Is this Shuttle XPC SZ77R5 config hackable?

[Bradamante]

Hi,

being a Apple customer since 1996 it looks like I finally ended up in the Hackintosh scene. Wow, who would have thought. I am currently using a 24" early 2009 iMac and looking for an update. I waited my a** off for the new iMacs (18 months, basically), and I'm shaking my head in disappointment. Why? Well, I'd like to stick with the iMac format, but the new iMacs lack FireWire ports, are too large at 27" for my specific desk and the new Euro prices are insane.

Here are my requirements:
- two monitor setup (preferably: 2x DVI or 1x DVI + 1x HDMI)
- WLAN (Ethernet not really needed)
- 1x SSD + 1x 3,5" HD (better: 1x SSD + 2x 3,5" HD) internally
- at least one FireWire 800 or 400 port
- Harmon/Kardon Soundsticks (USB!)
- DVD-DL writer (Blue-Ray nice to have)
- video cam for Skype
- quad core CPU
- medium dedicated GPU
- small form factor, should be "somewhat" silent

Question: Can this be done?
Are there Hackintoshes with working FireWire ports (no discussion - I need this for a camcorder and FireWire target disc mode booting)?
Are there Hackintoshed with working Harmon/Kardon Soundsticks (USB variant!)?
What about nice-to-haves like BlueTooth (mobile phone data exchange) or the Apple Remote?

My impression is that the Shuttle XPC SZ77R5 is for me. With a Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB + i5-3570K + Corsair 2x 4GB 1600 MHz + Gigabyte GF GTX 660 OC ... I am at 1050 Euros, which seems plausible. *THIS* thread reported CPU issues. But there's no mention how they were solved. So how where they? What is the "nulcpu" mentioned?

Now ... Since this is the first time ever I am building a PC and I have zero Hackintosh experience (though a lot of general Mac maintenance experience) ... What else do I need?

- Do I have to stuff more fans in there or is that covered by the Shuttle case? Or any other hardware of that kind?
- What WLAN card do I need? Or is there some on-board module that will work? *THIS* thread mentions a Broadcom WLAN card. Which one?
- Will some PCI card with FireWire ports work with a Hackintosh?
- What DVD-DL drive should I get? Some slim format or 5.x"? Should work with Toast.
- Is the RAM speed automatically at 1600 MHz or do I have to set this somewhere?
- What Skype video cam should I get?
- Will the apple wired keyboard work with hotkeys (like Alt during booting for boot partition selection)?
- What kind of PCI cards does this require (WLAN, FireWire)? PCI? PCI-E? Long? Short? I'm a bit confused.

Will this system with this CPU, this GPU, a WLAN card, a FireWire card .. get too noisy? Or too hot?

Yeah, these are a lot of questions. But maybe we can turn this into a reference thread on the Shuttle XPC SZ77R5.

 

[nobodynose]

Hi,

being a Apple customer since 1996 it looks like I finally ended up in the Hackintosh scene. Wow, who would have thought. I am currently using a 24" early 2009 iMac and looking for an update. I waited my a** off for the new iMacs (18 months, basically), and I'm shaking my head in disappointment. Why? Well, I'd like to stick with the iMac format, but the new iMacs lack FireWire ports, are too large at 27" for my specific desk and the new Euro prices are insane.

Here are my requirements:
- two monitor setup (preferably: 2x DVI or 1x DVI + 1x HDMI)
- WLAN (Ethernet not really needed)
- 1x SSD + 1x 3,5" HD (better: 1x SSD + 2x 3,5" HD) internally
- at least one FireWire 800 or 400 port
- Harmon/Kardon Soundsticks (USB!)
- DVD-DL writer (Blue-Ray nice to have)
- video cam for Skype
- quad core CPU
- medium dedicated GPU
- small form factor, should be "somewhat" silent

Question: Can this be done?

Absolutely.

Are there Hackintoshes with working FireWire ports (no discussion - I need this for a camcorder and FireWire target disc mode booting)?

