[Guide] HP 6300 Pro / HP 8300 Elite - A 100 percent Working and Easily Affordable CustoMac

[trs96]

When Apple drops OSX supports for Macs that have the same CPUs as the 8300, does that mean newer versions of OSX won't run on the 8300 as well?

Not necessarily. The iMac 13,2 system definition is for the late 2012 iMac. So you can keep using that for at least two or more years. Some Macs from 2009 are still supported in High Sierra. So if support is dropped for 2012 iMacs in 3 or more years you can always change to a newer system definition for your 8300. The other option would be stay with 13,2 and the newest version of macOS that still has support for those iMacs. The choice of 13,2 and a CPU specific SSDT gives you full performance and all of the features working for an Ivy Bridge i3, i5 or i7 CPU.

 

[Daniel67]

Hello guys,

first I have to say thank you trs96 for an excelent guide. I all made on first try. Except CPU power managment (I skipped it), and iBooks are transparent, but Im using iPad for books anyway...


Today, I've tried to make CPU PM for my i5-3570. It's working, but turbo boost is "only" @3.60Ghz. Can there by somewhere a conflict and the system see i5-3470?

Spoiler

ssdtPRGen.sh v0.9 Copyright (c) 2011-2012 by † RevoGirl
             v6.6 Copyright (c) 2013 by † Jeroen
             v15.6 Copyright (c) 2013-2018 by Pike R. Alpha
-----------------------------------------------------------
Bugs > https://github.com/Piker-Alpha/ssdtPRGen.sh/issues <

gDataPath: /Users/daniel/Library/ssdtPRGen/Data
System information: Mac OS X 10.12.6 (16G1212)
Brandstring 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHz'

Scope (_PR_) {220 bytes} with ACPI Processor declarations found in the DSDT (ACPI 1.0 compliant)
Generating ssdt.dsl for a 'iMac13,2' with board-id [Mac-FC02E91DDD3FA6A4]
Ivy Bridge Core i5-3570 processor [0x306A9] setup [0x0604]
With a maximum TDP of 77 Watt, as specified by Intel
Number logical CPU's: 4 (Core Frequency: 3400 MHz)
Number of Turbo States: 4 (3500-3800 MHz)
Number of P-States: 23 (1600-3800 MHz)
Injected C-States for CPU0 (C1,C3,C6)
Injected C-States for CPU1 (C1,C2,C3)
Warning: 'cpu-type' may be set improperly (0x0604 instead of 0x0704)

Intel ACPI Component Architecture
ASL Optimizing Compiler version 20140926-64 [Nov  6 2014]
Copyright (c) 2000 - 2014 Intel Corporation

ASL Input:     /Users/daniel/Library/ssdtPRGen/ssdt.dsl - 261 lines, 8336 bytes, 48 keywords
AML Output:    /Users/daniel/Library/ssdtPRGen/ssdt.aml - 1795 bytes, 16 named objects, 32 executable opcodes

Compilation complete. 0 Errors, 0 Warnings, 0 Remarks, 0 Optimizations

CPU Ratio Info:
------------------------------------
CPU Low Frequency Mode.............: 1600 MHz
CPU Maximum non-Turbo Frequency....: 3400 MHz
CPU Maximum Turbo Frequency........: 3800 MHz

IGPU Info:
------------------------------------
IGPU Current Frequency.............:  350 MHz
IGPU Minimum Frequency.............:  350 MHz
IGPU Maximum Non-Turbo Frequency...:  650 MHz
IGPU Maximum Turbo Frequency.......: 1150 MHz
IGPU Maximum limit.................: No Limit

CPU P-States [ 34 (36) 37 ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]
CPU C3-Cores [ 0 1 3 ]
CPU C6-Cores [ 0 1 3 ]
CPU P-States [ (16) 32 34 36 37 ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]
CPU P-States [ (16) 32 34 35 36 37 ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]
CPU C3-Cores [ 0 1 2 3 ]
CPU C6-Cores [ 0 1 2 3 ]
CPU P-States [ 16 32 33 34 35 (36) 37 ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]
CPU P-States [ (16) 28 32 33 34 35 36 37 ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]
CPU P-States [ (16) 22 28 32 33 34 35 36 37 ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]
CPU P-States [ (16) 22 27 28 32 33 34 35 36 37 ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]
CPU P-States [ 16 22 27 28 32 33 34 35 36 37 (38) ] iGPU P-States [ (7) ]

Does TimeMachine backup my "hack" settings too?

 

[trs96]

@Daniel67 Are you using iMac 13,2 or some other sysdef ? Your Intel Power Gadget readout should not be a flat line. Also what are you using to stress the CPU to get it past 3.6 GHz ?

