Official CustoMac Mini 2011 Guide and Notes (in progress)

[jwk]

Toleda, I'm about ready to buy video adapters and just want to confirm I haven't had any lapses in logic regarding my picks... also, have a question about one of the boards you have:

1) I'm looking at EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 1280 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 w/ DVI/HDMI/Display Port
Superclocked 012-P3-1573-KR - SLI Ready
or
Superclocked 012-P3-1573-AR - 2 Way 3 Way SLI Support

I don't understand the distinction between 'SLI Ready' and '2 Way 3 Way SLI Support' and it's implications for a Hackintosh... bear in mind this is for a dual boot workstation (not Mini) for OS X Lion and Windows 7, and even though there will only be 1 display adapter in it for the time being, I don't want to limit my future options if I should decide to add a 2nd adapter if that is possible. Are either of these a very good choice?

2) For the Mini, I think I will buy a Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1 GB like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C8 ... PDKIKX0DER
(Someone knowledgeable in these matters recommended something similar to this and I'm wondering if he thinks this is a good choice, since the exact model recommended doesn't seem to be available anymore).

3) I have a couple of EVGA 9800 GTX + display adapters doing nothing... they have a connector that goes from the card to a SPDIF header on the motherboard to get audio to the DVI connector(s)... would they be usable in a CustoMac Mini, and if so, what would that entail?
Thank you for your input on these cards...

 

[Mikey Dread]

Has the artifacting issue been resolved for the Custommac minis yet? I built one and still have major artifacting, especially using the new Final Cut. Drives me nuts.

Tried looking back through posts and did what was suggested:
-480mb shared video RAM for onboard graphics with 8GB RAM.
-HPET 64 bit mode
-SATA to AHCI mode

My setup:

Processor: Intel Core i5 2500
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3
CORSAIR 8GB DDR3
APEX MI-008 Mini-ITX

10.7.3 installed with Unibeast

I've had great luck and no artifacts since I installed the FanControl app in this thread here in the laptops section:

viewtopic.php?f=259&t=51086

It suppresses the artifacts somehow. And no more crashes with the hung graphics engine either.

 

[toleda]

The one question I do have is what should I expect for audio options?

Headphone Jack does not show up in list or work

I must have missed something...

It looks like you have S/L/E/ALC8xxHDA installed. Delete it. System Information will look like the pdf for Audio ID: 389 unless something is wrong. The only difference between Audio ID: 389 and Audio ID; 889 is one less Line Out. Headphones show up when they are plugged in (replacing Internal Speakers). The same is true for the front mic; you don't see it unless a mic is plugged in.

 

[jwk]

I've had virtually no artifacts- I did have some on one of my builds, but I changed the memory in to to faster memory than was spec'd and virtually no problems since... a very occasional fine static horizontal line which doesn't extend beyond the active window, nothing more. BTW, I have a Windows 7 machine that has HD2000 graphics and the latest video drivers for the board, and I get an occasional horizontal black line through the screen... they occurred more often before I updated the video driver. I haven't had a single audio pop either... that is, until today! (see my post 3 posts above). At least the HDMI audio is pristine.

Fan control- I read about that... no one knows why it works, but a lot of people say it works... interesting.

 

[toleda]

1) I'm looking at EVGA GeForce GTX 70 HD 1280 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 w/ DVI/HDMI/Display Port
Superclocked 012-P3-1573-KR - SLI Ready
or
Superclocked 012-P3-1573-AR - 2 Way 3 Way SLI Support

2) For the Mini, I think I will buy a Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1 GB like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C8 ... PDKIKX0DER

3) I have a couple of EVGA 9800 GTX + display adapters doing nothing... they have a connector that goes from the card to a SPDIF header on the motherboard to get audio to the DVI connector(s)... would they be usable in a CustoMac Mini, and if so, what would that entail?

Answers
1. Both cards support 2 or 3 way SLI in Windows; SLI is not supported in OS X. Multiple Cards are support in OS X (special dsdt edits required). The actual difference between AR and KR is the warranty. I don't remember which is which, but one version (more expensive) includes a lifetime warranty and the other doesn't.

2. The Sapphire 6870 noted is great value, works out of the box (video and audio) with great performance. The only drawback from earlier cards is the 1 mDP port rather than the 2 my Vapor-X OC has.

3. The SPDIF port on the 9800 GTX is only useful with a motherboard that also has a SPDIF header and working onboard SPDIF. The H67N-USB3 motherboard does not have a SPDIF header.

 

[jwk]

The one question I do have is what should I expect for audio options?

Headphone Jack does not show up in list or work

I must have missed something...

