- Joined
- Jan 30, 2016
- Messages
- 2
- Motherboard
- ASUS Endurance
- CPU
- 4GHz Intel i7
- Graphics
- NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX1060
I wanted a computer to replace my aging MacPro 2010. My primary goal is to build a fast machine for photography work, so I want a fast processor but I don't need the latest and greatest video card. Stability is also my primary concern. The Apple MacPro is $3000, way too expensive, plus I have to buy a bunch of HDD enclosures for all the RAW files. iMac is out of question because the glossy screen, while great for content consumption, is terrible when it comes to photo editing. Macbook Pro with i7 2.5ghz is unfortunately a bit too slow and at $2500, is also very expensive. So I've decided to take on a HackPro.
I built the system last weekend and I've been testing it out during the week. It's now working 99%, since I've taken so much knowledge from the forum, I figure I'd share some of the tiny "gotchas" I've encountered along the way.
Having never really built a computer before, I decided to simply copy the January buyer's guide, since I'm starting from scratch.
Case: Fractal Design Define R5
mother board: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H
PSU: Corsair RM650x
CPU: i7-4790K
RAM: 16GB Crucial Ballistix
SSD Samsung 850 EVO
Video card: EVGA GeForce GT 740
Following this installation guide, the installation went extremely smooth. I had the system up and running in no time.
Problems I ran into
UniBeast USB boot stick creation took FOREVER! The guide said the process will only take about 10 minutes, well, after 2+ hours of being stuck on "copying", I gave up. The next day I used a different mac and was able to create the USB stick in around 40 minutes.
The installation process is very straight forward, no surprises there.
This is my configuration for MultiBeast
Quick Start > UEFI Boot Mode
Drivers: Audio > ALC1150
DISK > 3rd party SATA
DISK > intel generic AHCI Sata
Drivers > Misc > FakeSMC v6.14.1364
Drivers > Misc > FakeSMC v6.14.1364 Plugins
Drivers > Network > Intel > AppleIntelE1000e v3.1.0a
Customize > System Definitions > iMac 14.2
All of my problems came after I try to restart my hackintosh for the first time. I ran into lots of bootloops and saw a bunch of "your computer did not shutdown properly" message. These are the solutions that worked for me
Eject the USB installation stick before restart
I needed to go into BIOS and manually change the first boot drive from "Mac OS" to "UEFI OS Samsung...", otherwise it'll just bootloap.
I've read that with GT 740, the video card should just work, but I found the system to be incredibly unstable, had a few sudden reboot, and will often bootloop until I install the 10.11.3 web driver
Sound did not work at first, then I saw that instead of plugging in to the green speaker jack, use the Black line out jack, then go to system preference > sound > output and choose one of the "Line out".
It's been a few days now, I only have 1 issue that I'm hoping someone can help or point me in the right direction.
Sleep isn't very reliable. The system sleeps/wakes fine most of the time. But longer sleeps, like over 2 hours, will some times cause a system crash. Once the computer restarted itself during sleep, a few times the computer bootlooped for a few times before it was able to came back up, one time sound didn't work. I don't know how to pin point the issue since some times the system sleeps/wakes just fine. I've tried to issue:
sudo pmset -a standby 0 && sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0
but it doesn't seem to help. So if someone has any tips, it would be greatly appreciated.
I also saw a issue in Photoshop CC 2015. Long, thin rectangle boxes will show up on screen when I resize or brushing with the brush tool. Preference>performance>Graphics Processor Settings Advance Settings > change drawing mode to "Normal" fixes that. It's probably a nvidia driver issue.
Other than that, I have a very stable HackPro for sub $1000. Single core 32bit geekbench was 3949, multicore was 15509. It ran faster than any current 4 core from Apple, so I'm very impressed. Photoshop and Lightroom flies compare to my old MacPro. Instead of waiting on lightroom and photoshop to do something, things are happening instantly.
I hope this helps someone else who decides to use the January buyer's guide.
I built the system last weekend and I've been testing it out during the week. It's now working 99%, since I've taken so much knowledge from the forum, I figure I'd share some of the tiny "gotchas" I've encountered along the way.
Having never really built a computer before, I decided to simply copy the January buyer's guide, since I'm starting from scratch.
Case: Fractal Design Define R5
mother board: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H
PSU: Corsair RM650x
CPU: i7-4790K
RAM: 16GB Crucial Ballistix
SSD Samsung 850 EVO
Video card: EVGA GeForce GT 740
Following this installation guide, the installation went extremely smooth. I had the system up and running in no time.
Problems I ran into
UniBeast USB boot stick creation took FOREVER! The guide said the process will only take about 10 minutes, well, after 2+ hours of being stuck on "copying", I gave up. The next day I used a different mac and was able to create the USB stick in around 40 minutes.
The installation process is very straight forward, no surprises there.
This is my configuration for MultiBeast
Quick Start > UEFI Boot Mode
Drivers: Audio > ALC1150
DISK > 3rd party SATA
DISK > intel generic AHCI Sata
Drivers > Misc > FakeSMC v6.14.1364
Drivers > Misc > FakeSMC v6.14.1364 Plugins
Drivers > Network > Intel > AppleIntelE1000e v3.1.0a
Customize > System Definitions > iMac 14.2
All of my problems came after I try to restart my hackintosh for the first time. I ran into lots of bootloops and saw a bunch of "your computer did not shutdown properly" message. These are the solutions that worked for me
Eject the USB installation stick before restart
I needed to go into BIOS and manually change the first boot drive from "Mac OS" to "UEFI OS Samsung...", otherwise it'll just bootloap.
I've read that with GT 740, the video card should just work, but I found the system to be incredibly unstable, had a few sudden reboot, and will often bootloop until I install the 10.11.3 web driver
Sound did not work at first, then I saw that instead of plugging in to the green speaker jack, use the Black line out jack, then go to system preference > sound > output and choose one of the "Line out".
It's been a few days now, I only have 1 issue that I'm hoping someone can help or point me in the right direction.
Sleep isn't very reliable. The system sleeps/wakes fine most of the time. But longer sleeps, like over 2 hours, will some times cause a system crash. Once the computer restarted itself during sleep, a few times the computer bootlooped for a few times before it was able to came back up, one time sound didn't work. I don't know how to pin point the issue since some times the system sleeps/wakes just fine. I've tried to issue:
sudo pmset -a standby 0 && sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0
but it doesn't seem to help. So if someone has any tips, it would be greatly appreciated.
I also saw a issue in Photoshop CC 2015. Long, thin rectangle boxes will show up on screen when I resize or brushing with the brush tool. Preference>performance>Graphics Processor Settings Advance Settings > change drawing mode to "Normal" fixes that. It's probably a nvidia driver issue.
Other than that, I have a very stable HackPro for sub $1000. Single core 32bit geekbench was 3949, multicore was 15509. It ran faster than any current 4 core from Apple, so I'm very impressed. Photoshop and Lightroom flies compare to my old MacPro. Instead of waiting on lightroom and photoshop to do something, things are happening instantly.
I hope this helps someone else who decides to use the January buyer's guide.
