[SUCCESS]Yosemite on Core i7-4790K - GA-Z97M-D3H - 32GB RAM - GT610

[daparix]

[SUCCESS]Yosemite on Core i7-4790K - GA-Z97M-D3H - 32GB RAM - GT610 (SILENT COOLING!!)

daparix's Build: i7-4790K - GA-Z97M-D3H - 32GB RAM - GT 610
(+SILENT COOLING)

​

Components

CPU: Haswell i7-4790K - Amazon ES || Amazon US

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H microATX - Amazon ES || Amazon US

RAM: Crucial Balistix Tactical 2x8GB (bought two for a total of 32GB) - Amazon ES || Amazon US

GPU: ASUS GT 610 (GT610-SL-2GD3-L) - Amazon ES || Amazon US

Case: BitFenix Phenom microATX white - Amazon ES || Amazon US

Power Supply: BeQuiet PurePower L8 CM 430W - Amazon ES || Amazon US


Comments

I already owned a Mac Mini i5 with external drives attached via FireWire. The system performed fine but was becoming hot (both case and disks) during summers in Spain. I also had the limitation of the amount of RAM (8GB), so I decided to try my first hackintosh build.

I would have preferred a miniITX form factor and smaller case, but I wanted a dual channel system so I could have 32GB RAM instead of just 16GB of memory.

I tried to build a system in a small case with as much CPU and RAM as possible, but keeping within a reasonable budget. I, therefore, based my system on components from the buyer's guide in "CustoMac mATX" section. I deviated from the guide with the case and power supply, and got a BitFenix Phenom microATX white case and a BeQuiet PurePower L8 CM 430W power supply.

I tried the installation first with material above (see "Comments"), and after getting a system under my expectations, I bought a budget nVidia GeForce graphics card to improve the installation. I now know I should have bought right from start. The ASUS GT 610 is not in the recommended list, but I liked because price, and it is fanless, as I read in the forum that "any GeForce 5/6/7 would work."

I already owned a 250GB SSD (Samsung), and a couple of hard drives of 4TB and 3 TB from Western Digital.

I also plugged a Cambridge Silicon Bluetooth USB, as my plan was to use a standard Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad from Apple.

I used a plain USB keyboard and mouse for the initial BIOS and setup.

Installation

My installation is Yosemite 10.10.3 following official guide UniBeast+MultiBeast: http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-...-x-yosemite-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

The general guide was not enough, and I could not start the installer by default. I then read a couple of guides for same motherboard as my build, and this one helped me the most: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks...-4790k-16gb-ram-intel-hd-graphics-4600-a.html.

I learned that trying to use the integrated, on-board HD 4600 GPU was the most difficult part, and had some problems to even reach the installer until I got proper BIOS configuration. What worked for me was following:

- Used VGA on the Intel board
- Selected "optimized defaults" (F7)
- Selected memory profile: XMP 1
- Disabled VTd
- Disabled Intel Turbo Boost
- Selected initial display as IGFX (integrated graphics)​

I had a couple of stability problems with UniBeast, so I used following boot flags:
-x PCIRootUID=1 IGPEnabler=Yes GraphicsEnabler=No

I could boot and install, and configured MultiBeast for Yosemite with following configuration:

Quick Start >> DSDT Free*
Drivers >> Audio >> Realtek ALCxxx >> ALC892
Drivers >> Audio >> Realtek ALCxxx >> Intel 9 Series Motherboard Support **
Drivers >> Disk >> 3rd Party SATA*
Drivers >> Disk >> 10.9.4 TRIM patch
Drivers >> Network >> Realtek >> RealtekRTL8111 v1.2.0
Bootloader >> Chimera v4.10*
Customize >> Boot Options >> Basic Boot Options*
Customize >> Boot Options >> Generate CPU States*
Customize >> Boot Options >> Hibernate Mode - Desktop*
Customize >> Boot Options >> Use KernelCache*
Customize >> Boot Options >> PCI Root ID Fix*​

Notes: * The DSDT Free loads a default set of kexts/drivers. See page 3 in the MultiBeast Features document which comes with the MultiBeast download or at MultiBeast.com.
Notes: ** No longer required when using MultiBeast for Yosemite v7.3+.

My system was working but was very slow at booting, and could only have 1024x768 resolution. Also, it was unstable with eventual freezes on the UI (the network and background processes seemed to be OK and I could connect remotely, but my screen / mouse became unusable if trying to move things too fast).

I, then, read in the forum that Apple is not supporting the integrated Intel GPU as none of the official models uses a configuration without external GPU. There were directions to configure a specific driver, but I wanted to keep as much as possible an "out of the box" config. So, I also read that the standard config was to use a GeForce graphics card and that most of them would work with Apple default driver. Thus, I went and bought one. I just unplugged the system, put the card and rebooted without changing unibeast/multibeast config (just setting it as initial display and disabling integrated graphs in BIOS), and on first boot the system started as I would have expected in the first place (fast!) and went into 1080P resolution with crisp graphics and very responsive.

