Guide: GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 + HD-687A-ZDFC (XFX 6870)

[kientran]

Parts list that matters

i7-2600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&cm_re=2600k-_-19-115-070-_-Product

XFX HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521&Tpk=HD-687A-ZDF

GIGABYTE GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128503&Tpk=GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345&cm_re=corsair_8gb-_-20-145-345-_-Product

Following the many guides (Gordo74), but basically going with viewtopic.php?f=81&t=18641

Things you need before you start.
iBoot on a CD
Snow Leopard Retail DVD (Not the restore disk)
10.6.7 Combo Update
MultiBeast
Bridge Helper
GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 DSDT

Burn iBoot do a CD and copy all other files to a USB Key

BIOS:
Change HPET to 64-bit
Set BIOS to use ACHI instead of IDE

I DIDN'T try to use the GREY ports, so I cannot verify they work as they use a different chipset.

The Blue (3G) and White (6G) ports are Z68 chipset controlled and are all fine to use.

Install
1) Boot with iBoot
2) When iBoot is loaded, switch with Snow Leopard DVD then press F5 to refresh.
3) Select Snow Leopard DVD
4) Install as desired
5) Watch the install for completion. Replace iBoot disk before it restarts
6) When iBoot loads again, select the Hard Drive
7) Setup OSX as desired
8) Using USB Key, copy combo update/multibeast/bridgehelper to local machine.
9) Install Combo Update DO NOT RESTART! MINIMIZE INSTALLER!
10) Be sure DSDT File for your mother board is on the desktop.
11) Install Multibeast (It may crash when the combo update installer crashes, just reload) Multibeast should complete without issue
MB.GA-Z68MX.jpg
12) Setup Network when it requests to
13) Install Bridgehelper
14) Remove iBoot CD, unmount and REMOVE USB KEYS
15) Reboot
16) Profit!

Issues and FAQs:
Dual DVI Displays
I am unable to get dual DVI ports working, though I've not spent a lot of time to fix it. Using a Mini Display->DVI adapter actually works as a workaround for now.

BIOS Settings
I left it on 34x and other than stated above, made no changes.

Audio
Onboard audio works fine as far as I can tell, but I use a USB Audio device for Studio Recording work

Network
Works fine

Gaming
Haven't gotten around to installing Steam/WoW/SC2 yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Sleep (5 June, 2011 - 1:14AM CST)
Sleep works fine as far as I can tell. It wakes on Keyboard and Mouse.

Overall Performance
It's not as good as I'd expect. (Geekbench 11248) but I haven't tuned it yet or tired out some of the MacPro profiles. Currently I'm running MacPro 3,1

USB3
It uses Etron EJ168 chips, which as far as I know do not have any OSX drivers yet. Attempting to plug in a USB device on the USB3 does nothing. I think it actually took down the whole USB bus prompting me to reconnect everything.

SATA3 - Marvell Chips (Grey ports)
This uses the Marvel 88SE917 chip, which as far as I know doesn't work.

eSATA
I can't tell, but the manual implies it uses the Z68 chipset. Asside from that, I dont' know how well eSATA would work as I have no eSATA devices. I would assume a plugged in on boot drive would work.

EDITS:
5 June, 2011 - 1:14AM CST
Updated info on Sleep, SATA3 Marvel, eSATA, USB3

 

[Aznboy1993]

Great guide!

I plan on buying that motherboard to downgrade my system to a small form factor. My current board is the Asus P8P67 Pro and my OS X is 100% working (sleep, eSATA, USB 3, etc.).

Do you mind doing a couple of things for me?

Can you try out the sleep? The eSATA? The USB 3?

Thanks again!

 

[Red Chief]

Thanks a lot for this noobproof and useful guide. I'd like to know if sleep mode works too, if you care.

 

[kientran]

USB3
It uses Etron EJ168 chips, which as far as I know do not have any OSX drivers yet. Attempting to plug in a USB device on the USB3 does nothing. I think it actually took down the whole USB bus prompting me to reconnect everything.

