nobodynose's HackPro: i7-7700K - ASRock Z270M Pro4 - Nvidia GTX 1060

[nobodynose]

nobodynose's HackPro:
Intel Core i7-7700K - ASRock Z270M Pro - EVGA Nvidia GTX 1060

Components

ASRock Z270M Pro4 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Motherboard-Motherboards-Z270M-PRO4/dp/B01N1MOFKV/
I picked this board because it has a great feature set at a good price. I've had good experiences with ASRock in the past. And I kind of like the look, with the white strip winding its way acrosss the board.

Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Socket 1151 CPU w/Intel HD Graphics 630
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Desktop-Processor-i7-7700K-BX80677I77700K/dp/B01MXSI216/
I've never owned an i7 before; I decided to go all-out with this one!

Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (2x16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 2400MT/s (PC4-19200) Desktop Memory
https://www.amazon.com/Ballistix-16GBx2-PC4-19200-288-Pin-BLS2K16G4D240FSC/dp/B01AG9EZ6E/
I've always trusted Crucial, and I like the price point and the look of this RAM (white to match the white stripe on the motherboard).

EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Support-Graphics-03G-P4-6160-KR/dp/B01KUADE3O/
This is one of only a couple of components I kept from my previous Haswell build.

DIYPC Cuboid-R MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case
https://www.amazon.com/DIYPC-Cuboid-R-Gaming-Micro-ATX-Computer/dp/B01AJBRVUQ/
I'm a fan of cases that mount the motherboard horizontally; it takes a lot of strain off the PCIe slots and facilitates better airflow in the right case. This one came with 200mm front and 120mm rear fans.

CORSAIR Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooler 120mm
https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Performance-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA/
This is my first foray into liquid cooling - it really makes a difference, and it's just as easy to install as an air cooler.

Rosewill Glacier Series 600W Modular 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Glacier-Continuous-Semi-Modular-600M/dp/B00S8NOAJ8/

WD Black 256GB M.2 2280 NVMe Solid State Drive (Boot)
https://www.amazon.com/Black-256GB-Performance-SSD-WDS256G1X0C/dp/B01MS6BYJD/

Crucial M550 512GB SATA3 SSD (/Users)
https://www.amazon.com/MODEL-Crucial-adapter-Internal-CT512M550SSD1/dp/B00IRRDHVW/
I separated /Users from my boot drive a long time ago; this will make it a cinch to get my user account back online.

Seagate Barracuda 5TB Hard Drive
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-ST5000DM000-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B00KIVMRWU/
This drive is used only for Time Machine backups.

Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x SATA Internal DVD+/-RW Drive
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057FRTPW/
Old faithful from my original Hackintosh build (though I rarely ever use it anymore).

Samsung U28D590D 28" UHD 4K (3840x2160) LED Backlight LCD monitor
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-28-Inch-Definition-Monitor-U28D590D/dp/B00IEZGWI2/
Still going strong. I don't have room on my desk for two monitors, so I bought one big one.

Mac OSX Sierra 10.12.6 (downloaded from Mac App Store)


Comments

I originally built my first Hackintosh in late 2011/early 2012, based on a Gigabyte Z68 motherboard and a Sandy Bridge i3 processor, using Intel HD3000 graphics, running Lion. Over time, I:

• replaced a dead SSD;
• replaced a dead PSU;
• added a hybrid SSHD for more space for my /Users partition;
• added an Nvidia GT 640 GPU;
• upgraded the Wifi from 802.11g to 802.11ac;
• upgraded the CPU to a Sandy Bridge i5;
• upgraded the RAM from 4x4GB 1333MHz to 2x8GB 1600MHz;
• replaced the motherboard and CPU (jumping from Sandy Bridge to Haswell architecture);
• upgraded the RAM and GPU again;
• and went from Lion to Mountain Lion to Mavericks to Yosemite to El Capitan to Sierra.

This time, instead of upgrading my old system I decided to build a completely new system (with the exception of the SSD my /Users partition is on, the DVD+/-RW, the GTX 1060 GPU (which is almost new anyway), and my Samsung 4K monitor.

Plus, I hadn't installed macOS from scratch on this machine since my first build (OS X Lion! on a Sandy Bridge system!), so I thought it was long past time I did a fresh install.

I initially had some issues getting my 10.12.6 Sierra USB drive to boot; but I worked through them one by one and got it installed. Then I struggled with audio but got that working too, thanks to @toleda's guide on Kaby Lake audio. I made my way through @RehabMan's tutorial/guide on USB ports to get all the USB ports working properly and his guide to patching the NVMe driver so the system would recognize and boot from the NVMe SSD. Now it's finally complete! I set the System Definition to iMac18,3 (which uses the same CPU as my system, the i7-7700K). The system sleeps and wakes from sleep perfectly, and my initial Geekbench score is nearly 20000, almost double what I was getting from my Haswell system!

 

[Xpose]

Hi Nobodynose,
I am trying my first hackintosh build with the same board/CPU and GPU
but I am stuck with USB drive to boot.
The system just hangs with the Apple and no progression bar whatsoever.
Please can you let me know what you have done to resolve this issue.
Thank you

 

[nobodynose]

Try installing without the Nvidia graphics card, then add it once you get everything running.

 

[cmc850]

I am running this same board, using same cpu. Differences for my build include RX-580 for graphics, 64gb Ballistix Sport, and a Crucial m.2 sata rather than nmve drive. All works well, but have not taken the detailed steps to sort all the USB ports to function correctly. Only some of them seem to operate at their intended usb3 speeds.

Can you share the specific files and patches you used for the Asrock z270m Pro4 USB? Thanks!

 

[rals2007]

@nobodynose
What is the speed of your WDS256G1X0C?
As I also have same NVMe as yours.
WDS256G1X0C [Old Version]

 

[nobodynose]

@nobodynose
What is the speed of your WDS256G1X0C?
As I also have same NVMe as yours.
WDS256G1X0C [Old Version]

Using Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test, I'm getting between 150-200MB/s write and about 1500MB/s read speeds.

 

[rals2007]

Using Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test, I'm getting between 150-200MB/s write and about 1500MB/s read speeds.

I'm getting 200Mb/s Read & 1000+ on write.
Should we be getting higher than those numbers?
I have Samsung 970 EVO (512GB) and getting 2400 read & almost 3000 write

 

[nobodynose]

I'm getting 200Mb/s Read & 1000+ on write.
Should we be getting higher than those numbers?
I have Samsung 970 EVO (512GB) and getting 2400 read & almost 3000 write

The Samsung 970 EVO is a newer generation SSD, so I would expect its performance to be better than the older WD SSD.

 

[germant52]

@nobodynose, Can you please provide me the SSDT for the USB ports? I'm getting crazy trying to make it work. I have the same board as you

 

[nobodynose]

Unfortunately, something happened to the Z270 board, and I ended up replacing it with a Z370. I no longer have that SSDT lying around.