the_gael's HacPro Black - Z77X-UD5H - i7-3770k - 8GB RAM - HD6870

[the_gael]

the_gael's Hac Pro Black - Z77X-UD5H - i7-3770k - 8GB RAM - HD6870

the_gael's Hac Pro Black: Z77X-UD5H - i7-3770k - 8GB RAM - HD6870




Antec 300 Midi Case
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0017Q8IAA[/AMAZON-uk]



Apple OS X Mountain Lion @ Mac Apps Store
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt=12



Gigabyte SKT-1155 Z77X-UD5H Motherboard
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007KZQFF2[/AMAZON-uk]



XFX ATi Radeon HD6870 Graphics Card - HD-687A-ZNFC
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0047ZH7GE[/AMAZON-uk]



Intel 3rd Generation Core i7-3770k CPU 4x3.50GHz, Ivy Bridge
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007X1JM30[/AMAZON-uk]



Corsair CW-9060001 Hydro Series H40 Hydro CPU Cooler
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005QUQP8K[/AMAZON-uk]



Sony Optiarc Black AD-7261S-0B Internal SATA Lightscribe DVD RW/RAM
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003SM3HH0[/amazon-uk]



Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004CRSM4I[/amazon-uk]



Corsair CMPSU-750HX Professional Series 750W Power Supply
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002FJ47IA[/amazon-uk]



OCZ AGT3-25SAT3-60G Agility 3 60GB SATA III 2.5inch SSD
[amazon-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004Z0S6RU[/amazon-uk]

2 x Western Digital 2TB SATA 6Gbps Power Saving Internal Hard Drive OEM - Caviar Green
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004VFJ9MK[/AMAZON-uk]


Already Owned

Apple Wireless Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TMRZOQ?ie=UTF8

Apple Magic Mouse
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TLTGM6?ie=UTF8

Homemade Apple Wireless and Bluetooth PCIe Card
http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods/13405-apple-branded-bluetooth-module-usb-hub-solved-sleep.html
http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/1056-how-build-your-own-real-airport-card.html

Toshiba 42-inch Widescreen TV Full HD 1080P
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0055NL0CE[/AMAZON-uk]

Jettison
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/jettison/id447430809?mt=12


Comments:

The build strategy for this machine was to build a machine which would be an everyday workhorse and capable of any tasks I would need it to perform. These would include a little video editing, photo manipulation, DTP, home theatre and general office applications.

Unlike my G5 and G4 Hacs there was no requirement to look like a genuine Apple computer - rather the focus was on maximum functionality; as close to a real Mac in function as possible.


Installation was performed using the tonymacx86 tool UniBeast
I will only mention here any tweaks or points to note specific to the components used in this build, to see the generic and detailed installation instructions for Unibeast go to the following link Unibeast Install OSX Mountain Lion on Any Supported Intel-based PC

As I am using an AMD HD6870 graphics card I modified the UniBeast created USB stick as described in the thread Mountain Lion 6XXX GPU Issues - FIX INSIDE an alternative method is to install using the onboard HD4000 and add the HD6870 afterwards.

Before Mountain Lion installation I setup the BIOS following the instructions in the following guide Quick guide to configuring the UEFI on Gigabyte's 7-series LGA-1155 motherboards

I disable CPU PLL Overvoltage in the Bios to resolve mouse keyboard delay after wake from sleep and the issue with not ejecting external USB Hard drives when going to sleep (it resolves this for all USB 3.0 ports but not front USB 2.0).

Here are the relevant screenshots which show the setting necessary for this that are different to the Quick Guide linked to above.

Enter the Bios and go to M.I.T.

Go to M.I.T.\Advanced Frequency Settings and set XMP to Profile 1

Go to M.I.T.\Advanced Frequency Settings\Advanced CPU Core Features and set Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage to Disabled

My display is a 1080P TV and with my TV it is best to connect via DVI as using HDMI necessitates having to adjust underscan to utilise the whole screen - using DVI the whole screen is used and display is sharper than using underscan.


In Use the build fulfills its function perfectly and of all the hackintosh's I have built this is the one which works closest to a real mac. Sleep works very well including autosleep the only downside is failure to eject External Hard Drives from the Front USB Ports however this can be resolved using Jettison which is available from the App Store. The machine will sleep and wake using Apple BT Wireless and Keyboard and it also autosleeps. A point to note is that the Microsoft Desktop Kit 800 also works with wake and sleep using its Keyboard and Mouse, this is useful if you are dual booting into Windows.

