Latest OS I should go for on my SandyBridge Build and Graphics card settings

[mihaisarlea]

Hi,

I have this old Desktop laying around (2011 - Z68X-UD3H-B3 Gigabyte / i7 SandyBridge / 16GB / 240 Kingston SSD (3 pcs) / 6870 Gigabyte Radeon, though it's kindof big, and I'd really go for the onboard graphics card, UEFI Bios and a newer Dell U2917W monitor). I mainly use it for Windows 10 and Linux now and then. Figured I could pop in a MacOS on it, just like I did in the old days, when I bought it with 10.8.x, 10.9.x and install LogicProX and have some musical fun... I do have an older Macbook, at hand, but that's been "outsourced" to my daughter, now.
However, i'm busting my brain a bit with the newer Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra that don't seem to install drivers as easily as I used to do it with the MultiBeast 8-9 years ago.

Maybe, if you have a similar build, you could help me out by letting me know:
- what's the latest MacOS I should go for?
- much appreciated if you point me at a guide, and/or some troubleshooting pointers for my particular generation of desktop computer
- are there any special settings I should do to get the video card working at normal monitor res (2560 x 1080) via HDMI or mDP?
- should I have the DSDT def at hand when installing with the multi-beast, or is it implicit for my config?
- also, i'd greatly appreciate if you could point me to a place where i can find info on multi-booting Win10 / MacOS / Ubuntu installed on separate Hard Drives

Thanks for taking the time, guys, and hopefully this doesn't go against any forum policies.

Cheers,
Mihai

 

[Going Bald]

What kind of case do you have? Can you install a drive swap bay in an optical drive bay?
Given your hardware you can use an iMac 12,2 system definition (Mid 2011 with 2600S CPU) and run anything from 10.6.x to 10.9.x with everything working. For 10.10.x - 10.13.x you can have everything except handoff (requires BT 4.0). You may find help getting handoff to work with some extra kext patching.
See Mac OS X Compatibility chart.

For guides, see the MultiBoot Forum.

 

[mihaisarlea]

What kind of case do you have? Can you install a drive swap bay in an optical drive bay?
Given your hardware you can use an iMac 12,2 system definition (Mid 2011 with 2600S CPU) and run anything from 10.6.x to 10.9.x with everything working. For 10.10.x - 10.13.x you can have everything except handoff (requires BT 4.0). You may find help getting handoff to work with some extra kext patching.
See Mac OS X Compatibility chart.

For guides, see the MultiBoot Forum.

Thanks for the great pointers!

I have a rather large NOX case, good ventilation and all. Should be able to install that in an optical drive bay, but I'm not quite sure why i'd need it.

As far as MacOS versions are concerned, well I have no use for bluetooth, hence i wouldn't mind if that wasn't there. In that case, would HighSierra be a viable choice?

Currently, i've installed HS and i am still toying around with kexts in it, still have my GFX crashing now and then with the Intel 3000 on-board interface, which I am planning to use. Is there a good troubleshooting guide for Kexts? I guess I'll go back to trusty old Mavericks if I don't manage to config HS.

I will go to the MultiBoot Forum for the info on the topic, thanks.

 

[Going Bald]

Best is to have just one OS drive in the build at one time. Then there is no way that updates to one OS can interfere with or corrupt any other OS. This is the utility of the optical bay drive swap bay. Just insert the OS you want to boot each time and shut down to swap drives if you want to boot another OS. Also has the advantage that you don't have problems trying to boot every OS with one boot loader (Clover, OC, etc.) - Windows boots itself, Grub boots Linux and you can use Clover or OpenCore to boot Mac OS. I have 4 Windows drives (XP,7,8,10), 4 Linux distro drives (Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Devuan) and Mac OS 10.6.6 Snow Leopard thru 10.14.6 Mojave drives that I switch out depending on which I want to boot.

