[SUCCESS] GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 | i7 2700 | USB 3.0 | 10.7.3

[draken182]

GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 | i7 2700 | USB 3.0 | 10.7.3

Click for HERE for the entire album

Components

Apple OS X Lion 10.7.3 @ Mac Apps Store
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-lion/id444303913?mt=12

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00518M74I/

XFX AMD Radeon HD6870 PCIE 2GB
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FPT37Q/

Intel i7 2700K 1155 processor (OC)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115095

Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x SATA Internal DVD+/-RW
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057FRTPW/

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

NZXT Crafted Series ATX Full Tower White w/Red Trim
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004MYC6O8/

Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

NZXT HAVIK CPU Cooler with Dual 140MM Fans
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005869XYK/

NZXT 140mm Performance Case Fan FN 140RB
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0039825LW/

NZXT 200mm Performance Case Fan FN 200RB (x2 but can only use 1 )
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0039825M6/

NZXT HALE90 80 Plus Gold 850 Watt Power Supply
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YFIUEQ/

Sabrent Micro Wireless USB Bluetooth Adapter (BT-USBT)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SBF108/

Accell B087B-006B UltraAV Mini DisplayPort to DVI-D Single-Link Active Adapter ATI Certified (Black) (x2)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004071ZXA/

Already Owned

Logitech Wireless Trackball M570
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-910-001799-M570-Wireless-Trackball/dp/B0043T7FXE/

NewerTech Voyager Q 'Quad Interface' (x2)
http://www.amazon.com/Voyager-Interface-Drive-FireWire-eSATA/dp/B0026S7HP0/

Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache (x2)
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/

Mac wired keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Keyboard-Numeric-MB110LL-VERSION/dp/B005DLDTAE/

Mac LED Cinema Displays 24-inch, Late 2008? (1920 x 1200) (x2)
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MC007LL-27-Inch-Display-VERSION/dp/B0043GCBU4/

Software
Mac Store purchase of Lion OS X 10.7.3 (latest version/Clean install)
UniBeast 1.1.0
MultiBeast Lion Edition 4.2.1
and the DSDT for GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 v1.3 F10 from the DSDT Database


Comments:

I ordered most of my parts from AMAZON (prime trial=no tax and free 2nd day shipping) and the rest on NEWEGG. Well, since i went with the behemoth NZXT Crafted Series ATX Full Tower (White w/Red trim) i knew i was going to have a lot of room to play with. So i chose to match my NZXT parts. NOTE: The case came with more than enough screws, water cooling plates, zip ties, etc.

I picked the HUGE NZXT HAVIK CPU Cooler with Dual 140MM Fans. I have not used or seen the Noctua NH-D14, but i imagine it's also compatible in size. The only reason i don't go with the Noctua is because i am sucker when it comes to sticking with a brand. So the Case, cpu cooler, all fans and PSU are NZXT. NOTE: this is a bad design on NZXT's side. The side case 200mm fan will not work with the Havik 140 installed. They hit each other. Good news is that there are so many fans in this case, it doesn't matter much, IMO. The fan controls on the top of case are pretty amazing too. And no, it is not loud.

The GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 is a no brainer IMO. It is pretty well covered here in the forums also.

I got the i7 2700k for a decent price so i decided to go with that over the beloved 2600k. I currently have it over clocked to 4.5ghz and it's perfect. torture test and everything its awesome. For S&G's i did OC it to 5ghz and ran geekbench and cinebench. WOW. Fast!
Geekbench=17551
CineBench= CPU 9.74 and OpenGL 67.92
But, not stable, i ran prime95 torture test and it was a restart in less than a minute. so i have found the sweet spot at 4.5.

Video card i went with the XFX AMD Radeon HD6870 PCIE 2GB and it kicks butt!
I am using two LED Cinema Displays for now, but i will be selling them and getting two vest mountable monitors. Thats why i purchased the two dvi to mini display port adapters. Tested adapters on dual Dell monitors, they work OOB.

The G.Skill 8gb (2 X 4gb) kit is just temporary, nice, but i do a lot of high end video editing and VFX. I wanted to make sure everything worked before i spent the cash on the 32gb. I will be purchasing the 32gb kit soon.

I purchased the Sabrent Micro Wireless USB Bluetooth Adapter (BT-USBT) from amazon and it worked OOB. I NEED Bluetooth so this was a must for me.

All in all everything was pretty easy to assemble. I have built a few computers,so i was used to what went where. Plugged everything in and tested the machine before i tightened any zip ties (supplied) to the side "zip tie" locations. (nice feature NZXT)

So far so good.

Downloaded all the apps and DSDT (see top>software.) I used a Kingston 32gb thumb drive and a Cruzer mini thumb drive for the install. Followed the instructions in GORDO's install guide.

