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

[markintosh13]

Have IO Gear usb bluetooth and EDUP usb wifi plugged in (drivers downloaded, works).

iPhone will not pair with bluetooth. Handoff and Continuity not working (Handoff does not appear in General pref pane).

Thoughts?

It's not super critical, but...

 

[markintosh13]

In Summary: 15 Pin VGA is not macOS friendly. 20 pin Displayport is very MacOS friendly

I know trs96 knows my experience, just adding for posterity.

On my 6300 SFF, i7 3770 with HD4000.... while I was waiting for my GT 1030 to show up I played around with onboard video.

Connected to a TV with VGA, _without_ injectIntel, video worked and I was able to use it to load Sierra (with InjectIntel enabled, no joy). But the graphics show up as a 3MB display. Different SMBios options, HD4000 hacks proved unhelpful. It connected at 1368 by 720 res, and seemed to work okay with reasonable smoothness, but... my plan was always to go discrete video anyway.

Connected to my display port monitor (a 4K phillips), the monitor would never successfully acknowledge input from the 6300, either DP to DP or a VGA cable. I suspect it was a monitor thing.

YMMV.

 

[trs96]

Connected to my display port monitor (a 4K phillips), the monitor would never successfully acknowledge input from the 6300, either DP to DP or a VGA cable. I suspect it was a monitor thing.

YMMV.

The onboard DP output on these HP desktops is only version 1.1 and not 1.2 (4K capable). HD4000 graphics are also not 4K capable. If anyone wants to try onboard DP directly to a 1440P monitor I think that would be a workable option with the onboard HD 4000 graphics. I don't have one to test out as I've got two fairly new 1080p monitors that are still in great condition. Not going to upgrade anytime soon. The MSI LP GT 1030 is unique in that it's the only 1030 model with DP 1.2. The best choice to power a 4K monitor is DP on the gfx card direct to the DP in port on a 4K monitor. Apple doesn't support HDMI 2.0.

 

[markintosh13]

Have IO Gear usb bluetooth and EDUP usb wifi plugged in (drivers downloaded, works).

iPhone will not pair with bluetooth. Handoff and Continuity not working (Handoff does not appear in General pref pane).

Thoughts?

It's not super critical, but...

Currently investigating CAT

 

[trs96]

To get Continuity and Handoff working requires a Broadcom BCM94360CD or similar Wifi/BT combo card that Apple used in an iMac or other Mac. Has to have native support in macOS, no third party drivers like the EDUP requires. I put those USB options in the guide for those that don't want to spend $60 + on a combo card and adapter. I don't have any need for Continuity and Handoff because I don't own an iPhone or other Apple mobile device. Android works well for me. Saves a lot of money too.

 

[markintosh13]

To get Continuity and Handoff working requires a Broadcom BCM94360CD or similar Wifi/BT combo card that Apple used in an iMac or other Mac. Has to have native support in macOS, no third party drivers like the EDUP requires.

ah. so probably up the creek on this then

cat doesn't seem to recognize the IO Gear anyway at this time.

 

[trs96]

cat doesn't seem to recognize the IO Gear anyway at this time.

What is CAT anyway ?

 

[markintosh13]

What is CAT anyway ?

Continuity Activation Tool

 

[Micalllee]

First off, thanks to trs96, pastrychef, and all of the others who have posted guides to HP Hackintoshes. I had been considering building my own last year, but was hesitant to both build my own machine for the first time in ages, and figure out the Hack process at the same time. the HP 8300 was a perfect way for me to simplify the process. I bought my system around Black Friday last year, just before SSD prices climbed, so I got a pretty good setup for about $320:

HP Elite 8300 SFF I5-3570 - 3.4 Ghz/6 GB RAM/500 GB HDD ($134)
Crucial DDR 3 4 GB + 2 GB ($35) (it came with 4+2, so I now have 12 GB in dual channel mode)
SanDisk SSD Plus 480 GB boot drive ($80)
TP-Link TL-WDN4800 WiFi ($25)
MSI GeForce GT710 2GB ($34)
SYBA SD-AUD20101 Audio adapter w/SPDIF ($10)

I initially installed El Cap but have since upgraded to Sierra. Everything worked OOB, although I ended up using the Nvidia drivers for the video card even though it should have native support. I may not have set it up correctly though.

I've since added this SATA III card, which also worked OOB; I added a 2 1/2" drive in the bay with the SSD:

SYBA SI-PEX40094 2 port SATA III PCI-e card ($15, probably was cheaper after a rebate, don't remember)

I was looking for a second SATA power cable, but HP ones go for around $50-$70. I ended up getting this cable from Monoprice for $1:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=1321

I had to trim some of the connector that attaches to the motherboard, and then spliced it in to a regular SATA power cable.

I'd like to go back and make some changes based on this guide (I didn't do the DSDT patch, I don't have a SSDT file installed, etc.) Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to roll back changes if I can't boot from the SSD after trying changes? (This happened a few times in the past, and I did a Time Machine restore, but it seems wasteful to have to copy the whole volume.) I have the TM backup, a CCC clone (with EFI partition) on the 500 GB internal drive, and a bootable external SSD to work with.

 

[pastrychef]

First off, thanks to trs96, pastrychef, and all of the others who have posted guides to HP Hackintoshes. I had been considering building my own last year, but was hesitant to both build my own machine for the first time in ages, and figure out the Hack process at the same time. the HP 8300 was a perfect way for me to simplify the process. I bought my system around Black Friday last year, just before SSD prices climbed, so I got a pretty good setup for about $320:

HP Elite 8300 SFF I5-3570 - 3.4 Ghz/6 GB RAM/500 GB HDD ($134)
Crucial DDR 3 4 GB + 2 GB ($35) (it came with 4+2, so I now have 12 GB in dual channel mode)
SanDisk SSD Plus 480 GB boot drive ($80)
TP-Link TL-WDN4800 WiFi ($25)
MSI GeForce GT710 2GB ($34)
SYBA SD-AUD20101 Audio adapter w/SPDIF ($10)

I initially installed El Cap but have since upgraded to Sierra. Everything worked OOB, although I ended up using the Nvidia drivers for the video card even though it should have native support. I may not have set it up correctly though.

I've since added this SATA III card, which also worked OOB; I added a 2 1/2" drive in the bay with the SSD:

SYBA SI-PEX40094 2 port SATA III PCI-e card ($15, probably was cheaper after a rebate, don't remember)

I was looking for a second SATA power cable, but HP ones go for around $50-$70. I ended up getting this cable from Monoprice for $1:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=1321

I had to trim some of the connector that attaches to the motherboard, and then spliced it in to a regular SATA power cable.

I'd like to go back and make some changes based on this guide (I didn't do the DSDT patch, I don't have a SSDT file installed, etc.) Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to roll back changes if I can't boot from the SSD after trying changes? (This happened a few times in the past, and I did a Time Machine restore, but it seems wasteful to have to copy the whole volume.) I have the TM backup, a CCC clone (with EFI partition) on the 500 GB internal drive, and a bootable external SSD to work with.

You can always copy your entire working EFI folder to the EFI partition of another drive or USB flash drive. Then, if you encounter any problems, you can boot from that drive or flash drive.