[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[Shamstanley]

I do not agree. I can't use the latest version of Logic Pro because I am still using Mojave. There's no technical reason for this. It's just planned obsolescence. When I upgrade to Catalina or later, I will need to spend about $2000 on new (non-Apple)hardware.
I have 30 years of projects in Emagic/Apple Logic. So, I can't afford to ditch MacOS.

I need a proper/affordable platform to run Logic/Cubase/Bitwig/Lightroom/Photoshop, but I don't like to spend money on the latest UI trends and social media gadgets.

Yes, I am a grumpy old man with a restricted budget. And I hate stuff that can't be replaced/upgraded by the end user.

I feel your pain.
I'm an audio pro/semi-pro. I've just upgraded from Mojave in order to allow some email / reminders / notes app to sync with my phone to allow better project management and to improve collaboration with more recent versions of Logic, etc. It has been mostly painless although I've had to give up on some older apps and plugins which I was habitually attached to (most of which I have found good alternatives for). In some ways though, it was a good thing:- it meant I re-assessed my practices and have trimmed down some of my approaches.

That said I did have a free week to do it, and I took my chances on the projects that are still current. I haven't had any problems. But the most scary thing is the lack of support for audio interfaces using anything other than USB. My Apogee element works fine as does my A&H ZED R16. However, the Element is not properly supported and the A&H lost official support at 10.13...

 

[luvlastcall]

Amazon warehouse has one. If you buy new, they cost a lot of $$

Amazon Warehouse deals have full warranty and return rights. They are usually never even used.
The box may get damaged in shipping and the buyer returns it for a replacement.

Amazon.com: GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS ULTRA (Intel LGA1151/Z390/ATX/3xM.2 Thermal Guard/Onboard AC Wi-Fi/RGB Fusion/Gaming Motherboard) : Everything Else

Amazon.com: GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS ULTRA (Intel LGA1151/Z390/ATX/3xM.2 Thermal Guard/Onboard AC Wi-Fi/RGB Fusion/Gaming Motherboard) : Everything Else

www.amazon.com

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In case not gigabyte than which one I should go for asus or msi or NZXT

 

[trs96]

In case not gigabyte than which one I should go for

Bit Confused As not getting the Good review For the Board

Don't mind the few negative Gigabyte reviews on Amazon. Look at how many thousands of people here use them with success and very few problems. You also want to have a complete guide like this to follow. CaseySJ has 4 Gigabyte systems for a reason. They work great as a hackintosh and are reliable.

asus or msi or NZXT

The only other brand I would consider is Asus, not MSI or Asrock or NZXT.

 

[CaseySJ]

In case not gigabyte than which one I should go for asus or msi or NZXT

Gigabyte's Z390 AORUS Ultra is a very good board. Use BIOS F9 instead of the newer F10h.

 

[TheWiggler]

Some comments and questions:

• You are quite right about GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-NVM21-V3.NATA.bin. The active region is at 082000, and the firmware at that address is NVM 33 from Intel Hades Canyon. There is an NVM 21 at the usual 004000, but this is inactive.
• I wasn't aware of a GC-Alpine Ridge Rev 2.0, but as long as you're sure it's Rev 2.0, that's okay.

Attached is a modified version (V4) that corrects the problem, but hasn't been tested.

Fantastic, I'll test it right now.

Attached is pic showing it's Rev 2.0. Look at the tippity top.

 

[maccaroni]

Fantastic, I'll test it right now.

Attached is pic showing it's Rev 2.0. Look at the tippity top.

I’ve used these Rev. 2.0 cards for a Z390 Aorus Ultra build (High Sierra), and a Z390 Asus Prime-A build (Mojave). Both work great out of the box with no performance or compatibility issues, so I didn’t try to flash them. Let us know your results.

 

[TheWiggler]

Some comments and questions:

• You are quite right about GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-NVM21-V3.NATA.bin. The active region is at 082000, and the firmware at that address is NVM 33 from Intel Hades Canyon. There is an NVM 21 at the usual 004000, but this is inactive.
• I wasn't aware of a GC-Alpine Ridge Rev 2.0, but as long as you're sure it's Rev 2.0, that's okay.

Attached is a modified version (V4) that corrects the problem, but hasn't been tested.

It didn't work, nothing shows up. So I dumped the firmware from another new Alpine and then tried to verify it. It does not verify. Do you know a way to dump the firmware so that it comes correct? See screenshot.

 

[CaseySJ]

It didn't work, nothing shows up. So I dumped the firmware from another new Alpine and then tried to verify it. It does not verify. Do you know a way to dump the firmware so that it comes correct? See screenshot.

Which motherboard are you using? Does it have a Thunderbolt header? If not, are you forcing the GC-Alpine Ridge to power on by bridging a couple of pins? On the GC-Titan Ridge we bridge the top and middle pins of the J1 header, but I'm not sure if it's the same procedure on the GC-Alpine Ridge.

If the modified firmware does not work, we should flash the original one back using the -w parameter. A verification procedure will be done automatically when using the -w parameter.

 

[TheWiggler]

Which motherboard are you using? Does it have a Thunderbolt header? If not, are you forcing the GC-Alpine Ridge to power on by bridging a couple of pins? On the GC-Titan Ridge we bridge the top and middle pins of the J1 header, but I'm not sure if it's the same procedure on the GC-Alpine Ridge.

If the modified firmware does not work, we should flash the original one back using the -w parameter. A verification procedure will be done automatically when using the -w parameter.

I have probably at least 18 motherboards, but I haven't got that far. I'm simply trying to dump the original firmware from the Alpine to upload here. When I dump the original firmware, like I've always done, with the -r flag I would then verify it with the -v flag. Right after dumping it, it doesn't verify so perhaps some kind of protection is in place? Not sure, but it's not verifying.

I have a new flasher I purchased. I'll have to try it out, but it works in Windows only so not my favorite, but I'll give 'er a go.

 

[CaseySJ]

I have probably at least 18 motherboards, but I haven't got that far. I'm simply trying to dump the original firmware from the Alpine to upload here. When I dump the original firmware, like I've always done, with the -r flag I would then verify it with the -v flag. Right after dumping it, it doesn't verify so perhaps some kind of protection is in place? Not sure, but it's not verifying.

I have a new flasher I purchased. I'll have to try it out, but it works in Windows only so not my favorite, but I'll give 'er a go.

When you said "It didn't work, nothing shows up", does that mean you flashed the modified firmware onto your GC-Alpine Ridge, but Thunderbolt Bus did not show up in System Information?

Update: We should read the firmware at least 3 times and compare the checksums of all three files on disk. If those checksums are identical, then we should open one of those files in HexEdit and do a cursory glance to make sure it's not all FF or all 00.