BIOS
UNIBEAST>MAC APP STORE LION10.7.3 conversion
BIOS>Integrated Peripherals>PCH SATA Control Mode: use ACHI instead of IDE
BIOS>Power Management Setup>HPET Mode: use 64-bit instead of 32-bit
Nothing different (for now.) Save & Exit.

I only had my 64gb SSD plugged in at this point.
I then Plugged in Unibeast USB stick only.
Choose USB-HDD from the boot options
Go through the next install steps (next, next next really)

Once Lion booted up i plugged in my MultiBeast USB stick. Copied my MB's DSDT to the desktop. Then I ran MultiBeast. This is the only real difference for me vs Gordo's guide. I checked the following:

MultiBeast Configuration for Lion

I tried his instructions and i couldn't get my USB 3.0 or E-Sata working. SO i choses these settings and everything works now....Except Firewire off the board :
Which thats okay because i will buy the Syba Low Profile PCI-Express 1394b/1394a (2B1A) Card, TI Chipset, Extra Regular Bracket SD-PEX30009
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002S53IG8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0 vs eSata
[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHXcgJWB500[/VIDEO]​

I ran some tests to make sure that my USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and E-Sata (SATA II 3Gbps) were indeed working, even though it does say it is "USB Super Speed Bus" i just wanted to make sure. Here is a quick (insert stereotypical geek term) video i made of a speed test using all three.

I have it up and running Lion OS X 10.7.3. No problems! I have USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and E-Sata all working. no problems yet, no bugs detected. (fingers crossed)
I want to thank UBERMICK and GORDO74. I mainly used these guides to build my first Hack Pro. I used GORDO's guide for download and clean lion install HERE and UBERMICK's guide for the build HERE Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks again to everyone in the Hackintosh | TonyMacx86 community!

EDIT: 03/03/12 - I turned the USB 3.0 turbo off in bios so that my system would recognize the PCIe as x16 not x8 like it does when you have turbo enabled.
EDIT: 03/03/12 - I turned the USB 3.0 turbo off in bios so that my system would recognize the PCIe as x16 not x8 like it does when you have turbo enabled.

03/06/12 - I went ahead and purchased some Kingston HyperX Blu (RED edition, ironically) 16GB (4 x 4GB) I will let you know how it all works out. I plan on over clocking this ram as well.

Stay tuned

Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Red Limited Edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104292

 

[JRedford]

I have a very similar setup to you...but I don't have a graphics card. Do you recommend the Graphics Card you purchased? Did it work OOB or did you have to edit kexts etc? Also, just double checking that this is the same as what you have?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FPT37Q/

How does high-end video editing go with this card? I also do HD editing so I want a card that can handle anything I throw at it.

Thanks for posting your specs!

 

[draken182]

Thanks! Yes this card worked OOB for me with no problems! even the active display adapters worked too! Dual monitors! Yes it is awesome! i am looking and seeing if "over clocking" it with the MacPro 3,1 is even possible, but i don't think it is. Good luck!

 

[draken182]

Okay so i have been over clocking this beast and got it to some settings that i like.
4.8ghz stable and memory OC'd too!

Ran Prime95 Torture test:
Torture Test completed 113 tests in 2 hours, 24 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.

I will run for 24 hrs and let you know.

CineBench is CPU: 9.35 OpenGL: 64.51
GeekBench: 17100

Wahoo! i will post specs and bios later

 

[JRedford]

Awesome! This is good to know. I just purchased this card 5 minutes ago so I can't wait for it to arrive. Will post back here once installed and up and running!

 

[abideens]

Hi There!This is my first post and like many folks here came across Hackintosh after I fell out my chair unconscious because of Apple's mac pro pricing


This is an awesome build!!!!!! Quick question. Why the Voyager Q Quad Interface Hard Drive Dock? Could the WD hard drives NOT fit in the case? I'd to replicate the build but have the drives in the case.

This would be my first computer build......I'm excited!!


TIA for the help

 

[draken182]

This is an awesome build!!!!!! Quick question. Why the Voyager Q Quad Interface Hard Drive Dock? Could the WD hard drives NOT fit in the case? I'd to replicate the build but have the drives in the case.

No i use the Voyager Q for editing. It has eSata,.USB 3.0 Firewire 400/800 so i can accommodate any computer i need to plug it into. I have to switch out so many drives that i have so its more convenient. I just added another WD HD 3TB inside the case via SATA and it works fine. no problems yet!

Awesome! good luck with the build!

 

[draken182]

Awesome! This is good to know. I just purchased this card 5 minutes ago so I can't wait for it to arrive. Will post back here once installed and up and running!

Phew! just in time! it really does a great job! i was able to render some RED (.r3d) footage via FCP in half the time that my old 2008 Mac Pro (Nahelm procs) did with 16gb of ram.

 

[jester969]

Your system is lovely and loved the test video. Great work!

 

[draken182]

Your system is lovely and loved the test video. Great work!

Thanks! i plan on making a few more also, so hopefully they help someone, much like i have received help from the Hackintosh community!