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

[corint1]

Look at CPU usage when it plays.

The latest versions of VLC also take advantage of HEVC.

in both case 14-18%... sometime 21% without igpu , but L have many other apps open in background
...

 

[pastrychef]

in both case 14-18%... sometime 21% without igpu , but L have many other apps open in background
...

It should be approx 10% CPU usage with IGPU enabled.

I see no good reason not to enable IGPU. It adds to efficiency and it alllows for AirPlay Video to work.

 

[corint1]

It should be approx 10% CPU usage with IGPU enabled.

I see no good reason not to enable IGPU. It adds to efficiency and it alllows for AirPlay Video to work.

boot faster ... 14-15 sec...

 

[pastrychef]

boot faster ... 14-15 sec...

I just tested on my Skylake system.

With IGPU enabled = 32 seconds from Clover boot menu to macOS desktop
With IGPU disabled = 22 seconds from Clover boot menu to macOS desktop

I guess if you reboot often enough it can be meaningful.

 

[NelsonPJ]

First off - thanks so much to pastrychef for this build - it was exactly what I was looking for to replace my aging i5 / GA-P55M-UD2 hackintosh I built back in 2010 (still going strong and running High Sierra!)

My specs (most of these should show up in my TonyMac bio now)
Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming (WI-FI AC)
Intel i7-8700K
Noctua NH-D9L
Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200)
Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
Crucial MX500 1Tb SSD
Apple WiFi card + adapter in the M2 slot (same as pastrychef linked to in first post)
Samsung 4K monitor U28E510D (connected via DisplayPort)

I followed pastrychef's instructions and used UniBeast 8.10 with High Sierra 10.13.6 to make the installer, and copied his EFI v4.1 to the EFI directory. Installation went smoothly - thanks for all the hard work documenting this build!

Everything works well - I generated serial numbers/UUID following the iMessage guide linked and got everything working - I can connect to an Apple magic mouse with bluetooth, and I have working "Continuity" from my iPhone (i.e. I can open links from my iPhone by clicking the link that pops up in the macOS dock). I can also scale the display resolution "retina style" to my 4K monitor.

I am still using the 15 port limit patch for USB - I haven't gone through the instructions for SDST yet.

I also had issues with the computer restarting after I woke it from sleep - so I've disabled sleep in the System Preferences for now.

Question:
The biggest pain is sound output - when I first started my Hack, I was able to switch speaker output to "Internal Speakers" and plug speakers into the green jack on the motherboard - and it worked. After a restart however, this option disappeared - and none of the options will output sound on the green jack. I am able to use my BeatsX headphones over bluetooth - so I know that sound "works". How do I get back the option for "Internal Speakers"? I'm attaching a screenshot of my System Preferences.

 

[pastrychef]

First off - thanks so much to pastrychef for this build - it was exactly what I was looking for to replace my aging i5 / GA-P55M-UD2 hackintosh I built back in 2010 (still going strong and running High Sierra!)

My specs (most of these should show up in my TonyMac bio now)
Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming (WI-FI AC)
Intel i7-8700K
Noctua NH-D9L
Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200)
Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
Crucial MX500 1Tb SSD
Apple WiFi card + adapter in the M2 slot (same as pastrychef linked to in first post)
Samsung 4K monitor U28E510D (connected via DisplayPort)

I followed pastrychef's instructions and used UniBeast 8.10 with High Sierra 10.13.6 to make the installer, and copied his EFI v4.1 to the EFI directory. Installation went smoothly - thanks for all the hard work documenting this build!

Everything works well - I generated serial numbers/UUID following the iMessage guide linked and got everything working - I can connect to an Apple magic mouse with bluetooth, and I have working "Continuity" from my iPhone (i.e. I can open links from my iPhone by clicking the link that pops up in the macOS dock). I can also scale the display resolution "retina style" to my 4K monitor.

I am still using the 15 port limit patch for USB - I haven't gone through the instructions for SDST yet.

