i7-930 / GA-EX58-UD5 / NVIDIA -- Kakewalk, BIOS, & DSDT Fixes

[Jordan Young]

Nebraskaboy, if you don't mind I will post some of my experiences in this thread since we have very similar setups. I was able to get my machine built and running! I also went the Kakewalk route, so far I have 2 issues:

 

Kernel panic when waking from sleep

iTunes will not play any songs (although audio works great otherwise)

 

Haven't had much time to tinker with it. I will post another update later on tonight:

 

My parts:

 

Gigabyte EX58-UD5

Core i7-930 2.8GHz

EVGA 9800GT 1GB

Sunbeam 780W PSU

Patriot Viper 6GB DDR3

Samsung 1TB 7200RPM X2 (1 for OS X, 1 for Win7)

Corsair H50 closed-loop water cooler

Lian Li PC-A71F

 

I also got a cheap refurbished netgear WN311B PCI wireless card but I need to find the proper Kexts for that. LAN is working great though! System is running great other than the sleep/itunes issues.

[staynerv]

Hi all,

First thx nebraskaboy for all his tips.

 

I have buy the same hardware and follow your way since your first post. Just finish my install this night. Can't wait to try FCP and other app.

 

Like Jordan Young, I use your post to feedback my xp trough it (our hardware is identical). If it's upset you, ask and I'll delete my post.

 

What I use :

• Kakewalk 2.1
  
• An old 650Mo CDrw
  
• Snow Leopard DVD
  

On :

• Samsung 1000 Go SATA2, 7200 tpm 32 Mo (HD103SJ) Spinpoint F3
  
• Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 (Intel® X58) socket 1366
  
• Corsair Triple Channel TR3X6G1333C9, 3 x 2 Go DDR3 PC10666
  
• Corsair CMPSU-400CX, Alimentation 400 W
  
• Ventilateur Scythe Mugen 2, Socket 1366/775/754/478/939/AM2/AM3
  
• Gainward Geforce GTS 250, 1 Go "Deep Green" DVI HDMI, PCIe 2.0
  
• Intel Core i7-930 Box, 8 Mo Quad Core, Socket 1366 (version boîte)
  

[nebraskaboy]

I'm glad to hear other folks are using my setup. Use this thread however can help anyone!

It works fine, except for the kernel panics.

 

 

I'm still hoping to hear back from swhay about a DSDT fix, although I'm loosing hope. I have to go out of town again this weekend (more funeral logistics stuff. don't ever die, it's not fun for anyone and it's remarkably complicated.

 

But sometime next week if I haven't heard from swhay then I'm going to try doing some more research and writing my own. Now that I've got a working backup of my HDD, I feel like I've got a little more room to experiment.

[nebraskaboy]

I will post some of my experiences in this thread since we have very similar setups.

 

Kernel panic when waking from sleep

 

iTunes will not play any songs (although audio works great otherwise)

 

Setups

It looks like we have almost identical setups! That's pretty cool. In general, I think the more people who are on similar hardware, the easier it will be for us to collectively trouble shoot down the line as we go through this process as a cohort. We're like InsanelyMac class of Spring '11

 

Kernel panic when waking from sleep

I have this too, and it's my biggest problem.

I am sure it can be fixed with the DSDT, which should also fix the speed stepping problem and CPU temp problem.

 

What are your CPU temps (you can measure with iStat Menus, or Hardware Monitor by Marsel Bresink, or preferably both).

 

 

itunes

My iTunes works fine, so I'm not sure what your issue on that. I'd suggest reinstalling itunes, or backing up your user library and deleting all the prefs, and before either of those checking to make sure that your sound preferences specify the correct output.

 

When you say iTunes won't play, do you mean it won't try to play, or that when it plays no sound comes out? If it's the first one then reinstalling itunes is probably your first step. If it's the second one, then it sounds like a simple sound prefs problem.

 

 

 

I will send you back your DSDT.dsl and DSDT.aml file and I will make sure your dsdt has all the other fixes for your

Mother Board.

 

Any luck?

 

Thanks again for the help, whenever get the time.

