Questions About Upgrading: Mavericks to El Capitan or Sierra...

[flatlander48]

About 3 years ago I built the following machine (CustoMac Mini Deluxe):

• GIGABYTE GA-Z87N-WIFI LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

• EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2765-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support

• Silverstone Tek Micro-ATX Mini-DTX, Mini-ITX Mini Tower Plastic with Aluminum Accent Computer Cases SST-PS07W (White)

• SILVERSTONE Strider series ST60F-PS 600W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified

• Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 84W BX80646I74770K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics

• SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 1x nm Samsung Toggle DDR 2.0 3-Bit MLC NAND Flash Memory

• Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model

• LITE-ON DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS124-14 – OEM

• OS X 10.9.4

The only significant deviations from the parts list are the Silverstone case and power supply. I had it booting off of the internal drive, but then I messed something up while trying to get the Ethernet to work and it wouldn't boot. The machine sat in that state following an out of state project, an out of country project, retirement and then relocation from one end of the country to the other.

So, the machine is now booting up properly and the Ethernet works. From one of the threads from 2014 I have found hardware to replace the original WiFi/Bluetooth with board that works, but it will be a couple of weeks before I have all of the parts.

So, my questions...

About This Mac says this is a MacPro 3,1 and returns a Serial Number and a Hardware UUID. When I do the Serial Number in Apple's Check Coverage, the response is: We're sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again. The OS X 10.9.4 came from my Wife's iMac. What does this mean? Does it have any bearing on upgrading OS X?

When I check the Serial Number at the AppleSerialNumberInfo.com site, it appear to return original model data: Mac Pro (early 2008), ATI graphics card, Xeon Harpertown CPU and DDR2 RAM. Is there a reason this decoder "found" my machine while it doesn't exist according to the Apple software? Again, does this have any bearing on upgrading OS X?

Regarding upgrades, is this machine capable of upgrading to El Capitan or even Sierra? My wife's iMac is currently running 10.11.6, so I could copy that or download Sierra from the App Store. It seems that it will run Sierra, but what I've read is not as definitive as I would like before I commit to it.

And finally, where is Clover? I didn't see it in the Downloads list. It is embedded somewhere?

Thanks!

 

[Stork]

...So, my questions...

About This Mac says this is a MacPro 3,1 and returns a Serial Number and a Hardware UUID. When I do the Serial Number in Apple's Check Coverage, the response is: We're sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again. The OS X 10.9.4 came from my Wife's iMac. What does this mean? Does it have any bearing on upgrading OS X?

When I check the Serial Number at the AppleSerialNumberInfo.com site, it appear to return original model data: Mac Pro (early 2008), ATI graphics card, Xeon Harpertown CPU and DDR2 RAM. Is there a reason this decoder "found" my machine while it doesn't exist according to the Apple software? Again, does this have any bearing on upgrading OS X?

No, you don't want it to be valid as it means you're using a real Mac Pro's information. (Long story...if you interested, see jaymonkey's guide https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/how-to-fix-imessage.110471/. When you used MultiBeast, it assigned a unique SMBIOS to your system. You're fine in this regard.

Regarding upgrades, is this machine capable of upgrading to El Capitan or even Sierra? My wife's iMac is currently running 10.11.6, so I could copy that or download Sierra from the App Store. It seems that it will run Sierra, but what I've read is not as definitive as I would like before I commit to it.

Your computer is capable of running Sierra. I have a Z87MX-D3H based system (Zippy) with a GTX 760 running Sierra 10.12.5.

And finally, where is Clover? I didn't see it in the Downloads list. It is embedded somewhere?

Thanks!

MultiBeast for Sierra installs Clover. So, you can install Sierra over your current system build or do a fresh install using UniBeast for Sierra, then run MultiBeast for Sierra. See tonymacx86's Guide for 10.12 Installation.

 

[flatlander48]

Thanks for the clarification! It was late last night and I had been working on the machine for several hours. I think I've loaded up most of the bits of software that will make the machine useful for me.

In the last passage, I can upgrade by doing MultiBeast and then (more or less) the Apple Sierra upgrade method or start from scratch similar to what I did with the original installation, only with Sierra. Is one method preferred over the other, or more straightforward, etc.?

Thanks!