[Success] i7-4790k, Gigabyte z97x-Gaming 5, EGVA NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750 ti 2GB - Yosemite 10.10.1

alvarus · Dec 13, 2014

alvarus's Build: i7-4790k, Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5, EGVA NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750 ti 2GB - Yosemite 10.10.1

I normally use mac for work: design (indesign, photoshop), presentations (word), budgets and schedules (MMB, MMS) and some easy editing and format changing (Final Cut, Compressor).
For the last 4 years I’ve been running on a Macbook Pro and I wanted to have a desktop that I could also use to play in my spare time, so I bought the computer with dual boot in mind (2 separate SSDs and one 1TB HDD for common storage).
I picked all the components after looking in tonymacx86 for compatibility.

Power supply and graphics card are pretty quiet. I’ve never used SSD . The only thing I would have changed is probably the keyboard and mouse (I was in a rush when I picked them). They get the job done and the keyboard design is actually pretty nice and compact, but I’m very used to the texture of mac keyboards and I should have looked for something a bit closer to it.

Building it
This was my first time and I had a lot of fun doing it. I used this video as a guide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUghCx9iso), it was pretty straight forward and I didn’t have any issues. I put everything together pretty fast, the only time I had to stop to think was to figure out cable management. In this case the SSDs face to a different side than the DVD or HDDs… so I ran one SATA power cable through both SSDs and another SATA power cable for the DVD and HDD.

Installing Windows first
I installed Windows 8.1 first in one of the SSDs and formatted the 1TB HDD to ex-FAT so both systems can read/write on it. I checked that all the hardware was working fine and then I proceeded to do the hackintosh. I did this because all the components were new and I wanted to check that they were working in a more controlled environment.

Note: When installing Windows I had that SSD on the SATA port 0 and when I decided to start with the hackintosh I removed that SSD data cable for the meantime and plugged the other SSD on port 0. Once I was done I reconnected the Windows SSD to port 1. So the final order is Mac SSD on port 0, Win SSD on port 1, 1TB HDD on port 2.

Doing the hackintosh
I used Tony’s guide step by step (http://www.tonymacx86.com/445-unibeast-install-os-x-yosemite-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html). It all works perfectly, there are just a couple of issues that I encountered.

My board BIOS is F3, I didn’t change anything on it apart from the VT-d setting that I had to disable.

Note: at this point is important that you are using a keyboard and mouse that go through USB (either wired or wireless). I was using a magic mouse linked to a Bluetooth dongle and it doesn’t get automatically recognized in the install. You can do the Windows install with just a keyboard, but on the mac install you won’t be able to access the disk utility menu if you don’t have a mouse.

When booting from the USB to start the install, I couldn’t get pass from the Apple logo loading screen (got always Kernel Panics). I solved this by adding the command “nv_disable=1”. The install completed correctly and then I booted once again from the USB to download and run MultiBeast (I still needed to use the nv_disable modifier).

In MultiBeast I had to choose EasyBeast (I couldn’t do DSDT Free because it wouldn’t pass the loading screen later with constant Kernel Panics that I couldn’t solve).

After MultiBeast, I rebooted from the SSD, but I encountered the boot0 error and had to follow this guide (the solution listed as #1) to fix it: http://www.tonymacx86.com/articles/65706-article-boot0-error-official-guide.html

I still had to start with nv_disable=1 until I managed to install the nvidia drivers from here: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/80070/en-us After using the drivers from that link I was able to reboot from the SSD without any problems.

Note: you need those drivers if you are on Yosemite 10.10.1 (I was trying a different link first for CUDA drivers -that aren’t no appropriate for this- and I was also confused because I tried another drivers that were for 10.10 and couldn’t be installed on the system either).

Dual booting
You'll be booting from the mac SSD and you'll be given the option to boot from another drive before the OSx starts loading. I see the options Yosemite (mac SSD), Windows and System Reserved (both from the win SSD). If you want to boot in windows, you need to choose System Reserved (choosing just Windows results in an error message).

What works
Most things work out of the box (ethernet, power management, sleep, wake up, keyboard, mouse, webcam).

What doesn’t work
- [Solved] Bluetooth (USB-BT400) works after you follow the instructions here: http://forum.osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/2925-bluetooth-firmware-uploader/
- [Solved] GFX card (EGVA NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750 ti 2GB Superclocked) only works after installing the drivers here (until then you need to start with modifier nv_disable=1): http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/80070/en-us
- Sound only works through the front headphone line (haven’t tried to figure it out yet).

I’m going to investigate about the sound (Realtek ALC1150) and will update with results.

Stork · Dec 13, 2014

Good job! Welcome to the Forum!

