i7-4930K - Asus Rampage IV Extreme - 32GB RAM - GTX 770 4GB [Success!!]

[shilohh]

@domtunny,
I don't game but I assume you'll be dual booting win for gaming? You'll most always get better gaming performance in win as nvidia and AMD devote more time to their win drivers for OpenGL performance. Just look up benchmarks and user reviews to see if the GPUs meet your gaming needs in win.

I don't own a 4k monitor or camera and I don't edit in 4k so I hope any other users here who do, can comment on that. Unless you are shooting and editing a highly compressed 4k format, Your bottleneck will most likely be disk read and write speeds, so be prepaired to invest in a big raid array or lots of huge SSDs. Also, Not sure what monitor/4kTV you own, but here's a good article to read:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8191/nvidia-kepler-cards-get-hdmi-4k60hz-support-kind-of

I can say that this system outperforms all Macs but the most expensive Mac Pros that cost over twice as much. However, this is a complex build for a first timer and you should be prepared for a steep learning curve. You're use case will also benefit from dual GPUs which will add complexity, and even better but more complex (not compatible with stock OSX drivers) would be dual 780ti or 980 cards but I haven't personaly tested either of these set ups and can't guarantee how the will work. If I were jumping to a 4k workflow, I'd spring for 2 980s or titans.

 

[domtunny]

Yeah I'm definitely looking at dual booting, I can't live without Windows but I most definitely need OS X for some programs etc (and I prefer OS X). Is dual booting a part of the installation or do you do that after?

I'm having a look at GeForce GTX 780 Ti and the benchmarks on that look really good to me, should be able to run pretty much anything.

I'm considering at the moment whether or not 4K is suitable for me, I will be using it now and again but NOT all the time, so maybe just stick with your guide? But with the 780 Ti for extra gaming power?

It's something I'm definitely trying to learn whats what, it'll be awhile before I start but I'll keep you updated

 

[shilohh]

Yeah I'm definitely looking at dual booting, I can't live without Windows but I most definitely need OS X for some programs etc (and I prefer OS X). Is dual booting a part of the installation or do you do that after?

I'm having a look at GeForce GTX 780 Ti and the benchmarks on that look really good to me, should be able to run pretty much anything.

I'm considering at the moment whether or not 4K is suitable for me, I will be using it now and again but NOT all the time, so maybe just stick with your guide? But with the 780 Ti for extra gaming power?

It's something I'm definitely trying to learn whats what, it'll be awhile before I start but I'll keep you updated

For dual boot (not part of this guide), install win as uefi (secure boot set to other os) to a drive connected to one of the intel sata ports. Set the the clover config.plist GUI timeout to 5 or 10 instead of 0 so that you see the clover GUI at every boot. Choose which win or mac drive to boot from at the GUI. Alternatively, you could just hold or tap the F8 key at boot time and choose the win drive as a boot override to boot win from the BIOS instead of using the clover bootloader. Pick the method that best suits you based on how often you boot windows.

If it were me, I'd go with a 980 over a 780ti for less power draw. They have the same workaround complexities at the moment (you must have the nvidia web driver installed or disable all native nvidia drivers before you can boot OS X. This means you have to wait to update OS X until nvidia release a web driver update and a cuda update compatible with that web driver [if you use cuda, which you should] and it makes the process of updating a bit more complicated).

4k requires 4x the read/write bandwidth and storage space over 1080p so I wouldn't edit in 4k unless the project and budget justified it (I'd have to invest in a raid).

 

[davidwest]

Here comes another n00b question: I'm going to upgrade from Mavericks (fully working speedstep and power management) do I have to re-create a new DSDT after installing Yosemite?


Thank you for an excellent guide! I'm sure updating to Yosemite will be a breeze thanks to you. I also followed your guides when I first built this rig and I would never have made it fully working without them so, thank you!

 

[shilohh]

Hey David,
No need to change your DSDT unless you are changing your PCI hardware. If you are doing a fresh install of yosemite, you can save and reuse all your acpi files and your config.plist

 

[davidwest]

Thanks! Everything worked except for the multibeast install - it failed. When I boot from Mac OS disk now naturally, it's weird. I can't use keyboard or mouse and I can't really do anything at all. Is there a way I can do the multibeast install from another disk somehow?

 

[shilohh]

Thanks! Everything worked except for the multibeast install - it failed. When I boot from Mac OS disk now naturally, it's weird. I can't use keyboard or mouse and I can't really do anything at all. Is there a way I can do the multibeast install from another disk somehow?

Oh I forgot. there is one change you have to make for yosemite. You need to add kext-dev-mode=1 to the boot args string in the config.plist if it's not there yet. The only thing that I can think of that could keep your keyboard and mouse from working is if they are plugged into USB 3 and USB 3 is no longer working. By the way, you should delete the genericUsbxhci kext and use the CalDigit ones with yosemite. You should also keep your mouse and keyboard plugged into USB 2

 

[davidwest]

Thank you for replying!

FakeSMC was the reason why Multibeast failed to install. Had to remove it and install it again as it never replaced it in the first place with the one provided by your guide. Really strange as the other kexts were installed just fine. I hope it will run smoothly now

 

[davidwest]

All is up and running! Thank you The only thing I'm wondering about is that my CPU is at 13 W Idle 1.19 GHz. Isn't 13 W a little too much? Shouldn't it be more like 4-5 W?

 

[davidwest]

Hi shilohh!

One weird thing happened, the desktop and the internal hd's are for some reason invisible. If I plug in a USB-stick or an external unit it shows up fine and if I drag new files to the desktop they show up fine too. I've tried
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
killall Finder
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true
killall Finder

It didn't make my HD's or the old files located in the desktop folder show up on the desktop. I've also uninstalled any third party apps like switchresX as I thought the desktop for some reason got lost in between screens as I was running two monitors. I've also checked the most obvious things as multiple desktops in mission control.

I was trying to boot in safe mode as I have heard somewhere that it could resolve this issue, but it wont boot when i add -x to the boot args string.