[Success] Henmac's Orihime: i7 3770K | GA-Z77X-D3H | GTX 660 Ti OC | 16GB RAM

[henmac]

Henmac's Orihime: i7 3770K | GA-Z77X-D3H | GTX 660 Ti OC | 16GB RAM

Henmac's Orihime: i7 3770K - GA-Z77X-D3H - GTX 660 Ti OC

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Components

Intel® Core i7-3770K Processor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SZ0EOW/

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007R21KBC

Gigabyte GTX 660 Ti Windforce 2X OC GPU
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008UG2W20/

Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 16GB Kit
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006EWUO22/

Corsair TX650M 650W PSU
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005E98I0G/

Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005UBNN76/

Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB HDD (x 3 pieces)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VFJ9MK/

Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl Casing
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HD3CTI/

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/

Samsung S27A850D 27" LED Monitor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076Q2FJU/

Belkin BT Dongle
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E96JBK/

Logitech M705 Mouse
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TG75EG/

Logitech C525 Webcam
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WO8HQ4/


Already Owned

NuForce Icon 24bit/96kHZ USB DAC & Amp
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002R3OFRW/

Travagans 3" bookshelf speakers + AEGO M Subwoofer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000GJEUNI/

Apple Wireless Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DLDO4U/

Apple Mountain Lion
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt=12

Microsoft Windows 7 Home
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002DUCMT2/


Comments:

I have been an Apple user since 2004, had a few iMacs & MacBooks along the years. My current iMac is 2008 24" model with 8800GS. While my current 13" MacBook Air is the latest 2012 model.

Like many people, I have been eagerly waiting for a new iMac since June this year. However, I'm disappointed with the latest super slim iMac. I'm worried about the heat in such a cramped case. My 2008 iMac is so hot that it fried my GPU & LCD panel, which fortunately, both were replaced for free by Apple. Apart from that, I foresee Apple charging a lot of money for the BTO to upgrade for i7, 3TB Fusion Drive & 680MX GPU.

So I decided to built a Hackintosh after considering the cost & benefits. I will use this machine for mostly photo & video editing and some occasional gaming on Windows.

For video editing, I chose 3770K with overclocking in mind. I knew i7 2600K is cooler, but I prefer to use newer gen CPU. Initially I wanted a Z77X-UD5 but it was out of stock everywhere locally so I picked the Z77X-D3H. As I'm using USB DAC, the sound chip didn't bother me much. As for GPU, I picked GTX 660 Ti for casual gaming session on Windows. The Fractal R4 is a beautiful case, with excellent built & sound proofing. It is also great value for money compared to other silent casing, CM Silencio 650 & Corsair Obsidian 550D.

"Orihime" is the name I gave to my iMac, which carried over for a few generations. Orihime means Weaving Princess in Japanese folklore & also the name of the star Vega. I decided to keep using the name on my frankenMac. The beautiful princess has been hit by an ugly stick.

Installation

I mostly followed the tutorial by Crantea Mihaita, as he is using the same D3H motherboard & has comprehensive guide on enabling the audio.
http://mehigh.biz/hackintosh/mountain-lion-on-gigabyte-ga-z77x-d3h-tutorial.html

On my Mac
- Created Unibeast on USB stick, I then copied both Multibeast & OSXUpdCombo10.8.2.dmg into it as well.

On the Hackintosh
- Loaded Optimized Defaults & disabled Internal Graphics on BIOS
- Since I planned to dual boot Mac & Windows on separate drives, I first installed Windows 7 with the OS X drive disconnected. After that I disconnected the Win drive & reconnected the OS X drive to install ML.
- Everything went smoothly. After rebooted with USB stick, I installed 10.8.2 & ran Multibeast

MultiBeast Configuration for Mountain Lion

Performance

The CPU is running stable at 4.6Ghz, resulting in Geekbench score of 16191.
Cuda has also been installed & utilized by CS6.

Overview:

Audio: As I'm using USB DAC which works OOB, I didn't do the extra steps to enable the VIA sound chipset as I feel its unnecessary at this time. Maybe I'll wait for more stable solution. If you would like to enable it on yours please see this tutorial: http://mehigh.biz/hackintosh/mountain-lion-on-gigabyte-ga-z77x-d3h-tutorial.html

USB: The lower 4x USB 3.0 ports at the back are not working, the rest works although I can't confirm whether the USB 3.0 ports are working at full speed.

Sleep: No USB ejection issue when waking up. I can wake it up with my Logitech M705 & everything is normal. Except when using Belkin BT dongle, the Mac wont wake up.

Bluetooth: Still on the topic on BT dongle, the Belkin one doesn't work on BIOS & Chimera screen, any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Mouse: Works OOB, no driver required.

Overall this is pretty easy built, considering I have not touched DIY PC for more than 8 years. I have run it for almost a week now & it is rock solid.

 

[fransystech]

Hi! Good walkthrough!
But please tell how in the hell did you use those pics in information panes... Love it!

 

[caloy yu]

nice build..

 

[ckkwang8]

Hi,

I just upgrade my Hackintosh to GA-Z77X-D3H and i5 3570K.
How did you install the SATA kext? I tried 3rd Party SATA and JMicron x36 ATA, both not working.
In my System Info, Marvell 88SE9172 and Unknown ACHI Standard Controller.
Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks.

 

[DBP]

Nice straightforward build henmac!
And beauty is in the eye of the beholder: I don't think the ugly stick was very effective on the princess.

How quiet do you find that 660 Ti GPU?

In my System Info, Marvell 88SE9172 and Unknown ACHI Standard Controller.
Any idea how to fix this?

This is normal, and just cosmetic. The Z77 SATA ports should be working fine even though they're described as "Unknown ACHI Standard Controller".