WonkeyDonkey's Steambox Pro - Z87E-ITX - Core i7 4770S - GTX 760 Gaming ITX

[WonkeyDonkey]

Hi all,

New here but having recently sold my iMac I really don't want to wait until the refresh for SSD as standard and this looks very appealing!

May be a silly question, but does the brand of the GPU matter? Looking at an ASUS GTX 760, would the setup be the same? Any other advantages/disadvantages between the two GPUs?

EDIT: It is indeed a silly question! Didn't see the MSI GPU used here was ITX compatible! Will continue the search I suppose!

I generally prefer nVidia to AMD when it comes to GPU, but thats a personal preference.

If I was buying again, I would get a mid-high spec nvidia from the recommended list in the Buyers Guide.

With regard to my 760 in this build, its not specifically ITX compatible as such, I don't think there is such a term. They are marketing it as an ITX card because of its diminuitive size, so its a good choice to put in a smaller case that may have limited room for full size cards.

Lots of manufacturers are now fairly and squarely on the ITX bandwagon, but the graphic card manufacturers, they just don't seem to be catching on or they just don't care for that segment of the market. Big mistake IMHO.

 

[thenamesx86]

I'm also waiting for information back regarding C2 versions of this board.

I got my mitts on their Z87M Extreme4, which has the new C2 version - thats got a big sticker on the front of the box, but I haven't seen anything like this for the Z87E-ITX.

Searched the web some time ago while being interested in buying a Z87E-ITX.
As far as i remember my web-search conclusion was that all new Z87E-ITX are C2 since late 2013.

Temporarily the box may looked like that:
http://i.imgur.com/SVaCbUW.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/handbook/C2stepping_zps13814cfa.jpg

My brand new Z87E-ITX came today. No C2-Sticker, but a "New Version" sticker and Windows 8-logo on the box. I would be very surprised if it's not C2?

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Searched the web some time ago while being interested in buying a Z87E-ITX.
As far as i remember my web-search conclusion was that all new Z87E-ITX are C2 since late 2013.

Temporarily the box may looked like that:
http://i.imgur.com/SVaCbUW.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/handbook/C2stepping_zps13814cfa.jpg

My brand new Z87E-ITX came today. No C2-Sticker, but a "New Version" sticker and Windows 8-logo on the box. I would be very surprised if it's not C2?

Yep, my Z87M Extreme4 has one too, but not my Z87E-ITX. Also, in the bios screen of the Z87M it says C2 on the information screen, but not so with my Z87E.

 

[thenamesx86]

When did you buy your Z87E-ITX?

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

When did you buy your Z87E-ITX?

Oh some months ago now, not a recent purchase by any measure. It most likely was before C2 went into production.

Trouble is, when i email or call most retailers, they dont have a clue about C2 version chipsets, and Scan, cant be bothered to check and wouldnt guarantee anything about it being supplied either.

 

[olliealmighty]

Looks like a great build I did a build over a year ago, have since got my first MacBook, and now want to build an OS X ITX desktop. I like the recommended Gigabyte boards on the buyers guide here except for the fact they only have 1 hi-res display output; I have 1600p and 1440p monitors that I want to drive from a mITX board, and have been looking around for OS X-friendly boards that'll do it (this has DVI & DisplayPort, which is perfect).

If anyone's interested... I actually looked at the specs sheets of most of the Z87 ITX boards but couldn't find any with the ports I was after. Turns out the DVI here is DVI-I, supporting 1200p max. My Dell U2711 & U3011 don't have the latest HDMI which supports up to 4K, so my only option is DisplayPort; of which this board only has one. Other boards only had one DisplayPort tops, and still the problem of DVI-I.

Looks like I won't be hackintoshing with this generation of boards . . . I was specifically after a Mac Mini-style design (no expansion slots in the case I've got), and it's not at all time to upgrade all of my monitors..! Shame, I was looking forward to a Hack Mini hehe.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

I've been tweaking the config on this machine this evening.

Geekbench has gone from 13287 to 14727.

Most of the genuine iMac14,3 models on the geekbench browser site are showing around 12600 to 12800, so a huge improvement on what Apple is pushing out with this model.

Screenshots updated!

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

DSDT, bios settings (I had it locked at 31 max), new SSDT that actually woeks for a change. I also changed the SMC version in FakeSMC to match the latest release for the iMac14,3, and also the smc-type to huronriver. My understanding is that huronriver is more suited to Haswell.

Not sure if the last change made a difference actually, but, now when I use the SSDT I dont get those annoying kernel messages about the network values.

Btw, my birthday is on Star Wars day lol

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Lol, guess that was a good guess then

Which guide did you follow concerning SSDT? I remember giacomoleopardo put up a pretty good and understandable one but it would be nice if you could share your insights and steps you took (big question mark here).

And finally how does one change SMC version in FakeSMC and smc-type?

The SSDT is pretty straight forward using the generation script. It detected the exact model of CPU and therefore had the right thermal and clock info.

Theres an article about how to change the SMC version on PikeRAlphas site. I just needed the correct SMC version which I found on Apples website here.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Okay, I'll take a look at it. Would you provide a link? I found this: https://pikeralpha.wordpress.com/?s=smc&submit=Search

So i guess you changed FakeSMC.kext/Contents/Info.plist to the correct SMC version right?
But how get the right value (in my case for iMac14,2)?

Well according to the Apple webpage I linked, the iMac14,2 should be set to 2.15f2.