SATA3 - Marvell Chips (Grey ports)
This uses the Marvel 88SE917 chip, which as far as I know doesn't work.

eSATA
I can't tell, but the manual implies it uses the Z68 chipset. Asside from that, I dont' know how well eSATA would work as I have no eSATA devices. I would assume a plugged in on boot drive would work.

Sleep
Sleep works fine as far as I can tell. It wakes on Keyboard and Mouse.

 

[gdtrfb24]

Thanks for the guide!! I have this board with an Nvidia card. Did you update the bios to f4? I updated to f3, but f4 wasn't an option. After visiting the Gigabyte site, read I needed to first install the latest version of Intel Smart Response.

 

[Red Chief]

Thanks for your prompt feedback, kientran. 6 working sata are fine, but it sucks a bit for USB3. I'd like to know about power consumption too, since H67 is more efficient than P67. Waiting for a good review…
For starters, they love it on newegg…

 

[Aznboy1993]

USB3
It uses Etron EJ168 chips, which as far as I know do not have any OSX drivers yet. Attempting to plug in a USB device on the USB3 does nothing. I think it actually took down the whole USB bus prompting me to reconnect everything.

SATA3 - Marvell Chips (Grey ports)
This uses the Marvel 88SE917 chip, which as far as I know doesn't work.

eSATA
I can't tell, but the manual implies it uses the Z68 chipset. Asside from that, I dont' know how well eSATA would work as I have no eSATA devices. I would assume a plugged in on boot drive would work.

Sleep
Sleep works fine as far as I can tell. It wakes on Keyboard and Mouse.

Thanks brother for the response!

eSATA should work fine b/c yes it does operate off the Z68 chipset. SATA3 from the Marvell chip works fine too since I am using it on my P8P67 Pro board.

For sleep do you need to use SleepEnabler.kext or does it work natively with DSDT? Also can you overclock correctly with EIST enabled?

 

[kientran]

Thanks for the guide!! I have this board with an Nvidia card. Did you update the bios to f4? I updated to f3, but f4 wasn't an option. After visiting the Gigabyte site, read I needed to first install the latest version of Intel Smart Response.

I just updated to F4 without issue. Intel Smart Response is some Windows thing, don't worry about it.

Thanks for your prompt feedback, kientran. 6 working sata are fine, but it sucks a bit for USB3. I'd like to know about power consumption too, since H67 is more efficient than P67. Waiting for a good review…
For starters, they love it on newegg…

Dunno about power consumption. I need to go get a Kill-a-watt to see, and it'd be hard to know a frame of reference without having other boards to compare to.

For sleep do you need to use SleepEnabler.kext or does it work natively with DSDT? Also can you overclock correctly with EIST enabled?

The latest Bridgehelper has the required kext included to make sleep work natively. I have done limited overclock with EIST enabled, and havn't run into any issues yet.

Thanks for the heads up on the SATA3 controllers. How did you get OSX to identify the SATA controllers? On my system it only shows up as a bunch of "unknown AHCI Standard Controller"

 

[Aznboy1993]

[

For sleep do you need to use SleepEnabler.kext or does it work natively with DSDT? Also can you overclock correctly with EIST enabled?

The latest Bridgehelper has the required kext included to make sleep work natively. I have done limited overclock with EIST enabled, and havn't run into any issues yet.

Thanks for the heads up on the SATA3 controllers. How did you get OSX to identify the SATA controllers? On my system it only shows up as a bunch of "unknown AHCI Standard Controller"

What frequency did you try it at? B/c with my P8P67 Pro and EIST enabled if I do 4.2GHz I get the same score as stock 3.4GHz. Without EIST I get the right score in Geekbench.

I had to manually edit the .kext to add the correct identifications. It is mainly cosmetic.

 

[emilin]

Many thanks for the guide! I am ordering very similar components (same cpu/motherboard/gpu/memory) for my own build and your post gives me the confidence to go ahead.

Are you happy with performance now?