The 4K Dell OptiMac - 9020 MT - Core i7-4790 - Radeon RX 570 - LG 4K IPS Monitor

[trs96]

Try using the latest Lilu and WEG kexts.

Releases · acidanthera/WhateverGreen

Various patches necessary for certain ATI/AMD/Intel/Nvidia GPUs - acidanthera/WhateverGreen

github.com

Releases · acidanthera/Lilu

Arbitrary kext and process patching on macOS. Contribute to acidanthera/Lilu development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[tofeeq]

Thank you for the huge effort.
My first and last Hackintosh was macOS installed on my desktop PC back in 2011 as I started programming iOS apps. Since 2012, I had to stay with a 2011 MacBook Pro because of frequent traveling. Now it's time to have a nice desktop again, and I got very motivated from your guide so it won't be an iMac.

I've just bought used 7020 with i5-4590, LG 27UK650-W IPS, XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 NVMe as well as an Apple keyboard. Probably will get another 8 GB of RAM soon.

I would like help for the following questions:
1- Can I buy a used i7-4790 processor and simply replace the one I have in the 7020? or are there other differences in 7020/9020 between i5 and i7 versions?
2- The following graphics card is currently on sale (almost same price as RX 570/580). SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 590 8GB. Would it also work, or better stick with suggested older models?
3- Can I install Catalina with the same EFI & co. files attached to this guide? or do you suggest to start with Mojave for now and wait?

 

[trs96]

1- Can I buy a used i7-4790 processor and simply replace the one I have in the 7020? or are there other differences in 7020/9020 between i5 and i7 versions?

Try out the 4590 first and see if it performs well enough. The only real difference is hyperthreading enabled on the i7.

2- The following graphics card is currently on sale (almost same price as RX 570/580). SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 590 8GB. Would it also work, or better stick with suggested older models?

Do you really need the extra power of a 590 ? It should work if you do. For iOS development a 580 is plenty.

Can I install Catalina with the same EFI & co. files attached to this guide? or do you suggest to start with Mojave for now and wait?

Start with Mojave first. Once we get to the .3 update of Catalina hopefully the bugs will be worked out.

 

[tofeeq]

Thanks for the quick reply. No I actually don't need 590. This desktop is mainly for RAW photo editing and occasional 1080p editing. But for a minimal price difference I'd buy the latest. It will also keep its price better if I sell it in the future.

 

[Jarikka]

Try using the latest Lilu and WEG kexts.

Releases · acidanthera/WhateverGreen

Various patches necessary for certain ATI/AMD/Intel/Nvidia GPUs - acidanthera/WhateverGreen

github.com

Releases · acidanthera/Lilu

Arbitrary kext and process patching on macOS. Contribute to acidanthera/Lilu development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I have to apologize...I forgot to use the Kext Utility there between.
Did it again from the beginning and changed to iMac 15,1 as SMBIOS.
Works like a dream. Thank you very much for all of this.

One more question: Is it difficult to move everything into a new case?
I saw a video and at the end the guy got some Alerts and was not able to boot at all...

 

[trs96]

I have to apologize...I forgot to use the Kext Utility there between.
Did it again from the beginning and changed to iMac 15,1 as SMBIOS.
Works like a dream. Thank you very much for all of this.

One more question: Is it difficult to move everything into a new case?
I saw a video and at the end the guy got some Alerts and was not able to boot at all...

There are some cables/connectors that you must take from the Dell case. The temperature sensor is one. There is a front panel USB 2/3 and audio mic port that you should also plug in to the motherboard. Even without those you can press the F1 key and still boot. Better to have them connected. It also takes a little work for the power switch, you can also just use the one Dell provides with your 9020.

 

[tofeeq]

Try out the 4590 first and see if it performs well enough. The only real difference is hyperthreading enabled on the i7.

Do you really need the extra power of a 590 ? It should work if you do. For iOS development a 580 is plenty.

Start with Mojave first. Once we get to the .3 update of Catalina hopefully the bugs will be worked out.

I ordered the 590 8GB from Sapphire because it was even cheaper than the 580 and same price as 570. I hope it won't make any problems with the mac. I have to use the same kexts and other files as in this guide, right?

I didn't understand step 6 well: to install on NVMe I make the installer USB without any exceptions and in step 4 I dont do the steps A to D, right? But then how will a bootloader be installed on my other HDD?

 

[trs96]

I have to use the same kexts and other files as in this guide, right?

Yes, follow the guide as is.

to install on NVMe I make the installer USB without any exceptions and in step 4 I dont do the steps A to D, right? But then how will a bootloader be installed on my other HDD?

You only want the bootloader on the mechanical or SSD Sata drive not on the NVME. You can only have it in one place or you will run into problems. Easiest way is to just clone the sata drive to the NVME, it won't copy the EFI partition if you use CCC.

 

[Jarikka]

There are some cables/connectors that you must take from the Dell case. The temperature sensor is one. There is a front panel USB 2/3 and audio mic port that you should also plug in to the motherboard. Even without those you can press the F1 key and still boot. Better to have them connected. It also takes a little work for the power switch, you can also just use the one Dell provides with your 9020.

Ok, thanks. I might give this a try, because the MT 9020 I got has some ugly scrathes.

 

[BuzzMcFlurp]

I've also experimented with using an NVMe boot drive with limited success. Clover seems to refuse to see an APFS-formatted NVMe drive as bootable. Clover doesn't display it in the boot menu when I've cloned it from a viable SSD installation. Clover also fails to see the NVMe drive during a Mojave install AFTER it has been formatted APFS. Clover WILL see the NVMe drive during a Mojave install if I've formatted it HFS, and will proceed with the installation until the second reboot (after it has been formatted APFS), where Clover again fails to see it

I've used a number of different versions of ApfsDriverLoader-64.efi in the drivers64UEFI folder without success. I was finally successful (kind of) by adding apfs.efi to the folder, but I get errors on boot, after which all seems OK.

Is there an issue with ApfsDriverLoader-64.efi not properly loading apfs.efi? Or am I missing something?