Guide for Gigabyte H/Z97N-WIFI Using HD4600 - Chimera/MultiBeast Method

[SomedayISuppose]

Stork,

Hope you don't mind me tagging in here, thinking of my first hack build and looking to copy pretty much what I've seen in your build.

First off, thank you for all the time putting it together.

Second, do you see any concerns with the following
GA-H97N-WiFi
I5-4690K
16MB Crucial Sport

Corsair CX430M power supply
Coolmaster Elite 130 case

Planning a basic build to replace my wifes iMac that went belly up last week, no real gaming so was planning on using the on board graphics from the H97N.

Hard Drive, am I better off going with a 250G SSD, or I have a fairly new Seagate Hy-Bird that I was running in the iMac. (iMac failure not related to hard drive)

Also, any known issues with running Parallels on a Hack? My wife does accounting work and that software is only available in Windows, but she likes the flexibility to toggle in and out.

Thank you again in advance and hope this is an okay place to post.

Scott

 

[Stork]

...

Second, do you see any concerns with the following
GA-H97N-WiFi
I5-4690K
16MB Crucial Sport

Corsair CX430M power supply
Coolmaster Elite 130 case

Planning a basic build to replace my wifes iMac that went belly up last week, no real gaming so was planning on using the on board graphics from the H97N.

Hard Drive, am I better off going with a 250G SSD, or I have a fairly new Seagate Hy-Bird that I was running in the iMac. (iMac failure not related to hard drive)

Also, any known issues with running Parallels on a Hack? My wife does accounting work and that software is only available in Windows, but she likes the flexibility to toggle in and out.

Thank you again in advance and hope this is an okay place to post.

Scott

I'd save yourself a few dollars and get a non "K" processor like the i5-4690 which is the one I use. The "H" motherboards are not designed for overclocking which the "K" processors are capable of. The 4690 is the non OC'ing version and is what I'm using.

The biggest problem with the 9-series motherboard/Haswell processor systems is what they call the "Haswell Freeze." This is generally caused by non Haswell compatible memory and/or PSU. So, make sure the memory's model number is on both the motherboard's memory support list and the memory manufacture's model number motherboard support list. That being said, I'd recommend you look at the recent tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide, RAM section, for the updated recommend memory - the Sport is no longer recommended. I'm using Crucial's Tactical series in Hector.

The PSU has to be rated Haswell "ready" or "certified." Another tip for ITX designed cases is to get a PSU that is modular - you don't have a lot of room, and the less cables in the case, the better the cooling will be. I would also recommend a slightly larger PSU, so, in case you want to add a graphics card later (like I did), you'll have some headroom, power wise. I recommend the Corsair CS550M 550 Watt PSU.

As for a new SSD vs using the iMac's Fusion drive...well, that's more of "do I want to get up and running quickly?" or "do I want to take advantage of an older Fusion drive that might be adaptable?" If I wasn't in a hurry to get a running system (happy wife is a happy life), then I'd try to adapt the dead iMac's Fusion drive. However, beware that the installation on that Fusion drive can not be used on the hack - you'll have to erase it and install a fresh Yosemite installation. The iMac installation was installed with iMac special installation "stuff" (for lack of a better word).

Parallel will run well, IIRC. It's been a while since I've read a post here where someone was using it because a hack is so much easier to use booting into one operating system or another (Multi-Booting). We have a forum section on Multi-Booting, BTW, with very good guides. http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/

Finally, the Gigabyte WiFi/BT card that comes with the H97N has it's limitations. The WiFi portion doesn't work natively with OS X, and there is no known driver for it. The BT works, but not well. As you probably read in my build description, I replaced the Gigabyte card with an iMac WiFi/BT and adapter card. The one limitation, as I discussed in the post, is that the iMac card has four antenna leads and sits higher in the slot than the Gigabyte card. If I keep the H97N system in the Prodigy case, I'm going to have to drive two holes in the case's back to mount the two extra antennas. Just food for thought if you do the same. If you're not going to use WiFi, then remove the Gigabyte card and use an Ethernet 6-spec cable. If you remove the WiFi/BT card and still want BT, I'd get the GMYLE Bluetooth 4.0 USB Adapter. However, if you have an iDevice and want the Yosemite and iOS 8 Continuity/Hand-off, then I'd recommend you got the iMac WiFi/BT combo card.

Good Luck! And welcome to the tonymacx86 Forum.

 

[SomedayISuppose]

Stork,

Thank you so much for the awesome response, great information.

On the CPU, will the K version do any harm? I am looking at pricing through our local Microcenter, they don't like the 4690, but have the 4590 at $40 less then the 4690K. That said they are bundling the mobo with the 4690K, and dropping the price of the board by $40 so its a wash on the processor. (the bundle doesn't appear to be offered on the 4590.)

I changes the memory option over to the tactical, thank you for that.

Hmmm on the iMac drive, I will need to decide on that. I bought a Mac Mini for the wife to get her up and running quick, so she is alive and working, but have wanted to build a machine and this looks like a fun project. Will turn the mini over to the kids when this is done. Also need to decide if the iMac itself is saveable, I hate to toss it, but fear its got a PSU or Logic Board issue as it boots directly into a white screen with random gray squares scattered about.

Thank you again for all the feedback, I will keep you posted.

Scott

 

[Stork]

Stork,

Thank you so much for the awesome response, great information.

