[Success] i7-2600k, GA-Z68XP-UD4 r1.3, 16gb RAM, 6870HD 1gb

[underscorebrody]

underscorebrody's i7-2600k, GA-Z68XP-UD4 r1.3 (F5 BIOS), 16gb RAM, 6870HD 1gb

Components

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard- This wasn't noted on the item description, but the board I got is rev 1.3 with the F5 BIOS already loaded on it. I haven't seen any 1.3 builds on the site, but it has been just great!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054OWTJC/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128507

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K- What can I say, it's damn fast. Using it with the stock cooler and not really thinking about overclocking at the moment.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EBUXSA/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F240GBGT-BK 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Main OSX drive, very fast and no problems to report. Probably the single most notable boost to performance. Comes with a 3.5" adapter that works like a charm. Does not come with cabling, but my motherboard/PSU came with sufficient cabling for all my devices so that was not a problem.
[/b]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233208

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F60GBGT-BK 2.5" 60GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)- Same as above, this one is for my Windows 7 install
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233193

Barracuda 7200RPM 1 TB SATA 6 GB/s NCQ 64 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive - ST1000DM003- Using this as a CCC drive, for Time Machine, and for my iTunes Library. I had to run this through a SATA II port since the motherboard only has two SATA III ports, but I figured the SSD's would make greater use of the speed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

GIGABYTE GV-R687OC-1GD Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity- Very nice card, I've only tried it out so far on Portal 2 and the Diablo 3 Beta and it has eaten both of those for breakfast. I'll put it through more paces on the Win7 install soon.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125357

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B- Nice solid chunk of RAM, able to keep any number of programs open at the same time without missing a beat. This combined with the SSD has dramatically reduced my startup time and app launch times. Photoshop is one of the most noticeable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145347

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX650 650W ATX12V v2.31 / EPSV12 v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC High Performance Power Supply- Unexpected plus to this PSU was the modular cabling. On my PC builds in the past it was always a pain to have a million cables coming out of the PSU, some going completely unused. With this you only need to plug in what you'll use, and can keep your case cabling cleaner by being able to run things either from the PSU to the component or the other way, whichever ends up being easier.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139035

Corsair Carbide Series 400R Graphite grey and black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case- Amazingly smart case. Great cable management system, the drive bays snap in and out for easy install, plenty of venting for additional fans if required. The fan lights in the front are pretty bright, but there is a switch on the front of the case to turn them off so that's not an issue.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008

CORSAIR Voyager Mini 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model CMFUSBMINI-8GB- UniBeast dedicated thumb drive, did it's job without issue.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233071

Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner AD-7280S-0B - OEM- Standard burner, only thing I used it for was to install motherboard drivers on the Win7 install.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118067


Already Owned

Airport Express- I'm extending my existing Time Capsule network and running Ethernet from it into the port on the motherboard. This is for simplicity's sake for the initial build and I will likely build a "real" Airport card when I get a chance.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB321/AirPort-Express-AirTunes

Apple Wired Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V07N9U/
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110LL/B

Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000- I'm not sure why, but I always have loved Microsoft's mice. They fit in my hand nicely, they track well and they are compact.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105450


Comments

Since this is my first Hackintosh build I decided to make many of my component choices based on the customac buyer's guide (http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/11/ ... uyers.html), which did not steer me wrong! I followed the UniBeast install directions for Lion (http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/10/ ... using.html) via the Mac App Store download path, using my MBP to set up the thumb drive.

NOTE: I spent about an hour banging my head against the wall getting the error that i was "Still Waiting for Root Device..." when attempting to boot to the installer from Chimera. I tried all of the different command line flags to no avail. Finally I came across a post (http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=169&t=46090) saying that the UniBeast thumb drive had to be in a USB 2.0 port and NOT a 3.0. I had had it plugged in to one of the front ports on my case that turned out to be 3.0. Moving the thumb drive to a 2.0 port in the back resolved the issue, and no special command line flags were required.

MultiBeast Configuration for Lion

To install Windows 7 I had to disconnect all other hard drives so that the Win7 installer would play nice. At first it wouldn't let me choose the 60gb HDD to install on to (even after formatting/deleting the partition). Once I disconnected the other drives I was able to install without incident. After install I reconnected the other drives and it continued to work just fine.

I was also able to install Parallels 7 on my OSX install and use it with my Win7 install on the other drive. I just treated as a Boot Camp device, and Parallels was none the wiser. I'm not sure why, but the only way I could get Parallels to boot into the Win7 install was to disable all other boot devices for the virtual machine. This is under Virtual Machine->Configure.. then under the Hardware tab, select Boot Order and uncheck all but Hard Disk 1.

One other general thing worth mentioning is that sometimes the keyboard won't get recognized quickly enough to press F12 to choose a boot device. This is a minor inconvenience when I'm trying to boot into Windows, but once I get to the user login screen (which happens very quickly) I can just hit Reset and the keyboard will then be recognized right away. This does not happen every time, but just on occasion.

Edit: Adding source for the fix to my USB3.0 problem

 

[michaelrw10]

very nice indeed. i may hit you up via PM if i decide to try out the UD4 board. nice job

 

[jkohut]

I have mine running with f4 bios, wondering if i should upgrade to f5 and redo ddst?

any ideas?

Jack

 

[JoeBob_78]

What are your BIOS settings? I have almost the same setup and can't get anywhere. Also, what version of the Lion installer did you use?

 

[underscorebrody]

I have mine running with f4 bios, wondering if i should upgrade to f5 and redo ddst?

any ideas?

Jack

I don't think it's necessary unless you're planning on getting one of the 22nm Intel chips (the difference between F4 and F5 is better support for the 22nm chips), but even if you are you can probably hold off on updating your BIOS until you get one. They've just been delayed recently too.

 

[underscorebrody]

What are your BIOS settings? I have almost the same setup and can't get anywhere. Also, what version of the Lion installer did you use?

My BIOS settings were configured based on the ones described in step 1 of this guide: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/iboot-multibeast-install-mac-os-x-on.html . I tried to make sure and go through every setting in every screen they show to ensure I didn't miss anything. Where specifically are you getting hung up? How far do you get?

The Lion installer I used was the 10.7.3 version.

 

[JoeBob_78]

My BIOS settings were configured based on the ones described in step 1 of this guide: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/ ... -x-on.html . I tried to make sure and go through every setting in every screen they show to ensure I didn't miss anything. Where specifically are you getting hung up? How far do you get?

The Lion installer I used was the 10.7.3 version.

So you left the GSATA ports enabled and the eSATA ports enabled? Also...Did you set the GSATA to AHCI? Thanks for the info. It is helping me through this.