My GA-X58-USB3 i7-930 w/ ssd boot drive build

[Dooglas]

This was way too much fun. I have never built a computer from scratch before. It was time for a new computer. I was still using a Mac G4 400Mhz with 1GB of memory and a Pentium4 running windblows7 also 1GB of memory. I was not very enthused about purchasing a new windows based computer. And the Mac I wanted was $$$$ Then I happened across this site. Like so many others, I had to try it.
So, off to the web I went and I carefully picked the parts that I would purchase for my guinea pig starter build.
- Intel i3-540
- Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Mobo
- 4GB of memory I had laying around
- Cheep WD 500GB SATA hard drive
Then I started to dream of what I really wanted……..
- Intel i7-950
- Gigabyte GA-X58-USB3 Mobo
- 8GB DDR3 2Ghz RAM
- 128GB SSD P-100 patriot hard drive
- Geforce GTS450 video card
- 2TB storage drive
After making my two lists, off to the store I went. After several hours milling about the store, I came home with most of the parts from my really wanted list. I only purchased 4GB of 1.6Ghz ram and a 64 GB SSD boot drive. I did splurge and get the full sized Cooler Master case.
Assembly was quick and easy. No mystery as to how a PC goes together. Then the fun started.
I collected all of the software parts according to all of the postes. Put them on a thumb drive and also burned a cdrom. Booted with iboot, installed my shinny new purchased OS 10.6.3 into the drive and started it running. Curtain of death. Yes, I prepared the bios. AHCI. HPET 64. Etc. etc. Started over and this time booted the OSX installer in safe mode; Success. Rebooted from iboot; started to load the new OS, Curtain of death. Booted again from iboot in safe mode, machine booted fine. Then I plugged in my thumb drive to load the 10.6.5 combo update, Curtain of Death. No USB support for me. Turns out I did have network support and I was able to access my thumb drive plugged into my old G4 and share them with the new machine. So, I proceeded with the combo update with multibeast open. After that loaded, I ran multibeast. At this time I was unaware of the preconfigured basic DSDT files that were available. So, I guessed at what the manual/advanced setting should be. And then I rebooted. It sort of kind of worked. No graphics support past 1024/896, USB support, or Audio support. So, I read some more posts on this site. Fortunately for me, the Nvidia drivers had just appeared along with iboot-GE and the new Cameleon 2.0 RC5 prerelease. And I also learned about all of the DSDT files everyone here has worked so hard on. (Thanks!) So, I downloaded this new info. Dissabled the USB3 support in my Bios. (re-enabled after successfully installing USB3 support via Multibeast much later) Cleaned off my SSD drive and started over. (In reality this would have been about the 5th time reloading OSX) This time I knew to load OSX in safe mode. Set my partition. Loaded the OS. Rebooted. Not really, I learned that the silly bios designed to work with windows is a bit finicky and does not like to play well with others. So, please insert “Shut all the way down and restart†whenever I use the term reboot. Again booting with iboot-GE I loaded and filled out all of the silly forms on the first boot of the real system. (Of course, in safe mode again) Then magically I had USB support. (USB3 disabled solved that issue) Ran the 10.6.5 combo update with Multibeast open. Installed the Nvidia patch; Installed the User DSDT located on my desktop; checked the system utilities box; USB3 support; Cameleon 2.0 RC5 prerelease. Success. Rebooted (ie. Shutdown and restarted), No safe mode this time. For the most part it worked. Several hours of changing all of the system setting to match my preferences loading several programs and I was off and running with everything except audio. As you probably know the ALC892 is causing much trouble for many people. For this reason I have not loaded or changed any audio setting for now.
Then there is the silly quicktime program. I am not sure what codecs it comes with but, it would not play anything. So, I went to http://www.perian.com and down loaded their codec program and installed it. Now, quicktime plays almost everything. With the exception of DVDs. This currently is really useless in that I have no sound.
I had so much fun doing this that I went right back down to the store and purchased all of the parts for the smaller system to use as a media player in my theater. Once I have this done I will post an update as to all the fun I am having working on it.
Thanks goes out to everyone sharing all of the great info.

I want the smile like this doing this . Sometimes banging your head on the wall is fun.

 

[jaraeez]

lol - sounds like your having fun

 

[Going Bald]

This was way too much fun.

Then there is the silly quicktime program. I am not sure what codecs it comes with but, it would not play anything. So, I went to http://www.perian.com and down loaded their codec program and installed it. I also found a t*****t with over 100 codecs. Now, quicktime plays almost everything. With the exception of DVDs. This currently is really useless in that I have no sound.

