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loginfailed - GA-Z68M-D2H / i5-2500k / 16GB RAM / 6850

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GA-Z170N-Gaming 5
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I7-6700K
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EVGA GTX 980 Ti FTW
loginfailed - GA-Z68M-D2H / i5-2500k / 16GB RAM / GT 640

i5-2500k / GA-Z68M-D2H / 16GB RAM / 6850 GT 640

inside.jpg

OS X Mountain Lion
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512

GIGABYTE GA-Z68M-D2H Motherboard (UEFI)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FZWXOG
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128523

EVGA GeForce GT 640 Video Card
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0086UXQES
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130795

Intel Core i5-2500K CPU
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EBUXI0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057QETGS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233191

Sony Optiarc 24X CD/DVD Drive
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057FRTPW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118067

Corsair XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) SDRAM
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054KPK9C
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233190

Thermaltake V4 Black Case
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003SNJA8O/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133179

Corsair Builder Series CX500 Power Supply
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004W2T2U6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

HP 2009m 20" Monitor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UHOX2S
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176112

Apple Wireless Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DLDO4U
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823101013

Apple Magic Mouse
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002TLTGM6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826101010

Apple Magic Trackpad
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XIJ3MW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826101016

Vantec EZ Swap 4 Mobile Rack
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DVTWQ6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817986001

Machine Purpose

This machine was originally my main do-it-all workhorse, but I have since built another more capable machine for that purpose. So now this machine has been handed down to my kids (7 year old son & 8 year old daughter) to use for homework, games, movies etc.

Motherboard

The only problem I've encountered with the GA-Z68M-D2H is that the onboard ethernet stopped working at one point when I first got it, which made me pull my hair out when trying to get the App Store to work under Lion! To get the card working again, all I had to do is shut down the machine and unplug the power for a few minutes. After rebooting, the ethernet has worked 100% ever since. This link is where I found the answer to the problem when it occurred:
http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2011/03/reviving-dead-ethernet-ports.html
^^CLICK^^

Bluetooth

This machine no longer has bluetooth. It uses a basic Logitech wired USB keyboard and mouse. The previous Bluetooth setup has been moved to my other machine but I have left the info below.

The IOGEAR Bluetooth dongle works in Mountain Lion without any kext edits. I use an Apple Wireless Keyboard, Apple Magic Mouse and Apple Magic Trackpad all at the same time with no problem.

With this dongle, the Bluetooth devices (KB/Mouse/Trackpad) are all available immediately upon startup with no delay. When waking from sleep, there is a slight delay (~5-10 seconds) before the devices are working.

EDIT: There is an occasional problem where the bluetooth devices are not working properly. After a little time spent diagnosing, the way I was able to get it to work again is as follows:

  • Unplug the USB Bluetooth dongle
  • Wait about 5 seconds
  • Plug USB Bluetooth dongle back in


Mountain Lion installation

  1. Downloaded Mountain Lion from App Store
  2. Downloaded Unibeast from tonymacx86.com
  3. Used Unibeast to make a Mountain Lion installation thumb drive
  4. Plugged in a generic USB keyboard
  5. Plugged Unibeast thumb drive into front USB port
  6. Boot machine pressing F12 on keyboard
  7. Selected Unibeast drive as the boot device
  8. Selected USB drive at Chimera boot screen
  9. After reaching installer, used Disk Utility to partition the SSD drive
  10. Completed Mountain Lion installation process
  11. Reboot machine pressing F12
  12. Selected USB thumb drive as the boot device
  13. At Chimera boot screen chose Mountain Lion drive
  14. After Mountain Lion desktop appeared, Downloaded Multibeast from tonymacx68.com
  15. Ran Multibeast selecting desired options (see pic below)
  16. Reboot machine this time allowing it to boot from Mountain Lion drive
  17. Installed all of my favorite apps and now enjoying my hackintosh.

MultiBeast Settings

ScreenShot2012-08-18at53128PM.png

WiFi

I built an Apple WiFi PCIe card using parts from a laptop and a PCIe to miniPCI adapter. If you need to build a WiFi device, I suggest this thread:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/1056-how-build-your-own-real-airport-card.html
^^CLICK^^

UEFI U1f BIOS

  • Set SATA to AHCI mode
  • Set HPET to ENABLED
  • Set EIST Function to ENABLED
  • Set Virtualizaiton to ENABLED (Using Parallels Desktop: If set to DISABLED when installing a VM, the Machine will restart unexpectedly.)

Geekbench Score

Geekbench.jpg

There may be some things I left out. Any questions please ask. Any needed corrections let me know.

*Update 9/9/2012* Updated post to most recent configuration. Built a new machine for myself and handed down this one to my kids.

*Update 10/28/2012* Updated Mountain Lion to 10.8.2
 
Re: loginfailed - GA-Z68M-D2H / i5-2500k / 8GB RAM / 9500 GT

An excellent build description and well deserving of the Golden Builds designation. Congratulations.

