Need advice on a few specifics for Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi + i9-9900k

[agm1984]

Pointless backstory: I'm a software engineer, and I have been pegging out the 16GB RAM in my 2018 Macbook Pro doing JavaScript with 5 workspaces and like 70 Chrome tabs and VS Code with Webpack 24/7, so I'm planning to hackintosh a collection of parts I already have plus some new ones. At the moment, I have some specific questions I need to figure out.

Based on my research, it seems like I will have a good chance at success if I run the mobo/cpu combo:
- Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi
- Intel i9-9900k

What I'm looking for is a straight-forward install, so I'm wondering about these parts:
- G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 266 (that's a 32x1 chip)
- Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 3.0
- eVGA GTX 660

The RAM was in a supported list for the motherboard, so I'm currently assuming it should be fine.

The M.2 SSD gives me some anxiety because I'm not sure if it will "just work" or "be horrific for a hackintosh noob"

The GTX 660 graphic card I already have sitting around. It gives me some anxiety currently because it's not ATI.

In conclusion, can anyone speak to my concerns here with some helpful info? I can and will use the site's search functions, but since this is my first hackintosh, I would greatly appreciate being told about any critical keywords and things I need to know about.

I'm still looking for a guide and set of steps I can follow. If anyone has a URL laying around for High Sierra or Mojave, I am initially looking at those. I need to know if the GTX 660 will work or if I should just buy something like a Radeon 580 to achieve the "smooth install" process. I know the motherboard has onboard gfx, so I might be able to rely on that, but I'd really like to know if there's a cost effective graphic card I can buy that will keep everything simple.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hi there. Welcome

Yep, there's a lot of guidance on the site and it covers just about everything you need to know, however unless you find a "Golden Build" with exactly the same components as yours, there will always be the possibility of hiccups and workarounds. We are all trying to make PC hardware work as Mac and there are major differences.

So, doing a basic search there are no Golden Builds using your motherboard, but there are one or two in User Builds using the ITX format.

Things to note:

WiFi - the supplied onboard wifi will currently not work. Folk are working on it, but it's a slow process and nothing is reliable or recommended yet, so you need to factor-in replacing the wifi/BT card.

Your GTX 660 seems fine:

Will my Nvidia Graphics Card work with macOS ? List of Desktop Cards with Native Support

Preamble for those new to Nvidia graphics card choices for a Hackintosh 1. You will only have success choosing macOS compatible graphics if you remember that: macOS is not Windows 2. Apple incorporates all their graphics drivers into the Mac Operating System. There are only drivers in macOS...

www.tonymacx86.com

WD Blue drives are known to work, but those are usually SATA. NVME drives work too, but are not so common. Take a look here:

High Sierra Installation of WD Blue 500GB M.2 Internal Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0B)

hi. I have purchased m2 SSD and I need to help to install high sierra on my Hackintosh machine on WD Blue 500GB M.2 Internal Solid State Drive. Specs i5 6600K SSD- WD Blue 500GB M.2 Internal Gigabyte GA Z170M D3H 16 GB Corsair RAM DDR 4 Gigabyte 960 4 GB DDR 5 GPU Plz suggest

www.tonymacx86.com

Single RAM banks are tricky, but some people report they work. As you say yours is on the motherboard QVL then it should be fine - electrically. Generally though Macs have pairs for dual-channel setup.

As for macOS configuration your base hardware Z390 / i9 - is a common choice.

Installing the latest macOS is in the Installation Guide. Older versions in Forum/Installation.

 

[agm1984]

Hi there. Welcome

Yep, there's a lot of guidance on the site and it covers just about everything you need to know, however unless you find a "Golden Build" with exactly the same components as yours, there will always be the possibility of hiccups and workarounds. We are all trying to make PC hardware work as Mac and there are major differences.

So, doing a basic search there are no Golden Builds using your motherboard, but there are one or two in User Builds using the ITX format.

Things to note:

WiFi - the supplied onboard wifi will currently not work. Folk are working on it, but it's a slow process and nothing is reliable or recommended yet, so you need to factor-in replacing the wifi/BT card.

Your GTX 660 seems fine:

Will my Nvidia Graphics Card work with macOS ? List of Desktop Cards with Native Support

Preamble for those new to Nvidia graphics card choices for a Hackintosh 1. You will only have success choosing macOS compatible graphics if you remember that: macOS is not Windows 2. Apple incorporates all their graphics drivers into the Mac Operating System. There are only drivers in macOS...

www.tonymacx86.com

WD Blue drives are known to work, but those are usually SATA. NVME drives work too, but are not so common. Take a look here:

High Sierra Installation of WD Blue 500GB M.2 Internal Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0B)

hi. I have purchased m2 SSD and I need to help to install high sierra on my Hackintosh machine on WD Blue 500GB M.2 Internal Solid State Drive. Specs i5 6600K SSD- WD Blue 500GB M.2 Internal Gigabyte GA Z170M D3H 16 GB Corsair RAM DDR 4 Gigabyte 960 4 GB DDR 5 GPU Plz suggest

www.tonymacx86.com

Single RAM banks are tricky, but some people report they work. As you say yours is on the motherboard QVL then it should be fine - electrically. Generally though Macs have pairs for dual-channel setup.

