- Joined
- Jan 13, 2013
- Messages
- 20
- Motherboard
- Z77
- CPU
- i5 3570
- Graphics
- GTX 1050Ti 4GB
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Sangheili
HP Elite 8300 SFF - MSI GTX1050Ti - Dell U3415W
ComponentsHP Elite 8300 SFF - MSI GTX1050Ti - Dell U3415W
HP Elite 8300 with an Intel Core i5 3570 & 16GB DDR3
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AVCYLLA/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
MSI GTX 1050 TI 4GT LP Graphics Card
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2W8MJ9/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
TP Link TL-WDN4800 Wireless PCIe Card
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GMPZ0A/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
IOGEAR Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter USB Dongle
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GFX0PY/?tag=tonymacx86com-20[/SIZE]
Already Owned
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAJ412U/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Western Digital 1TB Blue Hard Drive
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088PUEPK/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Dell U3415W Ultrawide Monitor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PXYRMPE/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Logitech MX Master
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TZR3WRM/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro S
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D8ETGNQ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Apple Magic Trackpad 2
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016QO5YWC/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Comments
The school, where I work,t was throwing out a bunch of these HP Elite 8300's. So, I decided to grab one and take it home because I wanted a Windows/Linux PC for playing around with. My previous setup was just my Retina MacBook Pro 13" hooked up to the monitor. I scavenged 16GB of ram from other machines and installed Windows on it. I was surprised at how capable it was. But, then I found the 1050Ti and thought, "Wow I would love to get back into some gaming!" since I had sold my previous hackintosh/gaming PC because I really didn't have time to game. I was shocked at how well this graphics card performed, especially at 3440x1440. I can get over 60fps in GTAV at high settings, which is really great.
I was browsing here one day, and I noticed a few threads where people mentioned how well macOS ran on these systems. I was really excited to try this and really wanted a desktop computer again instead of always using my dual core laptop. But of course there were no Pascal drivers out yet. But that changed this week! So a few days ago I wiped my Windows install and put Sierra on. Everything is running great!
I do a little bit of everything, but this will mostly be used for school work (Civil engineering student), and learning development. I also do some light photo and video editing, and will probably get another SSD soon for Windows to game on.
Installation
These machines are fairly easy to come by and it takes minimal effort to install Sierra.
1. MAKE SURE YOUR BIOS IS UP TO DATE
I spent a whole day trying to figure out why it would not install properly. My system was on V2.05, which dates back to 2012. I had to reinstall windows temporarily to update to v3.04. After I did this, the install worked flawlessly.
2. Install Sierra using UniBeast following this guide3. Install the latest Nvidia web drivers
4. Follow this guide to make an SSDT for proper power management.
5. Run MultiBeast with these settings
6. Install VoodooHDA to get audio working
7. Follow this guide for iMessage Activation
That's it! Everything is running pretty well, with the exception of Handoff/Continuity because I do not have a Broadcom Wifi card. Also for some reason, Docker refuses to install no matter what I do. Some future upgrades I might do is upgrade to a 1TB SSD, get another SSD for Windows, and transfer Linux over to this current, smaller SSD. I am also going to get another monitor(Dell U2515H) in portrait for coding/******.
I would like to thank pastrychef for his great thread about installing macOS on these machines. Definitely read through that thread before you begin because there's a lot of information there.