Just so your readers know, we don't recommend EasyBeast for the majority of Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors that we use for hackintoshes (see page 3 of the MultiBeast Features document):

EasyBeast is for Core 2, Core i or Xeon systems with no native CPU Power Management.

alvarus · Dec 13, 2014

Thanks! I certainly couldn't have done it without the resources and info available here and on ******.

Re. sound, let's see if anyone can help... I'm almost there fixing it.
I can get sound plugging headphones in the PC's front, but my speakers are connected on the line-out in the back.

I've tried plugging the speakers in the Line-in connection at the back and I can get sound through there. This is not ideal, because I'd need to switch the speakers to the correct jack every time I switch between Windows and Yosemite.

I understand that it must be some mapping problem with the jack connections.

My on-board sound has the following jack audio connections:
Front Mic (WORKS as intended)
Front Headphones (WORKS, in "Control Settings>Sound" this appears as Headphones)
Back Line-out (this is what I want to use)
Back Line-in (this works and the system recognizes it as Line Out 1)
Back Mic (this works as Line Out 2)
Back Rear
Back C-sub
Back Digital

On Yosemite's Control Settings>Sound, I can see the following:
Headphones (only when I plug headphones into the front jack, working as intended)
Internal Speakers
Line Out 1 (this one works when I connect the speakers to the Back Mic jack)
Line Out 2 (this one works when I connect the speakers to the Line-in)
Digital Out

Things I've tried:
I've tried both the Audio ID 1 and 2 in Multibeast's Optional HDA Enabler... but no luck.
I've tried rolling back to the original pre-multibeast kext, then there's no sound at all.

Stork · Dec 14, 2014

Selecting "Internal Speakers" will output audio through the Green audio Back Panel plug.

alvarus · Dec 14, 2014

Stork said:
Selecting "Internal Speakers" will output audio through the Green audio Back Panel plug.

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately, selecting "Internal speakers" doesn't output sound through any of the back panel plugs. Also note that this model of motherboard (gigabyte z97x Gaming 5) doesn't have a color coded back panel plate or plugs.

The only plugs that seem to produce sound in the mac are "Line In", "C-Sub" and the headphones plug on the front panel.

Stork · Dec 14, 2014

alvarus said:
Thanks for replying. Unfortunately, selecting "Internal speakers" doesn't output sound through any of the back panel plugs. Also note that this model of motherboard (gigabyte z97x Gaming 5) doesn't have a color coded back panel plate or plugs.

The only plugs that seem to produce sound in the mac are "Line In", "C-Sub" and the headphones plug on the front panel.

Didn't know that until you pointed it out, and I checked. Most unusual for a GA motherboard. Try the Apple Audio MIDI Setup (/Applications/Utilities) as it has a Configure Speakers button that sends "noise" thru a speaker for you to tune. Good luck!

alvarus · Dec 15, 2014

Thanks for replying!

So I was getting a very low crackling noise when I tried using the "Internal Speakers" option, as if something was broken or a connection was loose. I checked the connections, everything seemed good but I kept getting that broken noise every time sound played.

After a couple of days and totally by surprise, I now get cristal clear sound through the internal speakers option... Go figure.

I'm not going to play around again with it more to figure out what was wrong, the only things that changed was that last night I removed the Bluetooth USB dongle because I needed it for another computer and I forgot to put it back... I don't have it with me anymore, so I cannot test... but I'm going to assume that it was causing some kind of interference with the on-board sound drivers.

Anyway, everything works perfect now in the build (haven't done the imessage fix yet, but it's something I don't use anyway).

I also had some problems with the shared 1TB HDD that I had formated in ex-fat, so both system could read/write. After a couple of times switching between win/mac the OSs wouldn't recognize it anymore and asked to format it... I tried formatting from mac and formatting from windows with same negatives results (HDD becomes unrecognized after a couple of system switchings). I've decided to go NTFS and have ParagonNTFS installed on the mac (around $20). Works like a charm now.

Thanks everyone!

Misscomp · Dec 19, 2014

Dear Alvarus,

How did you know to use the nv-disable=1 boot flag? Can I ask how you where you got the boot flag?

Misscomp

alvarus · Dec 19, 2014

Misscomp said:
Dear Alvarus,

How did you know to use the nv-disable=1 boot flag? Can I ask how you where you got the boot flag?

Misscomp

I read several posts about the kernel panic that I was getting while booting (google searched for part of the exact text in the error) and one of the many suggestions was the nv_disable=1... I had try 4-5 other flags before finding out about that one. I'm sorry I cannot remember what exactly the content of the kernel panic was or what was the exact post that referenced it.

pmaly · Nov 29, 2015

Hey Alvarus,

I'm going for the same MOBO/GPU/CPU combo. Wondering if you where able to get dual monitor working (HDMI+DVI)?

Thanks for the help.

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[Success] i7-4790k, Gigabyte z97x-Gaming 5, EGVA NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750 ti 2GB - Yosemite 10.10.1

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