Yes, though I don't know of many (any?) motherboards with Firewire built-in, you can always add a PCIe card. The best card to get is one with a TI chipset, such as the Sonnet Allegro FW800 (which is about $69). You can also go a lot cheaper - one of my builds has a Syba SD-PEX30009 Firewire 400/800 card (http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Profile-PCI-Express-Chipset-SD-PEX30009/dp/B002S53IG8) that costs $26 and works just fine OOB.

Are there Hackintoshed with working Harmon/Kardon Soundsticks (USB variant!)?

If they work with a Mac USB port then they'll work with a Hackintosh USB port.

What about nice-to-haves like BlueTooth (mobile phone data exchange) or the Apple Remote?

Bluetooth is easy; just pick up a supported USB Bluetooth dongle, such as the IOGear GBU521 ($12.99 at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Bluetooth-Micro-Adapter-GBU521/dp/B007GFX0PY), which works OOB in Mountain Lion. The Apple Remote is a little trickier; you have to get an IR receiver for it and install it in your Hackintosh. The particular IR receiver you need is harvested from a MacBook Pro, so you'll have to wire it to a USB connector yourself so you can plug it in to a USB port.

My impression is that the Shuttle XPC SZ77R5 is for me. With a Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB + i5-3570K + Corsair 2x 4GB 1600 MHz + Gigabyte GF GTX 660 OC ... I am at 1050 Euros, which seems plausible. *THIS* thread reported CPU issues. But there's no mention how they were solved. So how where they? What is the "nulcpu" mentioned?

The Shuttle XPC SZ77R5 does look like a choice that will suit your needs. I posted about the NullCPUManagement.kext in the original thread.

Now ... Since this is the first time ever I am building a PC and I have zero Hackintosh experience (though a lot of general Mac maintenance experience) ... What else do I need?

You need (for everything you're requesting):

• the aforementioned Firewire PCIe card
• a supported USB Bluetooth dongle (such as the IOGear GBU521 I mentioned)
• a supported Mini-PCIe WiFi card - You need either a Broadcom BCM94322MC-based or an Atheros AR9280 or AR9380-based HALF-SIZE Mini-PCIe card. The Broadcoms are older; you can get one of the Atheros cards for about $10 on eBay. See this thread for more discussion of the Atheros cards.
  

- Do I have to stuff more fans in there or is that covered by the Shuttle case? Or any other hardware of that kind?

Besides what you mentioned above and what I listed above, I don't think there is anything else you need (unless you do want to add an Apple Remote IR receiver; if you do, do a search on the forum to find more info).

- What WLAN card do I need? Or is there some on-board module that will work? *THIS* thread mentions a Broadcom WLAN card. Which one?

You're going to want a HALF-SIZE Mini-PCIe WiFi card (as specified above)

- Will some PCI card with FireWire ports work with a Hackintosh?

See above.

- What DVD-DL drive should I get? Some slim format or 5.x"? Should work with Toast.

It looks like any old 5.25" full-size SATA drive will fit in the case. You should consult with Toast's supported hardware list, I don't know anything about it. Keep in mind that there are some optical drives that work better with Hackintosh than others (some cause problems with the machine either not going to sleep or not waking from sleep).

- Is the RAM speed automatically at 1600 MHz or do I have to set this somewhere?

The system should automatically detect the speed of the RAM that you buy and install.

- What Skype video cam should I get?

I've been using a Logitech C615 - works quite well with Skype, also works with Facetime OOB.

- Will the apple wired keyboard work with hotkeys (like Alt during booting for boot partition selection)?

That's actually a function of the boot loader software, not the keyboard - But the Apple wired keyboard works well, I'm using one myself.

- What kind of PCI cards does this require (WLAN, FireWire)? PCI? PCI-E? Long? Short? I'm a bit confused.

This system does not have any PCI slots, only PCIe and Mini-PCIe. I believe it will accept a full length graphics card (if that's what you choose). Your WiFi card will be Mini-PCIe, your Firewire card will be PCIe, and your graphics card will of course be PCIe.

Will this system with this CPU, this GPU, a WLAN card, a FireWire card .. get too noisy? Or too hot?

The system comes with a heatpipe system for cooling the CPU, so that should stay cool and not be too noisy. I think it will be a good system for you.

