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WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 [Complete]

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neilhart

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Joined
May 25, 2010
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2,686
Motherboard
ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming - ITX/ac
CPU
i7-7700T
Graphics
GTX960
Mac
  1. MacBook
  2. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
In the work process of doing another Power Mac G4 Cube hack using the Intel low profile mini-itx MB (DH61AG), see: viewtopic.php?f=76&t=41231
I came to the conclusion that I was no longer pleased with my original G4 Cube hack. So I pulled that hack apart yielding up these major components:

CPU - Intel i7 2600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&Tpk=i7%202600k
Memory - 8GB (2x 4GB DIMMs) Corsair XMS 3 DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145315
Motherboard - Zotac H67ITX-C-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500064&Tpk=zotac%20h67itx
CPU Cooler - Zalman CNPS8000B
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118098

I considered another scratch build case (see this link for my last prior scratch build OS X hack -
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=255646&hl=+scratch++build&fromsearch=1 ), but could not get up the energy and I did not have any pressing original ideas driving one. (delete the underscores in the link)

Anyway the standard for mods has been set (at least in my mind) by Attila Lukacs with his "Na'ir al Saif" . A must see for modders: http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2010/12/24/mod-of-the-year-2010/13

So I started casting about for a quality case for a new project. Lian Li does really quality designs and I saw the PC-Q25 and was immediately drawn to it mainly because of the SATA drive back plane. I could not find the case in silver (clear anodize) and settled for a black one at NewEgg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112339&Tpk=Lian%20li%20PC-q25 and here is link to Lian Li: http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=584&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=64
And a review from TECHSPOT: http://www.techspot.com/review/446-lian-li-pc-q25/

1-Q25.jpg
2-Q25.jpg
3-Q25.jpg
4-Q25.jpg
5-Q25.jpg
6-Q25.jpg

more to come

neil
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

Hi, i compared our hardware list,

I have Lian li PCQ 11

thermaltake 675w

intel i5 2500 without k

Radeon 5770 1gb

Zotac itx h67 c-e

2x4 gb ddr3

2 wd green 3tb plus 2 2tb. 2 x 128 gb ssd for os

i tried the usb key 10.7.3 installation. no sucess.

please let me know your progress.

maybe we can compare the notes.

P.S. i ordered the apple ir sensor and an bcm94322mc wifi pci-e to replace the one come with the mobo - why not do a thorough job?

Thanks in advance.
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

zhangtrinity said:
Hi, i compared our hardware list,

I have Lian li PCQ 11

thermaltake 675w

intel i5 2500 without k

Radeon 5770 1gb

Zotac itx h67 c-e

2x4 gb ddr3

2 wd green 3tb plus 2 2tb. 2 x 128 gb ssd for os

i tried the usb key 10.7.3 installation. no sucess.

please let me know your progress.

maybe we can compare the notes.

P.S. i ordered the apple ir sensor and an bcm94322mc wifi pci-e to replace the one come with the mobo - why not do a thorough job?

Thanks in advance.

I purchased this Zotac motherboard upon its second release (April 2011) and had problems installing Snow Leopard. However there was fellow in the EU that patched a kernel and I was able to run SL.

With the release SL 10.6.8 I no longer had to use the patched kernel. With Lion and Chimera 1.5.2 and greater I was able to install using standard methods and have HD3000 graphics. I documented my install here: viewtopic.php?f=169&t=31337 in early September 2011.

I hope that this helps. This Zotac H67ITX-C-E is very compatible and a LION install should not be a problem. Note, many installs have problems due to complexity of the GPU card. I would suggest that you do a HD3000 install then when that is working well, add the HD5770 card.

And when you get a bootalbe install clone it using CCC and use the clone for recovery.

neil
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

The next step in my project is to conduct a thermal test to see if the existing design will work with my components. To that end I am assembling the system so that I can run with the covers in place and see how warm this thing runs.

The system has only a power button with a power LED on the front panel. The task here is to add USB2 and USB3 ports and a HDD activity LED. My desire is to have my modifications to not detract from Lian Li design.

I have been pointed to http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/ and may use them for the front panel changes.

neil
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

Hi, neilhart

Thanks for the help. Before I broke my collarbone, I installed Snow Leopard on Zotac H67ITX-C-E with iBoot legacy following mactition' advice on

viewtopic.php?f=81&t=12940

10.6.3 first then 10.6.8 combo with Radeon 5770 attached. After several KP and Radeon 5770 red light, i managed to install it.

Later on I followed mactition's suggestion regarding Lion.