And if you don't have time, feel free to just point me another way. You've already been a tremendous help by sending me that utility, and helping folks with the i7-920 get their DSDT files optimized correctly. !

[Jordan Young]

I'm running around 39 degrees celsius during idle/browsing the web. While using Logic it gets up around 49 degrees. Haven't seen it go past 50 degrees yet. I think the H50 is working pretty well, haven't had any temp problems yet. Also my case is freaking huge so that probably helps.

 

As for iTunes, I think it was just a network problem on my end. When I tried to play shared music from my laptop, the playhead just got stuck at 0:00 and wouldn't play any tracks. Once I got my music files copied over locally it was able to play them fine though.

 

I have been working on the system for a few days now and everything is super stable. The only kernel panics have been waking from sleep, everything else has been 100% stable. I also have Win7 up and running now, with VMware Fusion, which works surprisingly well. I need to find a better solution for booting though, since right now I have to go into the bios and change boot priority every time i want to change OS. Not a huge deal but I'm sure there's a quicker solution I can implement.

 

Thanks again for keeping up with the thread, and for the build inspiration. Best of luck m8!

[scuzy]

I'm running around 39 degrees celsius during idle/browsing the web. While using Logic it gets up around 49 degrees. Haven't seen it go past 50 degrees yet. I think the H50 is working pretty well, haven't had any temp problems yet. Also my case is freaking huge so that probably helps.

 

As for iTunes, I think it was just a network problem on my end. When I tried to play shared music from my laptop, the playhead just got stuck at 0:00 and wouldn't play any tracks. Once I got my music files copied over locally it was able to play them fine though.

 

I have been working on the system for a few days now and everything is super stable. The only kernel panics have been waking from sleep, everything else has been 100% stable. I also have Win7 up and running now, with VMware Fusion, which works surprisingly well. I need to find a better solution for booting though, since right now I have to go into the bios and change boot priority every time i want to change OS. Not a huge deal but I'm sure there's a quicker solution I can implement.

 

Thanks again for keeping up with the thread, and for the build inspiration. Best of luck m8!

 

 

 

are you using the H50 water cooler? SO far my system has been rpetty stable using the generic Kakewalk 2.1 install and no other custom files. I haven't monitor cpu temperature yet but i guess i should take a look at it.

[staynerv]

SO far my system has been rpetty stable using the generic Kakewalk 2.1 install and no other custom files. I haven't monitor cpu temperature yet but i guess i should take a look at it.

 

The same as you, just the kakewalk 2.1 cd and snow leopard dvd and nothing else ===> full functional (GPU Nvidia GTS 250, CPU i7 930, HDD, Final Cut Pro, iTunes...).

 

I'm going to flash the motherboard bios (EX58 UD5) with the one (F7 to F12) to optimise CPU T°.

[Jordan Young]

are you using the H50 water cooler? SO far my system has been rpetty stable using the generic Kakewalk 2.1 install and no other custom files. I haven't monitor cpu temperature yet but i guess i should take a look at it.

 

Yep, the H50 is a closed-loop water system. Nothing like a full system but it has been great so far. I'm thinking about doing a mild overclock now since my temps have been so low, but I'm not sure if my RAM is fast enough.

 

Has anyone updated to 10.6.3 yet? I installed 10.6.2 without issues and OOTB with kakewalk 2.1 but I haven't tried 10.6.3 yet. Not sure if it works OOTB.

[staynerv]

10.6.3 since the first day, all is fine !

[ShawnB]

Setups

It looks like we have almost identical setups! That's pretty cool. In general, I think the more people who are on similar hardware, the easier it will be for us to collectively trouble shoot down the line as we go through this process as a cohort. We're like InsanelyMac class of Spring '11

 

Kernel panic when waking from sleep

I have this too, and it's my biggest problem.

I am sure it can be fixed with the DSDT, which should also fix the speed stepping problem and CPU temp problem.

 

What are your CPU temps (you can measure with iStat Menus, or Hardware Monitor by Marsel Bresink, or preferably both).

 

 

itunes

My iTunes works fine, so I'm not sure what your issue on that. I'd suggest reinstalling itunes, or backing up your user library and deleting all the prefs, and before either of those checking to make sure that your sound preferences specify the correct output.

