hFearly's From-Scratch Hackintosh 10.8.4: Core i7-3770k (4.2GHz) - GA-Z77X-UP5-TH - 8GB RAM - GTX 66

[hfearly]

hFearly's From-Scratch Hackintosh 10.8.4: Core i7-3770k (4.2GHz) - GA-Z77X-UP5-TH - 8GB RAM - GTX 660Ti | Updated to 10.8.5

hFearly's From-Scratch Hackintosh 10.8.4 Build: Core i7-3770k (OC 4.2GHz) - GA-Z77X-UP5-TH - 8GB RAM - EVGA GTX 660Ti​

Components

Apple OS X Mountain Lion @ Mac Apps Store
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt=12

PNY 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive P-FD32GSB30-GE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA25V0U06159

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5-TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6GB/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with Dual Thunderbolt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128559

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10S-8GBXL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231527

Corsair Carbide Series 300R Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139011

COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel 1366/1155/775 and AMD AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103074

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

SanDisk Extreme II SDSSDXP-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171751

Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

EVGA 02G-P4-3664-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti FTW Signature2 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130837

Dell UltraSharp™ U2711 69 cm (27") Monitor with PremierColor
http://www.dell.com/ae/business/p/dell-u2711/pd

Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - English (USA)
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110LL/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-english-usa?fnode=56

Logitech MX Revolution Wireless Laser Mouse For Mac Model 910-000673
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104102



EDITS

Aug 30, 2013: Added Lessons Learned section, don't make the same mistakes that I did in the first four builds.​

Comments

The components listed in this build were part of an Under-1000$ Budget Pro PC challenge, and are selected to maximize compatibility with Hackintosh and Windows.

The whole system is very quiet, due to the large slow-running fans and heat sinks on Mainboard and CPU. Overclocked to 4.2GHz the i7 idles at 8 Celsius over ambient (38 right now at the end of August).

My post describes a fresh from-scratch Hackintosh build, starting with Mac OS X 10.8.4 at the time of writing (August 2013). This is the fifth iteration of the Hackintosh build, a lot of the information out there is based on 10.8.2 or older and sadly quiet out-dated. In fact, I broke the first four iterations of my build beyond being able to boot, while trying to fix problems caused to out-dated installation instructions with out-dated fix instructions. The one described below is working 100% for me, and has been running stable for 2 weeks in a production environment.​

Lessons Learned

Overclocking: It is sufficient to change the BIOS Turbo ratios to the desired OC value. NO(!) need to run the createSSDT.sh scripts, changing DSDTs or such. Your P and C states will be correct. No worries. My CPU attains 1.60GHz in idle, 18x, 19x, 20x, ... up to the 42x multiplier that I had changed to in the BIOS. My CPU runs stable and cool with the Auto Voltage settings.

Sleep/Wake: Credits go to Stork. Disabling the Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage, removing "darkwake=0" from the org.chameleon.Boot.plist and setting the pre-Boot Driver/xHCI mode as specified below will enable all sleep and wake functions in 10.8.4 with this hardware to work absolutely perfect.

System Definition: Use MacPro3,1. I had tried iMac13,x (Speedstep got screwed up), Mac mini 6,x (when I was following some outdated over clocking tutorial using the generateSSDT script) before. They stink. MacPro3,1 maximizes compatibility, make the system fast and stable, everything works 100%.

Audio: Use the Multibeast 898 codec as described below. Don't go about changing DSDTs or patching stuff from Toleda's repositories. It's only going to screw you up.

DSDTs: Really, I didn't see any need to create or re-use an existing DSDT. All the Hardware works perfectly fine under the software at the time of this writing. Sound, Memory, Processor, USB, SATA, all perfect.

Backups: Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper are your friends. Once you have a stable running base system install, do yourself a favor and backup the working Hackintosh to a sparse disk image. Then go about experimenting. A tiny single change to the configuration can have disastrous results when messing with kernels, boot configs, kexts and settings. I've had a fully working install running in my fourth installation, with all the software, and customization (bash profiles, ssh keys, ...) completed, only to kill the whole thing when I installed an SSDT.aml for over clocking, and 20 hours of work went down the drain. Don't be a fool like me ;-0

Bootloader: While Clover v.2 might be quite fancy, it's a horribly documented, rather experimental piece of software. I'll stick to Chimera 2.2 / Chameleon 2.2 with this setup - they do what I need perfectly well, have been under development for a while and are widely used/tested.

