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

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Has anyone had symptoms of Safari completely locking the system, without throwing up a system KP's.. I thought it might be my usb stick so I've ordered a new one. I did unplug my usb stick and tried to use safari opened a few tabs and hit enter on the search bar and still managed to lock the system.


Also just tried another browser with the same results..

May or may be related to USB or Graphics? I just spotted a AppleUSBHost failed enumeration repeatedly.. so I've removed the SSDTs and the USB Dsdt patches and the error has not shown up yet, will try to pin point the issue to figure out what element is causing that error. hopefully it resolves potential Lockup issues.
 
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If the only device you have in TB3 is an Audio card, I wouldn't worry about it. PCH or CPU won't make a difference.
If you care about PCH vs CPU lanes, then no point getting any Gigabyte X299 board, they are *all* wired via PCH. The TB3 card must be placed in the designated slots: PCIe x4_2 (https://www.gigabyte.com/au/Motherboard/GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-rev-20#ov)
The Designare is better than the Aorus Gaming 7 Pro (make sure you get the pro, it has the same VRM has the Designare) ; the only exception is that I got TB3 and USB-C hotplug working with the Gaming 7 Pro, but not the Designare....
However, in the future, if you get a TB3 external disk, using PCH lanes will be a worry, especially as the NVMe share the same bandwidth

The Asus X299 Prime Deluxe is the cheapest of those cards, with the most features that's for sure... Your GB TB3 card will work with this motherboard just fine.

I'm very pleased with the ASRock x299 Professional Gaming. It has 10Gbit/s nic (in addition to the intel i211 and i219). There are caveats in getting the AQC107 to work, you *must* go through 10.13.3. There was a bug in 10.13.3 that reflashed the AQC107 into an Apple branded card (the same as the iMac Pro). Once the AQC107 got reflashed, it would then work perfectly in macOS. That bug got corrected in 10.13.4, and the card no longer work. If it has been reflashed in 10.13.3 however, it will work.

In the ASRock, the TB3 card works in any of the slots, without having to configure anything in the BIOS, and all PCIe slots are using CPU lanes.
The main NVMe slot also use 4 dedicated PCU lanes, which will give the best performance.
Another thing of interest over the Gigabytes board, it supports Intel VROC: that is you can split any of the PCI x16 ports into x8/x8, x4/x4/x4/x4, x8/x4/x4 or x4/x4/x8 ... So more storage option (the Asus can do that, but only with their M.2 PCI cards)
The ASRock has massive heatsink and the most over-designed VRM of all.

I have TB3 hotplug working now (not USBC however).
I have all USB ports working, and sleep is almost working (it wake from sleep only after 2-3s, which I'm hoping I will find a solution for).
For now, I've had the best results with macOS on this board.

I wouldn't use the availabity of @kgp guide as the reason for choosing the Asus Prime Deluxe. You can achieve the same rather easily with all x299 board out there.
The Designare is a great motherboard, certainly the highest quality one I've seen. The only downside is that the TB3 ports go through the PCH.

Using the SSDT-TB3.aml I posted earlier did you manage to get hotplug and usb-c working ?

I haven't had any luck with getting TB to work yet with or without SSDT you've provided. I do need to spend more time and dive deeper into it as there is a good chance I've overlooked something or missed a step. The only TB device I currently have is an Antelope audio interface, and I have not been able to get it recognized at all. This interface has both USB and TB options, but so far I've only been able to use it via USB.

I will most likely replace my aging and bulky USB 3 external hard drive with LaCie Thunderbolt one (if anything, it also supports USB 3.0 connection). This way I'll be able to test TB functionality and I'll get a more portable hard drive that I'll actually use.

Though I'm not currently hard pressed to have a working TB port/s, I still do want to have it setup and functioning as I most definitely will add more TB devices down the road.
 
I haven't had any luck with getting TB to work yet with or without SSDT you've provided. I do need to spend more time and dive deeper into it as there is a good chance I've overlooked something or missed a step. The only TB device I currently have is an Antelope audio interface, and I have not been able to get it recognized at all. This interface has both USB and TB options, but so far I've only been able to use it via USB.
DSM2 couldn't get it to work with his Designare, and I no longer have one myself to test.. (that and I can't justify buying every x299 mother board out there, my i9-7980xe has been cleaned so many times to reapply thermal paste, I can barely read the serial number now)

If you upload the ioreg with the SSDT-TB3.aml applied, I can tell you if all is good to start with.

I will most likely replace my aging and bulky USB 3 external hard drive with LaCie Thunderbolt one (if anything, it also supports USB 3.0 connection). This way I'll be able to test TB functionality and I'll get a more portable hard drive that I'll actually use.
Though I'm not currently hard pressed to have a working TB port/s, I still do want to have it setup and functioning as I most definitely will add more TB devices down the road.

