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

[rauan1]

kgp, how did you connect your nzxt internal USB hub power supply? It has Molex connection, but my power supply doesn't have Molex power supply. Should I use something like on the photo? But then I think it is always 12V, where USB hub needs 5V.

 

[tokyovigilante]

Hi All,

Have just set up a system based on this guide, MSI X299M AC CARBON GAMING motherboard and i9-7900, so thought I'd point out a few things:

• Needed [npci=0x2000] to boot as well as the other boot flags.
• You can disable the MSR lock in the BIOS (In OC Settings under Advanced somewhere) but I still needed TSRAdjustReset.kext to run stably.
• I initially used APFS but had some lag which improved after re-installing with an HFS+ system using this method. However lag only completely resolved after reverting to the 10.13.2 NVIDIA WebDrivers. I'm not sure if I could reconvert to APFS now but HFS+ has never let me down.
• Graphics works well with full acceleration.
• VoodooHDA worked well for sound, although I'm using a USB headphone amp. I couldn't get AppleALC,kext to work as Lilu.kext seemed to prevent boot.
• Native HWP and Sleep/Wake are working 100%, although I have to use my power button to wake from sleep, the mouse and keyboard won't work to wake from sleep.
• Native NVRAM is working as I don't need [NvidiaWeb=true] in config.plist to use the WebDrivers, I can just select them from the NVIDIA menubar app.
• I delidded my 7900X and get 26℃ idle and 60-65℃ load with OCCT at stock with all-core turbo (4.0GHz x 10) and GeekBench single core of 5399 and multicore 38295, so pretty happy. VRM gets up to 90℃ish so would need a VRM block or at least a fan strapped to the heatsink for more (I'm running a Nepton 240M AIO on the CPU).
• The SmallTree-Intel-211-AT-PCIe-GBE.kext worked well for the I211 secondary LAN adaptor, the primary I219 was recognised with IntelMausiEthernet.kext as standard.
• Sensors kexts work well in conjunction with iStat Menus.
• I can't get any of the PCI devices recognised in System Profiler despite a seemingly-accurate SSDT and the appropriate DSDT patches. I feel like these are cosmetic only so not too fussed.

Overall I'm very happy, this was by far the easiest Hackintosh I've ever built, the most stable/functional, and by far the fastest... Thanks @kgp and all others who've contributed!

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Hi All,
I delidded my 7900X and get 26℃ idle and 60-65℃ load with OCCT at stock with all-core turbo (4.0GHz x 10) and GeekBench single core of 5399 and multicore 38295, so pretty happy. VRM gets up to 90℃ish so would need a VRM block or at least a fan strapped to the heatsink for more (I'm running a Nepton 240M AIO on the CPU).

That sounds pretty high, 65C is what I get with a 7980 with all cores running at 4GHz with a 115i pro watercooler.

 

[rauan1]

How am I getting 100

That sounds pretty high, 65C is what I get with a 7980 with all cores running at 4GHz with a 115i pro watercooler.

Why am I getting 100C with Corsair 150i Pro on my i9-7960x?

 

[zzmadd]

Hi All,

• I delidded my 7900X and get 26℃ idle and 60-65℃ load with OCCT at stock with all-core turbo (4.0GHz x 10) and GeekBench single core of 5399 and multicore 38295, so pretty happy. VRM gets up to 90℃ish so would need a VRM block or at least a fan strapped to the heatsink for more (I'm running a Nepton 240M AIO on the CPU).

Hi tokyo!!
thanks for your report.
What process did you use to delid?
Did you re-apply the lid using liquid metal?
Did you drop the water block on the die itself?

Thanks for your help!

Luca

 

[RuleBreaker01]

How am I getting 100

Why am I getting 100C with Corsair 150i Pro on my i9-7960x?

I too had pretty high temps with the 150i pro, it got much better with the 115i and it's quieter (bigger fans)...

Did you mess up with the thermal paste by any chance?
that's idle in windows
room temp is 22C


running cinebench 3 times in a row in windows, the max temp was 71C on one core, all other cores were at 65C

 

[WoodCabin]

The real iMac Pro have some insane SSD speed (3.5GB/s read and write), iFixit tear down showed that for the 1TB option, they were using two 512GB SSD in RAID0.

If we could duplicate that setup that would be awesome

Boot System Raid 0 “Apple Software”

2x Samsung 960 Pro 1TB (Raid 0)
Asus Hyper 16x
https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0757XFMJM/?tag=tonymacx86c03-21

 

[kgp]

kgp, how did you connect your nzxt internal USB hub power supply? It has Molex connection, but my power supply doesn't have Molex power supply. Should I use something like on the photo? But then I think it is always 12V, where USB hub needs 5V.

That's what I use and what came with my PSU. A peripheral to Molex cable.

 

[kgp]

Boot System Raid 0 “Apple Software”

2x Samsung 960 Pro 1TB (Raid 0)
Asus Hyper 16x
https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0757XFMJM/?tag=tonymacx86c03-21


View attachment 318157
View attachment 318155
View attachment 318154

View attachment 318153

View attachment 318151

Gorgeous you are the man of the hour

Can you use that as system disk as well?

 

[obus]

Hi kgp.
This might be out of topic but I take the risk.
Last week I've bought myself a new rig.
Asus WS C422 motherboard
64GB 2666 Mhz DDR4 ECC Ram (16384 Mb x 4)
Intel Xenon W-2175
My goal was to try to build my own iMac Pro with hardware as near as the original as possible. I have now put up my rig with an old Zalman water cooler, RX Vega 56 graphics and two M.2 1 TB Samsung 950 Evo Pro.
I've followed your very impressive guide just to get some basic information. My problem is that I can't even boot up and install HighSierra. Could you or anybody else out there guide me in the right direction?

The MSR 0xE2 register on my Asus mobo is unlocked with the UEFI-patch according to your guide. I've tried booting with all different combinations of OsxAptioFix-drivers including Test2-2016.efi and the new AptioMemoryFix without success.
My USB-install HighSierra medium is working (tested on my old rig) but I always get stuck during installation ( see atacchment)
Could maybe you kgp shed some light over this problem?
Best regards
obus