[success] GA-Z97M-D3H - GT 740 - I7-4790K

[dcwilliams]

dcwilliams's Build: GA-Z97M-D3H - GT 740​

Components

Intel Core i7-4790K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117369

GIGABYTE GA-Z97M-D3H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128717

EVGA GeForce GT 740 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17Z-0025-00001

Crucial Ballistix Tactical 32GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148800

CORSAIR CSM Series CS550M 550W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139059

SAMSUNG 850 PRO 512GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147361

BitFenix No Power Supply MicroATX Tower Case
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G489XDW/


Already Owned

Apple Cinema HD Display

Apple Pro Keyboard

Logitech Laser Mouse


Comments

This build closely matches the Micro ATX build from the Buyer’s Guide.

The case is bigger than I expected (but what wouldn’t be compared to the Mac mini it replaces). The BitFenix case is described as hard to build, but I had no trouble working it out. Pricy, but high quality materials, the biggest drawback is how the main cover includes cables that need to be connected to the motherboard. Oh, and the 2.5” disk mounts on one of the provided trays do not provide enough clearance for the SATA connectors provided by the motherboard and PSU, which is pretty darn silly.


Installation Notes
I followed the UniBeast guide, which is very well written (thank you Tony). Installation of 10.11.1 was painless. There was one hitch: about four out of five boots would crash in the native Nvidia driver. I tried all sorts of BIOS switches to no avail. The solution was to install the drivers from NVIDIA (drivers are available for 10.11.1 if you were wondering).


UEFI Settings
1. Optimized Defaults
2. VT-d disabled
3. OS Type set to Other OS
4. X.M.P. Memory profile to Profile1


Everything works (yes, even iMessage), except I have noticed losing sound if I let the computer go to sleep by itself. I need to do some more testing on this. I have also had one crash on wake from sleep - alas, the traceback was garbled so I don’t know what was at fault.

Another funny quirk: if I plug in the usb hub of my (very old) original Apple Cinema Display, the machine doesn’t boot. If I plug the hub in after boot (at the Clover prompt), all USB devices (plugged into any port) stop working (they recover if I unplug the hub). I assume this is a driver issue?

The USB3 ports work, but I don’t know if I actually get USB3 speeds. What is a good way of actually testing this?

I plan to add a Firewire card so I can use my old iSight, a nice big hard drive for time machine, and maybe a Bluetooth dongle.

Updates

Sound after sleep is now working thanks to CodecCommander (see post below).

USB 3 working (I think? see post below)

 

[mgc111277]

Congrats on the build!

My systems differs in that I use the Intel 4600 onboard graphics and a different case. I'm using Yosemite as the USB issue with El Capitan would be a deal maker as I have a 3TB external drive. Until I can replace that with an internal, then USB has to work.

I have the same sound issue intermittently. I've not found a cause or solution yet, though.

I was having a system crash when waking up. I was able to find an entry in the logs and indicated a duplicate UUID was present. This post solved my issue.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/149092-duplicate-boot-uuid-detected.html

Of course, I don't know if this is your issue. If it is then the post might help.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Good to see another similar build to mine (actually two!) Useful for sharing tips and problems.

If you have a real USB 3.0 memory stick or drive, plug it in a 3.0 port and see if it is recognised. That showed me, with my build, that only USB 2.0 devices are visible to the o/s.

I might try the official Nvidia drivers at some point, but shouldn't the GT740 be fully native? Makes me wonder about knock-on effects...

For me sound on wake has been ok, only wireless needs turning off then on again.

Good work

 

[dcwilliams]

Good to see another similar build to mine (actually two!) Useful for sharing tips and problems.

If you have a real USB 3.0 memory stick or drive, plug it in a 3.0 port and see if it is recognised. That showed me, with my build, that only USB 2.0 devices are visible to the o/s.

I am not sure this is conclusive or not.

I might try the official Nvidia drivers at some point, but shouldn't the GT740 be fully native? Makes me wonder about knock-on effects...

Well, the machine would eventually complete its boot if you kept on trying, without altering any settings. Once booted the machine would run fine. So I figure this is some subtle timing issue in the driver on startup, which I guess would be real easy to miss if the driver was only tested on small set of hardware configurations.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I am not sure this is conclusive or not.

View attachment 159933



Well, the machine would eventually complete its boot if you kept on trying, without altering any settings. Once booted the machine would run fine. So I figure this is some subtle timing issue in the driver on startup, which I guess would be real easy to miss if the driver was only tested on small set of hardware configurations.

Yes, that USB configuration is the same as mine. The keyboard and mouse hub being identified as USB 3.0 when Gigabyte specs them as USB 2.0, and all other ports being 2.0 when they are 3.0.

As for graphics driver issue ... I'm prepared to accept anything right now. El Capitan has proved "trying" for me.

 

[dcwilliams]

Getting sound working after sleep took a lot of experimenting, despite some of the very helpful references in this site.

It does appear that the problem is associated with power modes on the Realtek chip, because CodecCommander (version 2.4.0) was ultimately part of the solution. Note that all of the instructions I found on tonymacx86 are out of date, since CodecCommander is now much smarter about auto configuring (consult the README). I did have to change two settings: "Sleep Nodes" and "Update Nodes" to "Yes". I also had to set darkwake=0 (Clover Configurator). I compiled the kernel extension myself and installed it using KextBeast.

 

[dcwilliams]

USB 3 is now working. This post from matt77303 was very helpful. I just followed the instructions.


Well, it looked like it was working according to System Report (here I have a USB 3 drive installed). I tried to run some adhoc benchmarks (using the mkfile and iostat commands), but I don't have a drive nearly fast enough.

 

[dcwilliams]

For those of you with an old machine like this. Big Sur runs fine, native graphics drivers. Switched to OpenCore, which was an interesting adventure. Worked the first time, thanks to the excellent guides online. Config included for reference (minus MLB and other identifiables).

https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/

 

[dcwilliams]

Quick update. OpenCore 0.6.8, Big Sur 11.5. System definition iMac15,1.

One thing to fix: Bluetooth sound input (IOGear 4.0 adapter) was broken until I added kexts from BrcmPatchRAM 2.6.0:

• BrcmFirmwareData
• BrcmPatchRAM3