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

[VictorIn]

Hello!
I build configuration as in this guide.
If I want to use Samsung 960 PRO NVMe M.2 1TB instead of Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 1TB,
need do any additional configuration for Samsung 960 PRO to install macOS High Sierra 10.13 different from this guide?
Does it make sense for more performance?

 

[apfelnico]

That does not matter.

 

[DasJu]

I just spent 5400 € to build this! God, my heart is pumpin'!

Edit: @kgp: Thank you so very much for this extended guide, extended and thorough it is! I feel confident, that I will successfully build it, with 7940X, almost 2000€ on CPU is just too much. ;-)

 

[kgp]

Hello!
I build configuration as in this guide.
If I want to use Samsung 960 PRO NVMe M.2 1TB instead of Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 1TB,
need do any additional configuration for Samsung 960 PRO to install macOS High Sierra 10.13 different from this guide?
Does it make sense for more performance?

Please add your Skylake-X/X299 system specs (mobo, CPU, GPU) to either your profile or signature.

Thanks,

KGP

 

[kgp]

I just spent 5400 € to build this! God, my heart is pumpin'!

Edit: @kgp: Thank you so very much for this extended guide, extended and thorough it is! I feel confident, that I will successfully build it, with 7940X, almost 2000€ on CPU is just too much. ;-)

Hahaha.. hope you won't die on a heart attack

Please add your Skylake-X/X299 system specs (mobo, CPU, GPU) to either your profile or signature.

Thanks,

KGP

 

[Attila]

I've been looking into the fix to support the TB3 hot-swapping. What I gather, is that the only way to make this work, involves disconnecting the TB internal cable between the TB card & the motherboard; unfortunately, this means the the TB3 will not work under Windows.

Am I understanding this correctly? If not, can someone explain it to me?

Thanks.

 

[guysmilez]

Anyone having the issue of USB drives showing up like internal drives? Like the usb drive come up but there is not eject button.

mobo: asus x299 prime
cpu: i9-7940x
gpu: Radeon Frontier


EDIT:
Seems like some drive mount as external and some are mounting as internal not sure why.

 

[perfecto245]

Yeah I remember I had this issue with some drives and not others and apparently it’s gotten worse in high Sierra.

https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/50399

Here’s a long post about it.

And I haven’t tried this script yet
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...another-solution-but-this-one-is-free.164938/



I’m going to see if my external GDrives have the same issue (they use enterprise level hard drives). This might be related to WD.

It Worked! nice one.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

I don't usually allow sleep on a server class machine like these. considering all the power saving features built into the hardware, are you really saving that much? just let the screen go dark so the display goes on standby IMHO

About 180W approximately between on/idle and sleep.

So after a night sleep, it starts adding up. Assuming about 10 hours sleep, that's 657kWh energy consumed for nothing, AUD$145-$210 .. so yes, quite a bit

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Why do not you use RAID5? You have a lot more capacity, speed and it's safe. I always had RocketRAIDs in my PowerMacs (4.1, 5.1) and I was very happy with that.

RAID5 with 12 disks is crazy, by the time a disk fail, the chance that a second disk will fail (which are now all the same age as the failing disk) during rebuild is almost guaranteed, as a rebuild is extremely disk intensive... Especially with 4TB ones.
Most experts agree that anything over 6 disks in RAID5 is dangerous.
This was a good read 10 years ago: https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

Use RAID6 at a minimum, and even that is starting to stretch the limit:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-6-stops-working-in-2019/