 

When you say iTunes won't play, do you mean it won't try to play, or that when it plays no sound comes out? If it's the first one then reinstalling itunes is probably your first step. If it's the second one, then it sounds like a simple sound prefs problem.

 

 

 

 

 

Any luck?

 

Thanks again for the help, whenever get the time.

And if you don't have time, feel free to just point me another way. You've already been a tremendous help by sending me that utility, and helping folks with the i7-920 get their DSDT files optimized correctly. !

 

I just recently built myself a similar setup with the i7 930 chip and so I had to create my own dsdt for it with the 930 chip states in it. I think this is what you were waiting for from swhay.

 

It was only made to be used with my setup of i7-930/GA-EX58A-UD3R/NVIDIA but some others may find it useful.

 

Just download and put in your \extra folder, replace your old one (after making a backup of your original of course) and reboot and you should be good to go!

 

i7-930 with speedstep DSDT.aml

[nebraskaboy]

It was only made to be used with my setup of i7-930/GA-EX58A-UD3R/NVIDIA but some others may find it useful.

 

Just download and put in your \extra folder, replace your old one (after making a backup of your original of course) and reboot and you should be good to go!

 

i7-930 with speedstep DSDT.aml

 

Thanks!

But does it matter that our MoBos aren't the same?

 

You've got an

EX58A-UD3R

 

and I've got an

EX58-UD5

 

?

 

I'm going to flash the motherboard bios (EX58 UD5) with the one (F7 to F12) to optimise CPU T°.

 

Any good guide on how to do this?

Or care to explain a bit?

[Mackilroy]

I believe only the CPU matters (based on what I read in another thread specifically about the DSDT) but I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that.

 

In other news, I've got my own i7 hackintosh up and (mostly) running. No Internet connection right now because I don't have an Ethernet cable that's long enough and I don't have a wireless chip (whether USB, PCI or otherwise), but sound works, and so has everything else I've tried. Haven't tried sleep, but I rarely use it so if it doesn't work that won't bother me.

[daxure]

Questions

anyone got any suggestions for what I should do for this mother board?

I'd like it to run cooler, fix the sound, and probably more.

 

Is there a reason the hard drives aren't SMART enabled? Can I enable that in the bios, or will I break something?

 

 

My System:

* CPU - i7-920

* MOBO - GA-EX58-UD5

* GPU - 9800 GT (EVGA)

* RAM - 6GB of DDR3 1333

 

 

With keykwalk it must be working fine, I've even Lan,Audio and Quartz with second DVI out line on my display (Dont' tutch DSDT just run from another HD Keykwalk and Boot.

 

My system even don't needed Hameleon, it's booting with original bootscreen+work alredy 2 week as 8core super monster!

 

 

P-S- actually you need from Hackintosh to restore on formated 50GB HD of same drive ment for SL the Mac OS X Snow DMG image.

after running keykwalk from your hackintosh make sure it's goes to 50GB newly restored drive and then only run from 50GB drive to install to clean SL 10.6 drive(Don't forget to run after installation of SL to main SL drive keykwalk from your Hackintosh too because if not then newly instaled SL drive will not boot) after successful booting just reformat 50GB HD part back to original size of SL drive.

 

Good Luck!

[staynerv]

Any good guide on how to do this?

Or care to explain a bit?

 

You must have a windows 32bit system in order to install the .exe on an usb drive. Unfortunately i only have 64bit system at my home. I'll format and install the usb disk at my office this week . http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/service/map/default.htm

[Valashtar]

Hello mate,

 

I don't know if you've seen it already, but there is a thread here that has an attached, fixed DSDT.aml for your processor (i7-930) and board (EX58-UD5) that enables ACPI sleep modes, processor throttling, and more.

 

I ordered parts for this build as follows, they arrive this weekend and I will begin overclocking and stability testing then:

 

Intel Core i7-930

Gigabyte EX58-UD5

12GB Corsair XMS3 @1600Mhz

EVGA GTX285 1GB

1x WD Velociraptor 10K RPM 150GB Drive (OS X Boot Drive)

2x WD Caviar Black 7200RPM 750GB drive (Win7 Boot Drive + OS X Home Folder drive)

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer SATA Model iHAS-324-98

Antec CP-850 PSU

Antec P-183

 

 

I will let you know how it goes for me.