I also had issues with the computer restarting after I woke it from sleep - so I've disabled sleep in the System Preferences for now.

Question:
The biggest pain is sound output - when I first started my Hack, I was able to switch speaker output to "Internal Speakers" and plug speakers into the green jack on the motherboard - and it worked. After a restart however, this option disappeared - and none of the options will output sound on the green jack. I am able to use my BeatsX headphones over bluetooth - so I know that sound "works". How do I get back the option for "Internal Speakers"? I'm attaching a screenshot of my System Preferences.

Wow. That's weird... In your config.plist, you can try changing the Audio ID from 2 to 1 to see if it makes any difference. Also, does it make any difference if you remove your Bluetooth headphones from the Bluetooth preferences?

For the sleep issue, I expect sleep to work better once you've applied the SSDT for USB. It's not as hard as it may seem. Since you are using an Apple Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card in the M.2 slot like me, you can try copying the "uia_exclude=" from post #1 to your own config.plist.

 

[dasx001]

I think I know why it boots so hard ... you have to check if you disabled the Intel GPU from BIOS...when driver isnt install with success loses a lot of time when boot ...so it happens to my system

If you disable IGPU, you lose HEVC and AirPlay Video.

Try downloading and playing the video in QuickTime with and without IGPU enabled from:
http://4kmedia.org/sony-camping-in-nature-4k-demo/

I don't have neither Bluetooth nor wifi on this machine. I never used it in 4 years in my iMac so I didn't buy the card for this setup. Is it worth then turning it off? I don't really mind those extra 35% boot times.

That being said... USB FIX!!!

I've been like 2h with this, reading and learning. I'm doing it right now, let me write what I did because I'm not sure what this is useful for.

1. Disable Legacy USB in BIOS.
2. I installed the Remove XHCI USB Port Limit driver with MultiBeast. (I don't know where it went, Clover doesn't show the kext patch... is it something different?)
3. Using IORegistryExplorer I've mapped my available USB ports, both 3.0 and 2.0.
Issue: The USB-C port at the back isn't working. My only USB-C drive wiggles a little when plugged in, and falls off if I don't hold it with something... but it works in my windows machine, and since it seems to go in all the way (it just doesn't hold) I'm not sure what's happening.
4. I restarted and hit F4 during clover boot. I edited the SSDT with MaciASL so I disable ALL ports that I don't plan on using, including the Bluetooth and AURA Led ports (HS01-02 and 09-14, also SS01-02 and 07-10. Was that ok? (USR were disabled already for some reason).
5. Open config.plist and mark the option AutoMerge in ACPI.
6. Then copy the new .aml file to /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/. (There was one already, ssdt-usbx.aml, I'm using your EFI btw @pastrychef)
7. Remove USBInjectAll.kext

Gonna restart now. Let's see...

Question: What am I doing all this for? What difference is it gonna make in the system? I don't understand really...
What would happen if I didn't do all this? (Assuming I did it right and didn't screw anything up, maybe it won't boot now)

EDIT: OK, I booted just fine, but my mouse and keyboard USBs aren't working. I checked and I mixed fours ports. So I guess this patch worked as intended? (Gonna change the ports again)

EDIT 2: OK, upon restart again, all seems normal. If I open IORegistryExplorer, now in the XHC@14 line only appear those USB ports that I left Enabled, a total of 10 (six 2.0 + four 3.0). Does that mean I succeded? Did I Fix de USB??
I'm still afraid I broke something tbh haha

 

[pastrychef]

I don't have neither Bluetooth nor wifi on this machine. I never used it in 4 years in my iMac so I didn't buy the card for this setup. Is it worth then turning it off? I don't really mind those extra 35% boot times.

That being said... USB FIX!!!

I've been like 2h with this, reading and learning. I'm doing it right now, let me write what I did because I'm not sure what this is useful for.