At the time of this writing I have not enabled again Intel Turbo Boost. The only addition I did was to change my system definition to be "iMac 14,2", which was matching my resolution and was a Haswell processor like mine. The system looks stable and fulfills all my expectations.

For a total of 925€ I have a really fast system that replaces my old Mac Mini. You can probably save some budget and be in 800€ range by selecting an Haswell i5 processor instead, and also as low as 700€ range by starting with 16GB RAM only, and even lower if you already own the case and a good power supply. But, note that the specifications of Haswell processors and motherboard chipsets are "tighter" than previous systems so the memory has to be listed on the motherboard's Memory Support List and the power supply has to be rated Haswell "ready" or "certified."

I am really grateful to this forum for the installation guides and buyer guides, and I recommend to get some fun by building your own system!!

 

[daparix]

I decided to do an extension on the build comments. Once I had a functionally stable build, I targeted proper (and quiet) cooling of the system (as I was used to a MacMini before, which is almost silent)

I already commented that my PSU is a BeQuiet PurePower L8 CM 430W, whose fan is completely silent.

The BitFenix case included two stock 12cm fans, and allows 4 different placements:
- on the top, there is room for two 12 cm fans
- on the rear, there can be either a 12 cm or 14 cm fan
- on the bottom, you can install additional one (I do not use it as I have two disks installed there).

I first changed the stock cooler of the CPU by this one:
- Zalman LQ310, in Amazon for 70€

The radiator and fan were installed on the rear, while the stock fans were on the top. The cooling was acceptable, but the noise of the stock fan in the Zalman cooler was high (actually a bit worse than the stock CPU fan) when any activity was involved. So I bought three special fans from Noctua:

- A Noctua NF-F12, for CPU cooling. It is PWM controlled up to 2000rpm, and can provide proper static pressure and let air go through the 12 cm radiator of the CPU cooler (so do not choose a random model here). I bought in Amazon for 25€, and replaces the Zalman one.
- Two Noctua NF-S12A, for case cooling, they are also PWM controlled up to 1200rpm, in Amazon for 20€ each, they replace the BitFenix ones for case cooling.

The first one reduced the noise considerably at 1000 rpm (better than the Intel cooler), but when I installed the other two, the average case temperature went down and therefore the CPU one could do its job at a lower speed (900 rpm).

I installed the case ones with the noise reducer that is included. The motherboard provides connectors for four fans, so every fan (and the Zalman pump for the cooler) are plugged independently.

This is a schematic of the placement and air flow (side view of the case):


Although all can be PWM controlled, the two in the case are fixed at 1000 rpm, and I let the CPU one with variable speed.

I use Mac Fans Control from CrystalIdea to configure and monitor my system. Here you can see a snapshot done right now:



While I write this, I am reencoding 4 movies from AVI to MP4, and CPU does not go over 43ºC. The two top fans are constantly at 1000rpm, while the CPU cooling is under 1200rpm on peaks (around 800 rpm when doing normal desktop duties that are not CPU intensive).
Note that today, weather in Madrid is 32ºC, I can update some day that reaches 38-39ºC, which use to happen frequently.

HDD, which were my concern to build this system, are at 32-34ºC while spinning (the reencoding is using two of them).

Noise is almost none from my subjective perspective. You could configure both case fans at 800rpm to increase comfort (although I think the CPU one would add noise during load peaks).
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the case, the CPU cooling and the fans. This adds around 135€ to the initial budget, but worth the price to have a near silent system!!

PD: I also installed rubber washers on disks and fans, between the screw heads and case, and between disks and case (Noctua fans provide rubber between fan and case already)
PD2: Noctua provides 150.000 hours MTBF, so this is more than 10 years of non-stop duty time!! (actually they provide 6 years guarantee). Cheap fans use to last 3 years, probably you can find something in-between.

 

[stealmy]

why You didn´t use Osmosis?

works great with all updates and versions.

 

[Stork]

why You didn´t use Osmosis?

works great with all updates and versions.

We don't recommend the use of Osmosis as it voids your motherboard's warranty.

 

[stealmy]

Good point.

On the other side - i never got any trouble with osmosis - 12 builds 2 years ago.
The advantage is the clean update. It feels a bit more safe for me.

Bootloaders are amazing too,
impressive how we can install OS X on near every hardware today.

Big thanks to this Forum making all this possible!

 

[scooby2]

How is your hackintosh performing? Any issues or changes you would make? I want to build a system that is almost identical.

Thanks,
Scooby