GGeorge's - Asus X79 Rampage IV Extreme | Core i7-3930k | ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce 2GB

GGeorge's Build: Asus X79 Rampage IV Extreme | Core i7-3930k | ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce 2GB​

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This build is fundamentally based on MK500's thread Here, but has diverged enough and mutated enough over time, especially with my nVidia card, Mountain Lion and the 2XXX BIOS, that I thought it was worth starting my own thread. His guide to overclocking the system is very good (2nd post in the thread) and if you wish to overclock your system (and with this board that's why you got it), I recommend following it.

This machine is actually the reason I got into hackintoshing. I had a bunch of hardware left over from a failed server project at my last job, which my boss kindly let me have when I left.

The initial hackintosh I'd used for the past 3 yrs in the case was a Gigabyte x58-UD5, which worked well, but then I made the fatal mistake of buying a 560ti 448 core that was on sale at MicroCenter and that sparked a complete system upgrade.

F.A.Q

Why would you want a socket 2011 MB instead of a Z77/IB/socket 1155?

1) 40 PCIe Lanes (x79/2011) vs 16 PCIe Lanes (z77/1155)

Now they are PCIe 2.0 on the x79 vs PCIe 3.0 on the z77. Though 3.0 support is possible on x79, nVidia has released a software patch to enable it on x79 with their cards, but it's not for OSX. Currently essentially only the 7XXX AMD (not osx compatible) and 6XX nVidia cards support PCIe 3.0 which does cut down the advantage somewhat, since an x8 PCIe 3.0 slot has the equivalent bandwidth of an x16 PCIe 2.0. Even if you only have an x8 PCIe 2.0, you still would not be loosing that much in performance vs an x16 PCIe 2.0.

So if you will have no more than 2 graphics cards in the system, then you will be just as well off with a Z77 system.

I had the x8 raid card, one Graphics card and potentially a second for CUDA work. I also plan on getting a PCIe SSD at some point as well. So I wanted the PCIe lanes and the z68 MB with the ability to take that number of cards when I was deciding what to get were already in the $300 range.

2) Six core CPU vs 4 core CPU

If you will be doing highly threaded work, this is definitely an advantage. Poorly threaded work (games) not so much and you can generally clock fewer cores higher, though the Ivy Bridge chips have some problems in that regards.

3) 64gb of Ram vs 32gb of ram

It's dirt cheap, especially if you are willing to shell out what this motherboard + 3930k costs. So why not?

More Ram than Stock on a Graphics card

This is basically a scam by the Graphics card manufacturers to get you to spend more money on the card than necessary. It is only ever even vaguely worth it if you have a top end card and will be playing games at max rez/multiple monitors with high levels of Anti-Aliasing and other very memory intensive effects. Even then it is typically a marginal improvement and the frame rates are such that you would really want either some sort of a multi-GPU set up and/or something more powerful.

Very High Speed Ram

Again this is basically a scam to get you to spend more money than necessary. It has essentially no effect on the performance of the system past a certain speed (1600 mhz/PC12800), except in rare situations where you have software that is highly sensitive to memory speed.

If you do have your heart set on doing this, generally speaking you want smaller memory dimms 4gb or even 2gb. Since it's easier to overclock them, but you will pay through the nose for the highest speed ram.

Heatsinks on the ram are basically there for looks and have at most a marginal effect on speeds and overclocking memory. The really fast ram does also tend to have monstrous heatsinks, which will interfere with the top end air coolers. So look at one of the liquid cooling systems if that's what you get.

Installation Steps


3)

I'll be working on this as I have the time.

Asus X79 Rampage IV Extreme | Core i7-3930k | ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce 2GB

I have a problem with the sound. i installed the ALC898 kext, the sound icon is working fine but there is no sound.
any tips?

I read MK500's thread and am really looking forward to your guide for ML with the 670. I have the same components as you and this will be my first hackintosh. Thanks in advance.

Yes, would definitely love to see this guide built up, as I'm going to be under taking another build and want even more of a beast for video editing rendering... do you think adding a second cheap graphics acard like the GT120 purely for a GUI would work alright with this?

I am trying to do this same install. I have the same hardware: R4E BIOS 3404, 16GB RAM, ASUS GTX670 2GB, Kingston 6GBs HyperX 240GB SSD. I am unable to get to the install screen. I believe it has to do with the GTX670. I replaced it with an older Nvidia Quadro, got through the install but it will not boot. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
skier1

@ skier1: Let me know if you still have installation problems. I got a similar system (with GTX660Ti) and it took me a while to get through the installation process. Now I have a method that works fairly easy!

Secret-sounds, yes! I would like any help you would provide. I am using a DSDT provided by shilohh in another thread. I have finally booted but I still need the USB thumbdrive installed, even though I select the hard drive to boot from. I did apply VoodooTSCSync.kext and only need to add GraphicsEnabler=No to boot. I have tried Multibeast and selected EasyBeast Installation along with a few other options, like FakeSMC, NullCPUPowerManagement,etc. I boot without the USB drive, still using GraphicsEnabler=No. All I get is a white screen with the Apple logo. I reloaded again and tried just the Chimera boot loader (per shilohh's pic). Still just a white screen.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
skier1

any follow up on this

Hi Skier1

So here's the easiest way to install:
1) Download Unibeast and create ML USB drive
2) Download Multibeast and install Chimera Bootloader on USB drive (make sure USB is selected in installer)
3) Download the app 'ShowHiddenFiles' and make hidden files visible
http://download.cnet.com/Show-Hidden-Files/3000-2383_4-75415396.html
4) Delete the Extra folder on your USB drive and replace it with the one found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0pm6bkvwouzvz37/Extra.zip
5) Boot from USB and install

Then, once you've installed and booted your system, install these Kexts with Kextbeast to your hard drive:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c7jiw6s1jy3prdh/Kexts.zip
There's also a pic that tells you what to install in addition with Multibeast. Delete the Extra folder on your hard drive and use the same one as before (on the USB). The DSDT is optimized for GeForce cards and built in audio. You can check if the one you have works better.

Let me know if it works!

Thanks secret-sounds! I will try this as soon as I can and let you know how it works!

skier1