Froghammer's Build: Core i7 4770K - Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - Radeon 5770

[SUCCESS] Froghammer's Build: Core i7 4770K - Z87X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - Radeon 5770

Components

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Z87 LGA 1150 2-Way SLI Dual LAN ATX Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GA-Z87X-UD5H-1150-2-Way-Motherboard/dp/B00CU4L6MA

Intel Core i7-4770K Quad-Core Desktop Processor 3.5 GHZ 8 MB Cache BX80646I74770K
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-4770K-Quad-Core-Processor-BX80646I74770K/dp/B00CO8TBQ0

Corsair Hydro Series High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H60
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Series-Performance-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231528

NZXT PHANTOM ATX Full Tower Case, White PHAN-001WT
http://www.amazon.com/NZXT-PHANTOM-Tower-White-PHAN-001WT/dp/B003WE9WQO

Corsair RM Series 750 Watt ATX/EPS 80PLUS Gold-Certified Power Supply - CP-9020055-NA RM750
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Series-80PLUS-Gold-Certified-Supply/dp/B00EB7UITQ

Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE500BW
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-EVO-Series-2-5-Inch-MZ-7TE500BW/dp/B00E3W19MO

Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE120BW
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-EVO-Series-2-5-Inch-MZ-7TE120BW/dp/B00E3W15P0

Western Digital 3 TB 3.5-Inch WD Se SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Enterprise Hard Drive WD3000F9YZ
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Enterprise-WD3000F9YZ-Frustration-Free/dp/B00CYSYZZC


Already Owned

Apple OS X Mountain Lion @ Mac Apps Store
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt=12

2 x 2TB Western Digital SATA 3.5" Internal Hard Drives

Apple LED Cinema Display (27" flat panel) (primary display)
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MC007LL/A/apple-led-cinema-display-27-flat-panel

iMac (21.5 and 27-inch, Mid 2010) (second display)
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...e-i3-3.2-27-inch-aluminum-mid-2010-specs.html

ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/M...0-graphics-upgrade-kit-for-mac-pro-(mid-2010)


Comments

The 500GB SSD is for my boot drive and the 120 is for a swap/temp drive for programs like Photoshop. The 3TB drive is dedicated to my Time Machine.

I decided to build this machine after struggling with my circa 2007 Mac Pro. I'm a professional photographer and that old computer just wasn't cutting it after buying a Nikon D800 and having to process the super sized files it puts out. Plus, faster and newer is just better, right? Also, that new Mac Pro is going to cost a fortune, not to mention the external hard drive enclosures I'd need to use it. Oh, and the brutal spaghetti of wires that will be going every where. NO. THANK. YOU.

The NZXT case wasn't my first choice (it's a bit Boy Racer), but was easy to work in. Considering it's size, it should be, I suppose. Tons of room and the fans seem fairly quiet. There was lots of space to hide wires behind the mobo tray, which I loved. Originally, I wanted to install this computer into a Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case (CC-9011030-WW), but it didn't have enough space for all of the hard drives I needed in there. Shame, because it is a really great looking case. In retrospect, I should have got the NZXT H2 Classic Silent Midtower Chassis. Oh well.

Initially, I bought a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 (GV-N670OC-2GD) card but quickly realized I'd be settling on using my old Radeon 5770. Why? Lord knows you probably figured it out before I did: my monitors only take Mini DisplayPort, so......there's that. It's fine though- I'm just a Photoshop/Lightroom guy and don't do any really graphics heavy stuff. Eventually I may buy a more powerful card but the only one I see right now with dual Mini DisplayPort is in the $600 range. It can wait.

I'm still using my trusty Wacom Intous4 PTK640 tablet and for now, a wired Apple keyboard. Eventually I'll probably spring for a Bluetooth adapter so I can use my Apple Wireless Keyboard again, but I'm not in any rush. It's a keyboard. Heh.

If you end up with this motherboard and a closed loop water cooler like me, this bit is kind of important. First, you have to upgrade the bios to the latest one (f7, I think- it came with f4). The water cooler fan goes into the CPU FAN header and the pump goes to CPU OPT header. Then you have to make sure to change the CPU OPT Fan Speed Control to full. This option wasn't available on the motherboard with the f4 BIOS so flash to the latest because it's important that your pump runs at full speed.




-Everything else is at Optimized Defaults
-Internal Graphics is disabled because I'm using a separate card. If you're using that, leave it on, obviously.
-CPU OPT speed control set to full but this is specific to my water cooler pump. See comment about it above.
-Turning off Intel Virtualization is probably not needed. I had freezing problems and turned that off to see if it would help. Right now my RAM seems to be working okay so I'll probably turn it back on.
-The system memory multiplier is set manually to 16 because that RAM I chose is 1866Mhz, so using an XMP profile wouldn't work properly.