As for macOS configuration your base hardware Z390 / i9 - is a common choice.

Installing the latest macOS is in the Installation Guide. Older versions in Forum/Installation.

Thanks for your warm greeting. I'm noting some new things now after reading what you linked.

First, I did find that m2 Western Digital post you linked, earlier today, and it is a key source of my anxiety around that drive. I see people reporting success with the Samsung 960 EVO M2. I only code on this machine, so I can probably get by fine with 250GB, and in the past I've also heard good things about that EVO series.

At the moment, I really wonder if the hard drive brand would make any difference. I feel like either the system will recognize it or a person would get stuck at step 0. It seems less likely that drivers would come into play and/or that a person would be able to install MacOS but then have problems later. I'd like to hear about what kinds of problems COULD arise. In the absence of any good info there, I might just start with the Samsung EVO. My intuition says to stick to manufacturers, frameworks, and drivers that Apple uses, and I should tend to have success.

Next, I did purchase the i9-9900k earlier today, so that's done, but I haven't purchased the motherboard yet. Using your keyword of "golden builds", I just found this here which contains a lot of beautiful information: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...updated-for-10-14-6-and-nvram-support.275272/

Also to your point, I am aware of the wifi aspect, and I definitely don't mind. I will use mine wired because I have a 600mbps line. That's a current gripe I have with my 2018 MBP, is that it doesn't have an ethernet port so I max out at something like 380mbps. If it would simplify my life, I will just buy that ASUS TUF board (and the 2-port USB hub panel bracket). I did previously settle on the Aorus Pro Wifi because a) it has the integrated video "fallback", and b) it was mentioned as an "editor's pick" for making a hackintosh... on a different site.

Next, that is good news if you are seeing possible reports that the GTX660 will work. I suspect it will but may present issues I don't want to deal with. I read earlier that the motherboard will run it, but I also found reports that MacOS doesn't support nVidia drivers by default, and overall this whole scene seems a bit sketchy. I feel like I've seen before that Apple uses ATI parts, so if this is true, it means everything ATI-based should just work better with less hassle. I like the idea of things working by default and with selections from "standard pick lists". I see lots of people running the Radeon 580/590 gfx cards, so I'm very tempted to use that if it will increase likelihood of success on Mojave.

Next, I have seen this URL before: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ojave-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.259381/, but I am still so noob that I can barely understand it, but between the above MacMan's build and that, I am starting to get a sense of what is required.

I can tolerate and debug any issues once I get Mojave~ installed and bootable off the disk. My main focus is to get that far. I am a developer myself, so I am no stranger to nightmare-debugging config files. I just need to get to the point where I'm only dealing with specific error messages and not bad mixtures of components!

Also thanks for your mention about single RAM bank. I'll change my plan to 16gb x 2 kit. My goal is to get it running on 32gb and then kick it up to 64 after.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Thanks for your warm greeting. I'm noting some new things now after reading what you linked.

First, I did find that m2 Western Digital post you linked, earlier today, and it is a key source of my anxiety around that drive. I see people reporting success with the Samsung 960 EVO M2. I only code on this machine, so I can probably get by fine with 250GB, and in the past I've also heard good things about that EVO series.

At the moment, I really wonder if the hard drive brand would make any difference. I feel like either the system will recognize it or a person would get stuck at step 0. It seems less likely that drivers would come into play and/or that a person would be able to install MacOS but then have problems later. I'd like to hear about what kinds of problems COULD arise. In the absence of any good info there, I might just start with the Samsung EVO. My intuition says to stick to manufacturers, frameworks, and drivers that Apple uses, and I should tend to have success.

Next, I did purchase the i9-9900k earlier today, so that's done, but I haven't purchased the motherboard yet. Using your keyword of "golden builds", I just found this here which contains a lot of beautiful information: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...updated-for-10-14-6-and-nvram-support.275272/

Also to your point, I am aware of the wifi aspect, and I definitely don't mind. I will use mine wired because I have a 600mbps line. That's a current gripe I have with my 2018 MBP, is that it doesn't have an ethernet port so I max out at something like 380mbps. If it would simplify my life, I will just buy that ASUS TUF board (and the 2-port USB hub panel bracket). I did previously settle on the Aorus Pro Wifi because a) it has the integrated video "fallback", and b) it was mentioned as an "editor's pick" for making a hackintosh... on a different site.

