LaMosca's Build: Core i7-3770 - GA-B75M-D3P - 32GB RAM - HD4000

[LaMosca]

LaMosca's Build: Core i7-3770 - GA-B75M-D3P - 32GB RAM - HD4000
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Components

Apple OS X version 10.8.2 Mountain Lion
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt

OS X Server
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-server/id537441259?mt=12

Athena Power RM-2U2022S558 Black Steel 2U Rackmount Server Chassis w/ 80 PLUS V2.2 Micro PS3 EPS-12V 550W Power Supply 2 External 5.25" Drive Bays - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811192163

GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3P LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007R21JJ0/

Intel Core i7-3770 3.4GHz (Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz) Quad-core with Hyper-Threading
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SZ0EHE/

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233246

SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC128B/WW
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0077CR60Q/

Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Desktop Hard Drive - WD2002FAEX
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004CSIG1G/

HGST Deskstar 3.5-Inch 3TB 7200RPM SATA III 6Gbps 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive (0S03086)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004E9SGPY/

StarTech.com 2 Port Low Profile SATA to eSATA Plate Adapter - F/M (ESATAPLT2LPM)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HYDLQO/

Rosewill 20" Serial ATA III Red Flat Cable w/ Locking Latch Support 6 Gbps, 3 Gbps, and 1.5 Gbps transfer rate Model RCW-204
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119052


Already Owned

Pioneer BDR206DBK Blu-Ray Drive - up to 12X Blu-Ray, 16X DVD, 8X DVD-DL, 40X CD Burn Speeds
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0046K062C/

Hanns·G HG-281DPB Black 28" 3ms Widescreen LCD HDMI Monitor 500 cd/m2 800:1 Built-in Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254026

Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350
http://www.amazon.com/Epson-PowerLite-Home-Cinema-8350/dp/B0044UHJWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355676131&sr=8-1&keywords=epson+8350+projector

Middle Atlantic DWR Wall-Mount Rack
http://www.middleatlantic.com/enclosure/wall/dwr.htm

APC Smart-UPS SUA1500RM2U 1500VA USB and Serial 2U Rackmount UPS System
http://www.amazon.com/APC-Smart-UPS-SUA1500RM2U-1500VA-Rackmount/dp/B000086A26/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1355674297&sr=8-7&keywords=apc+smart-ups+1500+rm

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus Digital/Analog TV Receiver and Video Converter (10020780)
http://www.amazon.com/Elgato-Digital-Receiver-Converter-10020780/dp/B0013PQ6P4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1355675004&sr=1-1&keywords=elgato+eyetv+250

OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 external hardware RAID enclosure (with 4 x 2TB Hitachi drives)
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Desktop/


The Build Process:

BIOS Settings
I'll clean this up later, possibly with screen shots.

Upgraded BIOS from F3 (which was on the board when I received it) to F6 (latest non-beta available)

F7 (Function key F7 that is) - Optimized
SATA - AHCI
GSATA (Marvell SATA ports) - AHCI
Init Display First - IGFX
Internal Graphics - Enabled (Left at default of 64M memory)

OS Install from UniBeast - Mountain Lion 1.5.3 USB Flash Drive
Had to boot with "-x" to get into the OS X Installer. Formatted drive with Disk Utility. Performed installation as normal.
Booted from USB Flash drive to Chameleon, selected drive on which I installed OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2, again had to pass "-x" to get it to boot.
Ran MultiBeast - Mountain Lion 5.2.0.

MultiBeast - Mountain Lion 5.2.0 Configuration
I'll populate this with more info and detail later.

Selected following items:
UserDSDT or DSDT-Free Installation
Drivers: Audio: Realtek ALC8xx: Without DSDT: ALC887/888b: v100302 Current
Drivers: Disk: 3rd Party SATA
Drivers: Disk: TRIM Enabler: 10.8.1+ TRIM Patch
Drivers: Miscellaneous: FakeSMC
Drivers: Miscellaneous: FakeSMC Plugins (check box for the group so you get Plugins and HWMonitor Application)
Drivers: Network: Realtek - Lnx2Mac's RealtekRTL81xx v0.0.90

NOTE: I could not get it to boot without passing "-x" until I added the below item (thanks Asusman!):
Drivers: System: AppleACPIPlatform Rollback: 10.8.1 Rollback

Audio is working via the 1/4" Line Out on the back as well as via SPDIF optical output on the back. I'm still working on HDMI audio and will post more when I've made progress on that.


Comments:

I have a 20U wall mount rack in my basement and really wanted a rack mount server. Apple no longer makes one and even if they still made the X-Serve, it would be too deep for my rack. Thus I set about building a Hackintosh server. I have an aging MacPro 1,1 from 2006 that is stuck on Snow Leopard server and is getting long in the tooth. The nice part is the number of disks and cards that can be installed.

