[SUCCESS] elephantastic's Corellia: Z370M-D3H - i7-8700K - GTX 1070 Ti

[elephantastic]

elephantastic's Corellia:
Z370M-D3H - i7-8700K - GTX 1070 Ti

Custom cables are coming...​

Components

Gigabyte Z370M-D3H Motherboard
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B075ZP4GT9/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Memory
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01N6RVZDM/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJ9LMRQ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148985

Intel Core i7-8700K
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07598VZR8/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07598VZR8/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117827

be quiet! Dark Rock 3 Air Processor Cooler
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00HPX7IKU/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Gaming 8G
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B076VWFDC1/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076Q6GYKY/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137254

Samsung 960 EVO 250GB M.2 NVMe SSD
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01LYFKX41/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LYFKX41/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3FA5DT8532

Corsair RM750x Power Supply
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B015Q7F4DO/?tag=tonymacx8603-21
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015YEI9NQ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817139061

Jonsbo UMX3 Computer Case
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0171ZUGKA/?tag=tonymacx8603-21


Already owned

Vortex Pok3r MX Green
https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1328

Roccat Kone Pure
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B009DYOPJQ/?tag=tonymacx8603-21

Cheapo Medion Monitor MD 20122
(not sold separately)


Comments

Component Selection

I wanted a mATX build. I'm not planning on running dual GPUs, and IMO there's no need for a full tower if you're not going to take advantage of the PCIe slots.

The 8700K was pretty much a no-brainer. It's 2017, I'm not going to build a 4-core system anymore. Ryzen looked promising, but AFAIK the performance on macOS is still behind what it should be capable of. So Coffee Lake was a god sent.

mATX and Z370 didn't leave me with a lot of options for the motherboard. I just grabbed the cheapest one, which happened to be a Gigabyte. I thought that should work out OK.

SSD selection was another easy one. I wanted a NVMe SSD, so I grabbed what everybody else is grabbing - the Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD.

The case - I wanted something that's kind of Apple-ish - you know - aluminum, sleek... And I fell in love with the UMX series. Especially the UMX3. It's like a more compact version of my previous favorite, the Silverstone FT02.

For the power supply I set a filter - 750W, fully modular and 80+ Gold or higher. Then I went with the cheapest from a reputable brand. Which ended up being the Corsair RM750x. But I'm not sure if I'm actually going to keep it. In retrospect, I don't think I'm going to be needing the 750W, and it's actually a bit too long. It ends up barely touching the back plate of the GPU, leaving me with no way to properly route the cables.

The GPU was a similar decision. Vega was just too expensive, and from the green team, the 1070 Ti fit the budget. So again I picked the least expensive.

RAM is just ridiculously expensive right now. So I decided to go with a 2x8GB kit for now and add another one once the prices come down. I would have liked the G.Skill Trident RGB, but I wasn't sure about the rainbow effect that it defaults to under macOS. So I went with something plain.

For the CPU cooler I decided to go with air cooling because I don't deal with AIOs. There's really no point, a good air cooler will give you the same cooling performance. Plus, mounting a 240 rad in the UMX would have been a pain, since I would have to either put it in the bottom and somehow route the tubes around the GPU, or hack up the top of the case to support a second 120. So I looked at Noctua and be quiet! and checked the largest coolers that will fit in the case. I went with the Dark Rock 3, since it's rated for 190W dissipation and was supposed to fit in the case. And black. Black is good. Note: Jonsbo gives a clearance of 163mm, and be quiet! specifies the cooler as 160mm high. At least one of those two is off, I can just close the side panel without it touching the top of the cooler. There's less than 1mm space.

That monitor... yeah, that's gonna be replaced soon. My boss paid for the setup, and I blew my entire budget on the tower. I'll be adding a monitor from my own pocket within the next 1-2 months. Still deciding between UHD and WQHD.

Installation Notes
Note: Long time macOS user, first time hackintoshing. I got it to work, but it's possible I did things I didn't need to.

