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[Success] Monosonico's Pro Tools Studio Build - i7 4770k - GA-Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - HD 4600

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Joined
Dec 11, 2013
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31
Motherboard
GA-Z87X-UD5H
CPU
Core i7 - 4770k
Graphics
Intel HD
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
  2. Mac Pro
Classic Mac
  1. 0
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Monosonico's Pro Tools Studio Build
i7 4770k - GA-Z87X-UD3H - 16GB RAM - GTX 650 1GB**
​** Not yet installed

500r_hero_up_led.png
Components


Case: Corsair Carbide Series Black 500R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139009

Motherboard: GA-Z87X-UD5H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128593

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233232


Already Owned

SSD: OCZ-VERTEX3 240 GB SATA III
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ11K6674

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM 3.5" Internal (x2)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178430

Audio Interface: Symphony I/O 8x8
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Apogee-Symphony-I-O-8x8-Audio-Interface-108595117-i2821731.gc

Keyboard: Apple Wired Keyboard w/ Numeric Pad
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110LL/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-english-usa

Mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
http://store.apple.com/us/product/M...e?aid=AIC-WWW-NAUS-K2-BUYNOW-MAGICMOUSE-INDEX

Monitor 1: Acer 27" HDMI LCD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009457

Monitor 2: Sony 32" HDTV - No longer in production


Comments

What Works:
- Audio via Symphony I/O audio interface (This was a headache; See below)
- iMessage, iCloud, etc.
- Ethernet
- Dual monitors

What Doesn't Work:
- USB 3 (Related to audio interface; See below)
- Booting up with dual monitors (goes into boot loop; See below)
- Random freezing every other day, give or take (requires hard restart)

The Long Road to Stabilization

This is my first Hackintosh build ever. Expected a straight-forward process but ended up with a huge headache over the span of 2 weeks. I've built a regular PC before and am pretty software savvy. Not afraid to open up Terminal and run some commands to fix an issue with the help of a guide or two.

The first issue I ran into had a stupidly, simple solution. Our old Mac Pro setup was using VGA to DVi converters on the older monitors we had. For whatever reason my Hackintosh setup did NOT play nicely with them. Could boot into safe mode post-OS installation and run MultiBeast but past that I would just get stuck on the Apple logo.

The solution was to switch to an HDMI cable. I spent days (yes, days) trying different things with the BIOS and MultiBeast and kexts and a million other things. Made me dizzy.

After that I felt pretty confident that everything would be smooth sailing until I realized that the audio was not playing nice. Keep in mind, I never had any need to really setup any Realtek or VooDooHD drivers since I was using an interface but right off the bat (interface drivers/firmware fully up to date), I ran into stuttering, popping, distortion; Everything an audiophile hates.

After weeks (yes, weeks) of pulling out hair and searching through the boards I found someone with the same exact issue using the same MOBO.

Unfortunately the thread that provided the solution was deleted for some unknown reason.

The solution was to DISABLE USB 3 via the BIOS settings.
- Peripherals > xHCI Mode > Disabled
(Instead of AUTO).

After that everything has been extremely smooth with the exception of two things:
- Boot loop with dual monitors. If I have both monitors plugged in (both HDMI), upon boot, the GIGABYTE splash screen shows up on both monitors, then I see a little spinning "/" symbol and then it goes black and does it over and over again, never reaching the Chimera loader screen. Unplugging the secondary monitor lets it boot into OS X normally.

- Random freezes! Every few days, sometimes twice a day, the entire system will just freeze without random explanation. Still no solution to this or what exactly is causing this. Still searching the forums.​

The Setup

A) Initial Bios Configuration
1. Enter the Bios and Press F2 to load the Classic View
2. Press F7 to load optimized default values then proceed to change it.
3.1. Under Peripherals > xHCI Mode, change it to DISABLED
3.2. Under Peripherals > xHCI Hand-OFF, change it to ENABLED
3.3. Under Peripherals > EHCI Hand-OFF, Change it to Enabled
3.4. Under Peripherals > Internal Graphics, Change it to ENABLED.
3.5. Under Peripherals > Init Display First, INTEGRATED
3.6. Under Power Management > Wake on Lan, change it to DISABLED.
4. Save and Exit Bios.

B) Installing Mountain Lion 10.8.5

1. Follow this guide: http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

2. Post-OS installation, hold F12 to boot to USB once again.
You must boot into safe mode to install Multibeast. Do this by typing -x on the Chimera boot screen before booting into your Mountain Lion partition.

3. Once you're in, just go straight for Safari and download Multibeast from tonymacx86.com

Multibeast Config:

Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 11.36.40 AM.jpgScreen Shot 2014-01-24 at 11.37.15 AM.png


Overall, when all was said and done, I'm extremely pleased with my first Hackintosh. Total price of everything (including the audio interface) came out to $4,120~, which still beats the hell out of the top-of-the-line Mac Pro.

