pastrychef's Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming (WI-FI AC) build w/ i9-9900K + AMD 6600 XT

[D-One]

I think you forgot to name one of the two EFI for Intel UHD630.zip files attached with the "R3". Just so people know which one is the most recent one. great job on this guide, it helped me a lot.

 

[pastrychef]

I think you forgot to name one of the two EFI for Intel UHD630.zip files attached with the "R3". Just so people know which one is the most recent one. great job on this guide, it helped me a lot.

Yes, I did... Thanks for the heads up. I just corrected it.

 

[elfcake]

As I noted in the first post, I had been using a Dell DW1830 M.2 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. It had been working well but I wanted to use a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card from a real Mac. So, I ordered a BCM94360CS2 that is found in 2013-2017 MacBook Airs and an appropriate M.2 adaptor for it.

The BCM94360CS2 and M.2 adaptor is too tall to close the bracket casing that's included with the motherboard, but that's fine. Securing both to the bracket works fine. Because it's taller, one of the pigtail antennas will not be able to reach. I swapped it with one of the pigtails from the PCI-e adaptor I used for my previous build.

In my particular case, the height of the BCM94360CS2 and adaptor forced me to shave off a little bit of the rear case fan in the corner.

Reasons:

• The BCM94360CS2 only requires 2 antennas vs the 3 required for the DW1830. This works out better with this motherboard because the bracket and backplate on this motherboard were designed for 2 antennas.
• Guaranteed 100% compatibility.
• No need for additional kexts or patches.

Advantages/Disadvantages:

• The DW1830 was too wide to fit in to the bracket that came with the motherboard, so I just had it plugged in to the M.2 connector with nothing securing it.
• There has been some reports that the DW1830 would be slow after sleep in macOS. I didn't test this.
• The DW1830 is capable of 1300Mbps. The BCM94360CS2 is only capable of 867Mbps.
• The BCM94360CS2 is true plug-n-play with macOS. The DW1830 required two kexts for Bluetooth to work.

Here are the items I purchased:
View attachment 299927

MacBook Air 13 A1465 A1466 2013 2014 WiFi Bluetooth Air Port Card BCM94360CS2 AP | eBay
Amazon.com: New WiFi Bluetooth Card BCM94360CS2 For MacBook Air 13'' A1465 A1466 Mid 2013: Computers & Accessories

View attachment 299928
BCM94360CS2 Card To NGFF(M.2) Key A/E Adapter For Mac OS and Hackintosh | eBay
Amazon.com: Hobbypower BCM94360CS2/BCM943224PCIEBT2 Card To NGFF(M.2) Key A/E Adapter For Mac OS: Computers & Accessories


Here it is with everything assembled:
View attachment 299931
Here's a picture of it installed. (Thanks @Lestliness for the picture!):
View attachment 309254


Edit (January 19, 2018):
As I noted above, one of the stock pigtail antennas will be too short to reach the BCM94360CS2. You can replace the pigtail with something like this:
View attachment 307021
4X IPEX /MHF4 to RP-SMA Antenna Pigtail for NGFF/M.2 WIFI/WLAN/3G/4G Modules-US | eBay

I have a BCM 94360CD PCIe card that I have used in two previous builds, Z77 and a Z170. The wifi and bluetooth worked without any input from me, no kexts. Simply was working as soon as I reached MacOS desktop. With the new build, Z370 Gaming 5 and 8700k has not been the case. Although the green LED does light, neither wifi or bluetooth are working. Any thoughts? Are there kexts for this item that you know of? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RCKZ3SU/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[pastrychef]

I have a BCM 94360CD PCIe card that I have used in two previous builds, Z77 and a Z170. The wifi and bluetooth worked without any input from me, no kexts. Simply was working as soon as I reached MacOS desktop. With the new build, Z370 Gaming 5 and 8700k has not been the case. Although the green LED does light, neither wifi or bluetooth are working. Any thoughts? Are there kexts for this item that you know of? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RCKZ3SU/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

The BCM94360CD should work as it did in your Z77 and Z170 builds, with no additional kexts required.

Does the Bluetooth show up in System Information -> USB?
Does the Wi-Fi show up in DCPIManager, System Information, or IORegistryExplorer?
Have you tried a different PCI-e slot?

 

[elfcake]

Yes, it does show in Sys Info. I will need to download IO Reg to determine that. I will try another PCIe slot next. Thank you.

 

[pastrychef]

Yes, it does show in Sys Info. I will need to download IO Reg to determine that. I will try another PCIe slot next. Thank you.

If Bluetooth is showing up under USB, it should be working...

 

[elfcake]

If Bluetooth is showing up under USB, it should be working...

I moved it to another PCIe slot, still no wifi. Could the existing OEM wifi card on the mb be interfering?

 

[elfcake]

The system is also slower than the previous i5 6500

 

[Stork]

I moved it to another PCIe slot, still no wifi. Could the existing OEM wifi card on the mb be interfering?

Yes. Remove it.

 

[pastrychef]

I moved it to another PCIe slot, still no wifi. Could the existing OEM wifi card on the mb be interfering?

Oh... I didn't know your motherboard came with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth... I don't know if having it there would interfere with the BCM94360CD. I just know that the BCM94360CD should work without any additional kexts or patches.

The system is also slower than the previous i5 6500

8700K slower than 6500??? That doesn't make any sense at all. Have you implemented CPU power management? Have you tested performance in Windows or Linux?