[staynerv]

You must have a windows 32bit system in order to install the .exe on an usb drive. Unfortunately i only have 64bit system at my home. I'll format and install the usb disk at my office this week . http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/service/map/default.htm

 

 

Done, just format the usb stick in FAT32. Then add the 3 files dl from gigabyte.com (bios rev. F12) and plug into before boot. Then press F8 to start the bios format utility, select your drive ... wait till it done then reboot. Don't forget to retune your bios preset if you want to boot macOS correctly ^^.

 

Visible improvement : CPU fan move slowly, less noise.

[nebraskaboy]

I don't know if you've seen it already, but there is a thread here that has an attached, fixed DSDT.aml for your processor (i7-930) and board (EX58-UD5) that enables ACPI sleep modes, processor throttling, and more.

 

I've been following that thread, but until recently d00d hadn't updated it with the 930. Thanks so much for pointing it out to me!

 

I'm going to try it now and see what happens!

 

12GB Corsair XMS3 @1600Mhz

EVGA GTX285 1GB

1x WD Velociraptor 10K RPM 150GB Drive (OS X Boot Drive)

2x WD Caviar Black 7200RPM 750GB drive (Win7 Boot Drive + OS X Home Folder drive)

Antec P-183

 

Nice setup! This is more in line with what I've realized I wish I'd done. Right now my HDD is the bottleneck.

I'm not sure what you'll be doing with 12GB of Ram, but have fun! I decided to go with only 6 (up from being used to just 2 much slower ones on my macbook), and have found it to be plenty. Even when doing graphic design and such, 6 GB is enough right now. Perhaps when I do some video or audio editing (if I ever get free time again) I'll find myself wanting more.

 

Also let me know how the coolant goes. I'm still having temp issues, and even if I fix them somewhat with the DSDT file, I think a coolant or better fans would help me. I don't really want to open it all up, and have to disconnect everything from the MoBo to put it on, but I might need to.

 

 

I ordered parts for this build as follows, they arrive this weekend and I will begin overclocking and stability testing then

I will let you know how it goes for me.

 

Please keep us updated! Feel free to use this post as a clearinghouse for resources related to using this processor + MoBo combo, w/ a NVIDIA card.

[cinemalone]

I believe only the CPU matters (based on what I read in another thread specifically about the DSDT) but I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that.

 

In other news, I've got my own i7 hackintosh up and (mostly) running. No Internet connection right now because I don't have an Ethernet cable that's long enough and I don't have a wireless chip (whether USB, PCI or otherwise), but sound works, and so has everything else I've tried. Haven't tried sleep, but I rarely use it so if it doesn't work that won't bother me.

 

I'm such a noobasaurus, I just assumed that all modern mobos had wifi cards in them! I have an ex58 ud5, kakewalk, and no internet. Kakewalk install as well.

I have ten roommates and the router is actually in one of their rooms and not an option to run an ethernet to...

Let me know if you rectify your wifi problem will you?

[T13]

a thought...

 

 

Im not sure if this is part of your problem, but my Bus frequency in Geekbench is way higher than yours. 4.8Ghz.

 

Running i7 930, GAX58A-UD3r, and 1600Mhzx3 corsair. I looked around in my bios but did not even see a place where I could set the bus that low.

 

CPU temps averaging mid 50s...

[Mackilroy]

I'm such a noobasaurus, I just assumed that all modern mobos had wifi cards in them! I have an ex58 ud5, kakewalk, and no internet. Kakewalk install as well.

I have ten roommates and the router is actually in one of their rooms and not an option to run an ethernet to...

Let me know if you rectify your wifi problem will you?

I'll just have to pick up an appropriate USB or PCI wireless card. I hope it'll be that simple, at any rate. I am running 10.6.2 now (along with my HD 4890, which was amazingly easy to get working…) so that and installing Windows are my only remaining issues.

