pastrychef's build - Asus Maximus VIII Gene - i7-7700K - GTX 1080

[pastrychef]

What system are you currently working on?

The following should get the correct RAM speed to show:

 

[bauner]

D´oh! I just thought Clover Configurator would open the original plist. After mounting the EFI, I could edit the memspeed in SMBIOS. Everything is OK now.
If new Mac´s shows up this month, I might go for Kaby Lake, and AMD Polaris. I´m not in a hurry

 

[pastrychef]

I have never used the SMBIOS section to edit the memory speed. I preferred having the system reading the speed correctly from XMP.

I'm also excited about Kaby Lake. I want to see how much of a speed improvement it will bring. Asus issued a new BIOS update about 2 days ago, so the Gene motherboards are Kaby Lake ready.

 

[Stork]

pastrychef, in light of bauner's inquiries on the GENE centered build, do you miss more PCIe slots that a ATX will bring over a mATX motherboard like the GENE?

I also have a HERO which is a full size ATX and has the same ease of set up and installation of Apples OS X (macOS) as our GENEs. The HERO has lots of PCIe expansion slots including the M.2 slot for an SSD. I prefer the mATX, but some folks like the larger ATX size for more expansion.

 

[pastrychef]

ATX or mATX... I wrestled with this debate for quite some time. I knew going in that I wanted something physically smaller than the Mac Pro that I was coming from. I looked at the PCI-e cards, I had in my Mac Pro...

1. Graphics card
2. SATA 3 card
3. SSUBX to PCI-e adaptor
4. USB 3

Not counting the video card, everything else was built in to modern motherboards. Even USB 3.1 is built in now. The only thing that I would really have to add would be Wifi/Bluetooth (I wish manufacturers would incorporate M.2 or mini PCI-e slots for these in motherboards other than ITX ones.)

I also thought to myself, how many PC users actually have all their PCI-e slots filled. The only situation that I could imagine was users with multiple video cards which I would never do.

Currently, I have (1) video card, (2) 10GbE card, and (3) Wifi/Bluetooth. The 10GbE card is more of a luxury than a necessity for me and I could replace it if the need ever arose.

I must add that the extra amount of desk space that my case gives me over the Mac Pro's case is huge. Even pictures can't fully do it justice. By my totally unscientific guesstimate, I would say it's about a 40% reduction in total volume. (I'm sure you can appreciate this since you have a similar case for your Gene.) This is something that affects me everyday. Until I have another PCI-e card that I want to install, it's a non issue for me.

Sorry for the long winded reply.

Edit:
Here are some pictures to try and illustrate the amount of desk space saved with an mATX vs a Mac Pro. I included side-by-side shots with an HP Elite 8300 Small Form Factor to give additional perspective.

 

[Leoyang]

Very great build. i have already purchased the same motherboard as yours just because this post.hope that will get this installation down soon. here just for a marking for future use. 3Q Bro~

 

[pastrychef]

That's great to hear. Feel free to ask any questions that you may have. I'll try my best to help.

 

[Overkill303]

Hi! I've just completed my build based on yours and storks and I'm trying to figure out a few last things before I post my build description.

My first question is on system definitions. I used 14,2 because I read that there are some issues with 17,1. I was curious why you and other people seem to want to use 17,1? I know that its a good thing to try to match the system definition to your hardware as closely as possible, but in our case with this motherboard, what does it actually get you?

My second question is on power management. In Windows 10 the processor idles at 800mhz and jumps up when needed. In Sierra the processor goes down to 900 MHz occasionally but seems to spend most of its time up around 4.2 ghz. I generated a turbo 5000 MHz ssdt following the instructions earlier in this thread (and hit ignore on the various errors about not matching the right board type). Is power management one of the reasons to use 17,1?

My last question is on sleep. This one might be in the wrong place because we have different graphics cards. I have a 1070 attached to one monitor and hd530 graphics attached to a different monitor. obviously the 1070 doesn't work. I haven't specifically disabled the Nvidia or enabled the hd530. my computer doesn't seem to sleep at all. the screen will turn black but the monitor stays on and a mouse cursor is still visible. have you run into anything like this?

thanks for your time,


gerry

 

[pastrychef]

My first question is on system definitions. I used 14,2 because I read that there are some issues with 17,1. I was curious why you and other people seem to want to use 17,1? I know that its a good thing to try to match the system definition to your hardware as closely as possible, but in our case with this motherboard, what does it actually get you?

Yes, my main desire to use the iMac17,1 definition was to try and match the chipset as closely as possible. At the end of the day, I ended up just using iMac14,2 because it was easier and Handoff/Continuity/etc works.

My second question is on power management. In Windows 10 the processor idles at 800mhz and jumps up when needed. In Sierra the processor goes down to 900 MHz occasionally but seems to spend most of its time up around 4.2 ghz. I generated a turbo 5000 MHz ssdt following the instructions earlier in this thread (and hit ignore on the various errors about not matching the right board type). Is power management one of the reasons to use 17,1?

What you see sounds like the same as what I get. 900MHz is the lowest I've ever seen my system get when idling. It is the same when I use iMac17,1.

My last question is on sleep. This one might be in the wrong place because we have different graphics cards. I have a 1070 attached to one monitor and hd530 graphics attached to a different monitor. obviously the 1070 doesn't work. I haven't specifically disabled the Nvidia or enabled the hd530. my computer doesn't seem to sleep at all. the screen will turn black but the monitor stays on and a mouse cursor is still visible. have you run into anything like this?

When using the HD 530, sleep is know to be broken. I have my HD 530 enabled in Bios but no monitor connected to it and sleep is working.

 

[Stork]

Have you tried Pike's method of power management with an SSDT? I'm using an SSDT in both my Gene & MyHero builds. But I'm not OC'ing, so I'm using the standard, appropriate CPU SSDT found on ammulder's guide: http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-el-capitan-on-the-skylake-h170n-wifi.178197/#SSDT

The appropriate CPU SSDT will provide the power management you desire.