How the install went

Short answer? Like butter. I followed the guide on here for Mountain Lion for the most part. Like a lot of people, the first boot in needed a few arguments entered. I used GraphicsEnabler=No and npci=0x2000. I MAY have had to use -x but I don't think so. After ML booted, I ran Multibeast and applied the settings below. After that reboot and I was able to boot directly from the SSD, I immediately used Migration Assistant to import my old Mac Pro's information/settings/applications from a Time Machine backup that I had made to an external disk. That went off without a hitch too. Honestly, I think I got a bit of an easy ride on the software front. But that luck was about to turn (stay tuned).



**You don't need the TRIM patch if you're not using an SSD**


And then the problems began...

So after settling in and migrating over all of my drives I started getting freezes. Here's the thread where I outlined what was happening:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/110874-i7-4770k-z87x-u5dh-build-freezing.html

I ended up fixing this problem by exchanging the first RAM I had bought (Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL10 DIMMs (CMZ32GX3M4X1600C10) for the ram listed above. The computer has been up now for 24 straight hours so I'm declaring it a very tentative success. Speaking of success, here are the GeekBench scores:




So if any of you have any questions, feel free to ask. They'll probably prod my memory and I'll be able to add a little bit of information to this. Right now I'm a little tired of creating this post. It took a while.

**EDIT**

Looks like switching to the GSkill RAM did the trick. System is stable and fast.

For a laugh, here's the last GeekBench I did on my Mac Pro. The RAM was so slow it was painful. Not exactly ideal for opening up hundreds of 36 megapixel images.

Here's a screen shot of the system with the BIOS set to 20% overclock:

Thanks FH for all the information provided herein. I was able to put my UD5H together last night and get it up and running with minimal issues, that were easily resolved with reading your guide. Now the arduous task of re-installing everything as I wanted to start over as my X58 was on 10.8.

I have not started with the overclocking yet, but standard out of the box seems very nice.

Amazing, man. Thanks for posting here and letting me know. It took a while to do this post up and I was hoping it would help at least one person out.

And reinstalling will be a breeze now that you've done it one time.

Hello there froghammer!

I am looking to do a build exactly like yours so thought i'd come to you first for advice!

Unfortunately I am a bit of a noob when it comes to hackintoshing, in fact this will be my first! I just wanted to message you and ask you if you could guide me through the process? I am building a gaming pc for myself however at uni we use iMac's for video editing and i'd love to be able to do that at home, hence wanting to build a hackintosh! However I am scared to mess it up as I want a stable daily dual boot pc with windows 8 and Mavericks!

The specs for my PC so far are:

i7-4770k
Amd r9 280x (basically 7970)
8gb of ram (would like advice on the most compatible?)
1tb HDD
and I am looking to use a compatible motherboard, probably a z87x-u5dh like you!

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks, Matt!

Well, for compatibility, I don't think you can go wrong with the buyer's guide on this site. Definitely look up your video card to double check it. And searching the forums is always helpful.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/393-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-october-2013.html

The other things look alright. I'd go with 16gb of ram, but that's just me. Heck, my laptop has 8 gigs. I can't really recommend one brand or another. I mean, I put Crucial ram in mine initially and had some problems but switched to the GSkill and it worked fine. I still believe there wasn't anything wrong with the Crucial ram- the motherboard is just picky or something.

I can definitely recommend the motherboard I got. While the board is a bit pricey, it made the install and subsequent Multibeast configuration very easy.

I don't know anything about dual booting with Windows. I do remember reading on here that you can't use Bootcamp in OSX but I could be wrong about that. Lots of people have done it however, and I'm sure you could search the forums and find exactly how it's done.

And don't worry about being new to this. I am too. I've built lots of computers, so there wasn't any intimidation factor there, but after researching on here a lot before installing and making sure to follow the guides I had my computer going on the first try. Having a second computer or at least a cell phone with you to search for help if you've hit a snag while installing Mavericks is really helpful.

Great article Frog Hammer. You are an inspiration to follow, just wish I could get through to the installer as easily as you did. I wonder if you could post your bios settings, as I am trying to eliminate the bios as the source of my problems.

I have tried several USB drives with unibeast installs, and even downloaded second copies of Mountain Lion and Mavericks to make sure my source installers were clean. All the Unibeasts fail the same way. I get to the start screen, select the USB boot, enter the flags, and watch my system get to the white Apple logo screen, next the the spiraling gear shows up and about 5 seconds later, my system shuts completely off.

As a last resort, I set up an install with iBoot and the DVD Snow Leopard installer. I get through to the swap out of discs, and the installer also shuts my system off.

I would suspect hardware, but I can get Windows 7 to run by installing a system hard disk that I have from another PC.

Any thoughts you may have are really appreciated.

I'm having basically the same issue except I can't get to the installer screen (but at least it doesnt shut down when failed). Thread clickthrough

Is your system still stable with the Ripjaws memory?

I have basically the exact build UD5H motherboard, i4770k, GTX 760.

I'm using basically the same Corsair memory you did (although I did the 2x16gb low profile kit instead of the single 32gb high profile kit) and I'm having freezing issues with the system as well (random freezes, while copying files, idling with the screensaver running, etc).

I'm looking at ordering the same Gskill memory you did (2x 16gb kit) if that resolved the problem for you.

Thanks!

Andrew