Preparing media
I just followed the 10.13 instructions using UniBeast.

BIOS settings
- Optimized Defaults
- XMP Profile 1

Booting and Installing
Booting from USB got stuck at "AppleNVMe: Assert failed". Selecting Options > PCI devices > USB Ownership and USB Injection in Clover fixed the problem. Thanks BreBo: [Solved] Stuck with log showing AppleNVMe: Assert failed
Modifying the Clover config.plist file after installing was not necessary.

The NVMe SSD had to be manually formatted to APFS.

After that, the install went through without problems.

Post-Install
MultiBeast:
Quick Start > Clover UEFI Boot Mode
Drivers > Audio > Realtek ALCxxx > ALC892
Drivers > Misc > FakeSMC
Drivers > Network > Intel > IntelMausiEthernet v2.3.0
Drivers > Graphics > NVIDIA Web Drivers Boot Flag
Drivers > Graphics > Nvidia Graphics Fixup
Bootloaders > Clover UEFI Boot Mode
Customize > System Definitions > iMac > iMac 18,3

After that, audio didn't work, so I re-ran with:
Drivers > Audio > Realtek ALCxxx > 100 / 200 / 300 Series Audio Support
Drivers > Audio > Realtek ALCxxx > 200 / 300 Series / X299 Audio Device ID Patch

Graphics
I installed the latest web drivers, but I couldn't switch to using them. Upon reboot, it kept resetting to the default macOS driver. Following the Solving NVIDIA Driver Install & Loading Problems guide (Problem #6) fixed this for me.

And - that was it! No manual editing necessary (yet?)!

Summary

What works
- Booting (duh!)
- Audio
- Ethernet
- Graphics
- CPU power management
- Sleep

What doesn't work
Haven't found anything yet.

Not tried yet
- Overclocking
- Airdrop / Continuity / Handoff (still need BT/WiFi card)

Benchmarks

Link to imgur album

 

[elephantastic]

Unfortunately I do not have a DisplayPort Monitor to test this (or a monitor with speakers, for that matter). But I will do some research once I upgrade.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Good build

Yes, I know what you mean about the CPU cooler clearance. Mine is about 155mm and think I have about 2mm clearance. You would think by now they would have settled on a standard case width to make it easier, but it seems not! I don't want to fit any water-cooling. The Be Quiet! 120mm here running at ~500rpm is quieter than most pumps as far as I can tell...

 

[elephantastic]

@elephantastic Have you tested Sleep without the graphics card installed?

I have not. I could give it a try, but I don't think it'll be successful.

 

[elephantastic]

Update #1: USB definitions

Turns out USB definitions weren't working properly. I created custom definitions based on RehabMan's post.

 

[monsterz]

Quick question for you. When you put your computer to sleep and then wake it do you have any problem with the fans all running at high speeds? I just finished a build with a Z370 Gigabyte mobo like yours and this is the only problem I can't seem to fix

 

[elephantastic]

Quick question for you. When you put your computer to sleep and then wake it do you have any problem with the fans all running at high speeds? I just finished a build with a Z370 Gigabyte mobo like yours and this is the only problem I can't seem to fix

Nope. I set the quiet profile in the BIOS and my fans are pretty much inaudible.

 

[mengko616]

Thanks for your guide.
I'm use same cpu and mobo like yours, But I have About my Mac cpu problem. I still get cpu 3.7 GHz Unknown.
I has overclock to 5.0G ...

how do I fix it?

 

[renski]

Thanks for the guide, my system is stuck at "install macOS", the continue button is just greyed out and sitting there. My HDD has been formatted, so that should be ok. Any ideas?

 

[BerkuL]

elephantastic, how did you achieve this graphics performance on Unigine Valley?
My 1070 Ti sucks in High Sierra... =/

I think in my setup the CPU isn't the bottleneck... =/
I'm using High Sierra.