Moarfish's build - GA-B75M-D3H i5 3570K

[ahubu]

There is a DSDT section under 'Downloads', but your board does not require an additional DSDT to get up and running.

For booting Windows and OS X - I would recommend keeping each OS on its own HDD/SSD. You will find more information over at the Multibooting section:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/

This is very good advice, and this is what I have been doing. Also never needed a DSDT for anything in this build.

Currently I have two SSD's 512 Crucial (Yosemite) and 128Gb Samsung (Windows 10). I'm very careful when (re)installing the one and will disconnect the other when doing so. I then use the bios bootmenu (F12 I believe) if I want to boot into windows.

Today or tomorrow (depending on the mailman who brings me a brand new 500gb SSD) I will try do a clover El Capitan install. You see, no risks. I did the same when moving from Mavericks to Yosemite. I rather pay 150 euro and if it fails, I still have my working Yosemite system. If I never succeed, I'll have 500gb extra space for my Yosemite system. Before installing, I will obviously unplug all the other system drives. I see the Hackintosh as an affordable way of running a powerful mac Pro, so a few hundred euros is peanuts to what I would've spent. (Apple will still get my money, I have an iPhone, iPad, Shuffle, AppleTV and soon probably also a 12" macbook.)

I did have some problems with the networking adapter (AppleRTL8196) in combination with running virtual machines in VMWare Fusion. On resume they lost connection and it was impossible to get it back sometimes. I chose the other option in multibeast (Realtek RTL81xx 0.0.90) and this has solved that.

Also very rarely (a few times a year) my network connection on the mac will drop and the only way to get it back is to power off the machine and unplug it (so it loses the static). Pretty sure this is a hardware issue though.

Apart from these issues this system has been incredibly stable since 2012, I hope I can make El Captain stable as well. Security wise it's always best to upgrade to the latest supported system since security patches will have priority there. When I run into problems I'll post them (and hopefully with the solution).

 

[Adrian B]

This is very good advice, and this is what I have been doing. Also never needed a DSDT for anything in this build.

Currently I have two SSD's 512 Crucial (Yosemite) and 128Gb Samsung (Windows 10). I'm very careful when (re)installing the one and will disconnect the other when doing so. I then use the bios bootmenu (F12 I believe) if I want to boot into windows.

I also use a 5.25" hot swap rack like the models in the buyers guide to switch between Windows and OS X.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/building-customac-buyers-guide-march-2016.html#Accessories

 

[thewer]

Today or tomorrow (depending on the mailman who brings me a brand new 500gb SSD) I will try do a clover El Capitan install. You see, no risks. I did the same when moving from Mavericks to Yosemite. I rather pay 150 euro and if it fails, I still have my working Yosemite system.

Second that - I just use an old spinning drive and clone my current SSD. Then if there are problems I can either run from the spinning drive till they are fixed or clone back to the SSD. (All files are stored on seperate drives, so it is just the OS & Apps & Settings).

Haven't used a DSDT since I got this build. Still going strong, just upgraded along the way. Added a GTX 670 (which along with onboard allows 6 monitors). Added more ram, upgraded the HD. Most things I do are not too CPU intensive so I hope it will last me another few years as the main computer yet.

Link Adrian B said - I also physically change drives when changing OS or doing anything "risky".

 

[tjohnson5]

Thewer, what did you setup in clover to install the gtx-670? I get a panic on my setup when install the same video card. My smbios is set has mac mini server 6,2 - did you use a different profile? Curious how you got it working. BTW, everything else works perfectly on my hack including the USB ports, sleep/wake, etc.
Update: I fixed the problem by changing the product id to iMac13,2 now my nvidia card works perfectly!

 

[ahubu]

Added a GTX 670 (which along with onboard allows 6 monitors). Added more ram, upgraded the HD. Most things I do are not too CPU intensive so I hope it will last me another few years as the main computer yet.

Wait, you can use both the gtx 670 and the onboard gpu at the same time?? I didn't know that. As it happens, I also have a 670 gtx hooked up to three monitors but sometimes I switch the third monitor to the HDTV in the room so I can run plex theater on that. You're telling me that I can just plug it in the onboard?? Wow, it never even crossed my mind that it was possible to do both... definitely gonna try that now, thanks! . Regarding the multimonitor setup, what I find mildy annoying is that osx doesn't seem to be able to keep the screen configuration lined up right, especially when certain displays are off when rebooting. Sometimes the main display is on the right and not in the middle. Does someone know a trick to keep them in line?

Also I had zero problems upgrading to el capitan. Used the 13,2 iMac system setting for my setup (3570k, 16gb, B75M-D3H). Sleep works without problems. I only have very seldomly that the screen goes black twice (for about 1 second, with interval of about 5 seconds), really weird (didn't have it before on mavericks and yosemite) but just that, happens a few times a week. Maybe it's some software though, I did install that fancy beta apple tv screensaver.

