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ASRockRack C2550D4I, ECC support and macOS


Tucker28
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Has anyone seen or heard of running macOS on this motherboard? http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C2550D4I#Specifications

 

I am building an NAS, and while I could use FreeNAS, I need macOS. I need full iTunes on it to run my AppleTV's. Also, since I will be using ZFS, I am looking for a board with ECC. Mini-ITX preferred because of the case, but if need be, I can switch form factors. I saw something online that seemed like someone had installed macOS on this, but couldn't quite tell for sure.

 

Thanks for your time,

Scott

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probably the mainboard is OS X compatible, important is here the correct BIOS setting for OS X. read the Hardware Components on Windows using AIDA64 and optionally generate the dsdt by AIDA64 or by linux. There are many tutorials that describe this process in detail. Next, create the Mac OS X USB installer on real Mac or hackintosh or alternatively on windows.

a comparable tutorial for your mainboard for Mac OS X, I could not find, however, I am sure that the installation will succeed.

 

Kernel look here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/307240-1095-pentium-celeron-atom-kernel/

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The kernel for El capitan must be revised, as some users have reported that the kernel does not to boot. We need information to fix the error to the kernel. I have no Intel Atom CPU to test it. But I want to built in the next days a new kernel, I hope this will then work. In the meantime, install Mac OS X Mavericks and use the kernel to the top link.

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Top link? Not entirely sure what you meant there.

 

I'll be building this one slowly. I'll be buying the parts over the next few months, so by the time that happens, I hope to be fully versed in this. Always before this build, I'd build them with macOS in mind, this is the first one I've tried to build where something took precedence over macOS, in this case, data integrity. I've lost libraries. Never again. But I also want something that will run macOS. So research this time has gotten more complex. =)

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If you have not bought the hardware with Intel Atom CPU then better buy an Intel CPU , Intel Atom CPU is an experiment. It may work or it does not work. I hope you understand what I mean.

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Sure thing. I want to be as compatible as possible. The sticking point with me is finding a processor/motherboard configuration that supports ECC memory. I understand ZFS can work just fine without ECC but it is highly recommend and after that last loss I want to do everything in my power to prevent that from happening again. Do you know of a motherboard that is compatible that supports ECC? I'm flexible on that form factor, what I really want is a combination of macOS and ECC with ZFS.

 

Thanks =)

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It didn't look like it offered ECC. It did have an option to have ECC on the GPU which I thought was strange. But it did give me the chipset it used. Basically if I used the C600 chipset series along with a Xeon processor, I should be able to use macOS, ECC and ZFS. That really have me a good starting point. =)

 

Are there any other chipsets that support ECC that I should look for. I found an Intel board based on it. Expensive, but I can save for it. Data integrity is too important. https://www.amazon.com/Intel-DBS2600CP2-LGA2011-Chipset-Motherboard/dp/B00JZEUC9G

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The suggestion for the C2xx chipset and Xeon E3 was perfect for my budget while letting me build it on a faster timeline. Thank you for that.

 

I have looked and found this board: http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5732#ov

 

It doesn't come with 2 NIC's, but I only wanted those for future proofing and I can add in a second NIC if I ever fully saturate the onboard one. It's also not mini-ITX like I wanted, but it is micro ATX, so I should still be able to find a case with plenty of disk expansion bays and still keep it relatively small. I don't see anything on it that would prevent me from installing macOS, macOS Server, ECC, ZFS, and doing exactly what I need it to do.

 

As far as I have found, I should be able to add a NIC later if I need one.

 

Also, the onboard SATA ports don't have as many as I want, since I want dual redundancy, and by the time I get this thing built, O3X will hopefully have support for triple redundancy in ZFS, so I'd like to add a controller card to help me with that.

 

I'm sure I can find a list of macOS compatible NIC's and SATA controller cards (not RAID, just normal controller cards).

 

It also does not have a video circuit, but it will ultimately be a headless unit, so the only time it will be connected to a monitor will be during initial installation. Although it does have a Thunderbolt connector, so I should be able to use that instead of buying a cheap video card that I'd use once.

 

Any thoughts on this? Have I overlooked something?

 

Thanks for everyone's help while guiding me through this process!

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I have also found this board: http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C236D2I#Specifications

 

Which I am much more pleased with than the Gigabyte board. I love Gigabyte, but being that this is meant to be a specialized machine, this board will work much better, I think. It is a C236 chipset, uses Xeon E3 processors, and is the mini-ITX form factor that I wanted plus already has 2 gigabit NIC's, plus even an IPMI which considering this will be a headless unit is a great feature. It only has 6 SATA ports and the case I have in mind has 12 bays, so I'll just add in a SATA controller card for the additional ports when needed.

 

Is there anything I am missing? I can't see anything that prevents macOS from being installed.

 

Thanks spakk and TheRacerMaster for your help in guiding me though this. I have built a few hackintoshes with great success, but those were all on consumer grade boards. This specialized ECC NAS machine and its desired features left me with more questions than I could find the answers to on my own. So a heartfelt thanks to you.

 

If there is anything I've missed that would interfere in my installing macOS on it, please let me know. Sierra will be out by that time, so that's most likely what I will install on it.

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