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

[pastrychef]

BCM94360CS2 is one of the old cards and you've mentioned that it is slower than dw1830. Do you know if there are faster apple wireless card that we can use? Maybe the card from a newer generation MacBook?

If you want faster, you can use the BCM94360CSAX or BCM94360CD. They are 3 and 4 antenna versions of basically the same card. You will need to find ways to mount the additional antennas. This would have been true for the DW1830 as well because it is a 3 antenna card.

All of these cards are from around the same period. I highly doubt you will find anything newer because Apple began integrating Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chipsets on their motherboards.

 

[CP99]

If you want faster, you can use the BCM94360CSAX or BCM94360CD. They are 3 and 4 antenna versions of basically the same card. You will need to find ways to mount the additional antennas. This would have been true for the DW1830 as well because it is a 3 antenna card.

All of these cards are from around the same period. I highly doubt you will find anything newer because Apple began integrating Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chipsets on their motherboards.

Really? they are the same card with a different amount of antennas?
So as long as I using cards from apple, they should all work natively right?

 

[pastrychef]

Really? they are the same card with a different amount of antennas?
So as long as I using cards from apple, they should all work natively right?

Yes, look at their model names..... BCM94360CS2, BCM94360CSAX, BCM94360CD....

It depends. Apple dropped support for some older cards. Stick with BCM94360____ cards and you should be fine. Make sure you get M.2 adaptors that will fit whichever card you end up choosing.

As far as I know, every Z370 motherboard that shipped with Wi-Fi included 2 antenna cards. 867Mbps results in very good Wi-Fi speeds. I use it exclusively on my laptop and I see approx 35-40MB/s transfers to and from my NAS.

 

[pastrychef]

@pastrychef The problem with showing empty slots in my "System report" was because I set mac mini 8.1 smbios. After changing it to iMac 18.1 everything showing correctly.

Remember that System Information > PCI being populated with video card info is an anomaly and not the norm. Even on real iMacs, System Information > PCI has no information on any devices.

 

[VinnyMunich]

Hi @pastrychef, can I use your EFI for an ASUS Z390-E board? Most Z390 threads I see here are using the Gigabyte Aorus mobo, would EFI Unified r4.5.2 work?

I have a 9700k + Asus Z390-E + RX560 on Mojave 10.14. Thanks

 

[pastrychef]

Hi @pastrychef, can I use your EFI for an ASUS Z390-E board? Most Z390 threads I see here are using the Gigabyte Aorus mobo, would EFI Unified r4.5.2 work?

I have a 9700k + Asus Z390-E + RX560 on Mojave 10.14. Thanks

Everything I've read about Z390 indicates that native NVRAM is broken with Z390 and EmuVariableUefi has to be used.

Again, from what I've read, AptioMemoryFix may or may not work well with Z390. For some, one of the older Aptio fixes work better.

Therefore, if you want to use one of my EFI folders, you should:

1. Copy my EFI folder to the EFI partition of your USB flash drive or SSD/HD.
2. Download the launch the latest Clover installer.
3. Install Clover using the following options:
4. 
5. Try booting in to macOS or the macOS installer. If it works, you are good.
6. If it doesn't work, you may need to replace AptioMemoryFix-64.efi with one of the older Aptio fixes.
7. Navigate to /EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI/ and delete AptioMemoryFix-64.efi.
8. Launch the Clover installer again and install either OsxAptioFix3Drv-64 or OsxAptioFixDrv-64. (I would try OsxAptioFix3Drv-64 first.)
9. 
   
10. Try booting.

All the other stuff such as kexts and config.plist should work as is. Even if AptioMemoryFix works for booting, test audio, sleep/wake, restart, and shutdown. If you have issues with any of those try one of the other Aptio fixes. Also remember to spoof 8th gen IGPU (instructions are on post #1).

 

[CP99]

Yes, look at their model names..... BCM94360CS2, BCM94360CSAX, BCM94360CD....

It depends. Apple dropped support for some older cards. Stick with BCM94360____ cards and you should be fine. Make sure you get M.2 adaptors that will fit whichever card you end up choosing.

As far as I know, every Z370 motherboard that shipped with Wi-Fi included 2 antenna cards. 867Mbps results in very good Wi-Fi speeds. I use it exclusively on my laptop and I see approx 35-40MB/s transfers to and from my NAS.

Thanks~! That is very informative.

 

[wise-rice]

I have been playing with the Maximum CPU Core Temp setting in BIOS. While it's really cool, it also prevented my system from staying asleep. I really wish it didn't because I'd love to use it...

Why would this particular setting interfere with sleep?
I will doublecheck if my sleep does get interrupted, as well.
I have the "power nap" disabled. Because I experienced random wakeups with that feature enabled, before. Maybe it helps you, too?

 

[wise-rice]

If my monitor (BENQconnected via HDMI) is turned off (either by Mac OS timer or manually by pressing the button or changing inputs) I will end up with a black screen/no signal from the Vega56 (MSI Air Boost, and also powercolor Red Dragon, so this should affect all vegas).
It helps to unplug the HDMI cable and plug it back in.

But why is that?

 

[pastrychef]

Why would this particular setting interfere with sleep?
I will doublecheck if my sleep does get interrupted, as well.
I have the "power nap" disabled. Because I experienced random wakeups with that feature enabled, before. Maybe it helps you, too?

I tried with and without power nap enabled. Random wakes with power nap enabled is expected.

If my monitor (BENQconnected via HDMI) is turned off (either by Mac OS timer or manually by pressing the button or changing inputs) I will end up with a black screen/no signal from the Vega56 (MSI Air Boost, and also powercolor Red Dragon, so this should affect all vegas).
It helps to unplug the HDMI cable and plug it back in.

But why is that?

I've never had problems with the monitor not coming back on. My monitor is connected via DisplayPort. I regularly change input sources on the monitor because I have a second computer connected that I use to play games. I can put both computers to sleep and once I wake either computer, the monitor automatically goes to that input source.