Papageientaucher's Silent Lightroom Build: GA-Z77X-UP5-TH - GTX670 - 3770K

[papageientaucher]

Papageientaucher's Build: GA-Z77X-UP5-TH - i7 3770K - GTX 670 - ML10.8.3

Papageientaucher's Build: GA-Z77X-UP5-TH - Core-i7-3770K - 16GB RAM - GeForce GTX-670 - Mavericks 10.9.4

Update:
I recently updated to 10.9.4 (10.8.4 before). Everything is running smooth, only issue is that there is no sound after sleep.
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Components:

OSX 10.9.4 Maverics (App-Store Download)
https://www.apple.com/de/osx/

Tonymacx86’s MultiBeast for Maverics
http://www.tonymacx86.com/downloads

Tonymacx86’s UniBeast
http://www.tonymacx86.com/downloads

Gigabyte Z77X-UP5-TH
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LTB3QW

Intel Core i7 3770K
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SZ0EOW

CoolerMaster 690 Advanced USB3 including eSATA Dock
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ZOB9MM

3x beQuiet Silent Wings 2 140mm + 2x beQuiet Silent Wings 2 120mm (all at approx. 700rpm @ 5V to replace the stock case fans)
[AMAZON-de]http://www.amazon.de/dp/B007IE3W1K[/AMAZON-de]
[AMAZON-de]http://www.amazon.de/dp/B007IE3Z4Y[/AMAZON-de]

be quiet! E9-CM Straight Power 580 Watts
[AMAZON-de]http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005LUXLUU[/AMAZON-de]

Prolimatech genesis with 2x beQuiet Silent Wings 2 140mm,
[AMAZON-de]http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004O28OTE[/AMAZON-de]
[AMAZON-de]http://www.amazon.de/dp/B007IE3W1K[/AMAZON-de]

Zalman Fan-Mate II to reduce mainboard-fan-controlled rpm of the CPU cooler fans
http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Fanmate-2-Speed-Controller-Retail/dp/B000292DO0

Palit Geforce 670 GTX JetStream
[AMAZON-de]http://www.amazon.de/Palit-NVIDIA-Jetstream-Grafikkarte-Speicher/dp/B0082A60ZE[/AMAZON-de]

16GB (2x8GB) Dual Channel Kit Corsair Venegance DIMM 240-PIN - 1600 MHz
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006EWUO22

Sandisk Extreme 480GB SATA III
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006EKIQYM

3x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200rpm ST3000DM001
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005T3GRLY


Already owned:

Dell U2711 (27” @ 2560x1440)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0039648BO

Medion BU-2086-1 USB Bluetooth dongle (apparently identical with Belkin BT2.1+ USB Mini Dongle)
http://www.belkin.com/pyramid/documents/Internal/BU-2086 F8T016.pdf

Apple Wireless Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DLDO4U

Apple Magic Trackpad
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MC380LL-A-Magic-Trackpad/dp/B003XIJ3MW

Kingston Data Traveler G3 16GB
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0041Q38N0&tag=tonymacx86com-20

Sharkoon QuickPort Duo eSATA Dock
http://www.amazon.de/dp/B001E03444/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

Samsung by Toshiba Super Writemaster DVD-R/CD-R Burner
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Drive-SH-S223C-BEBE-Black/dp/B002TG3ABE&tag=tonymacx86com-20

Logitech HD Webcam C310
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-960-000585-HD-Webcam-C310/dp/B003LVZO8S&tag=tonymacx86com-20

Firewire internal to rear slot bracket adapter (connected to internal IEEE1394 port)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Externa...Bus-6-Pin-PCI-Port-Rear-Bracket-/160875527970

USB2.0 internal to rear slot bracket adapter (connected to internal USB2.0 port)
http://www.amazon.com/2-Port-USB-Expansion-Bracket-Header/dp/B000PEITJ0&tag=tonymacx86com-20