I was just reading back through my responses, and I want to apologize for being so US-centric; I just assumed you were in the US. Still, you should be able to find what you need even if you don't have access to Amazon.

 

[Bradamante]

Thank you very much for your reply, very helpful.

You're right about the US-centrism thing. Shows some self-reflection on your part, which I appreciate. You're right, I am located in Germany, so Amazon.com is off-hands. So is EBay, since I don't have an account there. EBay classifieds I do use. I usually order from Amazon Germany, Alternate or Hardwareversand.

To be honest, I just moved away from the Shuttle XPC SZ77R5. Too expensive. 355 Euros and you dont know what board it is? And on the german Amazon and Alternate page people mentioned some problems.
I kinda settled on the BitFenix Prodigy which is recommended at Tonymac anyway. Here is a windowed side door. How would I place some LED inside the case? Bare with me, that's my first time doing this kind of work. I will do some research if I can put 1x 2.5" and 2x 3.5" hard discs in there.
Board-wise, there doesn't seem to be much choice, indeed. The Gigabyte website is not terribly helpful with this, since you can't sort by formfactor (would be: microITX). So let's just assume there's no Gigabyte miniITX board, 1155 socket, Z77 platform, with FireWire ports. So let's say here is my mainboard, here's my i5-3570K and here is my graphics card. See, here I am already scratching my head. Isn't this card blocking two slots? So how am I supposed to get a WiFi or FireWire card in there?

1) WiFi
The Atheros 9280 half-size card is here. Are you sure the WLAN quality will be reliable? I am not asking for much, the WLAN quality form my 2009 iMac is perfectly fine. But with such a tiny card, no antennas - and from inside a case?!
Shouldn't I go for a WLAN USB stick? If yes, which one? Why not just an Apple Airport card, like this? I have no problem using a card like this. But who says it will fit in? On a microITX board with a big graphics card?

2) FireWire
The Allegro FW800 card is here. 70 Euros just for FireWire. The Syba FireWire card you mentioned is nowhere to be seen

3) Bluetooth
The IOGear GBU521 you mentioned is nowhere to be found. Of course there are a gazillion more, like this.
Why do I even need a module? At the bottom of this table at Tonymac, the asterisk (*) implies that while WiFi won't work, Bluetooth will?!

4) Power supply
Here they say to use a 650W power supply. Why? Looks like this one. Isn't this a bit big? Expensive? Aren't 250W enough?

5) Optical drive
Maybe the Pioneer BDR-208DBK? Thing is, on the Toast page there's no mention of specific drives.

6) Infrared
Alright, that one looks tricky. Will have to do research on that. The goal is to put the case under the desc and to stick the IR receiver to the monitor. So I guess I need some 2 meter cable ...

7) Video cam
The Logitech C615 seems a bit overpowered for my needs. But you're right, practically any cam should work. In the past I ordered some cheap, used Logitech cam for 10 Euros for a friendly Mac user and it worked. No worries here.

8) Hotkeys
I am not sure if I made myself clear or if I misunderstood your answer. I'm sure the Apple keyboard will in general work. But ... Will Alt during startup give me the boot partition selection screen? Will T during startup put the Hackintosh into FireWire target disc mode?

My main concern right now is case space. Who says that CPU + cooler, a big graphics card, two or three harddiscs, a WLAN card and a FireWire card will all fit in there?! And what power supply do I need for all this?

Absolutely.

 

[nobodynose]

Thank you very much for your reply, very helpful.

You're right about the US-centrism thing. Shows some self-reflection on your part, which I appreciate. You're right, I am located in Germany, so Amazon.com is off-hands. So is EBay, since I don't have an account there. EBay classifieds I do use. I usually order from Amazon Germany, Alternate or Hardwareversand.

To be honest, I just moved away from the Shuttle XPC SZ77R5. Too expensive. 355 Euros and you dont know what board it is? And on the german Amazon and Alternate page people mentioned some problems.
I kinda settled on the BitFenix Prodigy which is recommended at Tonymac anyway. Here is a windowed side door. How would I place some LED inside the case? Bare with me, that's my first time doing this kind of work. I will do some research if I can put 1x 2.5" and 2x 3.5" hard discs in there.
Board-wise, there doesn't seem to be much choice, indeed. The Gigabyte website is not terribly helpful with this, since you can't sort by formfactor (would be: microITX). So let's just assume there's no Gigabyte miniITX board, 1155 socket, Z77 platform, with FireWire ports. So let's say here is my mainboard, here's my i5-3570K and here is my graphics card. See, here I am already scratching my head. Isn't this card blocking two slots? So how am I supposed to get a WiFi or FireWire card in there?

