How to build your own iMac Pro [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[RomanoMac]

Hello everyone. I am building a build very similar to this right now but i encounter some problems, that i cannot fix somehow. Mainly multi-monitor support. This is day 5 now and i start to get desperate. 

Maybe @kgp has a clue what is missing here?

System Configuration:
ASUS Prime Deluxe II
Intel 7800X 3,5 Ghz
32 GB RAM 2666
Geforce 960 4GB
1 TB Samsung Evo M.2
Bluetooth via USB Dongle
(Want to connect up to 5 display via: HDMI, 3x DP, DVI)

Important Note:
This is the asus prime deluxe II - so the new version of the deluxe board.

How did I install macOS?
I created an installer using UniBeast - i hope this is not a problem (different from this guide)

MacOS Version 17G66
I managed to install Mac OS High Sierra. Unfortunately it is version (17G66) which is not mentioned in this post - since there is no driver natively taking this, I found a fix using: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Benjamin-Dobell/nvidia-update/

Which kexts are installed?
WhateverGreen
Lilu

Which Nvidia driver is currently running on macOS 17G66?
387.10.10.10.40.113 macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra (17G4015)

Everything except multiple monitors seemed to work e.g. hardware acceleration.

Also tested:
387.10.10.10.40.105 macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra (17G65)


Which monitors do I want to connect:

3x HDMI
1x VGA

Which ports does the graphics card have?
3x DP
1x DVI
1x HDMI

Will use several adapters - all monitors ran on a macbook with specific adapters before.
Will use a DVI -> VGA cable for the old vga monitor.

Is the HDMI to DP Adapter a problem?
Tested several adapters in order to rule out that this is a problem.



What works / what doesnt?

HDMI works always.
None of the three displayport works (always used an adapter). When I attach the screen - the connected HDMI display goes black for a second, as if it would recognize something, but then nothing happens.

Having HDMI connected, when I connect the DVI (to VGA) cable - the system immidiately shuts down - booting on the dvi display (connected with the VGA - DVI cable).
I will see the boot process on the monitor - but as soon as it reaches macOS it shuts down again.

Connecting a monitor to the DVI natively (no vga) works as expected - i have two monitors in macOS without a problem (HDMI + DVI)


Does the card work on another (windows) system?
I tried the card on a old windows pc of a friend - where the DVI (native without VGA cable) and the HDMI worked well together but the DP were also not discovered.


Attempted Fix 1: SMIOS
I had read that the SMIOS could be responsible. So I tried changing my Model to 14,2 and 16,2 - which had no effect.

Attempted Fix 2: Disabling CSM in UEFI
Just disabled CSM and something new happend:
- If DP caple and HDMI cable are in - i see no monitor during boot. It seems stuck at first - but i pressed enter (guessed i was on the clover screen) - and then the system boots, with only the hdmi montior working and recognized.
If i boot with DVI (to VGA) cable and monitor on, then the system fails to boot and shutsdown when reaching osx - just as seen before.

Additional Problems with the current installation:

1. Every other boot fails. Shutting down them and bringing it up always resolves this (see screenshot rare_boot_problem)
2. The logic test described in this thread will never play sound, it will just display an overload message (see screenshot logic_hyper_test)
I enabled 'xcpm_core_scope_msrs © Pike R. Alpha' today, because it was mentioned - although i should not need it. Had no effect.
3. I have connected a Thunderbolt Soundcard (Motu 8m) - it worked out of the box. Hotplug although doesnt work. I installed an SSDT
which was discussed in another thread (https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/in-progress-ssdt-for-thunderbolt-3-hotplug.248784/).
Here it could also be some missing changes, that i have yet to understand. Additionally - they are using TB-Ext-Cards - with me its native.)
4. Sometimes ableton live just hangs while starting, resolving in a coreaudiod failure (no sound - nowhere). A restart of coreaudiod fixes this sometimes.



What did I do different than suggested in the guide:
1. Different from the guide, I need to let *Above 4G Decoding* enabled.
When disabled the UEFI would not show up anymore - with board hanging on a systemcode i forgot.
What is this?