 

[Daniel67]

Yes, it is iMac13,2

Generating ssdt.dsl for a 'iMac13,2' with board-id [Mac-FC02E91DDD3FA6A4]

I used terminal, $ yes > /dev/null & 4times then I tried 15x

 

[trs96]

Yes, it is iMac13,2

Generating ssdt.dsl for a 'iMac13,2' with board-id [Mac-FC02E91DDD3FA6A4]

I used terminal, $ yes > /dev/null & 4times then I tried 15x

Try using a different approach to stress the CPU. Use something like handbrake, have a few 4K videos playing at the same time, play a game etc. Then see if you reach the 3.8 turbo level. The main reason to implement CPU PM is to get smoother performance via speed stepping and also to save energy, not to just get to higher CPU clock speeds.

 

[Daniel67]

@trs96 OK, I understand. You are right. I think it's working properly.

I did a small research, how is working Turbo Boost for i5-3570. 3.8Ghz freq. is only for 1 active core, then 2cores go to max. @3.7Ghz and last one @3.6GHz.


My browsing history.

 

[Angusbomb]

Fill out your hardware specs in your profile. Graphics, CPU and HP desktop version.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/account/personal-details

If you created your USB installer correctly you should see the option to boot UEFI from it. So if you selected this in Unibeast:

View attachment 312388

and it still doesn't show up as UEFI then you must have made a mistake in Disk Utility when formatting and partitioning the USB.
Here is how it should look when you first erase the USB before running the Unibeast app. Make sure the View is correct. Under External you should highlight the whole USB drive (Sandisk Cruzer Glide) in this example, not the first slice (Sandisk), select macOS Ext. Journaled and GUID partition map then click erase.

View attachment 312390

Thank you, sir. You nailed it. I went through this part way to quickly and got my settings wrong.

Just finished the installation. Elite 8300 + 1050Ti.
Sweet.

 

[wombat94]

trs96, I just have to say thank you for this guide.

I wanted a new, pretty powerful enough for my oldest to use for Adobe products.

I had my eye on an HP 8300 elite and found one on eBay this week. 8300 SFF, i7-3770, 8GB ram. No HD, no OS, but I had a spare GT710 handy and a spare - if small - 64GB SSD that I was able to repurpose.

I got the machine for $119 - the auction closed at 1pm Friday and the machine was shipped same day and arrived yesterday!

Following your guide, I was able to install Sierra with no problems. Everything works and it is a dream.

Thanks so much for laying this all out in detail. I'm a pretty experienced Hackintosh user, but this was the easiest build I've done yet.

[edited to remove bad info about ethernet. I swapped out the cable and the HP 8300 DID come up on gigabit]

Thanks again!

 

[trs96]

I got the machine for $119 - the auction closed at 1pm Friday and the machine was shipped same day and arrived yesterday!

Following your guide, I was able to install Sierra with no problems. Everything works and it is a dream.

Considering the cost of just 8GB of ram these days, 70-80 USD, that's a really good deal. Usually those i7 8300s sell for around 180 to 200 dollars. Was the case in good condition or was it scratched, dented and dinged up ?

Glad to hear the Sierra install went well. I agree that these are by far the easiest to hackintosh pre-built PCs ever. You don't even need to use a single boot flag. As long as you update BIOS and restore factory defaults it's mostly a plain vanilla install using UEFI Unibeast and a few simple Multibeast choices. Then install VoodooHDA 2.9.0 and HDA Disabler kext and you have working audio including HDMI audio. Amazing. Who would of thought it could be this easy ?

 

[wombat94]

Considering the cost of just 8GB of ram these days, 70-80 USD, that's a really good deal. Usually those i7 8300s sell for around 180 to 200 dollars. Was the case in good condition or was it scratched, dented and dinged up ?

It was by far the best deal I’ve seen since I started looking about a month ago. I had bid on a few others but was outbid. I jumped in on this one when th price was 103.00 and set a max bid of $119.00... and fortunately the other interested bidder didn’t want to go to $120.00.

I’ll admit I was a little nervous about conditiOn as it wasn’t sold as refurbished... just used. Also, I knew it had no hard drive or OS, but I didn’t notice that the listing said it didn’t contain a drive caddy either. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to find in the box.

As it turned out I really got lucky. The physical condition is just fine... no scratches, dents or dings. Not only was everything I needed there, but there WAS indeed a 2.5 inch drive caddy was in the rear drive bay... More than I was expecting for sure.

I’m hooked now, I think. I’m going to recommend these machines to any friends thinking of building a hackintosh. I don’t see how you can beat this.