MiniITX boards only have one PCIe x16 slot - it's in the specification. So MiniITX won't suit your needs if you must have a discrete graphics card (as opposed to using the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics) and Firewire; you'll need to go with a MicroATX board. Which means no Bitfenix Prodigy.

1) WiFi
The Atheros 9280 half-size card is here. Are you sure the WLAN quality will be reliable? I am not asking for much, the WLAN quality form my 2009 iMac is perfectly fine. But with such a tiny card, no antennas - and from inside a case?!

The card itself doesn't come with antennas, but it has two antenna connectors, and the motherboard will usually come with the antennas.

Shouldn't I go for a WLAN USB stick? If yes, which one? Why not just an Apple Airport card, like this? I have no problem using a card like this. But who says it will fit in? On a microITX board with a big graphics card?

The Apple Airport card is expensive when compared with a US$10 Atheros card that's recognized by Mac OS X as a native Airport card. And if you're still thinking of using the MiniITX form factor you can't have a PCIe graphics card AND a PCIe WiFi card AND a PCIe Firewire card -- you can only have ONE PCIe card.

2) FireWire
The Allegro FW800 card is here. 70 Euros just for FireWire. The Syba FireWire card you mentioned is nowhere to be seen

You might find some other options in this thread; there have been sleep and shutdown problems, but it's looking hopeful that they'll be resolved, at least on Gigabyte motherboards. Basically as long as the Firewire card uses a TI or LSI Logic chipset (what Apple uses/has used) it should work (with the caveat about sleep and shutdown problems).

3) Bluetooth
The IOGear GBU521 you mentioned is nowhere to be found. Of course there are a gazillion more, like this.
Why do I even need a module? At the bottom of this table at Tonymac, the asterisk (*) implies that while WiFi won't work, Bluetooth will?!

The module that comes with those "WIFI" model Gigabyte boards is a combined Intel Centrino WiFi (which is unsupported) and Bluetooth MiniPCIe card. If you remove it to replace it with a supported WiFi card (like the Atheros) you lose the Bluetooth. There's a list of other Bluetooth adapters that work in the Wiki, though the list is a bit old.

4) Power supply
Here they say to use a 650W power supply. Why? Looks like this one. Isn't this a bit big? Expensive? Aren't 250W enough?

I agree that 650W is probably overkill for that system, however I don't think 250W is enough if you have a video card (which uses a LOT of power). There's a power supply calculator at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp that will help you estimate what you need.

5) Optical drive
Maybe the Pioneer BDR-208DBK? Thing is, on the Toast page there's no mention of specific drives.

If you can still get a Sony Optiarc drive, I know those will work without sleep problems. You'll have to do some research in the forums to find out other options.

6) Infrared
Alright, that one looks tricky. Will have to do research on that. The goal is to put the case under the desc and to stick the IR receiver to the monitor. So I guess I need some 2 meter cable ...

Here's the guide I used to make mine: http://photos.pottebaum.com/gallery/7075206_LwKc4

8) Hotkeys
I am not sure if I made myself clear or if I misunderstood your answer. I'm sure the Apple keyboard will in general work. But ... Will Alt during startup give me the boot partition selection screen? Will T during startup put the Hackintosh into FireWire target disc mode?

The Chimera boot loader (which is what you use with a Hackintosh) lets you select the boot partition - it gives you a screen showing all available bootable partitions similar to what you get when you hold Option/Alt. I have no idea about Firewire Target mode; I've never used it.

My main concern right now is case space. Who says that CPU + cooler, a big graphics card, two or three harddiscs, a WLAN card and a FireWire card will all fit in there?! And what power supply do I need for all this?