 

[gelkamar]

Hi,

I have this old Desktop laying around (2011 - Z68X-UD3H-B3 Gigabyte / i7 SandyBridge / 16GB / 240 Kingston SSD (3 pcs) / 6870 Gigabyte Radeon, though it's kindof big, and I'd really go for the onboard graphics card, UEFI Bios and a newer Dell U2917W monitor). I mainly use it for Windows 10 and Linux now and then. Figured I could pop in a MacOS on it, just like I did in the old days, when I bought it with 10.8.x, 10.9.x and install LogicProX and have some musical fun... I do have an older Macbook, at hand, but that's been "outsourced" to my daughter, now.
However, i'm busting my brain a bit with the newer Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra that don't seem to install drivers as easily as I used to do it with the MultiBeast 8-9 years ago.

Maybe, if you have a similar build, you could help me out by letting me know:
- what's the latest MacOS I should go for?
- much appreciated if you point me at a guide, and/or some troubleshooting pointers for my particular generation of desktop computer
- are there any special settings I should do to get the video card working at normal monitor res (2560 x 1080) via HDMI or mDP?
- should I have the DSDT def at hand when installing with the multi-beast, or is it implicit for my config?
- also, i'd greatly appreciate if you could point me to a place where i can find info on multi-booting Win10 / MacOS / Ubuntu installed on separate Hard Drives

Thanks for taking the time, guys, and hopefully this doesn't go against any forum policies.

Cheers,
Mihai

Hi,
I'm in your exact situation, my old system is based on a mono like your, same model but m version, GA-Z68MX-UD3H and at the moment I'm stucked wit Sierra. I bought a radeon rx 570 to make an upgrade for using metal2 thus I'd like to install at least Mojave if not Catalina, but looking around for solution it seems Sandy Bridge system are supported only using OpenCore.. Did you managed to install Mojave or -newer os? thanks

 

[trs96]

thus I'd like to install at least Mojave if not Catalina, but looking around for solution it seems Sandy Bridge system are supported only using OpenCore.. Did you managed to install Mojave or -newer os? thanks

There are versions of Unibeast for Mojave and Catalina that use Clover. They work perfectly well. It's not mandatory that you go with OpenCore. If you did want Big Sur then I'd say that OC is the best way to go for that OS.

 

[gelkamar]

There are versions of Unibeast for Mojave and Catalina that use Clover. They work perfectly well. It's not mandatory that you go with OpenCore. If you did want Big Sur then I'd say that OC is the best way to go for that OS.

thanks, the point is the sandy bridge support.. I read that you need some deep tweak to run Catalina because of the hd3000 not supported by metal, in my case I would use the radeon, do you know if Mojave is supported out of the box?

 

[trs96]

I read that you need some deep tweak to run Catalina because of the hd3000 not supported by metal

That is only if you have no graphics card and are relying on HD3000. You have an RX 570.

in my case I would use the radeon, do you know if Mojave is supported out of the box?

Mojave/Catalina will work if you use the proper kexts, SSDTs etc. The config.plist will probably also need some changes to get it fully working. Use search with "Z68MX-UD2H-B3 Mojave" as the search terms and learn how others have installed Mojave.

 

[mihaisarlea]

Hi guys! Unfortunately, since then, my Mobo got the bootloop issue permanently and it's dead. Selling my other parts, and that's the end of it. Thanks for all the answers!

 

[gelkamar]

That is only if you have no graphics card and are relying on HD3000. You have an RX 570.

Mojave/Catalina will work if you use the proper kexts, SSDTs etc. The config.plist will probably also need some changes to get it fully working. Use search with "Z68MX-UD2H-B3 Mojave" as the search terms and learn how others have installed Mojave.

thanks mate,
yesterday I achieved to modify clover EFI to run Sierra with the Radeon RX 570 and it's running smooth!
tonight I'm going to try Catalina as you suggest, I've already searched a lot but haven't found nothing really relevant.. I'll post results, I really want to see Metal 2 working