Success: i5-2500K, GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3, Radeon HD 6850, 10.7.3

mykuls · Feb 11, 2012

Success: i5-2500K, GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3, Radeon HD 6850, 10.8.3

Updated - Mykuls' G4 Quicksilver Build: i5-2500K - GA-Z68MA-D2H - 8GB RAM - Radeon HD6850 1GB - Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" SSD - OS X 10.9.4

in the late 90s due to my work environment and the facts that powerpc and os 9 were heading nowhere fast. I have built all of my pcs and have often toyed around with using other OSes; Linux, FreeBSD, BeOS. Now that Apple and Mac have been resurrected, I began to try to install OS X on my pc hardware, but that never worked as they were all AMD based. The price of macs is still high in my opinion, I don't know how I afforded them in college, even through the educational purchase program. They are nice, but they are not immune to hardware failure as the argument used to go (i.e. you get what you are paying for).

I had been following the TonyMacx86 site for a while, and decided I had enough parts lying around and in other PCs that I could swap and borrow a few in combination with some relatively inexpensive new ones and build a Mac. I wanted to avoid going the Snow Leopard to Lion route, so I set out to install via a Lion USB drive created with UniBeast.

Since I do not currently own a mac, I had to plan on creating my Unibeast USB drive while at my sister's for a weekend visit using her Macbook Pro or Macbook Air. I loaded up everything I needed on a portable usb HDD and created the USB Lion drive using Unibeast. I erred somewhere as something went awry, which left me with no install method other than the Snow Leopard route with the retail Snow Leopard upgrade Dvd (which you can buy new or used many places).

I installed Snow Leopard via Iboot and MultiBeast, upgraded to 10.6.8 and then I was able to re-download the Install Lion App. This time creating a bootable Lion USB worked. I chose to do a fresh install using the USB and wiped out the Snow Leopard Partition (had cloned it using CCC to a partition just in case). After running Multibeast using a DSDT for my motherboard from the DSDT Database, everything worked except for a Gigabyte Radeon HD 6670 that I had purchased. I had to type "Graphics Enabler=No" at the boot screen (then change it in my boot.plist) and was not getting full acceleration. Since I had the Powercolor Radeon HD6850 and the OCZ 600w in another machine, and a SSD on the way, I sent a donation in to TonyMacx86 and requested a Custombeast installer. I did not include the SSD in the Custombeast form, but that would not be that big of a deal.

After my SSD and CustomBeast arrived, I CCC'd my working Lion partition and swapped out the HD 6670 and 430w PS with the HD6850 and the 600w ps. I installed the SSD, removed 4Mb of Ram and installed Lion with no issues. First boot and full graphics! I had to run MultiBeast to enable audio and Trim support on the SSD. I plugged in all my peripherals and reinstalled the 4MB of ram.

Multibeast after installing Lion, CustomBeast and Upgrade:

EDIT: Installed a CanoScan Lide 90 scanner - no problems. see update #1 below

Updated my "Install Lion App" by logging into the App Store as mentioned in this post on the tonymacx86 blog, and updated the system with the 10.7.3 combo update with information from this post. Again, I only had to run Multibeast to fix audio and add trim support.

Future plans include an AOC i2353Ph - 23" - widescreen LED backlit IPS panel, an Apple Magic Trackpad and maybe the Jabra A320S USBb Bluetooth Adapter. Judging from the comments on the Bluetooth Adapter Database, I will be doing further research on an adapter.

Update #1 2/28/12: Confirmed USB sleep problems today. Lose scanner and webcam + "disk eject" error after sleep but keyboard and mouse work. Posted infohere.

Update #2 2/2/13: :thumbup:

Finally updated to Mountain Lion 10.8.2 last weekend after updating the bios to UEFI. Was a relatively pain-free process after reading 100's of posts on the whole process. Took out 6850 video card and reinstalled after running 10.8.2 combo update, kextbeast and multi-beast. I am not sure I even had to run kextbeast with the ATI kexts, but I did it anyhow and I have video the same as in 10.7.

Like most, I lost Messages, but I haven't lost anything else I believe. I thought USB was screwy, but it turned out to be a bad PNY stick that was brand new! Looking at Clover to fix Messages, but will probably wait for updated Chimera or something from TonyMacX86 to fix.

Next hurdle is HDMI audio via 6850, so I am reading the HDMI Audio post over and over.