Here a list of all changes performed according to the guide:

Installed E.9) ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe PCI Device Implementation
Installed E.9.1) ACPI DSDT Replacement Implementation
Installed E.9.2) System SSDT PCI Device Implementation
Installed E.9.2.1) - HDEF - onboard PCI Audio Controller PCI Implementation
Installed E.9.2.2) - GFX0, HDAU - GPU and HDMI/DP Audio PCI implementation
Installed E.9.2.3) - PMCR - onboard Power Management Controller (PMC) PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.4) - USBX - fixing XHCI USB Power errors during Boot
Not installed E.9.2.5) - XHCI - onboard Extended Host Controller Interface (XHCI) PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.6) - XHC2,3,4 - ASMedia ASM3142 USB 3.1 Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.7) - ANS1, ANS2 - Apple NVMe Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.8) - SAT1 - Intel AHCI SATA Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.9) - THSS - Intel Thermal Subsystem Controller Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.10) XGBE - 10GBit NIC Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.11) - ETH0/ETH1 - onboard LAN Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.12) - ARPT - OSX WIFI Broadcom BCM94360CD 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.0 AirPort Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.13) - GC-Titan Ridge / GC-Alpine Ridge / Asus TBEX 3 Thunderbolt HotPlug System Implementation
Installed E.9.2.14) - DTGP Method


Does anybody has a clue where to go from here? - the internet and me seem to be helpless.
Did I do something substantially wrong? Although my installation was not liniar to this guide, i should be on the suggested state, right?


Opened up a thread on the multiple montior issue: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/geforce-gtx-960-4gb-display-ports-not-working.269856/

 

[Argozelo]

Hi @kgp, i build my setup with almost all the pieces as yours.
But my graphic card is the Vega Frontier.
I´m running 3 x 4k monitors.
The setup is working well, but always after (20 to 80 minutes) of normal working (not intensive) it freeezes and i have to reboot him, and it restarts identifyng a kernel panic, i attach the report.
If i reboot and dont use the computer, he dont freezes and it enters normally in suspension, after when i use it after suspension, after some time (20 to 80 minutes) it freezes again.

I already try to check the several reports of panic errors, but i cant see what is the problem.

Also, i already make a clean installation with mojave, in a new disk and the problem remains.

Can you see what is the possible problem ?

 

[giftmusic]

I am trying to install an older copy of 10.13.2 instead of 10.13.6 on an X299 ASUS Deluxe Prime (latest bios). (I have to use 10.13.2! unfortunately due to a specific driver) I can't for the life of me get to the installer though. After I followed the instructions in the first page and use 10.13.2, every time I try to install it hangs at com.apple.xpc.launchhd(1). I really need some help on this one! I have tried a different GPU, different system definitions, and different USB drives. Nothing seems to work. Does anyone have an EFI folder from a 10.13.0 up to 10.13.2 update? Thank you so much!
@kgp @RehabMan

 

[kgp]

I am trying to install an older copy of 10.13.2 instead of 10.13.6 on an X299 ASUS Deluxe Prime (latest bios). (I have to use 10.13.2! unfortunately due to a specific driver) I can't for the life of me get to the installer though. After I followed the instructions in the first page and use 10.13.2, every time I try to install it hangs at com.apple.xpc.launchhd(1). I really need some help on this one! I have tried a different GPU, different system definitions, and different USB drives. Nothing seems to work. Does anyone have an EFI folder from a 10.13.0 up to 10.13.2 update? Thank you so much!
@kgp @RehabMan

You do not need a different EFI-Folder for 10.13.2. After completing the actual EFI-Folder distribution by following my guidelines, your system will be fully vanilla and should work with any macOS build.

 

[kgp]

Hi @kgp, i build my setup with almost all the pieces as yours.
But my graphic card is the Vega Frontier.
I´m running 3 x 4k monitors.
The setup is working well, but always after (20 to 80 minutes) of normal working (not intensive) it freeezes and i have to reboot him, and it restarts identifyng a kernel panic, i attach the report.
If i reboot and dont use the computer, he dont freezes and it enters normally in suspension, after when i use it after suspension, after some time (20 to 80 minutes) it freezes again.

I already try to check the several reports of panic errors, but i cant see what is the problem.

