“HackinMouse” Skylake H110 Econo Rig | i5-6500 | GA-H110M-A | 16GB | RX560

[mots]

Any news on how to upgrade to Mojave yet?

Hi, I’ll probably give it a bit of time to work any kinks out before I update, perhaps after .2 or .3 depending on how it goes. High Sierra is rock solid for me right now and I can’t afford to lose my system at the moment, as I don’t have much fluff time in my schedule to work on it. In the meantime, I’ll be studying up on what needs to be done and I’ll definitely post back when I perform the upgrade. Looking forward to trying the new dark mode, screen capture tools, dynamic desktop etc.

 

[mots]

To follow up on my last post, it looks like my GTX950 will be the blocker for my Mojave upgrade. Until Nvidia offers Web driver support for Mojave (or in the unlikely event I buy another video card for this box), then I'm stuck on High Sierra. Hopefully the stability of Mojave and the release of Web Drivers will coincide over the next couple months...one can only hope!

 

[mots]

Update: I decided I needed to switch to an AMD Radeon GPU in order to move ahead with Mojave on this machine. I was tired of the Nvidia web driver updates and drama. Plus, “going native” was also appealing. This little machine still works so well and I don’t have the need for anything else, so I figured $100 for an AMD card might get it through for a couple more years. So far so good, I am now up running on Mojave! I will document more about how I did it within the next week or so.

For now, here is some info on the RX 560 graphics card I am using. Much like the MSI card @MacLargo is using, I wanted an OOB AMD card of about the same capability and power consumption as the GTX 950. But, I couldn’t find one locally. I had some extra time this past weekend, and against the advice of many, I bought an XFX RX 560 4GB for a good price in confidence that I could make it an OOB card by flashing the VBIOS.

Product = XFX RX 560 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 (Model: RX-560D4SFGR)

Sure enough, I had an OOB RX 560D card ready to go in about 15 minutes by force-flashing a compatible Sapphire RX 560D VBIOS. This is the exact type of card I wanted since the power supply requirements are only 400W (48W max power draw by the GPU). I used the VBIOS ROM (and tools) from this site (the RX 560D is the important part):
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/196059/sapphire-rx560d-4096-170929

Command:
C:\atiflash -p 0 C:\sapphireRX560D.rom -f
(The -f option is the “force” and the -p 0 is to flash the first GPU.)

Notes:

• The RX 560D is a smaller ITX profile dual slot PCI Express 3.0 x16 card with a single fan and 4GB.
• I used the RX 560D BIOS from Sapphire with same identical specs (link above).
• An added benefit to the flash is that the GPU gets a modest clock bump of 30 MHz and now runs at 1226 MHz instead of 1196 MHz. More tweaks may be capable via flashing to unlock more stream processors and increase memory frequency, but I don't really need that.
• The Windows GUI flash program won’t allow you to force the flash if the card subsystem ID doesn’t match. So, I used atiflash command from a Windows command prompt running as Administrator to force the flashing of the Sapphire ROM.
• Also, don’t bother trying to use the above command in FreeDOS or MSDOS. Only an older atiflash.exe EXE works in DOS, but it won’t support these newer cards from what I understand. Unfortunately Windows seems to be required to flash the BIOS.
• Disclaimer: follow these instructions at your own risk. I make no promises that it will work for you.

 

[mots]

Upgrade to Mojave
Just like I did with High Sierra, I chose to buy a new SSD for $30 and then install the OS fresh. Things go so much faster and smoother this way, you get rid of things you don’t need, and I can dual boot High Sierra if I still need to (or access the mounted disk from Mohave).

I started on 10.13.6 and created a bootable USB installer with UniBeast following the main UniBeast Install guide:

UniBeast: Install macOS Mojave on Any Supported Intel-based PC
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ojave-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.259381/

Step 1 and 2 from Guide - create bootable USB installer with UniBeast 9.0, the version for Mohave.
Don’t forget to copy MultiBeast for Mojave (current is 11.0.1) onto new USB installer media.