I used UniBeast & installer from apple to make an 10.7.3 USB key, then tried to installed Lion. I managed to install the OS, but then could not boot from the newly installed partition. the discussions are here

viewtopic.php?f=81&t=12940&start=360

After reading your previous post, I have a few questions:

1)Do you use UniBeast to make an USB installer? If so which version of lion are you using? 10.7.3? Or you bought the apple made Lion USB key?

2) Which version of Chimera are you using now?

3) ccc is a very solid backup solution for mac. However I only used it to recover the boot-able partition under Mac System. Can it work in the Hacintosh? if so it will be a dream.

4) Zotac h67 itx-c-z is almost vanilla according to the forum, except the wi-fi. In your installation, does the wi-fi work? If so, could you show me the setting, please?I ordered an broadcom bcm94322mc just in case.

with my left hand inside a sling, I hope at this stage I can learn as much as possible from you. I apologize for my countless questions, but it's so lucky for me to find someone having the same mother board and is experienced with hacintosh. Thanks in advance.
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

zhangtrinity said:
Hi, neilhart ...


After reading your previous post, I have a few questions:

1)Do you use UniBeast to make an USB installer? If so which version of lion are you using? 10.7.3? Or you bought the apple made Lion USB key?

2) Which version of Chimera are you using now?

3) ccc is a very solid backup solution for mac. However I only used it to recover the boot-able partition under Mac System. Can it work in the Hacintosh? if so it will be a dream.

4) Zotac h67 itx-c-z is almost vanilla according to the forum, except the wi-fi. In your installation, does the wi-fi work? If so, could you show me the setting, please?I ordered an broadcom bcm94322mc just in case.

with my left hand inside a sling, I hope at this stage I can learn as much as possible from you. I apologize for my countless questions, but it's so lucky for me to find someone having the same mother board and is experienced with hacintosh. Thanks in advance.

A #1 - I have not done a UniBeast. I made up my own USB installer using xMove and Chimera. This is a LION 10.7 installer, I then use the Apple Combo Update.

A #2 - I have most of my hacks using Chimera 1.5.3 or later. Using Chimera 1.8.x (the latest) on the Zotac H67ITX hack.

A #3 - CCC, clones are the way to go. My ritual is to partition a scratch drive into 2 or 3 60 to 80 GB partitions. I install onto the first partition and upon first or second boot I clone it to the second partition. This way I have a recovery path to use when screw up in my "fine tuning" process. Clones need to have a boot loader installed (use the standalone Chimera) and the run Multibeast System Utilities to insure permissions are set correctly (otherwise the clone has a good probability of hanging on boot).

A #4 - This Zotac H67ITX-C-E will run fine without a DSDT.aml. I upgraded the WiFi card to a Broadcom and the system sees it as a Apple AirPort card. You need to go into the network preferences and turn the card on, set the SSID, and input the security key(s).

neil
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

Thanks million. I will share my progress with people in the forum.
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

Hi, neilhart

I am back with a few more questions : )

1) I made the Lion USB ver. 10.7 with xMove. tested it successfully on a Mac Mini. Next step, should i install Chimera 1.8.x into that USB in order to make it bootable with hacintosh? - the stupid question is due to my lack of experiences with Chimera :banghead:

2) With Multibeast I can pretend the hacintosh to be iMac 12.2 or Mac Pro 5.1... Which one is better in your opinion with Zotac H67 itx-c-e?

3) Regarding thr Radeon 5770, i will disconnect it during the installation. question is, later on when I use it, do I need install special kext? or the lion will support it by default.

That's all by now. Thanks again.
 
Re: WorkLog - neilhart's Mini-ITX into Lian Li PC-Q25 with Lion

zhangtrinity said:
Hi, neilhart

I am back with a few more questions : )

1) I made the Lion USB ver. 10.7 with xMove. tested it successfully on a Mac Mini. Next step, should i install Chimera 1.8.x into that USB in order to make it bootable with hacintosh? - the stupid question is due to my lack of experiences with Chimera :banghead:

2) With Multibeast I can pretend the hacintosh to be iMac 12.2 or Mac Pro 5.1... Which one is better in your opinion with Zotac H67 itx-c-e?

3) Regarding thr Radeon 5770, i will disconnect it during the installation. question is, later on when I use it, do I need install special kext? or the lion will support it by default.

That's all by now. Thanks again.

A #1 - You will need to see what works. I made mine months ago. The concept is that USB stick has an Easybeast structure and is generally bootable on most PCs.

A #2 - I use mini mac and get HD3000 with DVI and HDMI functioning.

A #3 - I think that the 5770 is supported in all Lion versions - just not running 3 displays and that is why I use the 10.6.7 ATI drivers.

neil
 
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