- Joined
- May 23, 2020
- Messages
- 3
- Motherboard
- GA Z390 Gaming X
- CPU
- i5 9600K
- Graphics
- RX 5700XT
- Mac
Jonathan's 2020 UFO
Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X - i5-9600K - RX 5700 XT
Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X - i5-9600K - RX 5700 XT
Components
Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HRZHJ6Z/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Intel i5-9600K Processor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HHLX1R8/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair LPX 2666MHz Memory
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820233834
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M7Q21N7/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Sapphire Nitro RX 5700 XT Graphics Card
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XMNGVVD/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Phanteks Eclipse P400S Anthracite Grey Case
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BLY9UEU/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML120L RGB CPU Liquid Cooler
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075XLX31G/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Cooler Master MWE 650 Bronze 650W Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074ZR8D6Q/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Samsung 28-Inch UE570 UHD 4K Gaming Monitor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBNPTDD/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Roccat Vulcan 121 Keyboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QGLQ6MS/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Comments
I wanted a new machine to take advantage of current GPUs for gaming and machine learning, but also wanted a platform for development and some design work. I looked for the best performance I could afford, and tried out configs on userbenchmark.com, choosing these specs, which together score over 100% in each category.
I chose hardware known to work with MacOS, except for the Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2, but that turned out fine. It's super fast and cheaper than the 970 Pro too.
I sacrificed on CPU to cut costs. I could have chosen an i7 or i9, but the performance gain didn't seem worth it. The motherboard is affordable too, and the memory isn't the cheapest, but is reliable.
It was a real buzz to get Catalina booted up for the first time. It's my first Hackintosh build, and took lots of trial and error to get to that point. At times I doubted it would ever work. The details here should save a lot of time if you have a similar build.
Installation Notes
It turned out that serial numbers are required. I generated them and they're blurred out below. They had to match the model, iMac19,1.
My BIOS version didn't have the option to turn off the serial port, which everyone says to do, so I downgraded it to F8 and disabled the port. I've since upgraded the BIOS again, and installed again with no problems, so my advice is don't worry about the serial port and run an up-to-date BIOS.
I was stuck on a screen lock error in the installer for quite a while, which resolved finally when I rebuilt the flash drive with UniBeast and edited the Clover settings.
Running the installer initially failed quickly with the stop sign, and what seemed to fix it was connecting the monitor by display port instead of HDMI. If you have the same problem then try that, otherwise it was probably a Clover misconfig.
Installation
BIOS Settings
Clover Settings
MultiBeast Settings
I used these settings in MultiBeast, then edited the Config.plist in Clover Configurator to match the installer settings above. Don't let MultiBeast overwrite your flash drive EFI instead of the one on your install drive - this actually happened to mine.
Summary
I've got a machine now I can run MacOS, Windows and Ubuntu on, with excellent performance.
I wasn't sure what the use case for MacOS would be when you have those other operating systems, but I like using it more than anything else.
The Hackintosh journey is a wild ride. It's frustrating and nerve-wracking a lot of the time, but the reward is worth it.
Benchmarks
The Geekbench CPU scores are what you'd expect for an i5-9600K.
The OpenCL Compute score was disappointing at about 50% of what I get in Windows...
... but I installed the fixes in this thread and have new scores for the 5700 XT:
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