My MacPro (2013) Hackintosh

[klaus19]

Hi good people of tonymaxc86,

I've been a lurker of this site for years, when I finally decided to do my own build.

My MacPro Hackintosh - inspired by this forum


Components
CPU, Mainboard etc.

• GIGABYTE Z370N WIFI
• Intel® Core™ i7-8700
  
• Noctua NH-L9i
  
• Corsair DIMM 32 GB DDR4-3000 Kit
  
• MSI GeForce GTX 1070 AERO ITX 8G OC
  
• Samsung 960 EVO 1 TB
  
• 2x Noctua NF-A15 PWM
• powerday®BCM94360CS2/BCM943224PCIEBT2 card to NGFF (m.2)
• MacBook Air 11" A1465 A1466 WiFi WLan Bluetooth Airport Card BCM94360CS2

Powersupply

• HDPLEX 250W Hi-Fi DC-ATX Power Supply
  
• SilverStone SST-PP05-E

Case etc.

• LUNAR ABFALLEIMER
  
• Edisen Touch Sensor – MT0.2-ST-NR-N
  
• 2x 3D printed parts
  • I found the stl for the foot here on the forum
  • 2013 Mac Pro - My variation
    
  • I made the cap myself
• 200mm black anodised MakerBeam
• T-slot nuts for MakerBeam
• MakerBeam 90 degree brackets
• MakerBeam Straight brackets

I/O

• 3x right angle USB extension cables (30cm)
• 2x left angle USB extension cables (30cm)
• USC-C extension cable (20cm)
• 2 Port USB 3.0 Splitter Adapter
  
• 2x Short Flat Slim Thin HDMI FFC FPV HDMI Cable Standard HDMI Female plug to Standard HDMI male 90 degree
• Wacom ACK-40401-N Wireless Kit for Bamboo
  
• Logitech Unifying-Reciever
  
• Apple MC704ZM/A USB 2.0 Ethernet

Sound

• JDS Labs - The Element (USB DAC)

Comments
The goal of this build, was to create a small, powerful and clean desktop machine. And one additional condition was, that I wanted to use as few kexts and hacks as possible, that's why I went for an external USB sound card and Apple USB ethernet adapter and an original MacBook Air Airport card.
I don't like how the cables hang off of the original MacPro. For that reason I used extension cables to create an iMac G4 style I/O at the backside of the foot and hot glued them.
And for the power button? When randomly browsing around the forums I saw some G4 Cubes builds and saw how they used the Edisen touch sensor as a power button. I followed their instructions and can boot my Hack with a simple touch. I put the button on the underside the cap, above the top fan.
The build is not done yet, I have to cut holes for the ports at the lower end of the trash can case and I want to paint the it.

BIOS Setup

• Set to Optimized Defaults
• Disabled SuperIO parallel and serial ports
• Disabled VT-d
• Enabled XHCI Handoff
• Disabled fast Boot
• Storage Boot Option Control : UEFI
  
• Disabled internal graphics

Installation notes
The installation went pretty smooth, I just followed the instructions for UniBeast and haven't had any problems. For the GTX 1070 I followed these instructions:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/nvidia-update-simple-way-to-install-nvidia-web-drivers.244987/
As for Multibeast, here are my settings:

Quick Start > Clover UEFI Boot Mode
Drivers > Misc > FakeSMC
Bootloaders > Clover UEFI Boot Mode + Emulated NVRAM
Customize > System Definitions > iMac > iMac 18,3
Customize > Graphics > NVIDIA Web Drivers Boot Flag​

What works

• Sleep/wake
• Network
• Audio
• USB

What doesn't work

• Nothing I've tried

Photos


What's left to be done

• I need to cut the ports on the backside of the case
• Painting

Sources

• https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...a-h67n-usb3-b3-16gb-ram-ssd.51305/#post370345
  
• https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/mac-pro-late-2013-replica.120757/
  
• https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/my-cube-2-1-core-i7-and-ati-6670-inside-a-cube-g4-case.96216/
  
• https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/mac-pro-replica-late-2013-low-power-design.124213/
  
• https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/2013-mac-pro-my-variation.123752/
  
• https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-my-2nd-hackintosh-case-mod.78479/#post493040

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I can upload the blender files of the build, if you want.

 

[apple_hack_geek]

Nice little build. I have two questions/concerns though.
1. Cooling, do you have enough airflow for those high power parts? The NH-L9i is going to have a hard enough time with an 8700 in much more ideal situations, and you also have a 1070 in there too. have you tested this?
2. Power, the GTX 1070 has a TDP of 150 Watts, and the 8700 has a TDP of 65 W, so thats 215 Watts, before you factor in those fans, and Mobo, drive, RAM, Etc. And you're using a 250 Watt PSU, that sounds pretty risky. It might work for a bit, but could also really cut down on the life of the PSU.

 

[klaus19]

Thanks .

1. I haven't had any heat issues yet. The L9i is recommended for up to 65 W, so that should be fine, but it gets loud under full load, not annoyingly loud, but noticeable. As far as I have tested it the 8700 doesn't throttle (rendering in Blender, calculations in Mathematica), but doesn't turbo boost either. I've played a few games, but nothing to demanding, and had no problems (Civ 5&6, Darksiders 1&2). Under no load the CPU and GPU fan turn off.
The fan meshes strongly hinder airflow, I'm planing on improving them, by drilling bigger holes.

2. At first was I worried about that, too, after seeing this Video, I made the decision to go for the HD-Plex PSU.

Also it is possible to buy a newer version with higher power value.

Since my workflow doesn't require me running both GPU and CPU at full load, I'm not really worried about heat or power usage.

 

[Dschijn]

Can you take a picture with the trash can on?

 

[caniggia]

you are definitely not a serious person!!... i believe that the random avatar assign system gave you the nut for a reason.
so Hats off to you and welcome to the loonieboard!

 

[klaus19]

@Dschijn sure I can, I haven't had the time yet to drill all the holes for the ports, just a few of them, but I hope I cant get it done this weekend.

Edit: Hopefully temps won't increase too munch with the trash can on, after all I couldn't test that out.

 

[tabarus]

looks awesome ! Does it get loud ?

 

[Flagers]

That's so damn cool dude. Are you worried about the casing melting though, or did you use a heat-resistant filament?

 

[klaus19]

@tabarus when I introduced the fan meshes it became audible, before it was virtually silent. Now I have the problem, the hack becomes loud when put on the trash case, not because any parts get warmer or because the fans spin up, but because of reverberation effects. Which I need to minimise somehow. I've added a photo of the old support part, which I used to tighten the Makerbeams and fans to.

@Flagers the case is made out of ABS, which has a resistance of up to 100C and since I'm none of the parts reach that temperature, it should be fine, and I haven't had any problems yet.

 

[Veron]

Very nice build!

PS: Do you have any problems with wifi connection? I have same wifi card, but somehow on mac, I get max around 25mbps of download (connection says it's 144mbps and on Win10, works fine, max speed around 40Mbps, as internet).