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

[pastrychef]

Hi @pastrychef, thanks for this detailed build! Seeing how much you had every aspect under control, I decided to go for the same exact build to save some time. All worked with no issues whatsoever, smoothest hack I've built so far!

I do have one question though; despite having the same overclock at 5.0Ghz and the same bios settings, I'm getting a significantly lower Geekbench multi-core score; I get around 26000.

View attachment 305628

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/6377916

Any ideas? Anyone else experiencing the same issue?

Awesome. It's great to see successful builds.

As for Geekbenc, make sure that your CPU frequencies are actually hitting 5.0GHz. Also, in BIOS, make sure that you have 0 set in the "AVX Instruction Core Ratio Negative Offset" field. AVX offset does not appear to work with macOS and only serves to slow down your CPU.

 

[armadillu]

Thx! It turns out it was the placement of the RAM DIMM's. I had them both (I have 2 x 8GB DIMMs) on one side of the motherboard. Reading through your notes, I realized Asus recommends interleaved placement. I did so, and when placing them as the manual recommends, OSX would not boot. I tried the other 2 slots instead (as you also mention), and it did boot... And it performed much better. I get a score of almost 30000 now.



https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/6378945

 

[Lestliness]

So shoot. Had this system up and running seemed to be working great and now I can't get it to boot and gets part of the way through and reboots.

What I did and what I've tried:
I originally installed macOS with one stick of ram in the (A2) slot... I think it was (A1) Could have been (A1). I moved that stick to (A1) and added another to (B1) as suggested. That's when all problems occurred.

I've since tried to completely start over. I've reset bios and put the settings in from this guide. I've reformatted the HD. Have sticks of RAM in both (A1) & (B1) and I can't even get to the apple installation screen.. I got to it once but the disk utility won't let me format to the APFS file system. When I hit erase it just goes back to the previous screen. Now I can't even get to this screen, Computer just reboots after a long while

I've tried with one stick of Ram in either (A1) or (A2).. still no go.

BTW is this still available in BIOS 0606 ?

• Advanced/Intel Virtualization Technology - Enabled

EDIT: So I rebuilt my USB installation and it worked with one stick of ram in (A2). Now have sticks in just (A1) & (A2). Everything is up working again. Sorry for the fire drill.

 

[uwcine]

Black screen with dual monitors

Thanks for the very nice build description which encouraged me to go for Coffee Lake.
I have a very similar configuration to yours:

i7 8700k
Asus ROG Strix Z370 F Gaming
GTX 980ti

Installation went without any major problems, but I can’t get the second screen working, which is crucial for me. It will boot with one screen connected (1920 x 1200), but when I boot with both screens (second screen is identical), I get the black screen issue. The system is up though, I can see it in my network, an I have access to the files. I can also boot with one screen, and connect the second screen later. In this case both screens will work. Any clues? I ran multibeast with

NVIDIA Web Drivers Boot Flag
and
Nvidia Graphics Fixup

and I also used kext beast to install the latest lilu.kext.

 

[SFSquire]

Just learned about overclocked DDR4 ram memory- if I went with
Corsair CMK32GX4M2F4000C19 Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 4000 - can the set-up take advantage of the available overclock speed of the ram. The pricing for pc4 3300 ram is about the same as for pc4 4000.

 

[Lestliness]

Black screen with dual monitors

Thanks for the very nice build description which encouraged me to go for Coffee Lake.
I have a very similar configuration to yours:

i7 8700k
Asus ROG Strix Z370 F Gaming
GTX 980ti

Installation went without any major problems, but I can’t get the second screen working, which is crucial for me. It will boot with one screen connected (1920 x 1200), but when I boot with both screens (second screen is identical), I get the black screen issue. The system is up though, I can see it in my network, an I have access to the files. I can also boot with one screen, and connect the second screen later. In this case both screens will work. Any clues? I ran multibeast with

NVIDIA Web Drivers Boot Flag
and
Nvidia Graphics Fixup

and I also used kext beast to install the latest lilu.kext.

I've seen some success on dual screens by re-enabling CSM in the BIOS. Worth a try.

 

[pastrychef]

Black screen with dual monitors

Thanks for the very nice build description which encouraged me to go for Coffee Lake.
I have a very similar configuration to yours:

i7 8700k
Asus ROG Strix Z370 F Gaming
GTX 980ti

Installation went without any major problems, but I can’t get the second screen working, which is crucial for me. It will boot with one screen connected (1920 x 1200), but when I boot with both screens (second screen is identical), I get the black screen issue. The system is up though, I can see it in my network, an I have access to the files. I can also boot with one screen, and connect the second screen later. In this case both screens will work. Any clues? I ran multibeast with

NVIDIA Web Drivers Boot Flag
and
Nvidia Graphics Fixup

and I also used kext beast to install the latest lilu.kext.

Did you try using my EFI folder?

 

[pastrychef]

Just learned about overclocked DDR4 ram memory- if I went with
Corsair CMK32GX4M2F4000C19 Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 4000 - can the set-up take advantage of the available overclock speed of the ram. The pricing for pc4 3300 ram is about the same as for pc4 4000.

Yes, it should take advantage of the faster RAM. Make sure to enable XMP in BIOS.

 

[rahzah]

I'm a content creator who uses Cinema4D and I switched to Hackintosh 3 years ago for the single core performance of the i7 and the cuda opportunities of particle simulations in Nvidia cards. Specifically TurbulenceFD. My 12 core mac pro is now strictly a rendering machine turned on when I need to do an all night team render. Cinema4D relies almost exclusivally on the power of a single core while working in your scene. More single core power means more polygons, More memory means more textures. So your Mac Pro is actually holding you back on that front. It's still a great a machine for rendering and I would hold on to it if where you but you'll be much more satisfied with your day to day workflow on a Hackintosh.. at least I am anyway.

PastryChefs build here is really a great balance between single core power and multi core rendering, team this thing up with your mac pro and you're render times should be reduced by 50% if not more. I've ordered all my parts for this one and can't wait to see what kind of pull it's going to have with my current Hackintosh / MacPro render farm.

That actually really helps me out! Thanks a lot! I am actually pretty confident about getting the power out of this switch to hackintosh now!

 

[uwcine]

I've seen some success on dual screens by re-enabling CSM in the BIOS. Worth a try.

Wow - it's working!!! Enabling CSM did the trick - thanks a lot! CSM was disabled, as I was following this build description. With CSM enabled I can boot with both screens connected to my GTX 980ti.