[GUIDE] : MSI Z97-Gaming 7 | i5-5675C Broadwell | HD6200 | 8GB 2400MHz OS X El Capitan

[wildwillow]

SPECS : MSI Z97-Gaming 7 | i5-5675C Broadwell | HD6200 | 8GB 2400MHz OS X El Capitan 10.11.X | UniBeast & MultiBeast

​

Having the opportunity to build a system with the MSI Z97 Gaming 7, I thought "What generation processor and graphics card should I get?" Already owning a very good Haswell Z87 machine and with the recent release of Skylake I was torn. Now.... Apple has released both their new iMac's (21.5" and 27"). The 21" iMac comes with Intel's Broadwell processors with improved graphics so my mind was made up...I decided on the Intel i5-5675C with Intel Iris Pro HD6200. My first initial thoughts of this platform are; the system is very snappy and the onboard graphics are also really good, I can see why Apple used these chips for the 21" iMac with no discreet graphics card. Personally and my honest opinion, if you are building a system and want to use integrated Intel graphics, Broadwell processors are the best choice on the current market. So let the fun begin.

BIOS Settings


Press F10 to save the changes made.


Installation

​

1. I created the installer using a 16GB USB drive following the 10.11 Installation guide and UniBeast 6. With Mac OS X El Capitan downloaded from the Mac App Store. I opened UniBeast and selected the USB for the installer creation. Boot Mode selection is UEFI Mode. For graphics I used the standard Installation with nothing selected. Final screen shot is to Verify Installation Options. Tip: Download MultiBeast 8 and put it on the USB Installer once UniBeast completes. (You'll need it later)

​

2. With UniBeast created I inserted the USB into a 2.0 port on the front of the case. Started the system continually pressing F11 (Hotkey for boot priority) to bring up the boot menu where I can select the UEFI USB drive. After selecting the boot device(UniBeast USB) the system arrives at the Clover bootloader where I select the USB installation. No extra boot flags were needed other than the ones selected universally by UniBeast creation.

3. Reaching the installer at the top of the screen under Utilities, select Disk Utility and format the drive or partition as per the 10.11 Installation guide. Here I renamed my installation drive "El Capitan". Then close Disk Utility.

4. I continued with the installer selecting my SSD for the fresh installation of OS X El Capitan. The install process took about 13 minutes to complete. Install times will vary depending on your HDD/SSD. Once the Installer completes it automatically restarts, so get ready to catch the next boot.

5. Pressing the hotkey (F11)the drive boot menu appeared and I selected to boot from the UEFI USB drive again. Once at the Clover boot menu I selected the new Installation drive named El Capitan. I had no problem reaching registration of OS X and the desktop.

Post Installation

​

1. Open System preferences/Security and Privacy, unlock the padlock at the bottom left corner by entering your system password. Tick 'Allow apps downloaded from Anywhere'

​

2. Navigate to your USB (For MultiBeast) and drop it in your Applications folder. Open MultiBeast and select the following shown in the screenshot. If you're familiar with and for ease of use, MultiBeast can load the created install file >View attachment MSI Z97 G7MB.mb into MultiBeast using the load icon on the top right of the App. If you load the file select Install or if you manually selected each item choose Build then Install. Continue to step 3 before you restart.

3. MultiBeast leaves the EFI partition mounted. Download Clover Configurator and drop it into your Applications folder. With EFI mounted on the Desktop, open EFI/EFI/Clover/Config.plist with Clover Configurator. Under the Graphics section you'll see ig-platform-id. For the Broadwell desktop processor use 0x16120003. This will give you full accelerated graphics once you restart. (but not yet)

​

Go to the Boot Section, remove the tick for dart=0 as its not needed for this build, i've ticked verbose -v and selected XMP=1 for my installed memory. If I left this it would appear as 1333MHz instead of 2400MHz.

Time to restart, before we continue grab yourself a beer, glass of wine or a cup of tea.
Upon restarting you should be greeted with accelerated HD6200 graphics, audio and ethernet.


​

4. Now the system restarts and all the above works, I've created an View attachment SSDT-i5-5675C.aml for native OS X power management. You'll also need to follow these instructions when using iMac16,2 system definition to get lower P-States than 1.3GHZ here Post#896(Credit : Piker Alpha documented by toleda).

Mount your installation drive's EFI partition with Clover configurator. Open EFI/EFI/Clover/ACPI/Patched and place the SSDT in there (leave the folder open for step 5). A couple of screen shots below of Intel Power Gadget. Restart required but move to step 5 if you'd like HDMI audio.

​

5. Audio and patch credits: toleda
HDMI & DP HDMI audio. (Connected to the HDMI port beside the display port).

If you do not need HDMI audio then you are complete, if you'd like HDMI audio then there are a few more steps required. If you would like to read the detailed guide by toleda it is here :Audio - HDMI Audio AppleHDA [Guide] It has a few different methods for enabling HDMI audio. The method I'm using is the SSDT route. So first off we need the HDMI audio SSDT from the guide, located in
Table1/Section11/Broadwell HD6000/9series/4th column/ssdt_hdmi-hd6000+ When you visit the link you see 4 options, for my processor graphics I'm using ssdt_hdmi-hd6200.zip so I select it, view raw and download the SSDT-1.aml (EDIT: Please use this View attachment SSDT-1.aml as I've edited the framebuffer to match the working port layout). The result of using this SSDT+Framebuffer gives native HDMI audio over the Display Port, adding the patch in step 5a allows HDMI audio over the HDMI port.