You won't be able to do what you're trying to do with the MiniITX form factor; it simply doesn't have the PCIe slots you need. So you'll have to bump it up to MicroATX, and buy the case that fits everything you want to put in it.

 

[Bradamante]

Hi,

just a few things for now, I will add more later.

Let's assume I use a GA-Z77MX-D3H mATX board. In the top-view picture in that gallery, the PCIE x16 slot is the right-most. Left next to it is a super-short PCIE x1, left next is a PCIE x4, left next is a PCIE x8.

Stuffing a GTX 650 Ti into the x16 slot will block the PCIE x1 slot. Is that a problem assuming that this is my FW800 card and this is my WLAN card? I will have to put both these cards into the full length slots, even though the cards are short like the x1 slot. Is that possible - putting a short card into a long slot?

Also notice that the Gigabyte page says that if both the x8 and the x16 slots are occupied (with the graphics card + WLAN or FW800 card), the x16 slot behaves like a x8 slot, since they share bandwith. Will I feel that when it comes to graphics card performance? Not I plan to push it terribly ...

 

[nobodynose]

Hi,

just a few things for now, I will add more later.

Let's assume I use a GA-Z77MX-D3H mATX board. In the top-view picture in that gallery, the PCIE x16 slot is the right-most. Left next to it is a super-short PCIE x1, left next is a PCIE x4, left next is a PCIE x8.

Stuffing a GTX 650 Ti into the x16 slot will block the PCIE x1 slot. Is that a problem assuming that this is my FW800 card and this is my WLAN card? I will have to put both these cards into the full length slots, even though the cards are short like the x1 slot. Is that possible - putting a short card into a long slot?

That's one of the nice things about PCIe - the "x1, x4, x8, x16" refer to the number of simultaneous data channels the cards can transmit over, but any "shorter" PCIe card can be placed in any "longer" slot.

Also notice that the Gigabyte page says that if both the x8 and the x16 slots are occupied (with the graphics card + WLAN or FW800 card), the x16 slot behaves like a x8 slot, since they share bandwith. Will I feel that when it comes to graphics card performance? Not I plan to push it terribly ...

No you won't likely notice - after all, many gamers (who place the largest demands on video performance) use two graphics cards, one of which is usually in a shared bandwidth slot.

 

[Bradamante]

Alright, I have done more research, for a case mostly but also here on the forums regarding audio and fire wire cards.

I noticed something weird: My mainboard of choice is the GA-Z77MX-D3H. My FireWire card of choice (on German retailers I find a lot of FireWire controller cards, but not those recommended on Hackintosh sites) is the Sonnet Allegro FW800. Problem is, that Amazon uses a different picture than Sonnet. The card in the Sonnet picture looks way too long, as if it wouldn't fit into the slots on the mainboard. But that can't be. It's a standard format?!

EDIT: Would the Sonnet Tango PCIe be a better choice? It's listed as a PC product with Windows drivers, but it sports the TI chipset.
EDIT: Wait, there is the Sonnet Allegro FW800 PCIe[/URL].

On the issue of cases, I'm looking for something more compact than a tower. My eye fell on the Lian Li V355, a picture of which with components is here. The case is quite expensive, but let's forget that for a moment.

The Corsair H60 Watercooling sports a 120 mm fan. However, the compact Lian Li case does not have a 120 mm "out" fan on the back, only a 80 mm one. There are two 120 mm fans on the front. But I guess those can't be removed independently (will check on that). I've seen pictures of people connecting the 120 mm fan on the cooler to the front of the computer. Isn't that a wee bit dangerous? Wouldn't that blow warm air into the case instead of out the case?

 

[immklein]

Hey there,

anything new about the compatibility of this case (Lian Li V355) and watercooling-solution (Corsair H60 or H80?)
I am also planing on building a hackintosh into this case and would be very interested to hear about your results. I purchased the case in Germany from this website, which seems to be the cheapest: www.caseking.de
Researching about builds using this case, I found this:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1332877/build-log-watercooled-lian-li-v355-build

Seems a little to difficult for my level of skills, but perhaps there is another easier way using the Corsair-solution.

Would be very happy to hear about your results and will of course let you know, if anything new comes up with mine.

Greetings,

immklein