[Success] Kylo Ren: i5 4690K - ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac - MSI 980ti

[7sigma]

Kylo Ren: i5 4690K - ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac - 16GB RAM - 980ti

Components

Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan
Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan - Apple Store (US)

Intel Core i5-4690K
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KQ5KDY/

ASRock Z97IE-ITX/ac Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157504

MSI GeForce 980ti 6GD5T OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127902

Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2x8GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148545

Samsung EVO 500 GB x 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373

Corsair RMx 650X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139143

Corsair H100i GTX Water Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139143

Corsair 380T
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139046


Comments

I wanted an ITX build that I could carry on a plane but that still had decent thermal performance. The 380T filled that bill nicely, being a great case for air cooling (the whole case is dust-filtered mesh) or water cooling (with a side radiator mount). The case fans are also very quiet even at max rpm, prompting me to find equally silent components. In retrospect, the H100i GTX is almost certainly overkill when it comes to cooling, but the whole thing is absolutely silent in normal operation and quiet even at load.

Building on the 380T was pretty hard. Despite being somewhat big for an ITX case, things got very cramped. The power supply cables barely fit unless you remove the hard drive cage, so if you want HDDs I'd suggest getting a shorter PSU (this one is 160mm). The radiator was also a tight fit, pushing against a case fitting and the RAM lock. As a result, if I ever need to change the RAM, I'll need to dismount the radiator. I'd suggest getting a radiator with slimmer fans, an air cooler, or a motherboard with a different RAM placement.

The Z97IE-ITX/ac comes with a Half Mini PCI-E card for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that does not work with Mac OS X. I replaced it with a Broadcom BCM94352. This worked fine after following the excellent Half Mini PCI-E Guide. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Coherence all work normally, but the AirDisplay menu won't show up even though I have an Apple TV on the same network. iMessage does not work but I'm not trying to fix it.

For installation, I followed the Guide with no modifications. I did not need to patch the UEFI despite this being an ASRock board (see the ASRock UEFI boot fix if you're not as lucky) nor did I need to remove the 980ti during installation, which also seems to be a common problem. I did need to add the nv_disable=1 boot option in Clover until I managed to install the Nvidia alternative drivers in Mac OS X. With the drivers in place, the system boots normally.

Since my monitor hasn't arrived yet, I was using an old screen with a VGA adapter. This is a bad idea and causes random boot loops that cost me several hours of pointless troubleshooting. Use a DVI monitor and cable.

 

[gadgetman08]

So I have near exact components for a build I am about to do. Just a quick question, did you do the Clover or MultiBeast post install? Also, did your USB 3.0 work right away? Thanks so much! I was so happy to find someone with the same build as me prior to starting.

 

[7sigma]

Clover! And yes, USB 3.0 worked with no modifications.