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

[RuleBreaker01]

BT should work for you because it uses USB via NGFF on the Designare EX.

If you want BT+Wifi you can either get the NGFF I got and replace it or get a OSX Wifi or some other native macOS PCIe Wifi/BT card/combo.

This is on the ASRock MB. But it may not be the fault of macOS not supporting it. I also don't get BT or WiFi working in Windows.
I believe the MB is faulty, so I've asked for a replacement. Which is a bummer, I don't have any more thermal paste to reinstall the Designare

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Honestly, I never had to disable Thunderbolt 3 for sleep and it works but I don’t have Platform Power Management active and no DSDT/SSDT. Unfortunately I have some different problem with sleep but I work already on a solution for it. My rig sometimes just wakes after hours... If you decide to go back to the Designare we should team up and just look for the problem and fix all of them.

You have sleep working on your designare, without any SSDT?
And with TB3 active?
Damned, I never got sleep/wake to work without lots of trouble.

That's the primary reason I started to look at another solution.

Do you have hotplug working with your designare?

Damn, 15C hotter ? Would be a big no go for me. It’s just my personal opinion, but If you are happy with it, that is what counts in the end of the day. Yes the Designare is build really good, never saw such incredible work before, not only in design also in functionality. The Metal Plate on the backside of the Designare is not only for design and to reinforce the Motherboard, it’s also like a big passive cooler in some kinda way.
Wow 30 Watt difference, I mean ok it’s not that big deal but strange why the Asrock and also Asus took that much more.

Oh, I'm not happy with the increased temperature. Not at all. But after 3 attempts at reapplying thermal paste I ran out.

I've put back the bios to default settings, so I don't overheat the CPU in the mean time.

Only the CPU in the Intel power gadget shows increase in wattage. Measured at the wall, the rig is pulling the same. I believe it's something not quite right with the Designare that shows such lower CPU power usage. I don't really believe a i9-7980xe could only use 13W, even at idle...
With the asus or asrock, it always hover between 30W and 40W.

No argument from me when it comes to the quality of the Designare, it's of much higher quality than both the Asus Deluxe and the ASROCK professional gaming, which are both the best motherboard of their respective brand.

Now, I may just go back to the Asus Prime, I've had enough messing with settings and SSDT. It's fun to play with, but after a whole, it gets boring and I have real work to do

Edit: I have the wifi/BY working in Windows, in the BIOS wifi was set to Auto, I switched that to Enabled, and voilà, wifi is now on in Windows...
So the board isn't faulty... Oh well...

 

[DSM2]

Does Bluetooth on that board work for you?
It's not recognised here

Does Wifi work? Couldn’t find the info which WiFi/Bluetooth chip is inside the Asrock but maybe I can help you with that. Could you provide the missing info?

 

[DSM2]

You have sleep working on your designare, without any SSDT?
And with TB3 active?


Do you have hotplug working with your designare?

Exactly, Sleep working with Thunderbolt Enabled without any DSDT/SSDT.aml .

Until now I didn’t had the time to try the method mentioned here for hot plug. Maybe I can find some time tonight to try it out. Will report back as soon as I tested it.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Exactly, Sleep working with Thunderbolt Enabled without any DSDT/SSDT.aml .

Until now I didn’t had the time to try the method mentioned here for hot plug. Maybe I can find some time tonight to try it out. Will report back as soon as I tested it.

Damn.... I don't get it... Why isn't it working for me....
You're running the 10.13.4 beta?

Now if you get hotplug working.... That would be even more baffling..

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Exactly, Sleep working with Thunderbolt Enabled without any DSDT/SSDT.aml .

Until now I didn’t had the time to try the method mentioned here for hot plug. Maybe I can find some time tonight to try it out. Will report back as soon as I tested it.

Thanks for the help, but I have it working now. WiFi was set to Auto in the BIOS, setting it to Enabled made it work. And now BT works too, in Windows at least...
The WiFi card a crappy one, a single band Intel 3168

 

[DSM2]

This is a good question! Maybe something in the bios or a small mistake in your SSDT or something different like Hardware in use which could be the source for non functional sleep. Hard to tell without sitting in front of the computer. We should compare everything 100% to nail it down to the problem.

I use 10.13.4 latest Beta.

Any outboard gear which is in use on your rig?

 

[RuleBreaker01]

This is a good question! Maybe something in the bios or a small mistake in your SSDT or something different like Hardware in use which could be the source for non functional sleep. Hard to tell without sitting in front of the computer. We should compare everything 100% to nail it down to the problem.

The settings I've changed are exactly as I @kgp put it in his first post.

Do you do any of @kgp ACPI patches ? (like CAVS->HDEF )
I find it bizarre that you could sleep without adding the fake EC device...

Come over with your machine, I'll bring the beers

 

[RuleBreaker01]

The Gaming i9 XE 10 GBit/s LAN should not need any driver or Kext for macOS.
The Motherboard use the Aquantia AQtion AQC107 Chip which is by the way used in the iMac Pro!

View attachment 319325

It's not exactly the same card as the Apple one:


device id is 0xd107
It's enough to have the card recognised, but not enough to make it work

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Any outboard gear which is in use on your rig?

no.
I have tried at a strict minimum. The only thing plugged where my 5K HP screen, the USB dongle for the mouse, and internally I have the Corsair watercooler plugged to the USB 2.0 header.
The screen is also plugged to the USB 3.0 port, on the screen hub I have a logitech 720 webcam and the apple USB keyboard

Two 960 Pro SSD.

that's it.

I made sure to have a minimal setup, to ensure sleep wouldn't be disturbed by external accessories, just in case.