Logitech Mouseman Dual Optical
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Cordless-MouseMan-Optical-930496-0403/dp/B00005AT7Y&tag=tonymacx86com-20

IBM USB Keyboard for installation and BIOS configuration
http://www.amazon.com/IBM-73P2620-Enhanced-USB-Keyboard/dp/B0002376KW&tag=tonymacx86com-20


Comments:

Choice of Components & Motivation:
As an ambitious hobby photographer I needed a solid environment for basic photo editing and picture-database management with Adobe Lightroom, plus some more extensive Photoshop (Elements) editing every once in a while. My 11” Macbook Air (2011) works ok with Lightroom, but if I connect a 27” display, all changes in the development-module cause Lightroom to take about 2s to render, which is quite a disruption for my workflow.
For all this, a current iMac would have been more than sufficient except for the disk space available, and I didn’t really want to daisy-chain 2-3 thunderbolt drives to get the space I require. The ability to add as much storage as I like is basically why I build my HackMac.
Since this build is standing in my living room it should be as silent as possible and capable of playing DVDs and FullHD-MKVs on my Beamer. Of course this means getting a potent CPU cooler with the ability to fit silent 140mm fans. From earlier experiences I found that using many 140mm case fans running at minimum rpm is less noisy than few fans at higher speed. So I added quite a lot of case fans, all of which running at 5V (which ist the minimum voltage requirement for them to start running at all). The resulting airflow in the case is completely silent (all I hear are the 7200rpm HDDs) but it will still give me some headroom for eventually overclocking my Hackintosh.

Additionally I still like to play an occasional game, if possible in 2560x1440 (native reolution of my 27” display), so I added the GTX 670 (which of course would have been an absolute overkill for all other tasks). The GTX660 Ti would have been almost as fast, but since it was introduced just days before I ordered, availability was not the best and the price was merely the same, so I went with the GTX670.

The case was chosen because it has an integrated eSATA dock, which to me is very useful. As noted in the components list I replaced all stock fans with beQuiet Silent Wings II which at 5V are pretty much inaudible (also running a beQuiet Power supply with same fan).

Confirmed working:

• Network
• USB2.0 + USB 3.0 ports
• Firewire
• SATA (all ports, eSATA hot-swappable with the "3rd Party eSATA" patch in Multibeast)
• Analog audio out (see Alfas guide for the plug assignment) http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...cess-gigabyte-ga-z77x-up5-th-thunderbolt.html
• SPDIF digital audio out including AC3/DTS pass-through
• Bluetooth BU-2086-1 USB Dongle sleeps/wakes with Apple keyboard/trackpad
• GTX670 DVI-ports both working with dual Displays, miniDP-port working as well.
• OpenCL & CUDA
• TRIM working

Not tested by me (yet):

• HD4000 On-board graphics <- should work according to http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...cess-gigabyte-ga-z77x-up5-th-thunderbolt.html
• Thunderbolt <- should work except for hot-plugging according to http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...cess-gigabyte-ga-z77x-up5-th-thunderbolt.html
• HDMI Audio (both HD4000 and GTX670)
• Airplay/Airview

Known issues:

• No audio after sleep. There is a workaround, but it's not what you would call sophisticated (see below)
• WiFi/Bluetooth expansion card - not supported (yet). Didn’t even install mine and sold it on eBay for an extra 20€ right away.
• Front audio panel (connected over HD-audio plug) not working at all.
• Speech recognition is not working. Double-pressing Fn brings up the popup, but I do not get any results. Starting the speech recognition setup in system settings results in colored “wheel of fortune”…

Installation:
I followed Tonymacx86's general (http://www.tonymacx86.com/374-unibeast-install-os-x-mavericks-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html) and Alfas board-specific (http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...cess-gigabyte-ga-z77x-up5-th-thunderbolt.html) guides. Btw: Thanks, you guys!
1) updated BIOS (get latest update here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4279&dl=1#bios)
2) Setup BIOS like so: http://imgur.com/a/nlEsd#0 (images from Alfa's Guide)
3) Followed Tonymacx86's Guide http://www.tonymacx86.com/374-unibeast-install-os-x-mavericks-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html with the following settings:

