tonymacx86's Haswell mATX: GA-Z87MX-D3H - i7-4770K - HD 4600

[Chimpur]

I tried copying two large .m4v files off of a USB key to the desktop and they loaded no problem. I'm wondering if this is more of an iTunes issue than OS X or Hackintosh issue.. I tried copying the files directly from the USB key into iTunes which resulted in an instant hang; and then downloaded them through iTunes match and that ended up hanging the system as soon as the file was finished downloading and being presumably into the iTunes library.

I'll try and move them from my desktop int iTunes and see what happens tomorrow. And if trees a solution i'll be sure to post it here incase someone has this same issue!

 

[lokin]

F6 came out in late January (2014) for the Z87MX-D3H.

Yeah I flashed f6... Now that random lockup is super rare, but complete kernel panics have taken their place. I'm thinking it has something to do with XMP or how the memory is configured.

Check these out. The irony of that third one just kills me.

 

[lokin]

This is the most Mac-Like Hackintosh-Build i ever completed! My GA-Z87MX-D3H Mainboard came with BIOS F2, so the First Step i did was installing F6. Set the BIOS to "Optimized Defaults" as recommended by tonymac. Then i installed 10.9 as usual with UniBeast. Restarted again with UniBeast. Next was Online-update to 10.9.1.

The 4 PCI(e) Slots of my Board are populated with:
- GTX 660 2GB VRAM GigaByte (took one slot, blocked the second)
- Sonnet PCie Gigabyte Ethernet Card (works OOB)
- WLAN Card TP-Link WND4800 (works OOB)

After 10.9.1 update i configured UniBeast exactly like tonymac did, but without Ethernet (not needed). I then booted again to BIOS and disabled onboard Ethernet and onboard Graphics. All 6 SATA-Ports are connected to HDs, DVD and one SSD 240GB (Mushkin). Booting is very fast with this System. Sleep works, but wake from Sleep stalled Bluetooth and the system hangs. So i disabled Sleep. iMessage didn't work first, but thanks to NVRAM (and this thread) a solution was found. I used this System now several days without a single issue other then that. The i5-4670K is really fast and more then adequate for my uses.

I have 4 Corsair VENEGANCE 4GB Modules in this Board. They work stable at 1333MHz, trying 1600 (XMP1) gives me hangs, so i stay with 1333 and will eventually buy 2 new 8GB Modules which are more compatible with XMP1. But i think 1600 vs 1333 didn't make much of a difference in day2day work.

What's remarkable about this board is that we didn't need a dedicated USB3-Driver. USB 3 works OOB. I also tried 2 other graphic-cards (GT 640, HD 6870) both worked instantly (plug and play) without any issues. At the end i used the GTX 660 which seems the best to me for this system. As Monitor i use a 27" DELL U2713HM@2560x1440.

I'm very Happy with this Build now and use it as my main system. My 15" MacBook Pro Retina (late 2013) will be used in the living room and on the go.

My conclusion after several years Hackintosh: This is about as good as it could get! Within 30 Minutes to a few hours you can get a High-End iMac-class Machine working fast and stable, thanks to this (or similar) GigaByte Z87-Board(s) and the helpful folks here on tonymacs Forum.

Careful with the corsair vengeance 2x8gb kit, it also gives hangs with xmp1 active.
I might return my current RAM and get the february recommend RAM.

Baby steps!

 

[Chimpur]

Careful with the corsair vengeance 2x8gb kit, it also gives hangs with xmp1 active.
I might return my current RAM and get the february recommend RAM.

Baby steps!

The 16GB kit freezes people's machines? Hmmm I seem to only have this hang prob with importing two particular files into iTunes or playing them with QuickTime. I think Apple just doesn't want me to watch Star Trek or Clint Eastwood!!!

I have to say that I'm extremely thankful for all of you on this site! And have an insane amount of gratitude that you've paved the way to make such a painless experience building these Hackintosh's!!! Thanks a million everybody!!!

 

[goldglover39]

I can confirm this build works awesome! I used an i3 but the motherboard is perfect for the integrated graphics!

 

[Stork]

lokin, Armoured, et al,
Please give the model # of the Corsair memory like it's listed in the GA memory pdf in post #466 and whether or not your memory is on the list. TIA.

I'm trying to narrow this problem down to memory and/or GA's BIOS. MacMan's Z87X build uses the Crucial Ballistix 16GB 2x8GB (BLT2KIT8G3D1608DT1TX0) memory, and he doesn't have any problem with freezes with XMP1 set to Profile1.

 

[Chimpur]

lokin, Armoured, et al,
Please give the model # of the Corsair memory like it's listed in the GA memory pdf in post #466 and whether or not your memory is on the list. TIA.

I'm trying to narrow this problem down to memory and/or GA's BIOS. MacMan's Z87X build uses the Crucial Ballistix 16GB 2x8GB (BLT2KIT8G3D1608DT1TX0) memory, and he doesn't have any problem with freezes with XMP1 set to Profile1.

According to system info Apple says I have 2 sticks of 8GB [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]CML16GX3M2A1600C10 the same as on my NCIX invoice. Which doesn't look to be on the list. Its looking close to the right number but not exact.

Though; I'm curious as to why some .m4v files work and not others. And why its only with iTunes that i get the trouble. I think I may have to reinstall the OS. I stupidly used Xslimmer on this drive w/o even thinking. Maybe it messed something up bulling language libraries out. I don't think I told it to strip out any code though.[/FONT]

 

[Stork]

Interesting discovery on my Z87MX test system. I just noticed that my BIOS and Mavericks System Information > Memory show my Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 is running at 1600 without XMP set to Profile 1 (set to Default)! Interesting...very interesting.

Note: my memory is on the GA list as verified.

So, please confirm what your BIOS and System Information > Memory information is report with XMP set to Default in the BIOS.

 

[Chimpur]

Interesting discovery on my Z87MX test system. I just noticed that my BIOS and Mavericks System Information > Memory show my Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 is running at 1600 without XMP set to Profile 1 (set to Default)! Interesting...very interesting.

Note: my memory is on the GA list as verified.

So, please confirm what your BIOS and System Information > Memory information is report with XMP set to Default in the BIOS.

Mines pretty much the same XMP or not

 

[Armoured]

lokin, Armoured, et al,
Please give the model # of the Corsair memory like it's listed in the GA memory pdf in post #466 and whether or not your memory is on the list. TIA.

What's TIA?

But you're right, mine is not listed in that support list. Mine is CML8GX3M2A1600C9.

[Note: I just checked Corsair's website for compatibility against this motherboard and the product configurator brought up precisely the memory I have. So I guess that's not a reliable indicator...
http://www.corsair.com/learn_n_explore ]