Also, i already make a clean installation with mojave, in a new disk and the problem remains.

Can you see what is the possible problem ?

What about AVX and AVX-512 offsets? Else read beginning of section C.) and provide necessary information to receive help and support.

Cheers,

KGP

 

[kgp]

Hello everyone. I am building a build very similar to this right now but i encounter some problems, that i cannot fix somehow. Mainly multi-monitor support. This is day 5 now and i start to get desperate. 

Maybe @kgp has a clue what is missing here?

Configuration:
ASUS Prime Deluxe II
Intel 7800X 3,5 Ghz
32 GB RAM 2666
Geforce 960 4GB
1 TB Samsung Evo M.2
Bluetooth via USB Dongle
(Want to connect up to 5 display via: HDMI, 3x DP, DVI)


First of all - this is the asus prime deluxe II - so the new version of the deluxe board.
My biggest problem besides some smaller ones is additional monitors. I cannot get the Display ports to be recognized. 
I created another thread for this (see below) - but I think the problem maybe bigger.

First of all - I created an installer using UniBeast - i hope this is not a problem. The start was the biggest issue.

I managed to install Mac OS High Sierra. Unfortunately it is version (17G66) which is not mentioned in this post - since there is no driver natively taking this, I found a fix using: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Benjamin-Dobell/nvidia-update/

This installed the latest driver version:
387.10.10.10.40.113 macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra (17G4015)
flawlessly.
Everything except multiple monitors seemed to work.
During my pain I tried also different drivers - no effect:
eg the described:
387.10.10.10.40.105 macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra (17G65)

Today i started to install most of the patches described. I didnt do them all, as I have natively no problems with the USB and do not have some devices.
See below for a list of what I left out.

I now bought all available DP to HDMI adapters to rule out, that is has something to do with this and additionally bought a DVI to VGA cable to test the last available port.

Now I see the following:
None of the three displayport works (always used an adapter). When I attach the screen - the connected HDMI display goes black for a a second, as if it would recognize something, but then nothing.

Having HDMI connected, when I connect the DVI (to VGA) cable - the system immidiately shuts down - booting on the dvi display. This is very strange.

I tried the card on a windows pc of a friend - where the DVI (native without VGA cable) and the HDMI worked well together but the DP were also not discovered (had just one adapter back then).
As DVI shuts down my system, where it worked on windows, i still believe in a driver/software issue.

I had ready that the SMIOS could be responsible. So I tried changing my Model to 14,2 and 16,2 - which had no effect.

I use the following kext which were always mentioned in that context:
WhateverGreen
Lilu


I also have 4 other problems - dont know if they are related.
1. Every other boot fails. Shutting down them and bringing it up always resolves this (see screenshot rare_boot_problem)
2. The logic test described in this thread will never play sound, it will just display an overload message (see screenshot logic_hyper_test)
I enabled 'xcpm_core_scope_msrs © Pike R. Alpha' today, because it was mentioned - although i should not need it. Had no effect.
3. I have connected a Thunderbolt Soundcard (Motu 8m) - it worked out of the box. Hotplug although doesnt work. I installed an SSDT
which was discussed in another thread (https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/in-progress-ssdt-for-thunderbolt-3-hotplug.248784/).
Here it could also be some missing changes, that i have yet to understand. Additionally - they are using TB-Ext-Cards - with me its native.)
4. Sometimes ableton live just hangs while starting, resolving in a coreaudiod failure (no sound - nowhere). A restart of coreaudiod fixes this sometimes.

Different from the guide, I need to let *Above 4G Decoding* enabled.
When disabled the UEFI would not show up anymore - with board hanging on a systemcode i forgot. What is this?



