Z77 m/b + Ivy Bridge + microATX ?

[gorg]

I am looking at building a micro-ATX Z77 based hackintosh to go with a 3770k Ivy Bridge CPU and would like what my options are.

It would be great to buy a micro-ATX m/b with unlocked MSR that could do native audio, sleep, networking, and USB3 but I am not sure such a beast exists. Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H looks nice but it has VIA VT2021 audio (I hate VoodooHDA) and Atheros LAN.

Aaarghh

Anything else ?

 

[Going Bald]

I am looking at building a micro-ATX Z77 based hackintosh to go with a 3770k Ivy Bridge CPU and would like what my options are.

It would be great to buy a micro-ATX m/b with unlocked MSR that could do native audio, sleep, networking, and USB3 but I am not sure such a beast exists. Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H looks nice but it has VIA VT2021 audio (I hate VoodooHDA) and Atheros LAN.

Aaarghh

Anything else ?

MSI Z77MA-G45 - http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z77MA-G45. ... div=Detail
Asrock Z77 Pro4M - http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Pr ... ifications

While both boards have locked MSR in BIOS, there is a forum thread for a modded BIOS. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=54196&hilit=msi+foxconn+bios

ASUS P8Z77M - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_ ... ifications
ASUS P8Z77M Pro - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_ ... ifications

While either of these will work, the MSR is locked and no way to mod the BIOS at this time.

Gigabyte is supposedly coming out with new boards in August if you want to wait.

 

[gorg]

Thanks GB. I could give Asrock a try (since it is relatively cheap) then sell it if/when something better supported/more compatible comes up from Gigabyte (it would be cool if it would also support Thunderbolt).

ASUS P8Z77M Pro looks quite powerful. Do you think the locked MSR would be a big issue in the future, as I 'll go for Mountain Lion as soon as it is possible, or the SpeedStepper will continue to work ? And how about USB3 ? Is it supported by MacOSX natively ? P8Z77M Pro has both Z77 and Asmedia ports.

 

[dashum]

Looks like ZenBR was able to use a P8Z77M-PRO and get everything to work: http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=66869

 

[gorg]

Nice.

I am now considering mini-ITX as well (Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE, Asrock Z77E-ITX). The smaller the better

 

[Going Bald]

Nice.

I am now considering mini-ITX as well (Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE, Asrock Z77E-ITX). The smaller the better

If you don't plan to overclock, go with the Asrock H77 itx board. The ASUS BIOS is locked, the Asrock Z77 itx has incompatible Broadcom LAN NIC. OTOH, you could replace the half-mini PCIe card with an Atheros AR9280 and connect wifi instead of wired.

 

[gorg]

The whole idea was to build a small but powerful hackintosh (more powerfull and less noisy than a macmini) that would be wired on a gigabit LAN. I am not interested in WiFi. As I understand, you can not have both overclocking ability and sleep (not mentioning USB 3.0). Life sucks.