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

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Yes, I was reading back on some of your threads. I think I will buy the 1050ti single slot card run that on lane 1 and thunderbolt card on lane 2. Then some 1080tis on the rest of the lanes. I would love to know though if this would even work. If it doesn't I wouldn't buy the board, it would not be worth it unfortunately. Any out there that has tried to run more than 1 GPU and thunderbolt? Thanks!

I believe @cloudconnected666 has two 1080tis so he/she might have some feedback but judging from one of the posts it looks like dual 1080 tis is working well. Though they haven’t been on since December
 
I’m only running one vega frontier at the moment so can’t comment on that. If you do plan to use a thunderbolt card, it has to be in slot 2 which makes the lane allocation to be 16x/8x/8x/8x/8x/8x/8x. Thought I wonder if you can still do 16/0/16/0/16/0/16 with a thunderbolt card since it is on the pch. I’m planning on messing with having a vega in slot 1 and rtx in slot 3 to see if that’s the case though.

Or... I can sell my gaming computer parts and the Vega and get a Vega vii :lol:

You should wait and see if the VII works with X299 once there is a native macOS implementation. Up to know there is no way to make the VII work on X299, as adding it's device-ID to the 5000-kext apparently requires an iGPU implementation not available with Skylake-X. @DSM2 is currently investigating different helper card solutions. In any case, in my personal opinion one really needs to wait for the native VII macOS implementation and see if by then the VII works OoB also with SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 and X299/Skylake-X or X99/Broadwell-E/Haswell-E, which actually is not the case.
 
You should wait and see if the VII works with X299 once there is a native macOS implementation. Up to know there is no way to make the VII work on X299, as adding it's device-ID to the 5000-kext apparently requires an iGPU implementation not available with Skylake-X. @DSM2 is currently investigating different helper card solutions. In any case, in my personal opinion one really needs to wait for the native VII macOS implementation and see if by then the VII works OoB also with SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 and X299/Skylake-X or X99/Broadwell-E/Haswell-E, which actually is not the case.

Yep should’ve clarified that once or if it’s natively supported I would think of it as a solution :)
 
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Hi guys, got some things to clarify if you dont mind. The guide has been solid and very educational, and i am really grateful for that.

Specs: X299-D, i9-7900X water cooled with a corsair, GTX 1050, 128GB DDR4 3200mhz G.Skill Trident, Samsung 960 NVMe 512gb, 1TB Sata SSD, 4TB HDD and TBEX 3 on exactly the same case as OP.

Issues:
  1. A slight tilt, shake on the case results to a complete freeze of the system, even on BIOS. Sounds like a short-circuit to me especially considering that this is by far the most complicated and sophisticated system i've ever built. I havent had a short-circuit in decades, but i remember them to be disastrous, while here a simple cold-start brings everything back to normal.
  2. Randomly, i am getting a Code CC hang and never makes it past the POST. Another cold-start gets rid of it.
  3. TBEX 3 wont work atm. initially, before going for the macOS setup, i did the windows routine, but i did also neglectfully ignored the fact that Windows must be there permanently. I got rid of it and in the meantime my BIOS went havoc which made me reset, in fact, i used the opportunity and flashed the 1503 with the iMac Pro splash, and then reflashed again since downgrading and re-flashing seem to make a big difference on these boards that seem to forget the configs (or something like that).

As i stand, the system complies to KGP recommendations, with the CPU differences and everything. It boots up perfectly and all patches activated. TP is a must. Is Windows fundamental at this point? if yes, does it actually need another OSX reinstall?

Since i am not having deeper issues, i assumed it's ok not to include all the required files for support, my apologies if i assumed wrong. my questions are more community oriented, with 1. and 2. i think something may've passed in front of me and it really is annoying the soul out.

Thanks a lot guys and thanks OP for the amazing beast.
 
I believe @cloudconnected666 has two 1080tis so he/she might have some feedback but judging from one of the posts it looks like dual 1080 tis is working well. Though they haven’t been on since December
Just to be absolutely sure because Im going to buy this board. Does the onboard 10G work without a hassle? Also is the TB work with hotswap, and all the back ports ect? Anything else to be aware of? Thanks!
 
Hi guys, got some things to clarify if you dont mind. The guide has been solid and very educational, and i am really grateful for that.

Specs: X299-D, i9-7900X water cooled with a corsair, GTX 1050, 128GB DDR4 3200mhz G.Skill Trident, Samsung 960 NVMe 512gb, 1TB Sata SSD, 4TB HDD and TBEX 3 on exactly the same case as OP.

Issues:
  1. A slight tilt, shake on the case results to a complete freeze of the system, even on BIOS. Sounds like a short-circuit to me especially considering that this is by far the most complicated and sophisticated system i've ever built. I havent had a short-circuit in decades, but i remember them to be disastrous, while here a simple cold-start brings everything back to normal.
  2. Randomly, i am getting a Code CC hang and never makes it past the POST. Another cold-start gets rid of it.
  3. TBEX 3 wont work atm. initially, before going for the macOS setup, i did the windows routine, but i did also neglectfully ignored the fact that Windows must be there permanently. I got rid of it and in the meantime my BIOS went havoc which made me reset, in fact, i used the opportunity and flashed the 1503 with the iMac Pro splash, and then reflashed again since downgrading and re-flashing seem to make a big difference on these boards that seem to forget the configs (or something like that).
As i stand, the system complies to KGP recommendations, with the CPU differences and everything. It boots up perfectly and all patches activated. TP is a must. Is Windows fundamental at this point? if yes, does it actually need another OSX reinstall?