1. Disable Legacy USB in BIOS.
2. I installed the Remove XHCI USB Port Limit driver with MultiBeast. (I don't know where it went, Clover doesn't show the kext patch... is it something different?)
3. Using IORegistryExplorer I've mapped my available USB ports, both 3.0 and 2.0.
Issue: The USB-C port at the back isn't working. My only USB-C drive wiggles a little when plugged in, and falls off if I don't hold it with something... but it works in my windows machine, and since it seems to go in all the way (it just doesn't hold) I'm not sure what's happening.
4. I restarted and hit F4 during clover boot. I edited the SSDT with MaciASL so I disable ALL ports that I don't plan on using, including the Bluetooth and AURA Led ports (HS01-02 and 09-14, also SS01-02 and 07-10. Was that ok? (USR were disabled already for some reason).
5. Open config.plist and mark the option AutoMerge in ACPI.
6. Then copy the new .aml file to /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/. (There was one already, ssdt-usbx.aml, I'm using your EFI btw @pastrychef)
7. Remove USBInjectAll.kext

Gonna restart now. Let's see...

Question: What am I doing all this for? What difference is it gonna make in the system? I don't understand really...
What would happen if I didn't do all this? (Assuming I did it right and didn't screw anything up, maybe it won't boot now)

EDIT: OK, I booted just fine, but my mouse and keyboard USBs aren't working. I checked and I mixed fours ports. So I guess this patch worked as intended? (Gonna change the ports again)

2. I don't understand what you are removing with MultiBeast. MultiBeast has nothing to do with SSDT for USB. If you want to disable the 15 port limit patches, open your config.plist with Clover Configurator and go to the Kernel and Kext Patches section. Then just check the disable checkboxes next to the kexts you want to disable.

3. Assuming the USB-C port on your motherboard is USB 3.1 gen 2, it has nothing to do with the SSDT for USB. The USB 3.1 gen 2 ports are on ASMedia chipsets which are natively supported by macOS and not related to the motherboard USB. As to why it's loose, I have no clue.

6. Leave the ssdt-usbx.aml there. It won't interfere with your SSDT for USB. The ssdt-usbx.aml is for proper power injection to the USB ports.

As to why you are doing this, that's answered in post #1.

 

[dasx001]

2. I don't understand what you are removing with MultiBeast. MultiBeast has nothing to do with SSDT for USB. If you want to disable the 15 port limit patches, open your config.plist with Clover Configurator and go to the Kernel and Kext Patches section. Then just check the disable checkboxes next to the kexts you want to disable.

No no, I meant that I added a kext called "Remove XHCI USB Port Limit". That's what stated in the guide you told me. I just did it, I don't understand almost anything.

3. Assuming the USB-C port on your motherboard is USB 3.1 gen 2, it has nothing to do with the SSDT for USB. The USB 3.1 gen 2 ports are on ASMedia chipsets which are natively supported by macOS and not related to the motherboard USB. As to why it's loose, I have no clue.

It's right next to another USB port, this one looks normal, although they are together and over them is written SS and a symbol. SuperSpeed I guess. The "regular" one works. The other... well, don't know really.

6. Leave the ssdt-usbx.aml there. It won't interfere with your SSDT for USB. The ssdt-usbx.aml is for proper power injection to the USB ports.

OK!

As to why you are doing this, that's answered in post #1.

Yeah I know, I read it, but still... can't understand it. I probably get lost in translation, I don't know.

 

[pastrychef]

No no, I meant that I added a kext called "Remove XHCI USB Port Limit". That's what stated in the guide you told me. I just did it, I don't understand almost anything.



It's right next to another USB port, this one looks normal, although they are together and over them is written SS and a symbol. SuperSpeed I guess. The "regular" one works. The other... well, don't know really.



OK!



Yeah I know, I read it, but still... can't understand it. I probably get lost in translation, I don't know.

I didn't know of the existence of a "Remove XHCI USB Port Limit" kext. I would delete that. It sounds like it can only cause problems.

After you have your SSDT for USB done, disable all the 15 port limit patches in your config.plist.