X299: Designare vs ASRock Creator

[ckrueger99]

Looking for advice on which of the above boards to buy. I need 10G LAN and Thunderbolt built in, so these seem to be the logical choices. Feel free to link to an existing discussion, if one exists.

 

[Jamesbond007]

Looking for advice on which of the above boards to buy. I need 10G LAN and Thunderbolt built in, so these seem to be the logical choices. Feel free to link to an existing discussion, if one exists.

By Designare I believe you mean the X299X Designare 10G and not the X299 Designare EX since only the former has 10G LAN, correct?

X299X DESIGNARE 10G (rev. 1.0) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

As far as I know, MacOS supports Aquantia AQC-107s 10G LAN (the iMac Pro has Aquantia 10G LAN and so does the Mac mini 2018 when configured to have 10G LAN), but I am not sure if the Intel 10G LAN ports on the X299X Designare 10G are supported.

The ASRock X299 Creator apparently has a 10G LAN based on Aquantia AQC-107 which may require a kext patch for it to work with MacOS :

Marvell (Aquantia) 10 Gb Ethernet support thread

Starting with macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 there is an included driver for Aquantia AQtion AQC-107s based 10GbE network cards. Others like AQC-107, AQN-107, etc require a kext patch. Performance is identical between them all. Compatible cards as long as they have AQC-107 chipset: Syba 10 Gbe https:/...

www.insanelymac.com

If the motherboard has Thunderbolt 3, something like this can work to add a 10G LAN port via Thunderbolt 3 :

Solo10G (10GBASE-T 10Gb Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter) - SONNETTECH

10GbE Thunderbolt adapter with NBASE-T support. Connects through a RJ45 10GbE port to 10GBASE-T 10GbE networks. For Thunderbolt 4 and 3 computers.

www.sonnettech.com

 

[ckrueger99]

By Designare I believe you mean the X299X Designare 10G and not the X299 Designare EX since only the former has 10G LAN, correct?

X299X DESIGNARE 10G (rev. 1.0) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

As far as I know, MacOS supports Aquantia AQC-107s 10G LAN (the iMac Pro has Aquantia 10G LAN and so does the Mac mini 2018 when configured to have 10G LAN), but I am not sure if the Intel 10G LAN ports on the X299X Designare 10G are supported.

The ASRock X299 Creator apparently has a 10G LAN based on Aquantia AQC-107 which may require a kext patch for it to work with MacOS :

Marvell (Aquantia) 10 Gb Ethernet support thread

Starting with macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 there is an included driver for Aquantia AQtion AQC-107s based 10GbE network cards. Others like AQC-107, AQN-107, etc require a kext patch. Performance is identical between them all. Compatible cards as long as they have AQC-107 chipset: Syba 10 Gbe https:/...

www.insanelymac.com

If the motherboard has Thunderbolt 3, something like this can work to add a 10G LAN port via Thunderbolt 3 :

Solo10G (10GBASE-T 10Gb Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter) - SONNETTECH

10GbE Thunderbolt adapter with NBASE-T support. Connects through a RJ45 10GbE port to 10GBASE-T 10GbE networks. For Thunderbolt 4 and 3 computers.

www.sonnettech.com

Thank you, Mr Bond. Good analysis of the situation.
Yes, I meant the X299X Designare 10G, not the older model. It has 2 x 10G LAN, so obviously crucial that it work in macOS. I believe it's possible to flash the X550-AT2 units so they appear to be something else, but I'm not sure I understand the process.
Not the subject of this thread, but I have an ASROCK W480 Creator with the Aquantia AQC-107 (no "s" at the end), which I didn't realize was different to the AQC-107s (with "s"). So now I think I can fix that, thanks to you.
Running 10G through Thunderbolt is possible, but kind of defeats the purpose of these boards.
A nice feature of the X299X Designare 10G is that it comes with a 4xNVME PCIe card, so almost unlimited internal storage.
I guess it partially comes down to how well these boards work as Hackintoshes. Very few people out there have experience with both boards, so can be totally unbiased in recommending one over the other. But we can try.

 

[djlild7hina]

Thank you, Mr Bond. Good analysis of the situation.
Yes, I meant the X299X Designare 10G, not the older model. It has 2 x 10G LAN, so obviously crucial that it work in macOS. I believe it's possible to flash the X550-AT2 units so they appear to be something else, but I'm not sure I understand the process.
Not the subject of this thread, but I have an ASROCK W480 Creator with the Aquantia AQC-107 (no "s" at the end), which I didn't realize was different to the AQC-107s (with "s"). So now I think I can fix that, thanks to you.
Running 10G through Thunderbolt is possible, but kind of defeats the purpose of these boards.
A nice feature of the X299X Designare 10G is that it comes with a 4xNVME PCIe card, so almost unlimited internal storage.
I guess it partially comes down to how well these boards work as Hackintoshes. Very few people out there have experience with both boards, so can be totally unbiased in recommending one over the other. But we can try.

There is some conversation about the X299X Designare 10G in this thread and users have got most of the kinks but it looks like Gigabyte has a few BIOS issues or OC workarounds that are causing headaches.

Gigabyte X299X - Catalina Support

Hello everyone, As some of you know, I have been lurking around to make the new X299X boards (Gigabyte) work, unsuccessful at it, but trying nevertheless. On the hardware side these are the specs of the build: Gigabyte Designare EX 10G Intel i9 10900X 128GB DDR4 3200 Mhz Crucial Ballistix...

www.tonymacx86.com

I believe you can use FakePCIID kexts + SmallTree 10g drivers for the X550-AT2 to work or you can do the ubuntu EEPROM modding way.

 

[etorix]

If you can dedicate a PCIe slot to 10G, Chelsio provides official OS X drivers for its cards. I use both 10 GbE and SFP+ variants of the T520.