5a. From step 4 you should still have the Patched folder open where you placed the power management SSDT. Place SSDT-1 you've just downloaded in the Patched folder. Navigate back in Finder to your config.plist. Open it with Clover Configurator and navigate to the section Kernel and Kext Patches. We need to continue with the HDMI audio guide and patch the AppleIntelBDWGraphicsFramebuffer.kext.

Name : AppleIntelBDWGraphicsFramebuffer.kext.
Find : 02040B000004000007050000
Replace : 02040B000008000007050000
Comment : 10.11-BDW6200-Port0x6_DP2HDMI

Name : AppleIntelBDWGraphicsFramebuffer.kext.
Find : 030603000008000006000000
Replace : 030603000004000006000000
Comment : 10.11-BDW6200-Port0x7_HDMI2DP

​

Save the config.plist, restart your system, when you boot check in System/Preferences/Sound/Outputs and you should see HDMI Audio.

Hey Presto you're done!!

---

---

​

Summary
(Using DP Active adapter) Display Port booting on its own doesn't work(scrambled screen).
Display Port and HDMI port together gives Mode Not Supported on DP connected monitor.
Both HDMI ports work simultaneously(dual monitors). Fixed: Post Installation/Step5.

Picture below
a) The 4 USB 3.0 ports in a row next to the Gaming Device port are the AsMedia Chipset and work at USB 2.0 speeds/480Mps.
b) The 2 USB 3.0 ports next to the Display port are Intel and work at 3.0 speeds.
c) The 2 USB 3.0 named USB Audio Power are AsMedia and work at USB 2.0 speeds.

​

​

 

[satyfred]

Thanks for your tutorial. I can't read your BIOS screenshots can you make a list of the BIOS settings?

Fred

 

[wildwillow]

Thanks for your tutorial. I can't read your BIOS screenshots can you make a list of the BIOS settings?

Fred

If you click on each BIOS photo, a larger image appears where you should be able to read each setting I've changed.

 

[trs96]

What about video editing with the igfx HD6200. Any comments on that ?
I've heard that FCP X editing is possible and that it actually works quite
well.

 

[wildwillow]

What about video editing with the igfx HD6200. Any comments on that ?
I've heard that FCP X editing is possible and that it actually works quite
well.

Hey trs96,

I've not played with FCP X on this system as of yet. I've converted a couple of movies from VOB/MKV to MP4 without issues. FCP X It is one process I'm wanting to try. I'm pretty confident that it will run just great, it runs ok my 2012 i7-HD4000 MBP. For now here's a couple of benchmarks using Intel's HD6200.

 

[trs96]

That Luxmark score is better than a GTX 770. So it should do quite well with
FCP X. Looks like a good investment. Wonder how it would do when combined
with an R9 280X.

 

[wildwillow]

That Luxmark score is better than a GTX 770. So it should do quite well with
FCP X. Looks like a good investment. Wonder how it would do when combined
with an R9 280X.

I'd expect it to do very well. Broadwell has been overlooked, shadowed by its late release so close to Skylake. I'd admit I'm impressed with the i5-5675C. Makes me think should I have got the i7-5775C. All in all very happy.

 

[hackmefrancis]

I'm gonna buy the same CPU but with a cheaper Motherboard. Just curios, are you using an aftermarket cooler?

 

[wildwillow]

I'm gonna buy the same CPU but with a cheaper Motherboard. Just curios, are you using an aftermarket cooler?

Hi hackmefrancis,

No I'm using the stock Intel cooler. This chip runs pretty cool (65w TDP). Under load it reaches 40-42*C.
You can see some more temps looking at post#1 screen shots of Intel Power Gadget. What motherboard are looking to get. If you have the need for multiple USB 3.0 devices ensure the USB Chipsets are Intel as there is a method to get them running at full speeds. AsMedia/Renasas/NEC will run at USB 2.0 speeds with no current fix. Just a heads up.

 

[Dragonmichael68]

Hey I have the Z97A Gaming 6 same thing but only has Asmedia USB Ports, I followed Rehabmans USB guide and didn't make port injectors, but I was stuck on USB 2.0 speed. I installed the FakePCIID and XHCI kext and the the dsdt patches and the enable all kext, and it didn't fix them. Today, I uninstalled the patches and kexts and went back to stock USB config like yours and like magic 3.0 is being detected on all those ports, not saying it will work again lol, but I have 3.0 detected now! And my 2.0 speed hubs on the front are still being detected as well! So worth a shot to try that with Asmedia USB I'm guessing, try it and let me know if it works, like to see if doing that might fix issues on the MSI ones without having to have the kexts and patches installed always. It's stuck through rebuilding kext and kernel caches and reboots as well. Good luck with your MSI!