(SUCCESS) appletwo's Creator Build: GA-X79S-UP5-WiFi / i7-3930K / GTX 760 SC

[appletwo]

(SUCCESS) appletwo's Creator Build: GA-X79S-UP5-WiFi / i7-3930K Dynamic OVERCLOCKED 4.7 ghz/ GTX 760 SC

Appletwo's Content Creator Build: GA-X79S-UP5-WiFi Socket LGA 2011 | Intel i7-3930K Sandy Bridge | GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked | Dynamic Overclock 4.5/4.7 ghz | Geekbench: 21613

Hi guys.
I think this is going to be interesting for many people here.
I was designing my audio workstation for a while,
and I have just built a perfect-fit tonymac-ish hardware high specs hackintosh here.

Basically is more or less the same as Dingleberry's build, but with newer motherboard BIOS version, a more capable drive section and a different graphic card from EVGA.

- MOTHER BOARD: Gigabyte X79s UP5 Wifi Lga 2011 mother board (Rev1.0) - BIOS version F4
- CPU: Intel i7 3930K Sandy Bridge
- CPU COOLER: Corsair H100i water cooler
- GRAPHIC CARD: Evga Geforce gtx 760 Superclocked 2gb
- MEMORY: 48gb 6 slots Corsair vengeance 1600 ddr3
- System drive: Corsair force gt ssd drive
- AUDIO LIBRARY DRIVES: 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm, 64mb cache SATA3
- CASE: Corsair Graphite 600T White edition
- FAN: 2 Corsair Quiet edition SP120 (to replace the stock on top of cpu cooler)
- FAN: 2 Corsair Quiet edition AF120 (to be placed in the side mesh panel)
- FAN: 1 Bitfenix Spectre Pro all black 200mm (to replace the stock front white led fan)
- FAN CONTROLLER: Scythe Kaze Master with temperature sensors
- POWER UNIT: Corsair TX750M semi modular
- KEYBOARD: Apple standard USB Keyboard
- WIFI: Tp-Link TL-WDN4800 N900 Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter


I've prepared a proper installer for Mavericks from skratches following the tonymac guide and putting everything on a Sandisk 8gb thumb drive:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/374-unibeast-install-os-x-mavericks-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

Right before switching on the Machine I had to set the bootdrive to 0-Corsair SSD (forget the UEFI).

At first I couldn't get to the installer.
I was getting many error messages, like in the following screenshot:


I finally got access to the Mavericks OSX installer after I put the fllowing bootflags:
-v cpus=1 npci=0x3000 UseKernelCache=No GraphicsEnabler=No
Select the language, and everythingelse, and go forth.

At this point Mavericks takes anywhere between 13 to 20 minutes to be installed.

After installation, I reboot the sys keeping only the bootflags:
-v cpus=1 npci=0x3000
That's because Mavericks has problems to recognize the multicore 3930k cpu.
So, putting cpus=1 as booflag will allow Mavericks to be loaded with only one core activated.

In the post-installation procedure I've installed the necessary drives with MultiBeast 6.0.1 Mavericks edition:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/downloads
(following the preset EasyBeast basic configuration)
putting also the audio drivers, in my case is Realtek ALC898 codec
(check on your board what codec is compatible),
Intel Ethernet drive, USB support etc.
Do not install the kernel cache kext, otherwise your system won't reboot.
Click on 'build it' and let MultiBeast do the job for you.
Then do not reboot yet.
Keep in mind you still need to set the proper kext to enable the multicore hyperthreading system.
So: download VoodooTSCSync.kext, Download Link:
Edited VoodooTSCSYNC.zip
(This kext from Dingleberry enables the support for all 6 cores and Hyper-threading mode).
Unzip this file and place it on the desktop.
Use KextBeast to install the Vodoo Kext:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/downloads
Now go to your hd/Extra and put the npci=0x2000 in your boot.plist to enable even the built-in HD audio card
Reboot.


That's it.
Works great!
Download geekbench:
http://www.primatelabs.com/geekbench/

If your clock is set on the standard 3.2 ghz you should get around 15000 on the geekbench score.
After setting the turbo mode in the bios (3.8 ghz) I got an encouraging 18100 on geekbench and a good score on cinebench as well.
The sys runs smooth, stable, fast like hell.
Love it.


