?

 

[ammulder]

It's fine that the idle speed doesn't go below 1.1 GHz. The specified minimum clock speed is normally 800 MHz, but often my machines never seems to reach the bare minimum. They still show "IA" power usage very low at idle -- a couple of watts at the most.

As for the temps, it probably depends on your ambient temp and case setup. I think the chip may shut down at 100 degrees, and start emitting warnings at like 80 degrees, and your idle temp is nowhere near that. But it's really the temp under load that matters more. If you put it under sustained load, with a Handbrake transcode or something, is the temp still under 80? If so, you should be fine.

 

[Boil]

El Capitan on the GA-H170N-WIFI
This guide assumes you are installing from scratch. I find integrated graphics on the HD 530 a little challenging, but the system works nicely with an Nvidia card.

View attachment 162616

My Configuration

• BIOS F3 (current at the time of writing)
• Core i7-6700
• 2x 8 GB DDR4-2133
• Either integrated HD530 graphics (works, but poorly) or GeForce GT 730/740/960
• Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe x4 m.2 drive; also tested on an Intel X25-M SSD (SATA 3Gb/s)
• Dell DW1560 (BCM94352Z chip) m.2 WiFi/Bluetooth card (replacing the Intel wireless card it shipped with)

What Works

• SATA and m.2 PCIe x4 system drives
• Audio (tested with case and rear headphone outputs -- HDMI audio working only on an Nvidia card)
• USB, including USB3 (speed confirmed 409 MB/s write and 418 MB/s read with external SSD) and the USB3.0 Type C port
• Wireless networking via m.2 DW1560 card (get it from Dell, Amazon, or others)
• Straight 4K or 1080P Retina when using integrated graphics with a 4K monitor
• iTunes radio, including Beats One
• When using an Nvidia graphics card:
  • Sleep/wake when using the Nvidia Web Driver
  • All high-resolution modes when using a 4K monitor
  • Audio over HDMI
  • GT 740 benchmarks using OS X native drivers: Heaven: 15.6 FPS @ 1920x1080, Cinebench 55.5 FPS, Luxmark 1028
  • GT 740 benchmarks using Nvidia Web driver: Heaven: 15.9 FPS @ 1920x1080, Cinebench 58 FPS, Luxmark 1007

What Sorta Works

• Intel i211 Ethernet port (the port above the USB3 type C connector) -- gets an occasional kernel panic during startup (possibly only in conjunction with the Nvidia card). At least once it just quit working after a while.
• Integrated graphics via HDMI output: annoying visual artifacts. App Store and Safari and Preview are pretty much unusable; Firefox works OK as a substitute for Safari. App Store can be used by booting in Safe Mode. Graphics and PDFs can be viewed with Quick View instead of Preview.

What Doesn't Work At All

• Intel i219 Ethernet port (the port next to the audio jacks): no driver available yet
• With HD 530 integrated graphics only:
  • Sleep/wake (sleeps OK, on wake screen powers on and picks the resolution, but never shows anything)
  • 4K scaled resolutions above 1080P but below 4K when using a 4K monitor
  • Audio over HDMI
• The Intel WiFi that the board ships with (Intel Bluetooth not tested but may work)
• HD movie previews in iTunes, suggesting that any rented or purchased movies may not work.

Installation Prerequisites

• A GA-H170N-WIFI build
• A working Mac or Hackintosh
• A USB stick or drive, 16 GB or larger

SO awesome to find this…! I have been putting together a list of parts on Newegg for a Hackintosh and a lot of the core parts are the same, so that means I can actually work on GETTING the parts now to do a build…!!!

A few questions, if you wouldn't mind…?

1 - I plan to use the Asus GTX 970 mini ITX video card, I would assume I need to do the Nvidia Web Drivers thing; will the GTX 970 be alright/work for/with OS X/Skylake…?

2 - I see the issues with the Intel Ethernet right now, if I am going to replace the WiFi card with the suggested Dell OEM/Broadcom model, I should NOT do the outlined steps to get Ethernet working…?

3 - M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs… Can I assume the Samsung 950 Pro would work as well…?

This is the chassis I want to build a Hackintosh in, but with a black outer shell…



Thank you…!!!

 

[ammulder]

970 should be fine. Run the installer with boot argument nv_disable=1 and keep using that until you get the Web drivers installed, then switch to nvda_drv=1 instead.

i219 Ethernet doesn't work at all. i211 works mostly, with the occasional crash. It's your choice whether to use the i211 or not. You could also get a supported USB3 Ethernet adapter. But if you're fine with WiFi, just use the WiFi.

You can use any m.2 SATA or m.2 PCIe x4 drive. You CANNOT use an m.2 NVMe drive (with OS X). So just make sure whatever you get for OS X is not NVMe. Many drives come in more than one interface (e.g. PCIe x4 or NVMe), so you need to read the details on the specific one you're ordering.

Finally, I am in the process of writing up a guide for the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac, which is a reasonably similar mini-ITX board, except it comes with a supported wireless module. So you might consider that one too. It was about $140 at NewEgg recently, and if you factor in the cost of the wireless module, it's pretty comparable.

 

[Boil]

970 should be fine.

But if you're fine with WiFi, just use the WiFi.

You CANNOT use an m.2 NVMe drive (with OS X)

ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac/comes with a supported wireless module/factor in the cost of the wireless module/comparable.

Awesome…

Ethernet (reliable) would be preferred, but WiFi will do…

Bummer, 950 Pro is NVMe… I thought the SM951 was also NVMe, but I see now it is AHCI… Do you think NVMe support will come anytime soon…?!?

Will look at this board…

Thank you!