Here a list of all changes performed according to the guide:

Installed E.9) ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe PCI Device Implementation
Installed E.9.1) ACPI DSDT Replacement Implementation
Installed E.9.2) System SSDT PCI Device Implementation
Installed E.9.2.1) - HDEF - onboard PCI Audio Controller PCI Implementation
Installed E.9.2.2) - GFX0, HDAU - GPU and HDMI/DP Audio PCI implementation
Installed E.9.2.3) - PMCR - onboard Power Management Controller (PMC) PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.4) - USBX - fixing XHCI USB Power errors during Boot
Not installed E.9.2.5) - XHCI - onboard Extended Host Controller Interface (XHCI) PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.6) - XHC2,3,4 - ASMedia ASM3142 USB 3.1 Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.7) - ANS1, ANS2 - Apple NVMe Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.8) - SAT1 - Intel AHCI SATA Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.9) - THSS - Intel Thermal Subsystem Controller Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.10) XGBE - 10GBit NIC Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.11) - ETH0/ETH1 - onboard LAN Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.12) - ARPT - OSX WIFI Broadcom BCM94360CD 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.0 AirPort Controller PCI Implementation
Not installed E.9.2.13) - GC-Titan Ridge / GC-Alpine Ridge / Asus TBEX 3 Thunderbolt HotPlug System Implementation
Installed E.9.2.14) - DTGP Method


Apart from this, over the 1 HDMI monitor the system is running. (see attached benchmarks)


Does anybody has a clue where to go from here? - the internet and me seem to be helpless.
Did I do something substantially wrong? Although my installation was not liniar to this guide, i should be on the suggested state, right?


Opened up a thread on the multiple montior issue: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/geforce-gtx-960-4gb-display-ports-not-working.269856/

Edit:
Just disabled CSM and something new happend:
- If DP caple and HDMI cable are in - i see no monitor during boot. It seems stuck at first - but i pressed enter (guessed i was on the clover screen) - and then the system boots, with only the hdmi montior working and recognized.
If i boot with DVI (to VGA) cable and monitor on, then the system fails to boot and shutsdown when reaching osx.

The information you provide above is very confusing and anything else than coherent. Please try to improve your bug report in post #11,759 and make it more comprehensive and easier to follow. An IOREG.save is also missing to receive further help and support.

The attached EFI-Folder had several flaws. Please use the modified EFI-Folder attached below for your future endeavours. Note that all kexts should be exclusively in /EFI/Clover/kexts/Other!

You should disable MSR lock in your BIOS settings. By this you neither need to check KernelPM nor to enable xcpm_core_scope_msrs © Pike R. Alpha in your config.plist. I also removed some of your obsolete boot flags.

Your PCI screenshot is incoherent with the SSDT's in use. Your EFI-Folder also contains SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml, however your onboard TB controller does not show up at all under "PCI". In contrary you miss SSDT-X299-HDEF.aml, a mandatory implementation for a correct GFX0 and HDAU implementation.

Your multi-monitor issues are due to your Nvidia GPU. Why don't you change to Vega? There is anyway no support for your Nvidia GPU under Mojave. And if there will be any in the near future, you will be again without support during the 10.15 public betas.

I do not recommend to enable CSM support, but of in case of Nvidia GPUs sometimes it is just compulsory, as the latter GPUs many times are not fully UEFI compliant.

Well hope this helps at first place.

Good luck,

KGP

 

[kgp]

SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml adopted for its use with the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe II

Note that you need to use SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml in line with SSDT-DTGP.aml!

Users with the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe II, please try to use the modified SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml and report back with a "PCI snapshot" and IOREG.save fo your system. Also provide information about TB and USB-C HotPlug and sleep/wake performance, always supposed that SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml attached below properly implements the onboard TTR controller of the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe II.

Good luck and thanks in advance,

 

[macs_forever]

I just ran the Intel Power gadget... Man, I'm not even challenging this thing with Geekbench 4 and Heaven running at the same time.

 

[kgp]

I just ran the Intel Power gadget... Man, I'm not even challenging this thing with Geekbench 4 and Heaven running at the same time.

Heaven does not require much CPU but mostly GPU power! Run Cinebench CPU benchmark instead of Geekbench 4 to squeeze and optimise your CPU performance with respective BIOS settings.

 

[macs_forever]

Still plenty of headroom. Temps max out at 51c. My little 240mm Corsair AIO does a pretty good job of cooling the 7980xe. Ran the test 5 times in a row. CPU cools down very quickly. 36 threads of "yes >/dev/null" running continuously would likely do a better job of stressing the CPU.