On the CPU, will the K version do any harm? I am looking at pricing through our local Microcenter, they don't like the 4690, but have the 4590 at $40 less then the 4690K. That said they are bundling the mobo with the 4690K, and dropping the price of the board by $40 so its a wash on the processor. (the bundle doesn't appear to be offered on the 4590.)

I changes the memory option over to the tactical, thank you for that.

Hmmm on the iMac drive, I will need to decide on that. I bought a Mac Mini for the wife to get her up and running quick, so she is alive and working, but have wanted to build a machine and this looks like a fun project. Will turn the mini over to the kids when this is done. Also need to decide if the iMac itself is saveable, I hate to toss it, but fear its got a PSU or Logic Board issue as it boots directly into a white screen with random gray squares scattered about.

Thank you again for all the feedback, I will keep you posted.

Scott

Ah, yes, Micro Center does make it worth while to stay with the 4690K because of their motherboard & processor combo deals. Again, make sure of the Haswell compatibility of your memory model # and PSU.

BTW, Hector is a joy to use.

 

[SomedayISuppose]

Stork, thank you again, I forgot to mention on the PSU, I am going to go with the CS550M that you mentioned.

I failed to realize originally that the BT/WF card you were using was from an iMac, if I can't repair that unit I'll try to salvage it from there. On the 4 antenna leads, are you putting antennas on all of them, using an SMA connector? I just need to see if the height will be an issue in the case I am planning to use.

Other then that, I just have to see if I can convince the wife to do true duel boot or run Parallels.

Thanks again

Scott

 

[Stork]

Stork, thank you again, I forgot to mention on the PSU, I am going to go with the CS550M that you mentioned...

Good.

I failed to realize originally that the BT/WF card you were using was from an iMac, if I can't repair that unit I'll try to salvage it from there. On the 4 antenna leads, are you putting antennas on all of them, using an SMA connector? I just need to see if the height will be an issue in the case I am planning to use...

See my post.

 

[jginsbu]

That being said, I'd recommend you look at the recent tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide, RAM section, for the updated recommend memory - the Sport is no longer recommended.

Hi Stork, Do you know whether the Sport memory was removed for a particular reason? I bought the Sport following the guide for my build, but had a problem with crashes and spontaneous reboots following longer periods of sleep, which I suspect might be memory related. Luckily sleep is low priority for me and with sleep disabled my system is very stable, so that's how I've been running it. At some point I plan to experiment again with getting sleep working and have a few things on my list to try, but if there's further reason to suspect the RAM I'd like to know about it. TIA.

 

[Stork]

The Sport is a great performer for us and our 8/9-series systems. However, it seem that a better bang for the buck ($) for the less expensive CustoMac Mini would be the Crucial budget memory we now list. The Tactical replaced the Sport on the other CustoMac because they were better performers.

If your system is only freezing upon sleep wake-up, then check to see if your PSU is Haswell "ready" or "certified."

BTW, sometimes changing the System Definitions and changing the BIOS X.M.P. parameter to Disable stopped the freezing for some users.

 

[jginsbu]

The Sport is a great performer for us and our 8/9-series systems. However, it seem that a better bang for the buck ($) for the less expensive CustoMac Mini would be the Crucial budget memory we now list. The Tactical replaced the Sport on the other CustoMac because they were better performers.

If your system is only freezing upon sleep wake-up, then check to see if your PSU is Haswell "ready" or "certified."

BTW, sometimes changing the System Definitions and changing the BIOS X.M.P. parameter to Disable stopped the freezing for some users.

Thanks for your reply, Stork, and thanks for your suggestions. PSU is OK, but I will keep the others in mind for when I decide to make another push to get sleep working.

In my case, I wouldn't describe what I experienced as a "freeze": the system doesn't lock up. Rather after waking I would get some application crashes, shortly followed by a spontaneous reboot. This would only occur after sleeping for a while; short sleeps were ok. At least one other user with similar symptoms reported fixing it by changing to different RAM, which I'd prefer to avoid having to do. When I do get back to experimenting with sleep, I hope I'll find a combination of BIOS settings that works or perhaps the problem will go away once Apple finally adds support for 9-series chipsets. Luckily, as I said above, sleep is low priority for me so I haven't been much bothered to do without.

 

[katil69]

Help please... been following this forums for years but new to posting, so please excuse any mistake I make.

Hackintosh Specs:

Name: iNC-RED-iBLE
OS: 10.10
Motherboard: GA-H97N-WIFI | Rev 1.0 | BiOS F5
CPU: Intel 4690K
Graphics: HD 4600
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical
Power Supply: Corsair CX600M
Case: Corsair 250D
SSD: Samsung

Thank you Stork for very extensive guide you have provided. Keep up the Good work.


I build my hackintosh/iNC-RED-iBLE following the Guide you have provided from the BIOS settings, Unibeast boot to OS installation and Multibeast installation with the options you have listed.

iNC-RED-iBLE is connected to two ACER SH231H monitors using HDMI cables. It boots fine. Sleep, Wake, Audio, NIC everything works as it intended too. I see the CPU Heatsink stops spinning when it goes to sleep and wakes up fine as well. I left it alone for 24 hrs and tested all the functionality fine.

now the issue

iNC-RED-iBLE - Displays freezes up and the mouse moments stops. I see the HD and POWER LED activity but i can't really do anything. Keyboard and Mouse are unresponsive. I let it sit there for 20 to 30min and it was at the same state, the only way to bring back to life was power reset. Froze up while performing following:

Playing a youtube video
Migration assistance restore.
copying file...


Please help.....