Core2Duo (Conroe) chipsets and chipsets for OSx86, General discussion of results. Options

[aberracus]

As seen in this post we have some mebers with conroe macs!

so it isnt impossible with 10.4.6 or 7 tiger, lets hope the devlab brakes efi so maybe we can have someday leopard...

[Graeme43]

I'm counting on them to get 10.5 running on bios systems! Hope its not that long a wait

I'll post my scores tomorrow

[xerxes1358]

Is there any INTEL 975 based board with EFI?

xerxes

[Kiko]

mine, supports it , it is the D975XBX

[xerxes1358]

Wait I read here that there is none: http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/72


Really ? Is that the intel 975 badaxe ?
http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d975xbx/

I dont read that at their website though. HOw about the ASUS P5 that is used here?

[xerxes1358]

Not convinced. The price difference between a 4 core Woodcrest- (say 3000+$) and a hypothetical Conroe-based machine (say 1250+$) would be huge. These really are different markets. Having said that, the WWDC leaves me kinda clueless. Another thought: the Woodcrest move makes it virtually impossible for OSX86 to expand its hardware base. Conroe-Macs will appear together with OSX 10.5, which will be resistant to OSX86 hacks. We would be out of the game in this scenario...

'the Woodcrest move makes it virtually impossible for OSX86 to expand its hardware base.'

Can you explain why that is so ?

[sbeehre]

so does anyone know what chipset the new Mac Pro's are using? im crossing my fingers hoping it has support for ICH8

[bofors]

Simon, that is a good question. I am assuming it is based on Intel's "Greencreek" 5000X chipset. This appears to be a completely different product line, so I don't think there is any chance for ICH8 support. It looks like it uses the 6321ESB for a southbridge.

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/5000x/index.htm
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/500...oduct_brief.pdf

EDIT: This suggests that the 5000V chipset (16GB max. RAM) is being used with the ESB2 southbridge):
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...5000&page=2

EDIT2: This thread at MacRumors seeks to discover the Mac Pro chipset: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=222811

Regarding the GM965 and ICH8-M, Apple is bound to use them with Merom eventually because they are part of Intel's mobile Santa Rosa (next gen. Centrino) platform. But that may be some time, like nine months: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino

Apple is clearly billing the Mac Pro as a workstation. I think this means they will be release a new Conroe based mid-tower or cube based on the 965 and ICH8. But this will not happen for months, if at all. It is also unclear whether the iMac and Mac Mini will go with the 965/963 chipsets sooner rather than later.

[martin1976]

So, can "the best" Hackintosh be built with a board that supports dual Xeons? Such as like the ones with chipset 5000x? I mean, is there a board that supports dual Xeons available for sale? Hmm..

[bofors]

The real problem with trying to clone a Mac Pro is that their are no overclocking socket 771 motherboards (yet) and without them you might as well just buy a real Mac Pro. The Xeon chips and motherboard are just that expensive, and the Mac Pro is just that good of a deal (when Steve said they are cheaper than Dell, he meant it).

EDIT: To see my point, look at the cost of these "discount" Mac Pro-like workstations:
http://www.jncs.com/php/sys/index.php?id=sys-bensley-launch
http://www.gamepc.com/shop/systemfamily.asp?family=gpv

Furthermore, the FB-DIMMs are also more expensive than consumer grade DDR2. In short, the Mac Pro really is a workstation for professional users. But an overclock Conroe box that you can build for $1k will be faster than a $3k Mac Pro most of the time. Like I alluded to at the very beginning of this thread, I think the "best" Hackintoshs are going to be Conroes.

[sbeehre]

Ok so its looking like the motherboard to get is the D975... i may have to get one of these.

[bofors]

Ok so its looking like the motherboard to get is the D975... i may have to get one of these.

This situation could change next week, next month or next year, but if you want a OSx86 Conroe box now that is clearly the way to go.

Just make sure you get a 975X board that supports Core2Duo (Conroe), not all do (as you know).

[Conroe Mac]

I jumped the gun and bought a Gigabyte 965P-DS3

*fingers crossed for Apple to use 965 and ICH8*

[RiceTea]

'the Woodcrest move makes it virtually impossible for OSX86 to expand its hardware base.'

Can you explain why that is so ?

Because this Woodcrest stuff is so expensive, you pointed it out already: cloning the Mac Pro is not attractive. However, having now seen the Mac Pro specs one could hope for example that we can extract full support for some nVidia and ATI graphic cards out of it.

[Conroe Mac]

On 965/ICH8 chipset, I haven't been able to install to the hard drive. The install DVD does begin to boot, but cannot find the root device. It does not recognize any SATA or PATA drives. I'm open to experimenting with this box. I built it for the simple reason of having a dual boot Conroe machine, but (obviously) I didn't do enough research.

I guess in the meantime, I can be bummed about having the same motherboard and RAM as the guy that did the 100% Conroe overclock..... =)

[bofors]

Because this Woodcrest stuff is so expensive, you pointed it out already: cloning the Mac Pro is not attractive.

It also means that Apple is likely to release a Conroe-based midtower, cube or whatever. It makes absolutely no sense for a company trying to expand its market share to not offer such a product. Furthermore, people are screaming for this now in Mac forums across the Internet. They do not want an iMac, they want a $1500 Mac midtower not a $2500 professional workstation.

However, having now seen the Mac Pro specs one could hope for example that we can extract full support for some nVidia and ATI graphic cards out of it.

We can also buy the actual Apple OEM cards too, here is some related information on the Apple Graphics Upgrade Kits for Mac Pro: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=23836

[Graeme43]

On 965/ICH8 chipset, I haven't been able to install to the hard drive. The install DVD does begin to boot, but cannot find the root device. It does not recognize any SATA or PATA drives. I'm open to experimenting with this box. I built it for the simple reason of having a dual boot Conroe machine, but (obviously) I didn't do enough research.

I guess in the meantime, I can be bummed about having the same motherboard and RAM as the guy that did the 100% Conroe overclock..... =)

Yup, I made the mistake of buying 965 for that but I got mine returned as for my luck you could say.. i got a faulty board which is good in this case as I now got P5W with full support!!!!!!!!

If you want to you can boot from usb, that works!

[sbeehre]

someone needs to create a new kext that adds support for ICH8 or wait till apple releases are core 2 duo iMac

[Conroe Mac]

Is that all it takes, a modification of a kext for ICH8? Doesn't something have to be modified for the northbridge (965) as well, because the processor connects to the northbridge before it connects to the southbridge (ICH8)?

I think I will wait and see what Apple does. Support may be on the horizon. It's kind of a bummer because this is a great board. It might be up for sale soon.... =)

[bofors]

I now got P5W with full support!!!!!!!!

Can you post your conplete Xbench results?