It looks like you have S/L/E/ALC8xxHDA installed. Delete it. System Information will look like the pdf for Audio ID: 389 unless something is wrong. The only difference between Audio ID: 389 and Audio ID; 889 is one less Line Out. Headphones show up when they are plugged in (replacing Internal Speakers). The same is true for the front mic; you don't see it unless a mic is plugged in.

Exactly right....I do have ALC8xxHDA installed. I've had it installed since the first day, I thought that was correct... I'll remove and try it again.

BTW, don't know if it's related, but I think it may be... I ran this hack for a week before I actually started adding DSDT, kexts, bootloader... it was a fresh install being booted from the USB installer, with the Mac Pro 3,1 Profile, and no artifacts... now, 8 hours after the configuration, I've got artifacts so bad I can barely type this...

Similar thing happened with my previous build. I replaced memory with faster model and it's been stable and I've only seen a faint random line very rarely, and only in the active window I'm working in since that replacement... I'm don't even think it's what other people are referring to as an artifact. I'll try the same with this one tomorrow and see what happens, I still have 2 sticks of it left.

Thank you,

jwk

 

[jwk]

1) I'm looking at EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 1280 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 w/ DVI/HDMI/Display Port
Superclocked 012-P3-1573-KR - SLI Ready
or
Superclocked 012-P3-1573-AR - 2 Way 3 Way SLI Support

2) For the Mini, I think I will buy a Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1 GB like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C8 ... PDKIKX0DER

3) I have a couple of EVGA 9800 GTX + display adapters doing nothing... they have a connector that goes from the card to a SPDIF header on the motherboard to get audio to the DVI connector(s)... would they be usable in a CustoMac Mini, and if so, what would that entail?

Answers
1. Both cards support 2 or 3 way SLI in Windows; SLI is not supported in OS X. Multiple Cards are support in OS X (special dsdt edits required). The actual difference between AR and KR is the warranty. I don't remember which is which, but one version (more expensive) includes a lifetime warranty and the other doesn't.

2. The Sapphire 6870 noted is great value, works out of the box (video and audio) with great performance. The only drawback from earlier cards is the 1 mDP port rather than the 2 my Vapor-X OC has.

3. The SPDIF port on the 9800 GTX is only useful with a motherboard that also has a SPDIF header and working onboard SPDIF. The H67N-USB3 motherboard does not have a SPDIF header.

Thank you for the quick response... A few comments:

1) If the warranty is the only difference, I'll go for the one with lifetime, because the price now is within $5-10 of each other as I remember.

2) Is the DP port active in OS X on the Sapphire HD 6870? The picture in the ad that I linked to shows 2x DVI ports (1x Single Link DVI-D, 1x Dual Link DVI), 1x HDMI v1.4a, 1xDP v1.2 (full size)... I just checked the sapphire website- it is the same as the one in the ad. It would be nice if it had 2 DPs, but I made another one of my assumptions, that because the Sapphire 5570 w/ Display Port didn't work, that the DP on the 6870 didn't work either. BTW, I bought a 5570 today that looks brand new in the original box for 50US$- insurance.

3) Look at page 11 of the H67N-USB3-B3 Users Manual under 'Internal Connectors'- "1 x S/PDIF Out header"... and page 7 diagram of board layout, bottom left corner next to rear panel audio connector- next to the front panel audio header is a 2 pin SPDIF out connector- my examination of the board bears this out- it's easy to miss because it blends right in with the Front Audio header, and it's the 2 pin variety of SPDIF made specifically for connecting to a graphics board, not the 3 pin kind that also includes a power connection for an expansion slot optical SPDIF output connector. So, what do you think now about the EVGA 9800 GTX + graphics adapter??? It served me well in the past, what kind of trouble would it be to use with the Mini build???

Cheers!

 

[jwk]

S/L/E/ALC8xxHDA=Bad

NO S/L/E/ALC8xxHDA=GOOD

Thanks


Question about eSATA- In MultiBeast, is 3rd Party eSATA supposed to be checked/installed for eSATA to work?

 

[Mate94]

S/L/E/ALC8xxHDA=Bad

NO S/L/E/ALC8xxHDA=GOOD

Thanks


Question about eSATA- In MultiBeast, is 3rd Party eSATA supposed to be checked/installed for eSATA to work?

Yes.

 

[hasamoder]

I've had enough of this and I hate asking because I consider myself to be quiet good at all things OSX86 but I've made a fresh Unibeast install with 10.7.3 Install Mac OSX Mac App Store. With nothing plugged in apart from core components and I get "failed to locate smc driver". FameSMC doesn't help nor does editing the AppleHDA kexts. I never had this problem on 10.7.2 and can't figure out what to do...

Help?