Now.....
..... what about overclocking?
Here's come the main problem that happens on some of the X79s up5 boards.
Some doesn't allow the overclock.
I had a one day of hell here trying to figure out why my X79s UP5 is not allowing me to set any of the cpu setting (ratio, voltage, whatsoever) from the bios, and everything seems to be stuck on AUTO.
No way.
I had the BIOS version F4. The mob is brand new, as well as the 3930k CPU.
Everything was supposed to be designed for overclocking, so to me that didn't make any sense.
The point is I couldn't get any of the advanced features of the gigabyte bios.
No 3D bios, no options and only 3.8ghz as maximum clock speed available from my 3930k with turbo mode enabled.
I had no idea.
Then I found out that re-flashing the original F4 bios from Gigabyte made the deal.
If you had the same issue on this X79s UP5 mobo just check what revision your mobo is (mine is 1.0) and find the original bios compatible with the X79S UP5 on gigabythe website:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...?pid=4287#bios

Download it, unpack the .zip file, put it into a thumb drive, then reboot the system, hit 'CANC' to access the bios and re-flash the original F4 bios using the q-flash utility in the Gigabyte menu.
After that, reboot, hit 'CANC' to enter bios and go to M.I.T. menu, just select the cpu ratio (for instance) and with your usb connected keyboard hit + or - to set the cpu ratio and all the other parameters.
If you have time for an advanced overclock just read:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1189242/s...9-overclockers

On my system I put a ratio of 4.7 with a ramped voltage for each cpu
- 4.7 ghz for core 1-2
- 4.6 ghz for core 3-4
- 4.5 ghz for core 5-6
In this way if I'm using an application that only uses two cores (Photoshop for instance) I can get 4.7 ghz of full power.
The cpu then will downscale the clock to 4.5 ghz depending on what kind of load it will be needed.
This prevents an eccessive constant load on the cpu, making my system more stable and durable.
Don't forget to put the global voltage to 1.40v, otherwise your system will be unstable and the cores won't receive enough power.

Reboot.


And now, if you did everything good, you should get the following new infos:

Forget the indication that says it's a 4.3 ghz system.
It's not saying the truth and you can tell from the cinebench benchmark info (follwoing).
Or simply go to system profiler to check the cpu clock status.


Compared to the original 3.8 ghz clock, the new score on geekbench was finally, definitely impressing:


With temperatures that are absolutely acceptable (in between 30 and 60 degrees celsius):


And with a stunning cinebench score for real timer open gl FPS/CPU (notice where it says 4.5ghz):


So far, this Hackintosh build is more than beyond I was expecting, it's amazingly fast, quiet, cold and stable.
Hope this helps people to start building their own machine.
Mavericks rocks.

Cheers.

 

[guysmilez]

so i installed the GenericUSBXHCI through multibeast and the newest GenericUSBXHCI_1.2.7. the USB 3 port show up but my USB 3 drives wont mount even though they show up connected. anyone else have this problem and or maybe have a solution?

 

[appletwo]

so i installed the GenericUSBXHCI through multibeast and the newest GenericUSBXHCI_1.2.7. the USB 3 port show up but my USB 3 drives wont mount even though they show up connected. anyone else have this problem and or maybe have a solution?

Not sure, but:
did you try the latest Multibeast version?
http://www.tonymacx86.com/409-multibeast-6-1-update.html

I noiticed that on my system the keyborad won't be recognized at first launch if I plug it into the USB 2.0.
It will be natively recognized only if I plug the key into the rear (or front) USB 3 port.
Weirdness.
Cheers.

 

[guysmilez]

are you able to run USB 3 drives with no problem?

 

[appletwo]

are you able to run USB 3 drives with no problem?