It is indeed nice to have hotplug working. From time to time, the Pegasus R3 doesn't survive a reboot. Being able to unplug the TB3 cable and back without rebooting yet another time is very nice indeed.
I do miss that USB-C isn't working on those TB ports, I never used it, but knowing that it doesn't work is annoying me big time
 
Ignore this. I got it to work by changing certain ports to the proper ones.
This is a modification from DSM2 and it's working PERFECT now (sans USB-C since I don't have any devices to test at this moment).
did you end up posting this?

The Broadcom BT module is a tad unstable in the ASRock, want to see if that makes a difference.

Changing the usb port type from 0 to 255 fixed it for me... Now when I reboot, the BT trackpad and keyboard reconnects immediately.. awesome
 
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DSM2 couldn't get it to work with his Designare, and I no longer have one myself to test.. (that and I can't justify buying every x299 mother board out there, my i9-7980xe has been cleaned so many times to reapply thermal paste, I can barely read the serial number now)

If you upload the ioreg with the SSDT-TB3.aml applied, I can tell you if all is good to start with.



It is indeed nice to have hotplug working. From time to time, the Pegasus R3 doesn't survive a reboot. Being able to unplug the TB3 cable and back without rebooting yet another time is very nice indeed.
I do miss that USB-C isn't working on those TB ports, I never used it, but knowing that it doesn't work is annoying me big time

Well, I couldn't get TB to work at all, let alone the hotplug. DSM2 and yourself at least got TB working, minus the hotplug of course. I'll give it another shot once I'll have some downtime and I'll make sure to upload ioreg.
 
I received this connector (http://pcpartsandcables.com//product_info.php?cPath=34&products_id=104) which is a 5 pins adapter 2.54mm pitch to 2mm pitch. This allowed me to connect the ASRock TB3 AIC card (or the Asus ThunderboltEX card) to the gigabyte Gaming 7 Pro motherboard. Simply connect the pin as-is, don't revert them as mentioned in another thread.

Thanks to @maleorderbride SSDT, I have hotplug working (both USB and TB3 devices)...
I believe it should work with the Designare too, the ASRock TB3 card uses the same intel thunderbolt chipset, and the ACPI path of the TB3 with the Gaming 7 Pro is the same as the Designare.

So i rebooted in MacOs :
- Your SSDT-TB3.aml in Clover/ACPI/Patched (this SSDT is fully according to my IOreg)
- Rebooted
But the TB3 witch is fully working in Windows 10 with DP connected to USB C on my TB3, is not recognized on MacOs.
 
So i rebooted in MacOs :
- Your SSDT-TB3.aml in Clover/ACPI/Patched (this SSDT is fully according to my IOreg)
- Rebooted
But the TB3 witch is fully working in Windows 10 with DP connected to USB C on my TB3, is not recognized on MacOs.

What screen are you using? A USB-C screen, a DP one or a thunderbolt screen? What model is it?
If USB-C, i never got it to work with the designare, only TB3 (works perfectly fine on the Gaming 7 with the TB3 card surprisingly)

If you’re using a TB3->DP adapter, which one? It should work with most.

If thunderbolt, did you disable thunderbolt authentication in the BIOS?
What about no ssdt for now?

Edit: my bad you’re using another GB board with the Asus...
 
What screen are you using? A USB-C screen, a DP one or a thunderbolt screen? What model is it?
If USB-C, i never got it to work with the designare, only TB3 (works perfectly fine on the Gaming 7 with the TB3 card surprisingly)

If you’re using a TB3->DP adapter, which one? It should work with most.

If thunderbolt, did you disable thunderbolt authentication in the BIOS?
What about no ssdt for now?

Edit: my bad you’re using another GB board with the Asus...

Thanks for your help :
- My screen : Monitor Dell UltraSharp U2415 - 24"
- TB3 --> USB C --> DP --> Screen ( i have two connectors : both are ok in Win10)
- TB3 --> Mini DP --> DP --> RX 580 ( Connector Asus comes with the TB3)
- TB3 in PCi 4_2 slot ( for X299 Gigabyte mobos)
In Windows 10 boot without issue : Screen and sound OK
 
That’s weird, with what you want to do, even if TB was disabled in the bios it should work, the DP signal doesn’t need the TB3 signalling.

So I don’t believe it has anything to do with the TB3 card, and all to do with the RX580 card.
Do you have another screen connected to your video card?
If the 2nd screen (the one connected to the TB3card) is directly connected to the RX580 does it work?

If you have a 2nd screen, disconnect it, and connect the TB3 DP in to that AMD DP out. If that works, I have an idea on what you could try.
 
That’s weird, with what you want to do, even if TB was disabled in the bios it should work, the DP signal doesn’t need the TB3 signalling.

So I don’t believe it has anything to do with the TB3 card, and all to do with the RX580 card.
Do you have another screen connected to your video card?
If the 2nd screen (the one connected to the TB3card) is directly connected to the RX580 does it work?

If you have a 2nd screen, disconnect it, and connect the TB3 DP in to that AMD DP out. If that works, I have an idea on what you could try.

Ok :
I have another screen so I will try with the 2nd screen, one connected to the TB3card and another directly connected to the RX580, if it works.
(here 00:54 by the hour so, I will persevere tomorrow and will tell you after ... thank you very much)
 
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