- Joined
- Aug 30, 2012
- Messages
- 4
- Motherboard
- macbook pro
- CPU
- sandy bridge
- Graphics
- ati
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Components:
Apple OS X MountaiLion @ Mac Apps Store
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?ls=1&mt=12
Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SZ0E1K/
Gigabyte Intel Z77 LGA 1155 Dual UEFI BIOS ATX Motherboard GA-Z77-DS3H
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R21JWC/
Corsair Vengeance 16 GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz PC3 240 Pin DIMM Memory CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EWUO22/
Corsair Builder Series CX V2 430-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - CMPSU-430CXV2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W2T2TM/
Western Digital 2 TB WD Green SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VFJ9MK/
Corsair Carbide Series 300R Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139011
Already Owned
LG Electronics GH24NS90B 24 X SATA Super Multi DVD+/-RW Internal Drive
http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-GH24NS90B-Super-Internal/dp/B00632SB2I
Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I42QO6/
Mount-It! Articulating Single Arm Computer Monitor Desk Mount
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052ATODM/
Stock USB Keyboard and Mouse
Comments:
Hoo boy, this was way more painful than I suspected it would be, but I've got it more or less up and running.
This was my very first attempt at building a Hackintosh. It's also probably my first time building a computer in around 10 years. I switched from being a PC user to a Mac user in 2002, just before the release of Jaguar. (I still have my original "Puma" install disks.) Consequently, I have only bought off the shelf for more than 10 years, and I was probably less comfortable with modern BIOS configurations and motherboard setups than I should be. I was still confused by the fact that none of my drives took molex power off the power supply, and that there was no IDE support on the motherboard. Times have changed...
The primary purpose of this build was to have a home computer that primarily served as a streaming media repository and as a home computer for basic tasks such as writing, spreadsheets, web use, and one other thing, which is the purpose of the quad-core Ivy Bridge processor and the 16 Gigs of Ram. I do a fair amount of statistical computing for my job (I'm a finance professor), and I wanted something speedy enough to push Stata or R or Matlab around with sufficient authority. I didn't optimize it for this though (hence no SSD, i7, or Discret Graphics) because I have a work rig for that type of stuff. The box is also right next to the router, so I didn't opt to get a separate wireless card.
Since I know I'm a newbie at this, I tried to go for as stock a build as humanly possible, and just bought the base everything recommended by the tonymac site. I immediately ran into problems because of small little issues I hadn't considered. First, I have an old, unused copy of Snow Leopard that I was intending to use as the OS. (I'm still not sure I'm used to Lion's new always concurrent document model.) People smarter than me will instantly realize that this doesn't work because Snow Leopard has no Ivy Bridge support. So I knuckled down and bought a copy of Mountain Lion from the App Store and put it on a 16G thumb drive I own.
I read several posts about how to set up the BIOS, but none that were totally consistent. After a ton of fiddling, I finally just set the SATA mode to AHCI and the xHCI mode to Disabled. I still haven't gotten the front panel audio working, but that's another story.
After a lot of trial and error, I installed MultiBeast 5.0.2 with the following options:
MultiBeast 5.0.2 Configuration for Mountain Lion 10.8.1:
- UserDSDT or DSDT-Free Installation
- ALC888b/887 v100302 Current (Without DSDT)
- 3rd Party Sata
- HWMonitor Application
- maolj's AtherosL1cEthernet
Two last problems I managed to fix
- Astute readers (again those smarter than I) will notice that I installed the OS on a 2TB hard drive. This, of course, has the larger 4096-byte block size and immediately generated the infamous boot0 error before I even got to the issue of installing MultiBeast. After much web searching and gnashing of teeth, I figured out the problem and implemented the fix described in MacMan's: boot0 Error: The Official Thread. The system boots and runs no problem now.
- I began by installing a bunch of other assorted options first and the audio (rear jack) never seemed to work. Usually, I couldn't even get the machine to recognize the audio driver as evinced by the lack of options in the sound configuration. I eventually had to manually wipe the directory with the existing drivers and re-run MultiBeast to make it work.
Remaining Issues
I still have one nagging issue, which is that the front panel audio never seems to work. I don't use the jack all that much, but having fiddled with it for hours with no success it still nags at me.
Wrap Up
One last comment, I recently installed the latest OSX update 10.8.2 by accident. I'm so used to reflexively allowing updates, it didn't occur to me to wait for people to see if it would break everything. It did not. All I had to do was re-run MultiBeast with the ALC888b/887 v100302 Current (Without DSDT) option. Works fine. Well, aside from the dang old front panel audio jack.
Overall the thing runs fine. I like the case, which is roomy and has good cable management. The hacked hardware monitoring applications seem to work properly and allow me to monitor the CPU core temperatures and the fan speeds which all appear to be operating under reasonable boundaries, so it appears I didn't completely fubar anything on the board when I put it together.
I have a couple of existing internal hard drives that I want to put into the system later, one for an onboard backup and one to dual boot Windows. That last thing appears like it may be a bit of a challenge, but time will tell.