I am!
I installed the previous version of USB kext from multimeast, and made exception for a G-Tech USB 3 drive that is a disaster (not related to the Hackitosh btw) I can see all my drives loaded and running great under USB 3.0.
Even the passport ultra 500 gb has a transfer speed stable around 100 mbps.
Keep in mind Mavericks still has some problems related to the drive managing.
Just google "mavericks drives issues" and you'll see there's plenty of people out there is experiencing this or that problem with drives, so if you have any issue with your HDs it might depend on the os rather than the Hackintosh itself.
I had the same problem with some firewire HD that didn't load properly on my Hackointosh, when they loaded perfectly on my MBP 15 (Snow Leopard).
Hope this helps.
Cheers.

 

[guysmilez]

yeah ive used the multibeast 6.1 universal usb 3, and the genericusbxhci 1.2.7. the drive im trying to use are Seagate Backup plus 4tb USB 3.

is there a procedure that im missing or something i need to do to fix it? again when i can get them to mount they dont let me use the drives for very long before disconnecting randomly. also if i shutdown or unmount the drive wont remount...

 

[appletwo]

is there a procedure that im missing or something i need to do to fix it? again when i can get them to mount they dont let me use the drives for very long before disconnecting randomly. also if i shutdown or unmount the drive wont remount...

That's exactly what happens to me when I try to connect the G-tech 4TB USB 3 drive to my Hackintosh with Mavericks.
No matter what, no matter the system or mob/cpu you are using on your mac/hackintosh, the drive simply won't work properly, actually: it will behave exactly in the way you described.
I tried to re-initialize the drive directly form Mavericks, either connecting it from USB 3 or FW, and the drive simply won't work. In some cases they say Mavericks even will brick your drive.
Thanks Apple!
I gave up with that G-Tech 4TB drive on my Hackintosh, because I have a Macbook Pro 15 with Snow Leopard and it works flawlessly on that system, so it's clear it's an issue related to Mavericks, and not to any kext and/or system component in your/my hackintosh.
The only option I see here is to try to search for a firmware update for yor drive, if any, and see if the system recognizes the drive better than now, but it seems many of the old 4TB drives out there are not compatible with maveriks anymore, not all of them at least.

 

[guysmilez]

thanks for getting back its good to know then im not alone. do you know if the same issues are with 10.8 ML?

 

[appletwo]

thanks for getting back its good to know then im not alone. do you know if the same issues are with 10.8 ML?

You're welcome mate.
But again, this is a very important point for anyone is approaching any hackintosh-project: many issues that can occour are not specific related to your system.
Instead, it could be related to Mavericks, since it's a pretty young OS.
As a long-term mac user I can tall you: Apple always did that, in the same way: every early version of their OS were flagged by bugs and imperfections.
It was that way since 10.3 (Panther), 10.4 (Tiger), and again in Leopard (10.5) untile they finally got to Snow leopard, the best release ever so far.
It's a matter of fact that in more than 70% of the multimedia studios around the world they (we) are still under OSX 10.6.8 since it's the best, most stabele and fastest OSX release ever.
Snow Leopard supports both 32 and 64 bit architectures, natively, it's hell of light/fast and has no issues with drives of any kind.
Unfotunately switching to Mavericks it's a mandatory step, if not now, in the next future, because its' the only release that actually solved a number of problems that were generated from Lion/Mountain Lion.
Mavericks is faster, smarter, more sofisticated under the cpu managing, and, in one word, simply better.
Also, Mavericks supports new graphic cards natively (GTX 7600/770), with zero pain for us and anyHackintosh users around the world.

Now, the drive issue that mavericks has is related to the major 'Apple Bug' of releasing OSses way before they were ready to be released.
It happened all the time, and even with Mavericks Apple made no exceptions.
So, be patient, maybe they are solving this issue in the next release (10.9.2), and never forget: the best release is the last update of your old OS.
Made exception for Lion / MountainLion (forget them, seriously).

Cheers.

 

[Stork]

yeah ive used the multibeast 6.1 universal usb 3, and the genericusbxhci 1.2.7. the drive im trying to use are Seagate Backup plus 4tb USB 3.

is there a procedure that im missing or something i need to do to fix it? again when i can get them to mount they dont let me use the drives for very long before disconnecting randomly. also if i shutdown or unmount the drive wont remount...

MultiBeast's Universal USB3 == GenericUSBXHCI.kext v1.2.7. So, you don't need to load it twice.

Try booting with UseKernelCache=No which you should do whenever you update a kext/driver.