GPU Temperatures: There are no custom profiles/tools to control the fan curve for the GTX660Ti under Mac OS X. The GPU die WILL get HOT. We are talking about mid 70s Celsius at an ambient of 28 Celsius. I've had the Heaven Benchmark running for hours without a crash, so I guess 75 Celsius is still well within working parameters. I wished there was some tool to up the fan curve (I don't like the GPU go over 70). If you find one, let me know.

Wifi Bluetooth Extension Card: There is a Wifi/Bluetooth extension card (PCIe) slot that comes with the mainboard. The hardware is WIFI = Atheros AR9462 (PCI ID 168c:0034) and Bluetooth = Lite-On (USB ID 004ca:3006). Reportedly, Bluetooth works if you boot the System to Windows first, pair the desired Bluetooth device and reboot into Mac OS X. This keeps the Bluetooth part of the card up and running until your next power loss.
​

Part 1 - BIOS Setup​

I am using F11 Version of the Gigabyte BIOS.​

Setting the XMP to Profile 1 enabled the 1866MHz speed of the RAM Modules (defaults to 1300MHz). Leave the base CPU Clock ratio alone.​

Disable Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage to enable sleep. Overclocking the Turbo modes to a 42x Multiplier for 4.2 GHz. If you don't want to over clock, only change CPU PLL and leave the Ratios on Auto.​

To have the USB devices working on sleep/wake set Pre-Boot Driver to Enabled, and xHCI mode to Auto. I've disabled the internal graphics since I'm only using the 660Ti, and don't need Airplay Mirroring.​

Part 2 - System Installation​

Created USB Installer on the PNY 32GB using UniBeast 2.0.2 (http://www.tonymacx86.com/unibeast/)on my MacBook Pro laptop, following the provided instructions. Hit F12 on Boot, select USB Stick. Install.

When install finishes and reboots, hit F12 again to boot from USB, select the new Mac HD partition, and add "GraphicsEnabler=No" to the boot options. Finish setup.​

Part 3 - Post Installation​

The installation in Part 2 is fairly standard and absolutely straight-forward. You now have a basic OSX 10.8.4 system, but lack a boot-loader and some things need to be fixed. First, we will install drivers and system definitions using Multi-Beast (http://www.tonymacx86.com/multibeast/).​

MultiBeast 5.4.3 Configuration for Mountain Lion 10.8.4

​

Note that I did not select any boot loader in MultiBeast. After MultiBeast installation finishes, I install Chimera 2.2 (http://www.tonymacx86.com/chimera/).

Finally, I download and install the NVIDIA Web Drivers 313.01.02f01 (http://nvidia.com/object/macosx-313.01.02f01-driver.html), the CUDA Drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/content/Drive...udadriver-5.5.24-macos.dmg&lang=us&type=Other) and the Logitech Control Center (http://www.logitech.com/en-ca/support/mx-revolution?section=downloads&bit=&osid=21)

To fix iMessages, install the most up-to-date boot loader and set a different boot loader theme, I run Chameleon Wizard 4.2.2.
In the SMBios Tab, make sure to generate a random number, week and serial. You can also input custom system information like Memory details, and CPU speeds (Displayed in "About this Mac"). In the modules tab, make sure to install NVFileRAM.​

Chameleon Wizard 4.2.2 Configuration

​

Next, I edited the org.chameleon.Boot.plist to a final version (I want the Windows Install I have on a separate Disk to appear as "Windows 7" rather than the default name of "System Reserved", the Rename Partition Key takes care of that).
​

Part 4 - Benchmarks​

When I ran these Benchmarks I was still on 4.0GHz due to the heat (36 feels like 43, Yay!).

GeekBench @ 4.0GHz = 13,873
OceanWave @ 4.0GHz = 534.42 fps
Galaxies OpenCL CPU @ 4.0GHz = 81 GFlops
Galaxies OpenCL GPU = 428 GFlops

Benchmark Results

​

​

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Deleted

 

[mrak1979]

wow, thanks for providing the details for your build. I'm essentially a noobie and have the same CPU/mobo bios f11 combo as you, but I don't seem to have the ability to OC the CPU in the BIOS as you do. Internal CPU PLL is missing on the screenshot page you posted. The Turbo ratios can't be modified either. Any idea why?