• 
  
  
  Multibeast Settings:
  

  

  
  If you plan on using eSATA drives on your Marvel controlled ports (rear eSATA port plus internal GSATA port)
  you might want to choose "3rd Party eSATA", otherwise use "3rd Party SATA" instead as all SATA drives connected to the
  Marvel controller will show up as removable drives in your Finder
  ​
  
  Workaround for no-sound-after-sleep issue:
  after sleep
  • make sure no sound should be playing (no VLC, iTunes... opened)
  • open Terminal
  • run the following commands:
  • "sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext" (needs password)
  • "sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext"
  • "sudo killall coreaudiod"
  that's it. Not nice and smooth, but it works. Hopefully there will be a proper solution in the future...
  
  Bottom Line:
  Setting up Mountain Lion was way easier than expected. The system is running very stable and silent, no kernel panics or system crashes. Some Issues remain, but nothing too serious (except of course if you defiantly require e.g. hotplugging thunderbolt devices). Even the updates worked without issues. All I needed to do was download and install the combo-update and run MultiBeast after the update again to fix whatever got screwed up by the update.
  
  THANK YOU to all who have put so much effort into creating an easy to use install method for OSX on non-Apple hardware!

 

[hitINdaGs]

• SPDIF digital audio out including AC3/DTS pass-through (popping noise does not affect the digital output)

How did you get that one to work?

 

[papageientaucher]

Actually I didn't have to do anything on the SPDIF, it just worked out-of-the-box.

What are your issues? SPDIF not working at all or AC3/DTS passthrough not working?
If the problem is with AC3/DTS content only (while e.g. mp3 stereo works fine) try a different player. I am running XBMC which played all my formats right away and I only had to set the "use digital AC3/DTS output" (or similar) flag on XBMC. Oh, and for some reason I had to set the audio output in XBMC to HDMI, not SPDIF, but audio is coming from SPDIF.

regards & best of luck!

 

[dawsman]

Hi Papageientaucher

Great build - congratulations. I have a build based on the same motherboard/processor/graphics

Thank you very much for your suggestion of XBMC in order to achieve AC3/DTS through optical out. It worked for me. Strange you had to set HDMI audio out in XBMC though... I set optical/coax and it worked a treat!

Thanks again

 

[hitINdaGs]

yes, xbmc works. it would really like to get my VLC to work, though.

 

[papageientaucher]

Even "native" Apple hardware has problems with AC3/DTS playback over SPDIF/HDMI, even with VLC. E.g my 11"-Air does not play AC3/DTS over HDMI using VLC.

Didn't try it myself, but maybe this helps? http://legacy.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=49965

Regards,
MP

 

[Kunkun80]

Great build!
Im looking forward my Project, very similar than your

 

[hitINdaGs]

Even "native" Apple hardware has problems with AC3/DTS playback over SPDIF/HDMI, even with VLC. E.g my 11"-Air does not play AC3/DTS over HDMI using VLC.

Didn't try it myself, but maybe this helps? http://legacy.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=49965

Regards,
MP

thanks - but toleda said that there is no fix to the alc898. i will just get used to xmbc i guess..

 

[kgartner]

Just out of currosity, were you ever able to solve the popping audio issue? I've got basically the exact same setup as you and have the same issue. I'm going to try and get a SPDIF to RCA converter to see if I can use my old speakers with this setup.

 

[papageientaucher]

Just out of currosity, were you ever able to solve the popping audio issue?

Yes, this one is solved. Sorry, had a lot on my mind the last months and didn't update the guide since early September...
In Multibeast > Customization > System Definitions use the latest Mac Pro instead of the iMac 12.2. This will solve the popping audio issue.

I'm going to try and get a SPDIF to RCA converter to see if I can use my old speakers with this setup.

With both system definitions SPDIF does work proper, without popping audio.