• Purchased New AMD RX 560 GPU - see post above on how I “made” an OOB card by flashing a locally accessible XFX RX560 with a Sapphire BIOS.
• Purchased New SSD for Mojave OS (SanDisk SSD PLUS 240GB)
• Disconnected the SATA connectors for all other HD’s from case to avoid confusion and mistakes during the install. You can later reconnect your time machine disk, data disks, or High Sierra OS disk after the install is complete.

Step 3 from Guide - keep BIOS settings same as with High Sierra (see below section for settings).

Step 4 from Guide - boot\run the USB installer as per the Guide and install Mojave to the new SSD. Eventually, at the final step, you will boot into the final Mojave desktop, but the disk won’t be bootable without the USB yet.

Step 5 - after booted from USB and on the freshly installed Mojave desktop, run MultiBeast 11.0.1 from your USB install media. This will fix up your EFI config.plist and install the following kexts to \Library\Extensions:

• AppleALC.kext
• RealtekRTL8111.kext

Note: if you don’t have the same exact motherboard as shown below, your setup maybe different.

MultiBeast Configuration








Kexts
The only kext I have in the folder [EFI]/CLOVER/⁨kexts/Other/ is FakeSMC.kext. This is required and was placed there by the MultiBeast Clover installer.

Also note the 2 kexts above installed by MultiBeast. Beyond that, I have only installed two more kexts to fix the infamous JPEG preview crash issue (welcome to AMD issues!)

• NoVPAJpeg.kext
• Lilu.kext
• NoVPAJpeg.kext is a Lilu plugin and thus requires Lilu.kext. It is built against a specific Lilu.kext version. Make sure you have a matching pair of kexts. I am using Lilu.kext 1.2.8 and NoVPAJpeg.kext 1.0.0 that was built for it. Install the two kexts to /Library/Extensions using KextBeast or equivalent. KextBeast can be found under downloads, use latest version. Place the two kexts on your desktop (without any others!) and it will install them properly.

Notes

• No manual edits were made to the EFI config.plist during the install or after. It was a very easy install following the TonyMacX86 Guide.
• Installer sets up config.plist with Product Name 14,2. Not sure if this is appropriate now with the AMD card, but it seems to be working fine.
• No known issues. Sleep, wake, audio working after wake, shutdown, headphones etc.).
• No more apfs.efi to worry about in Mojave. The UniBeast installer will provide ApfsDriverLoader-64
• After the above install to Mojave 10.14 was done and working, I then upgraded to 10.14.2 (18C54) via the App Store. It rebooted 3 times (choose Mojave Installer icon in Clover as long as it exists, until it goes away on the last boot). Done, nothing to do for GPU during or after upgrade since the RX 560 is native!
• I researched alternatives to the need for NoVPAJpeg.kext, but didn’t find anything that worked for me and this motherboard. I currently still have the Intel inetegrated graphics off in the BIOS and only boot using the PCI Express AMD card.

Overview of Hardware (as it currently stands versus post #1)

• Zalman ATX Mini Tower PC Case T4
• Gigabyte GA-H110M-A (rev. 1.0)
• EVGA 430W Power Supply 100-W1-0430-KR
• Intel i3-6100
• XFX AMD Radeon RX 560 4G DDR5 - RX 560D model with single fan converted to OOB card with Sapphire VBIOS (see previous post for details).
• Crucial 16 GB RAM (BLS16G4D240FSB.16FAD) - single RAM module only since I have had trouble with using two modules in the past...search this post's history for details.
• SanDisk SSD PLUS 240GB (OS)
• Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (Data)
• 3 TB WD HD (Time Machine)
• 25 inch IPS HP monitor (model 25es).

BIOS Settings (version F20)

• EFI Boot
• Set Secure Boot = Off
• Set Fast Boot = Off
• Set Virtualization VT-d = Disabled
• Set OS Type = “Other”
• Set XHCI Handoff = Enabled
• I/O controller = Disabled (i.e. Super I/O, but it won't say Super I/O in the BIOS). The GA-H110M-A board has the iTE® I/O Controller Chip per the specifications, just disable the RS232/serial i/o port.
• Set ErP = Enabled

 

[mots]

Hello,
I'm thinking to upgrade my graphics card, also. Your thread is very helpful. I always refer to this thread for any upgrade.
In my country, there's Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 560 4GB DDR5 (USD $140) http://pulse.sapphiretech.com/en/560-4.html. I notice that you flash Sapphire VBIOS to your XFX card. Will this Sapphire card work OOB?
There's also MSI RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC (USD $170) but it is more expensive than Sapphire RX 560 (USD $140).