[cinemalone]

I'll just have to pick up an appropriate USB or PCI wireless card. I hope it'll be that simple, at any rate. I am running 10.6.2 now (along with my HD 4890, which was amazingly easy to get working…) so that and installing Windows are my only remaining issues.

 

Yeah, I guess I will just get a usb wifi jawn.

 

But that brings up another problem. I have the 24" Dell Ultrasharp Monitor, forget the model off hand, but my usb ports do not work on the actual monitor. Does anyone else have this problem with kakewalk?

[Valashtar]

Nice setup! This is more in line with what I've realized I wish I'd done. Right now my HDD is the bottleneck.

I'm not sure what you'll be doing with 12GB of Ram, but have fun! I decided to go with only 6 (up from being used to just 2 much slower ones on my macbook), and have found it to be plenty. Even when doing graphic design and such, 6 GB is enough right now. Perhaps when I do some video or audio editing (if I ever get free time again) I'll find myself wanting more.

 

Also let me know how the coolant goes. I'm still having temp issues, and even if I fix them somewhat with the DSDT file, I think a coolant or better fans would help me. I don't really want to open it all up, and have to disconnect everything from the MoBo to put it on, but I might need to.

 

 

Please keep us updated! Feel free to use this post as a clearinghouse for resources related to using this processor + MoBo combo, w/ a NVIDIA card.

 

Parts arrived. System assembled. Everything working great except that both of the 750GB WD drives were DOA, so they are headed back to NewEgg for RMA. Currently have Win7 installed on the 150GB just for stress testing.

 

System is clocked at 21x160Mhz right now, coming in right around 3.33 Ghz, with a 41-44C temperature at idle. Still tweaking the settings and pushing it as high as I can go (aiming for 3.8 minimum). Temp bumps up to about 66C under 100% CPU load, so I don't know how high I can push this. (The spread is very odd; one core consistently runs approx 7-8C hotter than the coolest core: 73 vs 66 for example) I'm disappointed; this is a 90 dollar cooler with AS5 thermal paste; it should be doing a lot better. I have 4 medium volume quiet fans running - the system is very quiet, but it's running a little warm and I haven't really started pushing. I think it may be the case design; it's optimized for quiet computing, rather than max airflow. We'll see how high it goes.

 

The GPU maxes out at about 92C, which is ungodly hot, but then they always did run hotter and noisier than anything else in the system.

 

The noctua is a tank, and almost doesn't fit in my case. Good thing I have short RAM so I can lower the fans. The CP-850 is also monstrous. I may send the Noctua back, though, and either drop back to stock frequencies and save some money to go watercooled, or chicken out and get a "semi-watercooled" soultion like the Corsair H50.

 

The RAM is, because I want to run VMs and other programs without choking. And I want to run a lot of them.

 

Also, curiously, all of my settings are currently better than yours, yet your Geekbench score is almost 1K higher than mine, you on Mac vs me on Windows x64.

 

I should probably also mention as a point of interest that I have flashed my BIOS to the latest version (F12).

[Mackilroy]

Yeah, I guess I will just get a usb wifi jawn.

 

But that brings up another problem. I have the 24" Dell Ultrasharp Monitor, forget the model off hand, but my usb ports do not work on the actual monitor. Does anyone else have this problem with kakewalk?

My USB ports work - my mouse and keyboard are hooked up to my monitor. I've got a 20" Ultrasharp from 2009.

[Valashtar]

Currently clocked at 21x181 Mhz (3.8Ghz). Because of the available RAM ratios, I have to either drop down to 3.36 Ghz to get up to 1600Mhz, or bump the Baseclock up to 200, which I don't think my cooler will handle.

 

I think I'm going to try reseating the cooler with some fresh thermal paste and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll return my ~$100 cooler and get a ~$300 water cooling system from Swiftech.

 

However, it is running rock solid at 3.8, so I'm pretty happy - except for that nagging worry about one core running at 82C and the other at 74C.

[alitarbegshe]

I've decided to go with the the 920 instead of the 930.

 

But you can't really argue with a £65/$100 saving.

 

Hopefully I won't be kicking myself 6 months down the line!