Test Report: ASUS P8Z77-I Mini-ITX + 3570K

[Going Bald]

ASUS P8Z77-i Deluxe
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-P8Z77-I-DELUXE-Motherboard-Bluetooth4-0/dp/B007ZT22ZU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131840

Parts (new):
Lian Li PC-TU200
ASUS P8Z77-I Mini-ITX
Intel Core i5 3570K
Corsair 16Gb (2x8Gb) low profile XMS - CMX16GX3M2A1600C11 KIT
Noctua NH-L12 (minus the 120mm top fan - it just wouldn't fit)
Pioneer BDR-207DBK
FSP Aurum Gold 600W (shortest I could find to fit –Lian Li wasn’t kidding about that 140mm max length)
Samsung 830 Series 128 Gb SSD SATA III 6Gb/s
Parts (on hand):
ASUS ENGT520 silent
WD IcePack Storage bay adapter/heatsink (WD no longer sells these separate from the SATA Velociraptors.)
2 Samsung 1Tb Spinpoint Model HD103SJ Rev. A
-------------------

Created new UniBeast installer with Unibeast 1.3 and the downloaded Install Lion app for 10.7.4 - Ran ivy bridge Bridge Helper pointed to UniBeast USB

BIOS settings: Optimized Defaults + set the ram to XMP profile 1 for memory timing.

Installed per tonymac guide for ivy bridge cpu: viewtopic.php?f=168&t=59052
Boot with UniBeast, format SSD, install OS X.
Boot back to OS X installer, select Utilities -> Terminal
rm /Volumes/Lion/mach_kernel ->enter
reboot and select Lion SSD ->enter
kicked back to selection screen, hi-lite UniBeast USB and ->enter
boots to setup. Setup time, date, users as usual. Select to use Lion now.
At desktop, run Chameleon Wizard to create .plists:
smbios.plist - select MacPro 3,1
boot.plist - select GUI, ethernet built in, GE=yes, set timeout to Instant Menu (user's choice here)
Run MultiBeast, select Utilities, hnaks ethernet, ALC8xx, AppleHDA rollback, nonDSDT enabler for ALC898, driver for GPU (I used the nVidia 4xx/5xx), fakesmc, Chimera bootloader, your choice of theme and do not forget nullcpupowermanagement.kext
Reboot. takes about 8 seconds or less from power on to desktop. Everything works except the onboard Wifi/bluetooth. The half miniPCIe card is an AzureWave AW NB11H, which I can't find on their web site or googling it. Also shown on card is Broadcom Model BCM943228HMB which doesn't show on Broadcom's web site and googling turns up nothing.
The card shows up in profiler as broadcom BCM20702A0.
In Win7, the wifi shows as BCMWL64.sys as a driver -
Final thoughts:
This board is an overclockers dream and the UEFI BIOS makes it very easy - you can tweak setting to your heart's content if I am reading the manual correctly. I will wait until ivy is supported before trying it, since power management is out until then.
Now if I can just find a half-mini WiFi/bluetooth combo to replace the Broadcom – maybe something with intel or realtek chipset.....

 

[silkysmooth]

With powermanagament not working right now.

Does the cpu always run at its base clock or at its turbo clock?

I'm guessing stock speed.

Awesome build btw. Going to be getting this mobo hopefully

 

[Going Bald]

Runs at stock 3.4 Ghz and with the ram set to xmp profile 1 in BIOS it runs at 1600MHz

 

[AP2]

nice setup. contemplating about purchasing this board. any idea if 2500k/hd3000 would work?

 

[ajlowndes]

I'm looking at this one closely too, to put together a Bitfenix Prodigy case-based setup (whenever that case finally ships). Let us know what issues you encounter!

 

[Going Bald]

I'm looking at this one closely too, to put together a Bitfenix Prodigy case-based setup (whenever that case finally ships). Let us know what issues you encounter!

The only issue I have with the board is the WiFi/BT card. Need a half mini PCIe card that has chips supported by OS X. So far I have found several WiFi only cards that would probably work OK and a couple of BT that would work, but no combo card. Waiting to see what kind of cards Apple puts in the new macs. Maybe there will be one with the new 802.11ac atheros chip + BT4.0 that will fit.

Otherwise board is great - with a Samsung 830 series SSD it is really fast. Use quiet boot and it only takes 6-8 seconds from power on to desktop. Click an app icon and it is running right now - no bouncing up and down in the dock at all (hate that BTW).

 

[Boston Steve]

Nice setup. Thanks for posting this. I'm contemplating the same mobo/processor combo, in the Bitfenix Prodigy case.

Graphics card? Or are you just using the integrated hd4000 in the processor?

 

[Flyhero]

Im interested in that board too
That Wifi chip is an BCM43228, Apple supports the BCM43224 in Lion. Pretty close!
So by patching that Apple Kext you could get a working wifi and maybe bluetooth.
Try getting the Device ID of the Wifi and add it to the info.plist of the Kext. (Make Backups! And dont forget to repair permissions and rebuild caches!)
Or just post the Device ID here so i will try to patch it for you

Would be really nice to see the Wifi working!

 

[Going Bald]

Im interested in that board too
That Wifi chip is an BCM43228, Apple supports the BCM43224 in Lion. Pretty close!
So by patching that Apple Kext you could get a working wifi and maybe bluetooth.
Try getting the Device ID of the Wifi and add it to the info.plist of the Kext. (Make Backups! And dont forget to repair permissions and rebuild caches!)
Or just post the Device ID here so i will try to patch it for you

Would be really nice to see the Wifi working!

Tried that - no dice. Tried rebranding it, but it doesn't use the B43xx driver - it uses STA and the wl driver. Can't even extract the firmware because haven't found a tool yet to do it with. I am sure there are some BCM techs out there that have it, but haven't turned up anything searching yet.

 

[Flyhero]

The Linux STA driver supports both 43228 aswell as 43224, actually it supports almost all DevIDs Apple is supporting, plus some others, so the Apple driver must be similar.

I have similar issues with an Broadcom ethernet, even though i have patched the Apple Driver, and it loads, it doesnt make the ethernet work, so maybe it doesnt work this way with Broadcom drivers.