The 600T and i5-2500K will serve you well. As you get more "hobby money" you can look at Z68-UD3H, or it's successor, for overclocking.

I'm surprised you had trouble with getting HD 3000 to work w/o artifacts. I've not had artifacts since upgrading to Lion 10.7.2. Take a look at my build description which outlines how to set up the BIOS for HD 3000. If, you get it working w/o the 9800, you still might be able to get a refund. :thumbup:

The 600T is large enough to be an end table to your easy chair. :lol: Although I have enough space for a small animal bed in the case, I've chosen to put a Kingwin KF-1000-BF Hot Swap rack in one of the front 5.25" bays for using a disk backup and clone quick access capability. Currently, I only have a 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD in the drive bays with a LG DVD optical drive to keep it company. There's a lot of left over room in the case for future growth.
 
Re: loginfailed - GA-Z68M-D2H / i5-2500k / 8GB RAM / 9500 GT

Stork said:
An excellent build description and well deserving of the Golden Builds designation. Congratulations.
Wow thanks so much, Stork! I am humbled and honored by the Golden Build designation! Hopefully someone building a machine in the future can benefit from the things I have learned during this little project.

Stork said:
The 600T and i5-2500K will serve you well. As you get more "hobby money" you can look at Z68-UD3H, or it's successor, for overclocking.
Stork said:
I've chosen to put a Kingwin KF-1000-BF Hot Swap rack in one of the front 5.25" bays for using a disk backup and clone quick access capability.
Thanks for those suggestions. Those are items I have been considering as future upgrades but haven't really researched models to figure out which ones were good and also compatible. With your suggestions, you have just eliminated some of the guess work for me!

Stork said:
I'm surprised you had trouble with getting HD 3000 to work w/o artifacts. I've not had artifacts since upgrading to Lion 10.7.2. Take a look at my build description which outlines how to set up the BIOS for HD 3000. If, you get it working w/o the 9800, you still might be able to get a refund. :thumbup:
Well, I'll be the first to admit I pretty much a noob when it comes to monkeying around with this stuff. I did a lot of reading and probably overlooked the thing that would have fixed it. For me, spending another $50 was an easy fix, and I figured by off-loading the graphics tasks to a dedicated video card, I could reduce some of the stress on the CPU.

I'll certainly be going back to read your build to find the answer. Do you think the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 will perform better than the Zotac 9500 GT will? If the 9500 GT is even marginally better, I would rather keep it. If not, I can still find the 9500 GT a home in another machine.

Stork said:
The 600T is large enough to be an end table to your easy chair. :lol

You're right about that! I looked at the dimensions before I bought it, but when I pulled it out of the box, I couldn't help but snicker at the size of the thing. I am now drawing up some plans to build myself a new custom computer desk. My current desk is a pre-fabbed corner design and its just too small to house this monster machine. I've been wanting to build my own desk for a while, but the 600T has just moved the project up on the list.
 
Re: loginfailed - GA-Z68M-D2H / i5-2500k / 8GB RAM / 9500 GT

The good news is that the updated MultiBeast (v4.2+) will have the CMOS reset fix included. Should be ready NLT 18 Dec 11.
 
Re: loginfailed - GA-Z68M-D2H / i5-2500k / 8GB RAM / 9500 GT

Awesome write up.

I have a very similar build to yours and was able to solve the Bluetooth signal problem by running the Bluetooth antenna wire to the third unused wifi antenna on the pci card. it took a few tries to figure out the best way to fit all the wires in but I got it to fit eventually.

This gave me plenty of bluetooth range. I also double side taped the Bluetooth module to the wifi card which cleaned up the case a bit.

Thanks again for the write up!
 
Re: loginfailed - GA-Z68M-D2H / i5-2500k / 8GB RAM / 9500 GT

Stork said:
The good news is that the updated MultiBeast (v4.2+) will have the CMOS reset fix included. Should be ready NLT 18 Dec 11.

Thats awesome that its already been added. Unibeast and Multibeast take a LOT of the guesswork out of putting an OSx86 machine together. I will be sending a little "Happy New Year" present to tonymacx86.

wanye said:
Awesome write up.

I have a very similar build to yours and was able to solve the Bluetooth signal problem by running the Bluetooth antenna wire to the third unused wifi antenna on the pci card. it took a few tries to figure out the best way to fit all the wires in but I got it to fit eventually.

This gave me plenty of bluetooth range. I also double side taped the Bluetooth module to the wifi card which cleaned up the case a bit.

Thanks again for the write up!

I will definitely try that. My adapter only came with 2 antennae but the bracket has a hole for the third one. I may have an old WiFi card around I can swipe an antenna from. I'll have to look. Thanks for the tip!
 
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