Also, after installing Chimera, and while running Chameleon Wizard, does it hurt the system if you don't specifically choose 'Update' bootloader and use one of the 'boot0xxx' install choices?

And in the modules tab, what exactly does 'keylayout' and 'NVFileRAM' do? What about 'darkwake=0' and 'use Nvidea ROM'? I'm running GTX 580 Classy GPU.

Thanks!

 

[Solidww]

That is a very nice build sir. Congratulations!

Nothing like making a few mistakes to figure out how to correctly build a computer aye.

 

[hfearly]

wow, thanks for providing the details for your build. I'm essentially a noobie and have the same CPU/mobo bios f11 combo as you, but I don't seem to have the ability to OC the CPU in the BIOS as you do. Internal CPU PLL is missing on the screenshot page you posted. The Turbo ratios can't be modified either. Any idea why?

Also, after installing Chimera, and while running Chameleon Wizard, does it hurt the system if you don't specifically choose 'Update' bootloader and use one of the 'boot0xxx' install choices?

And in the modules tab, what exactly does 'keylayout' and 'NVFileRAM' do? What about 'darkwake=0' and 'use Nvidea ROM'? I'm running GTX 580 Classy GPU.

Thanks!

I believe the key part is the "K" designated processor. From my understanding, those are "unlocked" by Intel to allow you to set the over-clocking parameters freely. Have you double-checked that your CPU is indeed named Intel i7-3770k? There is also the unlocked Intel i7 3770 (without the k).

I can comment as to the not hurting if you don't update. From what I read in online discussions, the recent Chimera builds r2xxx to 2.2 had some issues with the NVFileRAM module, which is essential to getting iMessages working. The combination of two settings (1) loading the NVFileRam module, and (2) specifying a randomized Serial Number are needed for the App Store, and iMessages to work correctly.

The removal of the "darkwake=0" flag make the sleep function work 100%, Stork did discover this fix recently.

The "use NVIDIA rom" flag allows you to switch to the NVIDIA web drivers (if you have them installed) instead of the built-in OSX ones. After using both the internal, and the NVIDIA web drivers for a while, I couldn't find any significant differences in operation.

 

[mrak1979]

hmm... I do have the 3770K version, but I think my problem is that I only have F4 Bios instead of F11 that I thought I had.

EDIT: I just updated to F11 and now my bios screen looks exactly like yours, but it still won't let me manipulate the BIOS Turbo ratios. Below is screenshot proving I do have the 3770k.



Any idea what the issue could be?

Also, I have a GTX 580 Classified and my system did not like Nvidia ROM for some reason. Wouldn't bootup so had to delete it.

thanks for your help.

 

[hfearly]

I'm sorry, I can't really help you with your question then - I don't have much experience with this particular Motherboard. Maybe the Gigabyte user forums can help you out?

 

[hfearly]

* ADDITION September 20th, 2013 *


Updating 10.8.4 to Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5

I've successfully updated to 10.8.5, with everything working following these steps:

1) Delete /S/L/E/ GenericUSBXHCI.kext (it is not needed on this Mainboard)

2) Download and install the 10.8.5 Combo Update

3) Repair Disk Permissions using the Disk Utility

4) Install Combo Update
DO NOT RESTART YET

5) Run Multibeast 5.4.3 and only select Drivers&Bootloaders/Drivers/Audio/Realtek ACL8xx/Without DSDT/ACL898 then install

6) Reboot and again Repair Disk Permissions

7) If you are using SSD Drives in your system run Trim Enabler to re-enable TRIM support

 

[Games4U]

* ADDITION September 20th, 2013 *


Updating 10.8.4 to Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5

I've successfully updated to 10.8.5, with everything working following these steps:

1) Delete /S/L/E/ GenericUSBXHCI.kext (it is not needed on this Motherboard)

Where do I find/delete that? Is it just a file that needs to be deleted or is it in a program? I'm trying to update my system, which is the same as yours but with a GTX660 and not a 660ti. Also if you have a moment to help me out with the HDMI Audio out on my GTX660, I am trying to find out how to set that up and the instuctions are a little confusing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Fokke]

* ADDITION September 20th, 2013 *

1) Delete /S/L/E/ GenericUSBXHCI.kext (it is not needed on this Mainboard)

Not needed?? are you sure? Without this kext your USB3 devices (disks) might now work. Did you verified that?