Since i am not having deeper issues, i assumed it's ok not to include all the required files for support, my apologies if i assumed wrong. my questions are more community oriented, with 1. and 2. i think something may've passed in front of me and it really is annoying the soul out.

Thanks a lot guys and thanks OP for the amazing beast.

Please add your system specs (mobs, CPU, GPU) to either your profile or signature.

If you need help, try to provide a useful bug report including all information requested at beginning of Section C.) thus others are able to help. I stopped providing user specific support for now.

One friendly advise. Don't waste your time with the TBEX 3 and directly opt for a GC-Alpine Ridge or even better for the GC-Titan Ridge. The latter will allow flawless TB and USB-C HotPlug in combination with the Deluxe. There is however a remaining wake problem with TB devices connected during sleep when using the GC-Titan Ridge with the Deluxe. With the GC-Titan Ridge, TB/USB-C HotPlug and full sleep/wake functionally only can be achieved with the ASUS WS X299 Sage 10G for now.

Hope this provides some useful clarifications.

Good luck,

KGP
 
Just to be absolutely sure because Im going to buy this board. Does the onboard 10G work without a hassle? Also is the TB work with hotswap, and all the back ports ect? Anything else to be aware of? Thanks!

Onboard 10G requires ubuntu to use the small tree drivers. (Explained in the guide) or you can use fakepciid kexts. I use the latter approach since it’s easier but it’s best to flash the intel 10g for a more permanent solution. All USB ports and audio work fine for me and I made a USB Kext in kgp’s github repo. Can’t comment on TB but usb c and display Hotplug work fine. The main things with this board is lack of internal usb headers, lane allocation, and the thunderbolt card needs to be in slot 2 (according to the manual) which i already mentioned. Hope this helps good luck!
 
Please add your system specs (mobs, CPU, GPU) to either your profile or signature.

If you need help, try to provide a useful bug report including all information requested at beginning of Section C.) thus others are able to help. I stopped providing user specific support for now.

One friendly advise. Don't waste your time with the TBEX 3 and directly opt for a GC-Alpine Ridge or even better for the GC-Titan Ridge. The latter will allow flawless TB and USB-C HotPlug in combination with the Deluxe. There is however a remaining wake problem with TB devices connected during sleep when using the GC-Titan Ridge with the Deluxe. With the GC-Titan Ridge, TB/USB-C HotPlug and full sleep/wake functionally only can be achieved with the ASUS WS X299 Sage 10G for now.

Hope this provides some useful clarifications.

Good luck,

KGP

I am really sorry for not promoting the input correctly, it just happens that i help friends around more then i build for myself.

I have already noticed the Gigabyte options you mention, but i did gather all the parts before the Gigabyte TBs were around in the guide. It is clearly in my upgrade list, for the sake of stability and minimum maintenance.

If i happen to change to a Gigabyte TB, would i require any changes on Clover? I adapted everything correctly through the guide, would changing the TB card require any work?

Thanks for your input mate, i really did not expect a response from you, honoured. Thanks a lot for your invested time.
 
I am really sorry for not promoting the input correctly, it just happens that i help friends around more then i build for myself.

I have already noticed the Gigabyte options you mention, but i did gather all the parts before the Gigabyte TBs were around in the guide. It is clearly in my upgrade list, for the sake of stability and minimum maintenance.

If i happen to change to a Gigabyte TB, would i require any changes on Clover? I adapted everything correctly through the guide, would changing the TB card require any work?

Thanks for your input mate, i really did not expect a response from you, honoured. Thanks a lot for your invested time.

As soon the TB-SSDT has been properly adapted/implemented once, you can just switch between different TB devices, as long they populate the same PCIe slot after each physical hardware replacement.. ;)

Good luck,

KGP
 
Onboard 10G requires ubuntu to use the small tree drivers. (Explained in the guide) or you can use fakepciid kexts. I use the latter approach since it’s easier but it’s best to flash the intel 10g for a more permanent solution. All USB ports and audio work fine for me and I made a USB Kext in kgp’s github repo. Can’t comment on TB but usb c and display Hotplug work fine. The main things with this board is lack of internal usb headers, lane allocation, and the thunderbolt card needs to be in slot 2 (according to the manual) which i already mentioned. Hope this helps good luck!
Thank you for the details regarding the board I really appreciate it! I'm going to pick mine up today so I'm going to start on my build this evening. Few more questions have you tested being able to run a graphics card not in slot one? Also was there a specific bios you tested? We are at 0905 i believe. Do you still have your graphics card on a riser? If so how is that running? Couldn't you just move your graphics card to slot 3 and 4? I think that is my only issue is how I'm going to be able to run two graphics cards and the Thunderbolt at the same time. Thanks!
 
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