Since this is my first Hackintosh build, I pretty much stuck to the CustoMac 2012 recommendations. I reviewed a number of 2U rack enclosures before settling on the Athena. With the size of DIMM heat sinks, your actual drive installation location choices are greatly reduced. There are two 3.5" drive brackets that sit right behind two 80mm case fans on the front right side of the case, but since the drives extend over the DIMM locations (at least with the GA-B75M-D3P motherboard), you're pretty much limited to one drive in each bracket in the top-most spot (instead of three potential locations per bracket). I installed the Pioneer Blu-Ray drive in the lower 5.25" slot on the left side and installed a 5.25" to 3.5" adapter with the WD 2TB Caviar Black drive in the slot above the Blu-Ray drive. The Hitachi 3TB Deskstar is installed in the middle of the front case in the top slot of one of the 3.5" drive brackets. The Samsung SSD is installed in the top slot of the other 3.5" drive bracket on the right side. To get a bit more clearance above the DIMMs, I drilled some additional holes in the right bracket and installed the SSD using a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter.

The GA-B75M-D3P motherboard has five SATA2 ports and three SATA3 ports (two of which are tied to the Marvell controller). I plugged the SSD into the one SATA3 motherboard port (non-Marvell), and the two additional hard drives and Blu-Ray were plugged into SATA2 ports (even though the hard drives support SATA3, I can't imagine they can really utilize it by themselves). I ran two SATA2 ports to the low-profile StarTech eSATA bracket and have the OWC Qx2 connected to this along with an additional single drive enclosure.

I currently have the Hanns-G 28" monitor connected to the DVI-D port. The HDMI is connected to a Denon AVR-2312CI receiver which uses the Epson 8350 projector and 5-speaker Defnitive Technology surround system as the output. Since HDMI audio isn't yet working, I also have a Toslink optical cable connected to the Denon receiver. The Hanns-G is installed on a VESA compliant ceiling mount 30+ feet away from the server. I use an active USB extension cable and a powered USB hub to connect a wired Apple extended USB keyboard and mouse along with my RealAxiom USB-connected bike trainer. I run the RealAxiom software on a Windows 7 virtual machine and can place it either on the Hanns-G monitor right in front of the bike trainer or the 135" screen onto which the Epson projects.

Uses
Time Machine server
iTunes server
Logitech Media Server
Blu-Ray and DVD ripping and encoding via Handbrake for iTunes
EyeTV server / DVR
SecuritySpy server
Bike Trainer simulator (via Elite Real Axiom software running in a Windows 7 virtual machine)
iTunes video source/control for workout/theater area in the basement

I am planning to make some changes in the future to the storage (see "Future Plans" at the bottom).


GeekBench Score

Future Plans:

Add two 2-port eSATA port multiplier cards
Add 10-15 disk rack mount port multiplier enclosure such as below:
4U 15-bay 3.5" SAS/SATA eSATA-Port Multiplier Trayless Hotswap Enclosure
http://www.istarusa.com/raidage/pro...tandard-Port Multiplier&model=DAGE415U40DE-PM
ZFS install and configuration (most likely a RAID 10 setup)
Connect SATA3 ports on motherboard (Marvell controller) to either the existing 2-port eSATA bracket or an additional one

 

[Stork]

If you're going to use this as a server, are you going to use the Mountain Lion Server version of Mountain Lion? Mac App Store OS X Server

 

[LaMosca]

Yes, already installed. I'll add it to the list of components.

I use server primarily for the centralized Time Machine backups of all the Macs in our house.

 

[loverdude]

hi, Im planning to buy this motherboard with same on-board graphics HD4000 & i

5-3570K, 4GB RAM.
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I want to know if you have fixed HDMI Audio because I have a LED TV and I want to watch movies on it with my hackintosh.

Also please advise me if I should go ahead with this build for purchase, Also pls tell me if this is stable & updates without any problems, thanks.


Regards,

Faisal

 

[LaMosca]

hi, Im planning to buy this motherboard with same on-board graphics HD4000 & i

5-3570K, 4GB RAM.
​

I want to know if you have fixed HDMI Audio because I have a LED TV and I want to watch movies on it with my hackintosh.

Also please advise me if I should go ahead with this build for purchase, Also pls tell me if this is stable & updates without any problems, thanks.


Regards,

Faisal

I was away during the holidays, so I haven't had time to work on HDMI audio. There is another recent build thread with this motherboard and the i5 (I believe the 3750) that you may want to read. It appeared they got HDMI audio working. I was working on following their instructions, but haven't yet gotten it to work.

I haven't been through any OS updates (eg: 10.8.2 to 10.8.3) yet since I did the initial build with 10.8.2 so I can't advise on the stability through updates at this point.

 

[Potato42]

I'm curious if you have tried to set up RAID utilizing the motherboard. It appears to me that the way this board is configured, it may only be available through the two extra sataIII ports.

 

[colinzeal]

I have hdmi audio working great with a DSDT edit I you're still interested.

I'm frustrated with the USB 3.0 ports. I have used the 3rd party controller included in the latest Multibeast and the port works. However, I'm not getting USB 3.0 speeds.

Yes it is a USB 3.0 stick (Transcend).

Has anyone got high USB 3.0 speeds yet?

 

[LaMosca]

I'd love to get a copy of your DSDT and give it a try! What's the best way? It appears I don't have enough posts to send you a PM.

 

[colinzeal]

I'm out at the moment on my iPhone. I'll attach it to my next post in less than 24 hours.

 

[LaMosca]

Thanks!

BTW, I have no USB3 devices to test with to know if the ports are working at hi-speed or not.