I have added an extra fan on the H40 CPU cooler as I can have 40+ Celsius ambient temperatures in summer.

USB Functionality
USB 2.0 devices work in all USB 3.0 ports (connected to F_USB30_2)
USB 3.0 Flash Drive works on all USB 3.0 ports
USB 3.0 Flash drive works as USB 2.0 on all USB 2.0 ports.

This machine has never crashed it is rock solid.


MultiBeast Configuration for Mountain Lion

Edit Log

2012-10-04 User Build created
2012-10-04 added Further Info section.
2012-10-05 amended to reflect turning off CPU PLL Overvoltage in the Bios
2012-10-05 added UEFI Bios screenshots of steps needed to allow better sleep wake functionality
2012-11-15 added USB port information and corrected grammar error, word omission and formatting.
2012-12-03 further update to USB info to reflect changing to F_USB30_2 instead of F_USB30_1

 

[miller hammond]

Great Build very similar to mine, to cure the auto eject problem I think you need to disable the pll voltage in the bios, or something very similar, it is on here somewhere if you do a quick search.

The question I have to ask is, are you getting sound out of the green jack?

 

[the_gael]

Great Build very similar to mine, to cure the auto eject problem I think you need to disable the pll voltage in the bios, or something very similar, it is on here somewhere if you do a quick search.

The question I have to ask is, are you getting sound out of the green jack?

I had never plugged anything into the green jack as I use Optical Out - I tested and there does not appear to be any output from the green jack

 

[enzo2012]

I have a build similar to yours, with the exception of the video card. I configured my BIOS just like you did yours which fixed my sleep issues, and I thought perhaps the random lock ups I get. Randomly I get a spinning beach ball and the system won't accept any other input. I haven't been able to figure out what's going on. I do have an nvidia card, with the latest 10.8.2 drivers, which like I said is the only difference from yours.

Have you experienced any of these random freezes, if that's even the best description?

I'd love to troubleshoot this but I have no idea if any system messages are being generated.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[the_gael]

I have a build similar to yours, with the exception of the video card. I configured my BIOS just like you did yours which fixed my sleep issues, and I thought perhaps the random lock ups I get. Randomly I get a spinning beach ball and the system won't accept any other input. I haven't been able to figure out what's going on. I do have an nvidia card, with the latest 10.8.2 drivers, which like I said is the only difference from yours.

Have you experienced any of these random freezes, if that's even the best description?

I'd love to troubleshoot this but I have no idea if any system messages are being generated.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

I have not experienced any lockup / freeze / kernel panic - this machine runs perfectly for me.

Have a look in your Apple System Log in case there is anything showing there that might shed light on it. If its a spinning beach ball I would be looking for a program that has stopped responding.

edited to add
if it appears random I would look at programs that are constantly running in the background.

 

[hoffsta]

Thanks for the tip on the CPU PLL setting. It solved my sleep/wake problems and finally allows my BT mouse to work after a sleep!

 

[the_gael]

Thanks for the tip on the CPU PLL setting. It solved my sleep/wake problems and finally allows my BT mouse to work after a sleep!

I'm glad it helped

 

[enzo2012]

So I can SSH into the box and run a top. I'll have to see if anything sticks out. I do see a message from NVDA with a "channel timeout", which others have posted about. It seems it may be related to my Nvidia GTX 560ti. I kill -HUP'd the window manager and then I'm able to log back in without a reboot. So it appears that the system isn't freezing, just the window manager or some process.

Weird.

Can I ask what system profile you are running?

I was running MacPro 3,1. I switched MacPro 5,1 based on some other posts related to possbile fixes to my issue. My system no longer sleeps on its own, but it does if I enter sleep manually.

 

[the_gael]

Enzo, apologies for late reply only just saw your post. Hope you have by now got resolution on your issues. I use Mac Pro 3,1 system definition. If your machine sleeps but does not Autosleep have a look in the BIOS and make sure you have disabled CPU PLL Overvoltage.

 

[thcramer]

Thanks gael, this solved my problem and you made my day