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

[GDS]

oops I made a mistake it was for the X99 rig not X299

ok from my side, so far so good
planned to take few hours to install everything but 30 mins was enough
@kgp: thank you a lot again

so now, for my little tiny contribution
it is time to check and if problem to modify some points and make some tests for my rig
but for tiny information:
1/ the X99DLXII bios with the splash screen iMac Pro: works PERFECTLY
2/ i have a plextor NVMe which is not recognised BUT I guess it is material: I will see under the bios if something can be managed before to share if there is a problem with this one or not
3/ after installing the Nvidia driver, I had to activate it on the clover menu, automatically it didn't, if someone has this problem: think about it
4/ my 1080Ti fully OC (2100MHz/12900MHz) is fully used and look stable

will let you know concerning the 2699v4 and his behaviour as iMac Pro

 

[AcineL]

Does anyone have a solution to formatting an NVME (m.2 M key) drive on a Mac book pro through a series of adaptors OTHER than the $300 thunderbolt 3 enclosure ? Startech hasn't come out with a solution yet. I would prefer not to have to commit to a sata SSD and then use CCC to clone the image to my NVME drive.

 

[rugula]

Does anyone have a solution to formatting an NVME (m.2 M key) drive on a Mac book pro through a series of adaptors OTHER than the $300 thunderbolt 3 enclosure ? Startech hasn't come out with a solution yet. I would prefer not to have to commit to a sata SSD and then use CCC to clone the drive to my NVME drive.

Although I've not yet tried that hardware combination: shouldn't the NVMe SSD appear as a normal valid target drive when booted from the specially prepared macOS installer USB thumb drive?
As long as the NVMe SSD appears in the bios setup, it should also appear when booted from the macOS installer thumb drive, no?
And then use the macOS Drive Utility to format the drive, before installing macOS.
If the EFI folder creation is the issue, shouldn't there be some typed-in Terminal commands as a work around?
What am I missing here?

 

[AcineL]

Although I've not yet tried that hardware combination: shouldn't the NVMe SSD appear as a normal valid target drive when booted from the specially prepared macOS installer USB thumb drive?
As long as the NVMe SSD appears in the bios setup, it should also appear when booted from the macOS installer thumb drive, no?
And then use the macOS Drive Utility to format the drive, before installing macOS.
If the EFI folder creation is the issue, shouldn't there be some typed-in Terminal commands as a work around?
What am I missing here?

Well, I already formatted the drive to +HFS via paragon software but windows won't recognize the drive so I can't drop the EFI onto it.

If someone has run into this issue and performed the work around as you described that would be my best solution other than CCC.

 

[rugula]

Well, I already formatted the drive to +HFS via paragon software but windows won't recognize the drive so I can't drop the EFI onto it.

If someone has run into this issue had the work around as you described that would be my best solution other than CCC.

Were you able to re-format the NVMe SSD using Disk Utility while booted from the USB thumb drive?

 

[x-9er]

I posted about this over in the official thread for Graphics Power Management, but I'm wondering if anyone here has successfully implemented it for Nvidia on iMacPro1,1. toleda's instructions don't account for IGPU not appearing in the iMacPro plist, though I'm pretty sure we can implement it (and I have a strong belief that improper power management in the Nvidia driver is what's causing my kernel panics)...

My GPU memory hasn't been able to clock down in weeks.

 

[x-9er]

Well, I already formatted the drive to +HFS via paragon software but windows won't recognize the drive so I can't drop the EFI onto it.

If someone has run into this issue and performed the work around as you described that would be my best solution other than CCC.

Install MacOS onto the drive as usual, then boot up through your USB clover and select the NVME drive to boot off of to continue the installation. You can copy your EFI folder over later. You absolutely do not need to format and prepare the drive using another system before installing.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Does anyone have a solution to formatting an NVME (m.2 M key) drive on a Mac book pro through a series of adaptors OTHER than the $300 thunderbolt 3 enclosure ? Startech hasn't come out with a solution yet. I would prefer not to have to commit to a sata SSD and then use CCC to clone the image to my NVME drive.

You dont have to. So long that you have the USB installation disk with the right EFI partition, you can boot on it and format the disk later via disk utility.

 

[izo1]

Does anyone have a solution to formatting an NVME (m.2 M key) drive on a Mac book pro through a series of adaptors OTHER than the $300 thunderbolt 3 enclosure ? Startech hasn't come out with a solution yet. I would prefer not to have to commit to a sata SSD and then use CCC to clone the image to my NVME drive.

You can completely wipe the drive from terminal when you boot off the USB key installer.
(Google for the terminal commands)

Or if you have windows installed, boot into windows and from the command line as admin and run the following (check with disk management to see which drive it is):

>diskpart
>list disk
>select disk X (ie 0 if it is that)
>clean

The clean command will completely wipe all partitions and your drive will be as if it came from the factory.

Be careful running these commands because you can wipe another internal drive without knowing.

I suggest you disconnect all unnecessary drives before doing these and double check in disk management which drive exactly you’re wiping.

After these commands you can install fresh from your boot usb.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

@izo1 got any recommendations for a program to stress test the graphic card?

Got the response from AMD have to ship it to Holland, they don't appear to offer a fast replacement service in Europe.