Motherboard Swap, Stick ASUS Deluxe or go Gigabyte UD7?

[Mr. Meoff]

P.S.
Unrelated but I'm glad I don't have to deal with Phoenix summers anymore I'm up in Prescott right now!

The heat is on the way... down here in Tucson.

I too have been debating the Gigabyte boards. I have been procrastinating since the new Z68 chips have dropped, but getting more and more anxious as the weeks go by, AAHH! I want a NEW machine!, been running my DAW workstation with my MBP.

 

[Say Heading]

Say Heading: You fly for Lufthansa then? I know they have the big training operation out there. Also know some cool changes coming to the a320's They throw a wicked octoberfest too...

If you don't mind keeping me posted on your Z68 build, if you get sleep working I'm sold and I'll buy it ASAP lol. I've always gauged sleep ability as synonymous with a solid hackintosh build... Though I might just go P67 since it already seems solid, but the USB3 issue really, really, bugs me too. Stupid VLI. Not sure if I'll order today or Monday for the board...

Eelhead:
Your opposite of a friend of mine who left Boston and lives for the summers here!

Well, I used to. But I changed to Hapag-Lloyd Flug which is nowadays called TUIfly.

I´m actually writing this on the Z68, but still booted with my previous P67 installation of 10.6.6.
Spent the whole day trying to get 10.6.7 running which actually worked once but without ethernet even with the correct kext installed by MB. Somewhere in between I spoiled it and I´m up to do it from scratch again

At least I´ve got a carbon copy clone of my 10.6.3 right after the first iboot installation without any further BridgeHelper or MB changes...

I´ll try a different approach now: There is still no DSDT for the Z68 and DSDT Autopatcher does not yet support it. But I try to compare the DSDTs of the P67A-UD7-B3 and Z68X-UD/-B3, if they should be equal I might autopatch the Z68X´s with the P67´s settings. It can´t get worse at the moment

You are right: Sleep and power consumption are the main keys for a real stable build.
They might be fast and rock stable, but if they don´t sleep, they are not acceptable.
At least not as a real mac replacement.
If I just consider the time I´ve spent with the hack I could just easily buy a MacPro.
I´m getting more and more convinced that this will be the case as soon as sandy bridge MPs will be released...

I´ll report.

Update: Didn´t find a P67A-UD7 DSDT on the forum. But I don´t have to loose anything: Just autopatched the Z68X-UD7 with the P67 settings right away.
I´m just cloning 10.6.3 back to my test hd and will give it another shot.
But gotta walk the dogs first...

Update 2:
New installation boots. Just making a carbon copy clone of it.
As MB settings were userDSDT only I have neither audio nor ethernet.
For the moment 32 bit, but graphics and memory speed recognized.
Serial ATA unknown std controller.
FORCE SLEEP SEEMS TO BE WORKING! Even fans go off and power consumption close to zero.
Time for the next MB run, trying ethernet first...

Update 3:
Realtek Gigabit Ethernet does not work. Just rerun MB with Lnx2Mac's Realtek...
Hope it can be applied on top of the previous run.

Update 4:
A little bit confusing: Lnx2Mac´s didn´t seem to work either?! But after I opened the system control panel for networking it connected after a while. (I'm just typing this on the Z68). Maybe the Realtek option would have worked as well?
I´ll just revert to my clean carbon copy and try again...

Update 5:
As expected, the Realtek option works as well, just had to let the system autodetect it after opening of the control panel. It just takes unusually long to be detected, even after reboot.
And just confirmed: Auto sleep does not work.
And now: Audio

Update 6:
Audio seems to be working as well, but I could just test the stereo jacks.

Update 7:
Enabled 64 bit via com.apple.boot.plist kernel flag <string>arch=x86_64</string> and set CPU clock multiplier from previous "29" to "35".

Good enough for today.
Autosleep would have been nice but is most probably just a matter of time.
SATA controllers still unidentified and at max. 3Gbit.
Ethernet is now (after a couple of restarts) ready right away.

Another option instead of autopatching the Z68X DSDT with P67A settings:
Simply use tonymac´s P67A-UD7-B3 DSDT from the database.
That could be something to be tested tomorrow, now I´m off for a bottle of nice Italian wine...