 

[thewer]

Thewer, what did you setup in clover to install the gtx-670? I get a panic on my setup when install the same video card. My smbios is set has mac mini server 6,2 - did you use a different profile? Curious how you got it working. BTW, everything else works perfectly on my hack including the USB ports, sleep/wake, etc.
Update: I fixed the problem by changing the product id to iMac13,2 now my nvidia card works perfectly!

I use Mac Pro 3,1 (2008). I didn't play much with the iMac ones, but found 3,1 more reliable when using the version 2 of the OsxAptioFixDrv. I have fince moved away from 2 back to OsxAptioFixDrv. My card worked out of the box (which is why I chose the older 670 card).

 

[thewer]

Wait, you can use both the gtx 670 and the onboard gpu at the same time??

Yeah - only the onboard works with the BIOS/clover, but after that I get all 5 or 6 monitors working. I think I have everything set to use the onboard graphics and then OSX just picks up the 670 as well. I was expecting to have to fight, but I just put the 670 in and then all my screens came up when I booted!

Regarding the multimonitor setup, what I find mildy annoying is that osx doesn't seem to be able to keep the screen configuration lined up right, especially when certain displays are off when rebooting. Sometimes the main display is on the right and not in the middle. Does someone know a trick to keep them in line?

For the layout, I have found that you need to set the layout/positioning/background for every combination of monitors you plan to have PLUGGED IN. So I can leave them off at the wall (or power board), but if the cable is still plugged in it remembers the layout. I have one of my monitors that I unplug sometimes for testing so I had to set the layout twice (with and without that ones DVI cable plugged in).

1 * 27" Apple Cinema Display on 670 miniDP
2 * 20" (4x3) Dell monitors on the DVI and HDMI (with HDMI to DVI adapter) from the onboard HD4000
2 * 19" (4x3) Samsung monitors on the 2 DVI ports on the 670
1 * 21" (16x9) ASUS monitor on the remaining HDMI (with HDMI to DVI adapter) <- this is the one I unplug as a build/debug monitor for other systems.

Still running 10.11.2 however, as 10.11.4 seems to require OsxAptioFix2Drv rather than OsxAptioFixDrv. Where as something in my configuration needs OsxAptioFixDrv to boot every time (OsxAptioFix2Drv gives me the no entry symbol around 50% of the time).

 

[ahubu]

Yeah - only the onboard works with the BIOS/clover, but after that I get all 5 or 6 monitors working. I think I have everything set to use the onboard graphics and then OSX just picks up the 670 as well. I was expecting to have to fight, but I just put the 670 in and then all my screens came up when I booted!

For the layout, I have found that you need to set the layout/positioning/background for every combination of monitors you plan to have PLUGGED IN. So I can leave them off at the wall (or power board), but if the cable is still plugged in it remembers the layout. I have one of my monitors that I unplug sometimes for testing so I had to set the layout twice (with and without that ones DVI cable plugged in)

Still running 10.11.2 however, as 10.11.4 seems to require OsxAptioFix2Drv rather than OsxAptioFixDrv. Where as something in my configuration needs OsxAptioFixDrv to boot every time (OsxAptioFix2Drv gives me the no entry symbol around 50% of the time).

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't have the email-on-reply setting of the site enabled (didn't know it existed) .That plugged in thing seems indeed to be the case, good to know that making the system 6-screen-capable also fixes that problem. Now I must resist buying a stand for 6 screens and the missing screens, thanks for that!

By the way, I installed Capitan directly from my nvidia 670, no need to disable anything, it just picked it up and the installer booted to it. I used the latest updated 10.11.4 Capitan image from Apple. That OsxAptioFix2Drv is strange though, not encountered anything like it, no no entry symbol here. I did update my BIOS for the motherboard to F11 a while back, which gave me 4 times a strange error message when booting, just before the then non-clover boot loader (read error <hexcode> blabla, and that 4 times, after which the boot loader just loaded as normal). No issues though. This error is no longer present on clover/since the fresh 10.11.4 reinstall, whatever fixed it.

Really this build is not golden, it is platinum, seeing how much value I got from it. So little issues, of which the largest being the portability of the system, which I have recently 'fixed' by buying a macbook 12" (skylake), although that broke something else (my wallet). A fantastic device though.

 

[618116]

10.11.5 update seems fine. It works for me with no fix.
BTW, is there anyone fix sleep audio problem?

 

[megasis]

Long time since I've post for the last time, but now I've just installed 10.11.04 and switch to Clover .
The good news is that iMessager and FaceTime works fine for the first time in 2 years , and the bad news is that I'm having problems with the HDMI Audio . I use HDMI audio from the Intel HD4000, with Yosemite this works fine, if I'm not mistaken, this was totally transparent when using Multibeast and selecting ALC887 as Audio device, but that doesn't work using Multibeast 8.2.2 on 10.11.4. I tried couple of things but all this EFI and Clover, well, I'm totally useless with Clover

Anyone has this motherboard with HDMI audio out of Intel HD4000 working? What is the right post to follow to has this working?
Thanks in advance for all your help on this.