tonymacx86 Build - GA-H55N-USB3 - Core i3-530 (Mini-ITX)

[medparadise]

Awesome build. Would an i5 core fit in the case?


- M

 

[technocat]

I just got through building an HTPC using the GA-H55-USB3 with an i3-550 Clarkdale CPU. I can confirm that it works. I have it driving my 1080i 47" Philips LCD TV. I bought a $49 mini-itx case from newegg and everything fit together nicely.

I have a description of it on my blog at http://technocatsblog.blogspot.com

 

[ickmund]

Hi guys,

I'm about to head into my first hackintosh build and are looking at much the same components as in this excellent guide/thread!

I have a i5-650 I'm not using as well as a Antec ISK 300-150 Mini ITX which currently holds a atom 525 that I'm going to toss.

One thing that strikes me as inconsistent here is the onboard graphics. It is repeatedly said that it's not supported, but still there are people saying they are using it. So what does "not supported" mean? Is it possible to get it to work?

The 150W PSU is another worry, but I saw someone in here using this case so I guess it should be OK. Another worry is the cooling - it's a very slim little box.

The only real worry is the onboard graphics thou, can anyone shed some lights on exactly how it (not) works?

Edit:

I'm not in the mood to wait, I'm ordering a ASUS EN210 Silent/DI LP.

This means the final build is:
Case: Antec ISK 300-150
Mobo: GA-H55N-USB3
CPU: i5-650
Memory: Corsair DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1333
Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken
Sysdisk: OCZ Vertex II 120GB

 

[technocat]

Thanks to ickmund for pointing out the confusion in my blog http://technocatsblog.blogspot.com/ where I state that the Gigabyte GA-H55-USB3 does not have on-board graphics support. I should clarify that you MUST use the Clarkdale CPU with this motherboard because this CPU already has its own dedicated on-chip graphics core with all the necessary video support built in. The motherboard itself only has the necessary interface circuitry to drive the HDMI, DVI and VGA video outputs.

That's why I don't need a separate graphics card for this build - I am using the only available PCI-E slot for my AverTV duet TV card.

Cheers!

 

[JohnLeeArt]

Just setup my wife's CustoMac Mini exactly as per install guide with a few minor changes.

Silverstone SG06BB-450 case (450 watt power supply) (same size as Sg05, black metal case)
GA-H55N-USB3 (F5 BIOS)
INTEL CORE i3 540
Corsair DDR3 1333MHz (PC3-10666) 4GB (2x2GB)
Gigabyte GTS250 1GB DDR-5 PCI-E Video Card GV-N250ZL-1GI)
OWC 40GB SSD
WD 1TB Black HD
OSX 10.6.0 RETAIL to 10.6.6

Everything works great! Thanks Tony!

 

[ickmund]

Hi guys,
This means the final build is:
Case: Antec ISK 300-150
Mobo: GA-H55N-USB3
CPU: i5-650
GPU: ASUS EN210 Silent/DI LP
Memory: Corsair DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1333
Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken
Sysdisk: OCZ Vertex II 120GB

Quick update on this project as I finally got the hardware today.

The case does not fit the Big Shuriken cooler. This I knew, but had hoped that I wouldn't have to saw off so much of the internals. It's not super bad, but I'm not terrible happy.

What's worse is that of course the cooler covers the PCI slot. This means using it leaves me trying to get the internal graphics on the i5 to work.

If that was not enough, of course the passive cooling on the GPU takes up a second slot, which I don't have. To get this to work I would have to cut open the side of the case and have the heat sink stick out as.

So I guess I'm trying to get the intel graphics to work then! Fun!

I have put the case together with the original cooler atm to see how it works before I do too much harm to the case. In the coming days I'll try and find time to do the actual installation, further reports to come!

 

[EdBanger]

After two years of use, my desktop (G31M-E2SL, E5200, HD2600) was starting to act up. Constant KP's, slow flash performance,.... so I decided to look into building a new easy to set up system.

Since I have a dedicated HTPC (A330ION based, running XBMC Live), a game console, a NAS for storage, and a Mackbook Air for portability, the desktop will only be used for office-work, ripping and encoding of video, and webbrowsing.
This meant I could keep things small and inexpensive. I fell in love with the mini-itx format when i built the HTPC, so I went looking for a solution for OSX86, and found it on this blog.

The setup i'll be using:

MB: Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3
CPU: Intel I3-540
Ram: 4 GB DDR3-1066 Kit OCZ3G1066LV4GK
GPU: Asus ENGT240 Silent/DI/1GD3
HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Black WD2500BEKT, 250GB SATA-300, 16MB, 7200rpm
Case: Silverstone SST-SG06B
Optical: Panasonic UJ-120

I'm actually posting this from that system, but sadly, it's still running Ubuntu, since my GPU hasn't arrived yet. But I'm already impressed: The pc is very fast, playing blurays and still being able to browse the web without noticing slowdowns is something i didn't imagine possible .
And all of this while being in a tiny case; and very silent!

I have one question though:
The bluray drive I'm using is an IDE one (Purchased it because it's cheap, and has a great track record when using it with makemkv.)
since this board doesn't have an IDE connector, I'm using a IDE-to usb connector, and connected it directly to one of the USB-headers on the board. in ubuntu, this is working perfectly (Ripping a Bluray as I'm typing this) but will this give problems for the osx86 install-proces?

 

[ickmund]

Have gone through two full installs now. First with EasyBeast, second with the DSDT (DSDT-H55N-USB3-F5.aml).

Everything is smooth up to the point of rebooting. 10.6 is installed, 10.6.6 upgrade is done, MultiBeast does its thing, I pluck out the iBoot disc and reboot. I get the prompt followed by the grayish apple loading screen with the loading circle but I get no further.

If I boot with -x I get a a status bar at the bottom, but after it has filled to about 20-25% it disappears and I'm stuck on the loading screen again.

Any pointers to what I'm missing?

 

[ickmund]

So after beating my head bloody against this project for a few days I gave up and took a break. This weekend I had a look again and realized two very important and stupid-of-me-not-to-notice-earlier things:

1. I had the 65W chassi, not the 150W. I'm having big doubts that this would suffice for this machine. Using the nvidia 210 while installing from DVD caused reboots.
2. My GPU was broken. Even BIOS looked weird and I confirmed it with a second machine as well.

So I've moved from the small cool Antec ISK 300 to a normal midi-tower kind of Antec. I'm also in the process of ordering a new GPU. It'll be another Asus EN210 since they're cheap and should work just fine for this setup (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=222413). This time I'm going with a fan however, as it only takes up one slot. Once I've got everything up and running I still might get a smaller itx case so this will be a crucial component.

Hopefully I'll have the new GPU before the weekend so that I can take another shot at it by then.

 

[smckenzie]

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, but will this build actually pass true hd and dts-ma over hdmi?. My 2010 mac mini wont/cant. Can't seem to get a answer as to whether it's an issue due to os x or simply a hardware limitation.