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

[Trike]

Thanks KGP for all your hard work in creating this guide! I started my 10.13.3 install over the weekend on my 7900x Prime Deluxe mobo. The latest Nvidia Web drivers (107) was causing a lagging/stutter issue with my evga ftw3 1080ti. I had to downgrade to 103 and appears to have fixed the problem.

I have applied almost all the dsdt patches, but haven't applied the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml yet. Since I haven't applied the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml yet, it might be the source of the problems I'm encountering currently with the pci devices.

1. I'm running into some weird issues with the thunderbolt 3 card. I have installed the card under windows 10. But the card is giving me issues in macOS. It wont properly mount my thunderbolt 2 caldigit T4 drive, but instead tries to mount the physical drives instead of the array set. In the system report, The thunderbolt section doesn't list any devices. But I plugged in a Apple Thunderbolt 2 gigabit adapter and it works fine in MacOS, but still nothing listed in the thunderbolt section of the system report.
My Thunderbolt 3 card is installed in slot 6 (PCIEX16_4 slot). Could this be, because I haven't applied the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml yet to tell the OS the card is installed in slot 6?

I'll start with this issue before I move onto why the native OSX wifi+bt adapter isn't being recognized either.

Thanks!

 

[kgp]

Thanks KGP for all your hard work in creating this guide! I started my 10.10.13 install over the weekend on my 7900x Prime Deluxe mobo. The latest Nvidia Web drivers (107) was causing a lagging/stutter issue with my evga ftw3 1080ti. I had to downgrade to 103 and appears to have fixed the problem.

I have applied almost all the dsdt patches, but haven't applied the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml yet. Since I haven't applied the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml yet, it might be the source of the problems I'm encountering currently with the pci devices.

1. I'm running into some weird issues with the thunderbolt 3 card. I have installed the card under windows 10. But the card is giving me issues in macOS. It wont properly mount my thunderbolt 2 caldigit T4 drive, but instead tries to mount the physical drives instead of the array set. In the system report, The thunderbolt section doesn't list any devices. But I plugged in a Apple Thunderbolt 2 gigabit adapter and it works fine in MacOS, but still nothing listed in the thunderbolt section of the system report.
My Thunderbolt 3 card is installed in slot 6 (PCIEX16_4 slot). Could this be, because I haven't applied the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml yet to tell the OS the card is installed in slot 6?

I'll start with this issue before I move onto why the native OSX wifi+bt adapter isn't being recognized either.

Thanks!

The thunderbolt adopter will only appear in section "PCI" of Apple's system report, once the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml has been successfully adopted and implemented on your system.

The Section "Thunderbolt" of Apple's system report will however always report "No drivers loaded"

If you have problems with connecting thunderbolt devices, try to plug the TBEX 3 into a PCIe slot different from Slot-6.

Cheers and good luck,

KGP

 

[Trike]

Thanks KGP, I'll try a different slot tonight.

 

[macs_forever]

1TB 960 EVO:

...

The EVO slow way down after writing 13-26GB from what I have seen on youtube. The Pro has no write cache limitation. The 960 Pro uses MLC vs the slower/cheaper TLC in the EVO. It would only be a serious problem when copying VMs. Once they have been duplicated there would be little difference.

 

[macs_forever]

The thunderbolt adopter will only appear in section "PCI" of Apple's system report, once the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml has been successfully adopted and implemented on your system.

The Section "Thunderbolt" of Apple's system report will how ever always report "No drivers loaded"

If you have problems with connecting thunderbolt devices, try to plug the TBEX 3 into a PCIe slot different from Slot-6.

Cheers and good luck,

KGP

The Gigabyte Designare EX has the TB3 built into the motherboard. I wonder if the thunderbolt will continue to show up under PCIe slots.

 

[kgp]

The EVO slow way down after writing 13-26GB from what I have seen on youtube. The Pro has no write cache limitation. The 960 Pro uses MLC vs the slower/cheaper TLC in the EVO. It would only be a serious problem when copying VMs. Once they have been duplicated there would be little difference.

Well, I rather witness some thermal throttling of NVMEs mounted below the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe M.2 head sink..

 

[kgp]

The Gigabyte Designare EX has the TB3 built into the motherboard. I wonder if the thunderbolt will continue to show up under PCIe slots.

Under PCIe slots? You mean under "PCI" of Apple's System Report? I guess only by means of a properly adopted SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml and certainly not as a PCI slot device as it is build-in..

 

[macs_forever]

Well, I rather witness some thermal throttling of NVMEs mounted below the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe M.2 head sink..

Really? Even with a heatsink? bummer. leads to another question, Do you have more case fans blowing in or out? The higher the air density, the better the cooling.

 

[levifig]

Still getting a KP when using the latest CPUSensors (interferenc's)… Everything else seems to be working great, but I really miss having temp details on iStat (though I can still get a glance at package temp in the Intel Power Gadget). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[macs_forever]

Sure. It's a well known problem no matter the OS. Just run the speed test repeatedly and by the third or fourth iteration it goes down to about a quarter of it's normal speed.
I have a great heatsink and great case airflow. No difference. They get hot and slow down.

Crucial SATA M.2 drives don't slow down. They die. I have 2 $300 pieces of scrap to prove it.