 

[philz]

Sweet Say Heading!!! Love the updates! Enjoy the wine, I'll end up doing the same once sleep is happy XD

Yeah I've had the same thing with the Ethernet issue, just open up sys pref after install and it'll find it. A trick that I always do is change the order and make it first. Did you say you have to do that every reboot or just once? For me it's just once.

I'll keep an eye and help when I can, I'll decide whether i go P67 or Z68 Sunday so I can get it to me by Tuesday

I sympathize with the Mac pro conundrum... Every time I "break down" and actually get dead set on getting it, I'm turned off and make a Hackintosh XD. Though the sandy bridge ones are going to be a beast... Seriously, 6/8 core singles and 12/16 core duals! The raw power will be insane..!

 

[Say Heading]

Did you say you have to do that every reboot or just once? For me it's just once.

Right now it seems to autodetect normally after every reboot, but don´t ask why...

Ups, glass already empty (again)...gotta go...

 

[philz]

Cool so just once to get it on the list and then fine after! That's fairly normal operation so no complaints there. Z68X board might be the way to go after all!

My gut is USB3 will be supported better soon regardless. Just way to new of a feature for hacks

 

[hankydysplasia]

Virtu isn't tied to quicksync. Or so it seems from intels site, the z68 chipset actually support sit (and is what is in the new iMac's). Might be something to think about though, never heard of it before. With the video work I do might be the right thing! Thanks!

You wouldn't happen to know anything about the UD7 board at all? I've only found a bit here...

This site: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2594 thinks that Virtu and Quick Sync are tied together. The UD7 also does not support Virtu.

 

[philz]

Going to order another board today:

Either P67 UD4 (for USB3 support) or the UD7.

or

Either Z68X UD3H(for virtu/quicksync/USB3) or the UD7.

Hows the board been Say Heading?

 

[Say Heading]

Hows the board been Say Heading?

Hm, stable would I say, but there might be something...

The board itself leaves a very good impression. The BIOS is already very reliable so shortly after release, much better than the initial P67A was. Absolutely nothing to complain about.

What makes me wonder is hopefully not board related.

I had boot issues after a couple of hours copying via the two SATA bracket connectors and thereafter connecting two eSATA HDs to the main board's connectors.
Suddenly my user accounts which are seperated from the system HD via the control panel->user->expanded options (whatever that is really called on an English system...) where no longer recognized.
Could not fix it yet as I had to report for duty, but took the chance to do the system actualisation on a different system partition shortly before I had to leave. Which broke the boot on that one as well...

So now I will be 4 days on a trip with a broken build waiting at home, while the second identical build is already ordered to be delivered at the beginning of next week.
Looks that I have quite a lot of troubleshooting to do when I return.

Maybe one more good thing: TRIM seemed to be working. At least stated in system profiler...

Any good news about USB from your investigation?

Cheers, SH

Edit: Forgot to mention that audio sometimes pops before playing a system sound.

 

[philz]

Hows the board been Say Heading?

Hm, stable would I say, but there might be something...

The board itself leaves a very good impression. The BIOS is already very reliable so shortly after release, much better than the initial P67A was. Absolutely nothing to complain about.

What makes me wonder is hopefully not board related.

I had boot issues after a couple of hours copying via the two SATA bracket connectors and thereafter connecting two eSATA HDs to the main board's connectors.
Suddenly my user accounts which are seperated from the system HD via the control panel->user->expanded options (whatever that is really called on an English system...) where no longer recognized.
Could not fix it yet as I had to report for duty, but took the chance to do the system actualisation on a different system partition shortly before I had to leave. Which broke the boot on that one as well...

So now I will be 4 days on a trip with a broken build waiting at home, while the second identical build is already ordered to be delivered at the beginning of next week.
Looks that I have quite a lot of troubleshooting to do when I return.

Maybe one more good thing: TRIM seemed to be working. At least stated in system profiler...

Any good news about USB from your investigation?

Cheers, SH

Edit: Forgot to mention that audio sometimes pops before playing a system sound.

Funny I had the audio issue with the EP45-UD3P I used to have. My guess is they have it go dormant and then "wake it" when OSX decides to use it again.

Thanks for the input though!

 

[philz]

Ordered a UD4, That way can keep my USB3 Time Machine drive...