Additional question, do you play games like PUBG PC/emulator? Please let me know your experience if you play it. My GTX 650 has a lot of lag when play PUBG emulator even in the lowest setting.

Thank you.

Update:
Just bought it online. I'm afraid the store will close early because of Christmas holiday.

Hi, thanks! That looks right to me. It should be the single fan model with 400W Power Supply requirement. Yes, the Sapphire card will work OOB without any hassle since it already has the compatible VBIOS.

Sorry, I don't play games on this machine, otherwise I would comment. Other than typical browsing and watching video, I use it for software development, VirtualBox (Windows 10 VM), and some light video editing with Davinci Resolve.

 

[mots]

My system is still running great on Mojave, just as well as it did with the GTX 950 and web drivers on High Sierra. I'm glad I upgraded since I was on the fence at first. I really like the new screen capture/recording features in Mojave, and things should theoretically be simpler now without worrying about Nvidia support. Hopefully things will continue to be smooth on the next 10.14 update and with the next OS version!

 

[MacLargo]

Btw. if you want to play games on your Hackintosh, I would recommend the Radeon RX570! Prices for GPUs are dropping and the RX570 is way better than the Radeon RX560, which cost around the same (150$ mark - look out for GPU deals). You can decide which model you prefer (4GB/8GB). Both cards are "out of the box". Also, playing e-sport titles in a virtual machine is a bad idea. You already built a Hackintosh; Installing Windows on a separate drive is super easy and fast! ;-)

 

[amuse.me]

At least half the battle is done...now you just need that RX 560 card. Hopefully you can get hold of one soon!

My system is still running great on Mojave, just as well as it did with the GTX 950 and web drivers on High Sierra. I'm glad I upgraded since I was on the fence at first. I really like the new screen capture/recording features in Mojave, and things should theoretically be simpler now without worrying about Nvidia support. Hopefully things will continue to be smooth on the next 10.14 update and with the next OS version!

Hi Mots,

I'm interested in updating my rigs to Mojave, currently running Sierra.
With you updating by fresh install Mojave, how do you deal with the apps and computer settings?
Do you also have to re-install 1 by 1 and do the setting step by step just like new install?
Or is there other shortcut method to save and transfer the setting to Mojave?

Please advise.

Thank you

 

[tschwicht]

Thank you for your advice. I'm also considering RX570, but I read it need some tweaking to get it works. Which brand/type do you think will be OBB?
I just bought new SSD before install Mojave. My plan to use my other SDD for Windows.

I have read ASUS ROG STRIX RX 570 works OOB with no issues. I have that card and an RX 580 4GB MSI Armor. The 580 works OOB just tested today, will maybe test the 570 later this week.

 

[tschwicht]

The RX 580 I'm using (MSI Armor 4GB) actually came straight from one of my mining rigs. I reflashed the stock rom and it was good to go. There shouldn't be any options/settings. It just recognizes it. I did the install first with iGPU and then once everything was working I shut down, unplugged, installed the card, plugged back, and booted. It recognized it without any software changes.

Every card depends on what people put them through. I have my mining cards set to lower voltages and regulate temperature under 60c at all times. So even running 24/7, these cards are likely in better shape than those who game frequently and have their cards up to 90c then back down over and over again. That is what can cause problems with cards, but they are designed for that.

The one big problem mining cards sometimes have are that the fans go out because they do run more often. In a year I haven't had one of my 14 GPUs fans go out though, running at 50% speed 24 hours a day. And a few of my GPUs I purchased used from gamers to mine with.

The only other thing I can think of is if they flashed a modified rom to the card. I have modified all my cards for mining that way. I sold one recently, but I kept all stock roms and reflashed when I sold. Same thing for the GPU I'm using now. It works perfectly, no issues whatsoever.