Next, that is good news if you are seeing possible reports that the GTX660 will work. I suspect it will but may present issues I don't want to deal with. I read earlier that the motherboard will run it, but I also found reports that MacOS doesn't support nVidia drivers by default, and overall this whole scene seems a bit sketchy. I feel like I've seen before that Apple uses ATI parts, so if this is true, it means everything ATI-based should just work better with less hassle. I like the idea of things working by default and with selections from "standard pick lists". I see lots of people running the Radeon 580/590 gfx cards, so I'm very tempted to use that if it will increase likelihood of success on Mojave.

Next, I have seen this URL before: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ojave-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.259381/, but I am still so noob that I can barely understand it, but between the above MacMan's build and that, I am starting to get a sense of what is required.

I can tolerate and debug any issues once I get Mojave~ installed and bootable off the disk. My main focus is to get that far. I am a developer myself, so I am no stranger to nightmare-debugging config files. I just need to get to the point where I'm only dealing with specific error messages and not bad mixtures of components!

Well, there's no need to be worried about anything. There are no "rules" in the Hackintosh world, despite what people tell you, BUT there are certain choices that are borderline or simply will not work so we have to work around them.

Here's a good example:

Yes Samsung Evo SSDs work but there are different versions and the "Pro" and "Plus" models cause issues, the worst being you can't boot with them. However it has been reported that if you attach one to a Windows PC and update the internal firmware they will work. I haven't tried it myself, but many others have. Personally I would not buy one just for the small gain in speed and instead go for a safe, easy choice that I know works. Easy.

The GPU list I referred to has been very carefully compiled by @trs96 because we get so many queries on the subject of NVidia video-cards. For many years Apple did support Nvidia and continue to do so for their hardware that is still upgradable to the latest macOS. However, only for models they themselves used. Hence the need for the list. Some models were never used and because NVidia chooses not to provide drivers beyond High Sierra, they will not work. Your GTX660, though it may have a limited lifespan going forward, it should work for now. Any serious problem then temporarily fall-back on to your i9's internal iGPU until you source another card.

As for the general installation process, just follow the Guide step-by-step. It works and that's how you get from A-B with each iteration of macOS.

Obviously you need a real mac to prepare the UniBeast installer.

As you are now actively buying components, just put details in the Search box and see how others fare with them

For any other queries just ask in the relevant Forum section.

 

[agm1984]

Thanks again. I don't have a Windows installer available at the moment. I just have this Macbook Pro and two Ubuntu machines. Based on my reading, it seems like I would need to boot into Windows to update the firmware. Long story short, I agree with you about the hard drive. I will just go with a SATA drive and upgrade that later after I understand the hackintosh processes more.

I just finished reading every post in this thread here: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-for-10-14-6-and-nvram-support.275272/page-27

I will most likely purchase this ASUS TUF Z390-PRO GAMING motherboard because of the details in that thread, and because Asus modified some aspects of the RAM-handling, so it seems that board will handle up to 4000MHz~. I don't care about that today, but I will later.

It seems there's two main problems that show up in that build thread:
- the installer can freeze at 80% due to some NVRAM emulation setting
- people try to run the NVRAM patch file while in the wrong directory

Beyond that, I feel like it's plausible that I could complete the OS install/setup in one shot.

It sounded like I could just emulate NVRAM regardless and then find a way to rectify the situation later in the operating system, if it came down to that.

For me now, this is putting emphasis on the Unibeast USB stick. Either I install everything I need onto it, or I don't, and either the USB was formatted correctly or it wasn't

Can anyone link me a URL that shows how to prepare the USB from my MacOS machine? I would love to see a 10 step wizard with screenshots or something like that, so I can have confidence my USB is prepared effectively. I read about a couple settings that made it seem critically important that the USB is formatted correctly.

 

[agm1984]

Bonus update: I purchased all the parts I need--finished the last of them last night. I'll probably make another thread somewhere detailing my build.

But basically, thanks again UtterDisbelief. I ranked up my Hackintosh knowledge significantly after what you said.