Pro Tools runs faster than ever and the Intel HD 4600 handles anything a Pro Tools rig would ever need to throw at it without issue. The most we work with are HD videos.

For you DAW geeks out there, we're running Pro Tools 11 so the 64-bit processing compliments this machine beautifully. I'm running Kontakt 5 with well over 10 instruments loaded in without any stuttering or processing errors.

The process was a huge headache (took me about 4 weeks to get everything running) but it was well worth it.
 
[Success] Monosonico's Pro Tools Studio Build - i7 4770k - GA-787X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - HD 4600

looks great! im doing video stuff on all hacky's but still running the 12 core for PT HDX right now. But i might switch soon
 
looks great! im doing video stuff on all hacky's but still running the 12 core for PT HDX right now. But i might switch soon

If you've got experience with the initial setup I'd say go for it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this board as it seems to have had more incompatibility issues right off the bat compared to other but once everything is running its a dream with Pro Tools.
 
You could try to get USB3 working when you ONLY load the USB3 drivers from Multibeast6.1. Put xHCI Mode back on again of course.

Why 10.8.5? and not use 10.9? Mavericks works with both ProTools 10 and 11. The de-installer of ProTools 10 is the only thing that does not work under 10.9.

In your heading you still have the graphics card mentioned. Mistake?

Please make a clone with Carbon Copy Cloner or similar application and do some testing on that first before changing a working setup. I bought some cheap 2nd hand SATA's for that. Works fine.
 
You could try to get USB3 working when you ONLY load the USB3 drivers from Multibeast6.1. Put xHCI Mode back on again of course.

Why 10.8.5? and not use 10.9? Mavericks works with both ProTools 10 and 11. The de-installer of ProTools 10 is the only thing that does not work under 10.9.

In your heading you still have the graphics card mentioned. Mistake?

Please make a clone with Carbon Copy Cloner or similar application and do some testing on that first before changing a working setup. I bought some cheap 2nd hand SATA's for that. Works fine.

Yes, a mistake but on the note of graphics cards, we actually ended up just buying a GTX 650 1GB to fix the dual monitor boot-up issue we were having. Doesn't hurt to have a card installed anyways. Still haven't gotten a dip in work to throw it on yet but I don't think it will cause any issues.

As for 10.9, I tend to hold back on new OS's at least 6 months while a lot of the kinks get worked out. It always seems like everything's running smooth on the surface but all it takes is one little plug-in/app/driver not to work to kill the workflow. Also, we're running Reason 5 via ReWire and I've heard that Reason 5 isn't playing nice with Mavericks and might never since its no longer updated.. The solution will be to eventually upgrade to Reason 7 but we don't use it that much.

It's definitely something we will be doing later this year though. Thanks for the tip!
 
Just read your symphony i/o post, i figured it out the hard way too. disabled the usb3 mode in bios worked a charm. good to know i was not the only one with the same issue. i had got the apogee team to send me the new beta has well drivers with no luck, after trying out disabling usb 3 and using a usb2 port it worked fine, however, did u notice better audio quality on usb3? i found things to have more detail strangely till the distortion and disconnects kicked in.
 
This gives me hope! I'm putting together my pro tools hackintosh right now and im hoping to install os x later this week. I already have windows on it. Hopefully the firewire card I bought for my interface runs well!
 
Just read your symphony i/o post, i figured it out the hard way too. disabled the usb3 mode in bios worked a charm. good to know i was not the only one with the same issue. i had got the apogee team to send me the new beta has well drivers with no luck, after trying out disabling usb 3 and using a usb2 port it worked fine, however, did u notice better audio quality on usb3? i found things to have more detail strangely till the distortion and disconnects kicked in.

Honestly, the audio didn't last long enough for me to really be able to observe the detail. It would last about 30-50 seconds tops before it started to distort.

Regardless, the Symphony I/O is USB2 only (hence why it wouldn't play nice with USB3) so there shouldn't be any difference in how much information was being transferred.
 
Hey there. Are you using Pro Tools with the Symphony card? Still having issues?
I have HDX with an OMNI and am curious to know what kind of problems I may run into with the setup.

I like that motherboard and want to know if I can just run the native HDMI ports from it to my HDTV? I see no reason to spend 2-300 for a card that Pro Tools doesn't really take advantage of and I'm not a gamer.

I really want the i7, Pro Tools 10/11 and maybe run VLC for movies. I already have HDD's.

Any suggestions? Did you get USB3 working? Can you use FireWire800?

Thanks!
 
Hey man, nice build! Similar setup myself! Got the i7 4770K, GA-Z87X-UD5H and maxed out at 32GB Ram. I was experiencing a lot of system freezes too and after a lot of reading found the F9a (Beta) BIOS from Gigabyte to solve the problem! Hope that helps! Make sure you get the F9a if you do try it, F9 bios cause the same problem.
 
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