NEW Intel P55 Mobos & Core i7 860 / i5 750 CPU LGA1156

[PeterHaas]

I've bought a Asrock P55 Deluxe3 and should arrive tomorrow. Do you think hachintoshing it would be possible, considering there are a few P55 mobos working at the moment with OSX ?

 

The ASRock P55DE3 (DeLuxe 3) and the P55Pro are nearly the same. The Pro version has all "Japanese" capacitors. The DE3 version has "Japanese" capacitors in the VRM, only. Otherwise, the two "raw" boards appear to be identical.

 

Both have AMI BIOSes, and the DSDT for these is very un-Gigabyte-like.

 

Fortunately, the master USB addresses are the usual ones, 0x001D0007 and 0x001A0007, and this allows for Gigabyte-like USB system mods for OSx86.

 

Alas, only the high-speed USBs will be seen by About This Mac... , but that is probably OK in most cases.

 

Finally, these mobos have serious USB issues with 10.6.5, possibly a consequence of the USB system design within the DSDT.

 

Installing 10.6.3 from the "retail" DVD is fine, and leads to a usable system.

 

Software Update... to 10.6.4 is fine, too.

 

Alas, Software Update... to 10.6.5 leads to USB block devices, including at least external hard drives and FLASH drives, being unmountable, although About This Mac... will see these devices. Its just that the 10.6.5 system WILL NOT MOUNT these block devices.

 

So, once you get to 10.6.4 with everything working, the update path to 10.6.5 is as follows:

 

1) download the folder which contains the 10.6.4 versions of IOUSBFamily.kext and IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext (or, possibly more simply, just copy these kexts from the running 10.6.4 system to a new folder on the Desktop),

 

2) download and execute the 10.6.5 Combo Update, but DO NOT hit RESTART,

 

3) drag the two USB kexts to Kext Utility, thereby rolling-back these kexts to 10.6.4, and, finally,

 

4) hit RESTART to boot into 10.6.5.

 

This procedure only works if [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] was NOT originally or later executed with specifying any USB roll-backing option.

 

I have found the ASRock P55DE3 mobo to be a good, yet very economical choice.

 

I bought it while NewEgg was having its recent 10 percent off sale on mobos, and I got it for $70 with "free" shipping. The regular price was just under $80 (actually, $79.99)

 

Alas, a few days after the conclusion of the sale, NewEgg reduced the regular price of this mobo to a tad over $70 ($71.99, I think).

 

Anyway, my DSDT for these mobos has been tested on 10.6 (AKA, 10.6.0), 10.6.2, 10.6.3, 10.6.4 and 10.6.5, and it works on all of these.

 

For sound, I use [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]'s Legacy888HDA and rolled-back AppleHDA kexts.

 

For networking, I use the new R8111DL kext.

 

My DSDT may be found in the HQ-A Google Group Mediafire repository. It is named: 2010-11-13-ASRock-P55DE3-dsdt.aml .

[MacKonsti]

Guys, I have one thing to say, really. 10.6.3 worked and have sleep. Beyond that, especially with 10.6.4 I had no more sleep... Haven't tested 10.6.5. I re-installed the whole system with a bootable 10.6.3 installation on my Gigabyte P55M-UD4.

[PeterHaas]

... I just bought the P55M-UD4 board with Core i7-860 and wanted to know what is the best/most compatible Mac model to use in the smbios.plist file. Choose iMac11,1 or MacPro4,1? ...

 

Either works.

 

For my latest install, an ASRock P55DE3 with an i3-540, I specified MacPro4,1 and Core i5.

 

Although Apple is now making i3s, I haven't yet seen the processor code for an i3.

 

For an i5 it is 1537 and the associated smios.plist key-value pair is:

 

<key>SMcputype</key>

<string>1537</string>

 

For an earlier install, I specified iMac11,1 and Core 2 Duo, but that made even less sense to me than MacPro4,1 and Core i5.

[PeterHaas]

Either works.

 

For my latest install, an ASRock P55DE3 with an i3-540, I specified MacPro4,1 and Core i5.

 

Although Apple is now making i3s, I haven't yet seen the processor code for an i3.

 

For an i5 it is 1537 and the associated smios.plist key-value pair is:

 

<key>SMcputype</key>

<string>1537</string>

 

For an earlier install, I specified iMac11,1 and Core 2 Duo, but that made even less sense to me than MacPro4,1 and Core i5.

 

An i3 is SMcputype 2305. I have two of these, an i3-540 and an i3-550.

 

My latest build is an ASRock P55 Pro with an i5-760.

 

The P55 Pro's built-in Power-on/off switch, Clear CMOS switch and POST code display are useful during initial debugging, but probably not thereafter.

 

The P55 Pro's on-mobo Firewire is supported OOTB.

 

In a pinch, you can indeed use the DSDT for a P55DE2 on a P55 Pro. However, this will not give you sound as the P55 Pro has an ALC890, not an ALC888.

 

Although most, if not all of the DSDT edits for a P55 Pro (with the exception of the codec device code) are the same as for a P55DE3, it is definitely best to start fresh, using an Ubuntu extract, after you update to the latest BIOS.

 

A LOT changed in the DSDT between the retail inventory of P55 Pros (BIOS level 2.40) and the current BIOS level 2.60. So, grab your updated DSDT using Ubuntu and go from there.

 

To support the ALC890, code the HDEF device as an ALC889a/ALC885 and use AppleHDA rolled-back to 10.6.2 and Legacy889aHDA.

 

For most purposes, the defaults which are supplied by selecting ACPI are fine, but I always go back and disable the IDE port (JMB363) and anything else which makes sense.

 

I always disable the true IDE device tree (named SAT1, in this case), and I always replace the IDE compatibility mode device tree (named SATA, in this case) with my own true SATA device tree.

 

After replacing the entire SATA device, I comment-out the entire SAT1 device.

 

Also, DO insure that the HDEF device is enabled. It is set to AUTO, by default, but it needs to be set to ENABLED. Auto is not a good idea. Enabled at least ensures that the ALC890 chip is, indeed, enabled, allowing any sound debugging to revolve around the DSDT's HDEF device and MacOS X's kexts, and not the ephemera of the P55 Pro's power-on reset function.

 

I like the ASRock P55 Pro. Highly MacOS X compatible, and I am running it on 10.6.5 with all Software Updates, except for Safari 5.0.3.

 

(My ASRock P55DE3s are also running 10.6.5 with all Software Updates, except for Safari 5.0.3).

 

For best USB compatibility, it is a MUST to ignore [url=&quot;http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/&quot;]#####[/url]'s USB roll-back option, and to, instead, do your own roll-back, using the IOUSBFamily kexts from 10.6.4 (IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass).

 

Oh, yes, I select iMac11,1 for smbios.plist.

 

ASRock P55DE3 and P55 Pro ... highly recommended!

dsdt.aml.zip

2010_12_25_ASRock_P55_Pro_dsdt.dsl.zip