Here's what I'm going with:
- Tower: Fractal Design Meshify C dark tint (don't run this if you have 315mm+ length video card with front-mount intercooler)
- CPU: Intel i9-9900k
- CPU Cooler: Corsair H150i Pro 360mm (should be able to sustain around 5GHz overclock)
- Motherboard: Asus TUF z390 Pro Gaming (non-Wifi version, due to unsupported hardware)
- RAM: G-skill Ripjaws 16x2 GB @ 3200Mhz (will upgrade later to 4x32 GB; mobo+cpu supports 128 GB)
- GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX580
- PSU: Coolermaster 750w (I already have this; should work, reports indicated 550-650w under full load 9900k and 1080Ti or 2080Ti)
- Hard drive: Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB
- 2 Ports Hub USB 2.0 to 9 Pin Header Mainboard Panel Bracket (for $10-20, just get it, in my opinion)

I selected these parts so I can hopefully move through these two tutorials here without issue:

UniBeast: Install macOS Mojave on Any Supported Intel-based PC

The following guide is a complete walkthrough for updating to or installing a fresh version of macOS Mojave. It requires no experience and all of the basic installation and post-installation tools are available on tonymacx86.com. Table of Contents Step 1: Download macOS Mojave Step 2: Create...

www.tonymacx86.com

MacMan's Build: ASUS TUF Z390-PRO GAMING - i9-9900K - Vega 64 - Updated for 10.14.6 and NVRAM Support

MacMan's Build: ASUS TUF Z390-PRO GAMING - i9-9900K - UHD 630 Updated 2020-02-02 for Native NVRAM Support Components ASUS TUF Z390-PRO GAMING Motherboard https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HM6ZC9D/tag=tonymacx86com-20 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813119160 Intel...

www.tonymacx86.com

I also selected these parts because I am a software engineer focused on JavaScript and mostly React/Vue JS. React Native mobile development has also been historically very taxing on my 2018 Macbook Pro. JavaScript itself can be heavy on memory because of "the heap". The heap is why you can see me aiming for 128 GB of RAM with upwards of 4000 Mhz clock speed.

My main interests always involve the VS Code IDE, and usually Webpack which constantly rebuilds "the bundle" (part of or all of). Historically, this takes around 3-10 seconds on a 2018 Macbook Pro 13" with 16 GB RAM.

I can absolutely peg out the CPU/RAM when I do stuff like open 2+ Chrome web browser instances across 3+ OSX workspaces, each with 5-25 tabs in them. This eats into memory quite hard. After that, once Webpack has built a bundle and it constantly updates, most of the 16 GB RAM is consumed 24/7.

After rebooting, I normally had 12 GB of 16 GB RAM utilized, and over a week or month, OSX memory management seems subpar to me, because it eventually pegs out the RAM 24/7. I blame Chrome, and I blame the JavaScript heap, and possibly the OS itself maintaining bad mementos (ie: snapshots of stored state that are retrieved and restarted later).

As a person can see, I opted for the i9-9900K, and I did this for the 8 core 16 thread with 12 MB L3 cache that can be overclocked to run at 5GHz, and even today in April 2020, this is absolutely maniac performance. My main goal, like i almost said above, is to make the VS Code IDE as snappy as possible because I run extensions/plugins on keypress and use tooling such as ES Lint which also runs on keypress. A person looking to make Adobe Photoshop as fast and snappy as possible might be interested in the same reasoning I am using.

It is important to note that today I don't care about GPU performance at all. I just want it to work. Later on, I will upgrade the tower to a full size frame that can handle a 360mm radiator with the largest video card. I selected the Fractal Design Meshify C because the mesh front gives it very attractive cooling properties. In my exact setup, a video card longer than 315mm will NOT fit. Be aware of that, and also be aware that a tower exists called the Meshify S2, which is larger. In my opinion, these are current day excellent performance to price ratio towers.

It's also important to note that the i9-9900k runs hot. When people make fun of it calling it an expensive room heater, pay attention. I recommend not skimping on cooling, and it's why I went with the 360mm AIO watercooler. Reports indicate it can handle 5 GHz on the i9-9900k with 60-75 Celcius, core 3 usually hot spot (and maybe around 1.3 volts but don't quote me on that). All this is fine to me since, as a developer, I only burst CPU usage.

If I were building a Final Cut Pro machine or any intense rendering, I have no expertise there, but I would probably get the same parts but with a different tower and the absolute best performing compatible GPU.

In closing, thanks to all the giants that came before me, whose shoulders I stand upon to appear knowledgeable here. I will make more threads later, but I wanted to capture this information here, now because I just spent the last 3 days and approximately 20-30 hours researching hardware compatibility and i9-9900k cpu-oriented information.

As of April 9, 2020, the current consensus is to run this motherboard and CPU with Mojave, and to ignore Catalina, but I suspect this will change as some people are reporting various degrees of success, but with things like system freezing... basically some kernel panic stability issues. If some time has elapsed since this post here, it could definitely be viable to run Catalina with SMBIOS 19,1 profile. I recommend doing huge amounts of research before committing to any action.

Beyond that, I am currently extremely excited at the prospect of running OSX on a fully-custom, modularly-upgradeable rig. I love the operating system and GUI as a software engineer. I hope that Apple can make it easier for me in the future.

- Adam