I want the smile like this doing this . Sometimes banging your head on the wall is fun.

I told Quicktime to take a hike.

VLC player from Videolan.org is a much better, IMNSHO, than quicktime.
http://www.videolan.org/

 

[Dooglas]

Well, I am still having fun.

After several days, I lost my internet connectivity.

Thanks to this forum, I quickly found lnx2Mac's blog and RTL81xx driver.

All fixed.

Today, my SSD is not responding. I have not had time to see what has happened. It does show up in the System Profiler. It does not mount.

I have found that it is a good idea to have a small partition on each computer with a backup OS loaded. This allows you to access the error you made in the main system and correct it rather than starting over with a new (fresh) install.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

Well, I am still having fun.

After several days, I lost my internet connectivity.

Thanks to this forum, I quickly found lnx2Mac's blog and RTL81xx driver.

All fixed.

I have found that it is a good idea to have a small partition on each computer with a backup OS loaded. This allows you to access the error you made in the main system and correct it rather than starting over with a new (fresh) install.

Or better yet, if your IDE port is supported, grab an old IDE drive (I bet you have some), and use it as a Cold-Spare...
I do both...
Small partition for backup (but mainly for experimentation), and cold-spare (for doom's day).
Glad I didn't need that cold-spare yet

Cheers,
Lnx2Mac

 

[Dooglas]

I went through two SSDs that were both bad. They would work fine for awhile then die. I tried them on another system and same result. I usually have good luck the Patriot memory. (P-100)

I went with a more expensive faster SSD drive. Corsair Force Series 40GB. It has been fine for over a week. And, it is way fast!

I have given up on quicktime for a media player. For now I am using VLC. It seems to play most content. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Going Bald]

I went through two SSDs that were both bad. They would work fine for awhile then die. I tried them on another system and same result. I usually have good luck the Patriot memory. (P-100)

I went with a more expensive faster SSD drive. Corsair Force Series 40GB. It has been fine for over a week. And, it is way fast!

I have given up on quicktime for a media player. For now I am using VLC. It seems to play most content. Thanks for the suggestion.

It plays everything I've tried on it. Now if the Videolan project would just get OS X Blu-ray support....

 

[edwardo]

Then I started to dream of what I really wanted……..

- Geforce GTS450 video card

Sometimes banging your head on the wall is fun.

IThanks for posting your experiences, there's always something to learn from other people's experiments.

By the way, I have the same Geforce GTS450 video card, and I experience the so called Fermi freeze where the whole machine freezes up every couple of days for me!

I wonder why you are not having the Fermi Freeze issue!!! it must be the different motherboard! I have3 a X58A-UD3R.

cheers

 

[Dooglas]

I wonder why you are not having the Fermi Freeze issue!!! it must be the different motherboard! I have3 a X58A-UD3R.

cheers

The only freeze up I get seems to be a java run time error that locks up Safari. It only happens once or twice a week. No biggie. I happens most often when the page contains embedded DirectX graphics. I will need to double check to see which version of DirectX is loaded on my system. The freeze up sometimes progresses beyond Safari and stops everything. But, it starts with just Safari. I have been Reseting Safari when this happens and the problem vanishes until I hit the right combination. What the combination is I have not noticed yet. Once everything is cleared I have revisited the same pages and they load fine. I will play some more.

I do not leave my computers on 24/7. During the work week I turn them off while I am at work. Then they are on until I go to work the next day. When I am off they are on. I currently am using an HP LP3065 monitor at full resolution with this system. (2560x1600) I have had it connected to an old Sony E500 while I was experimenting with settings and procedures.

My Media system has the 220 card connected to a 1080p projection system. I have not had any trouble with it.


Update: After some more playing I found that I can repeat the freeze by going to a web page with an imbedded Utube video. Clicking on the video freezes Safari. When I force Safari to quit, there is a Flash Player process still running at 100%. When I try to stop that process the computer freezes.

 

[vallabhc]

i just built my first hacintosh today. it started off scary but with all the help online it went relatively easy. @Dooglas, your post was very helpful as i used x58-usb3 as well. i got pretty much everything working except the audio. i read that you had the same problem earlier. but did you get to fix it. if yes, could you please help me out?
i tried voodoohda. on restart volume shows 100% but none of the audio outs work on the system.
Thanks.