[SUCCESS] El Capitan - ASROCK Z97 Anniversary - Xeon E3 1231 v3 - 16GB - SSD 256GB - GTX970 - 4k 40"

[borisnet]

borisnet's Build: ASROCK Z97 Anniversary - Xeon E3 1231 v3 - 16GB - SSD 256GB - GTX970 - Philips 4k BDM4065UC - Dell 24 inch DVI Monitors​

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Components

Apple OS X ElCapitan @ Mac Apps Store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1018109117?mt=12

Apple ASRock Z97 ANNIVERSARY LGA1150/ Intel Z97/ DDR3/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LJ3GB78/

Gigabyte GeForceGTX 970 OC 1216MHZ 4GB 7.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI 3XDISPLAYPORT PCI-E Video Card
http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-970-oc-6d-103049.htm

Intel Xeon E3-1231V3 - 3.4 GHz - 4 cores - 8 threads - 8 MB cache - LGA1150 Socket - Box
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KASFWKK

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit (F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZLJRO8

BitFenix Computer Case BFC-NEO-100-WWXKS-RP White and Silver
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KRZVKCK

Seasonic M12II 520 BRONZE ; SS-520GM Power Supply
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038T0V8Q/

Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (MZ-7TE250BW)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3W1726


Already Owned

Philips DBM4065UC Monitor
[COLOR=#000000]http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SCX78JS[/COLOR]

DELL 2407WFP-HC Monitor
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/dell-2407WFP-HC/manuals

Apple Wired Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DLDTAE/

Logitech Performance MX Mouw3
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HWRJBM


Comments

This build is just the reinstall to ElCapitan 10.11.2 from this one

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Installation Guide:

BIOS settings:

1. Upgrade to version 1.90 (used the upgrade from internet option - very convenient)
2. Load UEFI default settings - a MUST
3. Disable VT-d

Hardware setup for installation:

• All components are connected
• 2 x 8GB memory modules on the motherboard
• GTX970 is in and screen is connected to DVI port
• 1 monitor is connected on DVI port (installation worked on the 4k connected through DP port as well)
• No adapter - direct DVI-DVI cable
• As the Xeon E3 does not have embedded GPU, the GTX970 was used
• USB stick (USB2.0) prepared according to the guide on this website with UniBeast 6.1.1
• 1 SSD connected
• I kept the boot priority to my SSD in order to not enter the BIOS again at the end, so I will select F11 at boot time to boot on the USB stick

Pre-installation:

1. F11 to select your USB drive to boot up
2. Clover should show up
3. Boot with USB stick with arguments: nv_disable=1
4. You should reach the installation screen in low resolution
5. Proceed with the normal installation (partition creation on SSD, then install)
6. Wait for the installation to proceed, towards the end it may take time although the dialog box says less than a minute
7. On reboot, F11 to select your USB drive
8. Select your freshly installed system based on the name you chose at step 5
9. Make sure to add arguments: nv_disable=1 to Clover options
10. Installation should proceed and complete
11. Not sure if another reboot was necessary, but keep booting with nv_disable=1 until you reach the login page
12. You should be able to connect with the credentials you created for your user - resolution is still low

Post-installation:

1. Download the NVIDIA web driver for ElCapitan 10.11.2 that will give you 346.03.04f01
2. Launch MultiBeast 8.0
3. Select EasyBeast - UEFI boot and the other options (nothing extraordinary)
4. Make sure to stick to AppleIntelE1000e and do not select AppleIGB
5. Select Clover UEFI boot as the bootloader

At this point, on this particular motherboard, you will only be able to boot if you keep the USB stick you use for install.

Follow the following fantastic guide to the letter - it is actually fairly easy:
[GUIDE] ASRock UEFI boot fix - Kudos to WonkeyDonkey
After this step, you should be able to boot up without the USB stick used for the install.

Connect the secondary screen using Displayport and desktop should be extended.

Reconnect all the other drives, make sure to verify that the boot sequence has Clover UEFI set as first - when I reconnected a secondary SSD drive for a windows 8 install it became the default primary. After switching back to the UEFI boot fix, I can go into Windows 8 from Clover which is convenient.

Last but not the least, I use blender on this build so if you are interested, you will have to install the CUDA drivers 7.5.22.
After CUDA drivers are installed, launch Blender > File > User preferences > System > Compute Device > CUDA

Note: Blender with OpenCL set to the GTX970 crashes at the time of rendering.


Enjoy and thanks to all people on this forum who made this possible - clover is very neat !


CLOSED ISSUE:

Losing sound after long sleep.
I experimented with OS X EAPD Commander Kext from Rehabman and it seems like I do not have the problem anymore so it is all working.


UPDATE: config.plist

UPDATE: Just added the Bluetooth 4.0 UDS dongle to my build and hooked up the Apple trackpad without any issue. The dongle is connected on the right hand side USB connector on my apple keyboard.
So far so good.

UPGRADE to 10.11.3
1. Download the combo
2. Upgrade
3. Restart
4. Build boots up in OS X default driver - slow
5. Prompted for NVIDIA upgrade, if not, System preferences > NVIDIA Driver manager > update
6. Restart
7. All is back to normal
8. Upgrade CUDA driver - System Preferences > CUDA > Update
9. Ready to render on Blender using cycles - tested and working

02-AUG-2016
UPGRADE to 10.11.6
1. Software update upgrade
2. Restart
3. Prompted for NVIDIA upgrade, if not, System preferences > NVIDIA Driver manager > update
4. Restart
5. All is back to normal

 

[Dench]

Hello! Tell me how you have set the DSDT? And could you send me your config.plist ? Thank you very much!

 

[borisnet]

Just updated my original post attaching my working config.plist.

Hope that helps.

 

[duyduy]

Can you post the geekbench 3 score for this xeon build ?

 

[borisnet]

Can you post the geekbench 3 score for this xeon build ?

Added to my profile

 

[apvikes]

This is extremely exciting to see someone else with an ASROCK z97 chipset build. I do not see too many of them in the forum. Couple questions, did you get deep sleep to work? I can get my screen to turn off fine, but if I do deep sleep, the computer kicks back on immediately and then I have no sound. I saw you worked on the sound, but I first need to address my sleep issues. Also do you have brightness controls? I am rocking the ASROCK z97-itx/ac

 

[borisnet]

did you get deep sleep to work? I can get my screen to turn off fine, but if I do deep sleep, the computer kicks back on immediately and then I have no sound. I saw you worked on the sound, but I first need to address my sleep issues.

Sleep, deep sleep and sound after wakeup have been consistent since I moved to El Capitan.

Also do you have brightness controls? I am rocking the ASROCK z97-itx/ac

I don't use brightness controls and never looked at having this working on my screens so I cannot comment.

 

[Cam1]

Have you successfully updated to Sierra yet?

 

[borisnet]

Have you successfully updated to Sierra yet?

Currently trying to install High Sierra - if successful will report.