Update #3 3/13: :thumbup:

Updated to 10.8.3 with no problems. Now using an ASUS VS239H-P Black 23" 5ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1, IPS Panel.

Update #4-5-6 10/13-3/14: :thumbup:

Updated to 10.9.3, had audio issues - no sound after sleep. Updated to 10.9.4 no audio problems any more. In-between I moved everything from the original black case to a G4 Server (Quicksilver) case. Had to remove optical drive completely. Added another HDD as well.

montanamike · Feb 21, 2012

Does sleep work with this setup...just curious.

mykuls · Feb 24, 2012

montanamike said:
Does sleep work with this setup...just curious.

It seems to work fine. Takes a mouse click to get out of it - not sure if that is normal, havent used Macs since 8.1 on a Centris!

Haven't tested any WOL.

mykuls · Feb 28, 2012

mykuls said:
montanamike said:

Does sleep work with this setup...just curious.

Click to expand...

It seems to work fine. Takes a mouse click to get out of it - not sure if that is normal, havent used Macs since 8.1 on a Centris!

Haven't tested any WOL.

Update: After trying the beta DSDT today for fixing USB problems with sleep I confirmed that scanner and webcam do not fully function after sleep and I get the usb "disk did not eject properly" error when waking up. Keyboard and mouse do (slight delay).

ragedarya · Apr 28, 2012

I am very convinced on trying this build but before jumping the gun, I was wondering if the GPU is working without error? DId it work OOB?

mykuls · Apr 29, 2012

ragedarya said:
I am very convinced on trying this build but before jumping the gun, I was wondering if the GPU is working without error? DId it work OOB?

Yes... At first I used custom beast and it worked, but after a hdd problem following a switch to SSD, I had to reinstall and I just used unibeast+multibeast + dsdt and it works fine. Didn't have to do much but a few settings in multibeast. I have some issues with USB after sleep, but mostly with my webcam which is actually from my HDTV, and w/external hdd, but many have that problem with disks not ejecting properly. Not a big deal for me though.

I will try to update my info soon, but that pretty much sums up the last actions that were taken on my machine.

saviour_c · May 7, 2012

Hey, found your post because I just ordered an Intel i5-2500K CPU and GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 mobo...not getting a video card just yet. Will everything be straight forward? Also, what is TRIM?

Thanks.

mykuls · May 8, 2012

saviour_c said:
Hey, found your post because I just ordered an Intel i5-2500K CPU and GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 mobo...not getting a video card just yet. Will everything be straight forward? Also, what is TRIM?

Thanks.

It was much easier than I thought it would be, although it is good I had to make some mistakes to learn some things. Most of my problems were created by my mucking around with something.

I used the setup with no video card for a week or so and it worked fine.

TRIM is for solid state hdds. It has to do with unused blocks of data, gargabe, and how the hdd wipes it. It is good to have working because SSDs work differently than regular hdds and would otherwise be bogged down. I'm sure someone could explain it better than me, but that's it basically, I think.

saviour_c · May 8, 2012

Thanks for your reply.

Well, having things go smoothly will mean less sleepless nights for me!

Okay, I understand what TRIM is, I won't need to worry about it since I won't be using a SSD.

As I type, my RAM is waiting to be picked up in store, my motherboard has been supposedly shipped via UPS and within the next 24 hours, I should get shipping confirmation for my CPU.

I wonder if I'll be building by the weekend? LOL!

sonicseamus · May 9, 2012

@saviour_c

I have a very similar build to mykuls except with the HD3000 integrated graphics that you're going to be using. I have a few recommendations for installing with this setup.

1. MAKE SURE YOU'RE USING DVI
-As I know from experience, Mac OS X Lion will NOT install properly if you try to install over VGA or HDMI. I believe you can use HDMI after the install process is done, but use DVI for the install. Just make sure you use the DVI port and life will be so much easier.
2. Use toleda's 889 kext
-Toleda has an audio kext he created specifically for the audio chipset this board uses. Install it instead of the audio options in MultiBeast. You can do this by downloading the kext here and running KextBeast after moving the kext to the desktop.
-An added advantage of this kext is that it's prepared for HDMI audio
3. Use the Mac Mini system definition
-This is the best setup for using HD3000 graphics

Hope this helps and good luck with your build!

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Success: i5-2500K, GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3, Radeon HD 6850, 10.7.3

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