pleasedeleteme Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 gone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nano_tube Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Excellent machine and I think you did the right decision ditching the dead iMac and not paying $700 for a repair. The geek pr0n pics are nice - looks like a cool environment to work in. As to the sleep issues, I am not an expert, but prepare yourself to the option of living with it. For some people it works, for the majority of people it doesn't. I have a little older hardware on my hackPro but still very modern (C2D Quad) and I could never get the sleep function to work properly. There is a specialized kext that may help you: OpenHaltRestart_1.0.3.kext search for it in the forum, see if it does the trick... enjoy your new hackintosh! Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerbM Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 omnirune, Thank you very much for sharing this. I, like you, could not find all this info together in one single place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasedeleteme Posted November 3, 2009 Author Share Posted November 3, 2009 As a long term Apple user (played Wizardy on the Apple II) and as an owner of many Macs through the ages (such as the IIci, PowerMac 6100, iBook, iMac G5 and more recently the iMac Core2Duo) I have an expectation that the OS X environment should perform exactly as my previous Apple hardware. Having used this build (noted in the top post) for nearly a month now, I wanted to share my impressions: Turning the system on reminds me this is a custom-built machine. The BIOS post and memory count is there. The mac-like experience starts with the chameleon screen pops up (and I use a theme to appear just as the disk chooser would appear on a real mac). Once in the OS X environment, it feels exactly like a real mac. My Aperture, Photoshop, iMovie and iPhoto use has been identical to actual hardware. The two AppleTVs appear in iTunes; I can stream to my AirTunes speakers; I can see and print to Bonjour Printers. Networking works correctly with my Hack Mac and the Macbook Air. I can control the screen. I can share folders. The Dell monitor is the weakest link; it is a cheap TN display with poor brightness. I plan to eventually replace this with a large NEC monitor using an IPS panel. The OS X environment cannot change the brightness level of this screen using the built-in F-keys as on a real mac. The system has not crashed. It has survived heavy multitasking and power-user use. If you keep the mindset that this is a Mac and not a PC, you will be extremely successful with this build. If you try to constantly swap out parts like you would in a PC environment, naturally havoc would (likely) reign in the OS X partition. I'm loving it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsgetsilly Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 This setup looks awesome. I am thinking of using your guide to build my upcoming machine. Thank you for the post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brokenjack Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Did you have any trouble with your ATI card? What driver did you use, and what made you choose the 4870. I want to build a rig like yours to run FCS3. I feel like the ATI card is more stable with Apple Motion 4, but I don't have hard evidence. Well I pulled the trigger and ordered parts matching your list. I plan on using the scripted install from DD. I'm a complete noob at all of this, and I'm diving head first into something that might be a bit over my head this time, but that's how I like to learn. Risk factor is always a good motivator. I'll try to document my experience. Thanks for the inspiring post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasedeleteme Posted November 6, 2009 Author Share Posted November 6, 2009 Did you have any trouble with your ATI card? What driver did you use, and what made you choose the 4870. I want to build a rig like yours to run FCS3. I feel like the ATI card is more stable with Apple Motion 4, but I don't have hard evidence. Well I pulled the trigger and ordered parts matching your list. I plan on using the scripted install from DD. I'm a complete noob at all of this, and I'm diving head first into something that might be a bit over my head this time, but that's how I like to learn. Risk factor is always a good motivator. I'll try to document my experience. Thanks for the inspiring post. I *believe* during installation I used the "QE_CI_Exotic_cards_10.6.1.pkg" or the "7_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg." Unfortunately I didn't document my installation process (which I thankfully only had to go through one time). Presently, the only graphic driver I am using is "EVOenabler.kext" I chose the ATI card due to it seeming to be the preferred card in these forums and the fact that Apple is using variants of this card in their own builds. I also wanted a card with the capability of doing heavy lifting, and thought this would be a good card at its price point. The first night assembling this machine and going through the install process was an all-nighter; by the next morning everything was working fantastically. I hope you purchased the add-on ethernet card, because my initial system instability was the result of using onboard LAN. PS: One way to easily destroy your installation is by touching the /extra directory that is created on your HD root. Ignore it and pretend its not there; it contains the entire automated override procedure for getting into your OS X environment on a PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brokenjack Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 I chose the ATI card due to it seeming to be the preferred card in these forums and the fact that Apple is using variants of this card in their own builds. I also wanted a card with the capability of doing heavy lifting, and thought this would be a good card at its price point. Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm dying to find out how well it will handle 4K video from some RedOne camera footage I shot recently for a commercial(contingent on getting my hackintosh running well). I too figured since apple was offering the ATI cards as the upgraded video option on their Mac Pros it seemed like a logical choice, although I've heard of many complaints getting these cards working. Some people have said to just stick with the basic dual DVI versions and not the ones with HDMI etc. We'll see. Hope I'm not being a pain, but I'd like to ask you some questions in the near future when I start building this thing. I've read through DD's install guide a few times, plus other research, and I'm getting the jist of what's involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msiwindu100420osx Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 This is great, I have this same setup. I have a few questions though. Installation Method:Installed hard drives onto Intel SATA connectors; connected external SATA connectors to the gigabyte SATA connectors. Put OS X drive onto SATA 0, Windows 7 drive onto SATA 1. Disconnect SATA 0 (OS X) and install Windows 7. Connect SATA 0 (OS X) and install Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Install Chameleon Boot Loader. Chameleon can now boot between Windows 7 and OS X. Install Parallels Desktop. Select "Boot Camp" partition (Windows 7 drive). You can now run Windows 7 within OS X if ever necessary, natively, from the Win7 hard drive. Scripted Install via http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185097 Used 16 GB USB Stick Method. Restored Snow Leopard DVD onto USB Stick via my Macbook Air. Patched USB Stick using above script and installed ATI Drivers onto stick so that screen did not remain white upon boot. Used Chameleon /extra install method. Disable -v (verbose) in the com.apple.boot.plist file in /extra directory to get your gray apple loading screen. Make certain the kernel flag reads "arch=i386" Which BIOS do you have on your board? Out of the box, mine does not support booting from USB. How did you manage a chameleon install without running the DSDT patcher? I thought (according to: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185097) chameleon died without patched DSDT. Would you mind uploading a copy of your /Extra so others can give it a whirl? Thanks, -Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasedeleteme Posted November 10, 2009 Author Share Posted November 10, 2009 Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm dying to find out how well it will handle 4K video from some RedOne camera footage I shot recently for a commercial(contingent on getting my hackintosh running well). I too figured since apple was offering the ATI cards as the upgraded video option on their Mac Pros it seemed like a logical choice, although I've heard of many complaints getting these cards working. Some people have said to just stick with the basic dual DVI versions and not the ones with HDMI etc. We'll see. Hope I'm not being a pain, but I'd like to ask you some questions in the near future when I start building this thing. I've read through DD's install guide a few times, plus other research, and I'm getting the jist of what's involved. My model is dual DVI as well. I achieve HDMI by using a DVI->HDMI cable. Which BIOS do you have on your board? Out of the box, mine does not support booting from USB. How did you manage a chameleon install without running the DSDT patcher? I thought (according to: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185097) chameleon died without patched DSDT. Would you mind uploading a copy of your /Extra so others can give it a whirl? My DSDT.aml file is attached. I upgraded my bios to the latest version available on the gigabyte website. I did not have a problem launching Chameleon without the DSDT file. If you are having difficulty, try the following: Boot using your chameleon-enabled USB stick (with the OS X install files). When Chameleon boots, hit any key so that the boot menu appears. Select your OS X boot partition. When within OS X, launch your X58 mobo patcher script and create your DSDT file. On your next boot, it will be present and have been run on the actual hardware. DSDT.aml.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsgetsilly Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Can you please indicate whether or not your motherboard's firewire port is working correctly? Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasedeleteme Posted November 13, 2009 Author Share Posted November 13, 2009 Can you please indicate whether or not your motherboard's firewire port is working correctly? Thank you. I have confirmed that the onboard Firewire 400 port works correctly with my Firewire-based Canon camcorder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chynaman Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I am wondering if all 12g of the RAMs are recognized. The last time i was trying to build my hack, i have seen reports where KP or some sort of error would occur when more than 4g of RAM is inserted into the slot, then again, it might just be the problem with the MB (I was reading about GA-EP45-DS3L) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnev1 Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Could someone PLEASE tell me when they get a prompt after rebooting? I don't come to a prompt? Probably a stupid question...but thought I'd try for some help as my brain must be fried..... Your system is ready for rebooting! BOOTING Reboot and enter -v -x32 at the boot prompt. If you are using the Chameleon 2.0 RC3 bootloader, you'll need to use the arch=i386 flag, instead of -x32. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alibaba199 Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Thank you for posting! I've been looking for a good i7 build. My only gripe is that this is not a Mac Pro equivalent build as MPs have Xeons. This is relevant because I've been looking for someone who's built an actual dual xeon 5500 Mac Pro equivalent and when I search for Mac Pro, I keep getting people who build i7s. Grrrr. Regardless, thanks for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brokenjack Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Hey omnirune, I can't believe it, but after trying a few install methods, I got everything working. I basically copied what you used to build your system and used lifehacker's tutorial and just replaced the extra folder from here Didn't have much luck with DD's method...mainly cause I don't know what I'm doing, but learned a hell of a lot in the process, so thanks goes out to those pioneers as well Sound, video with qe/ci dual monitors, the works! Macally icekey keyboard with all the Mac features works as well after installing the manufacturer's driver. Well, not everything...my abit airpace wireless doesn't work. I think there is a fix for atheros cards somewhere around here. If not, I'll just get a compatible wireless card. anyway, thanks for posting your rig, I'm kickin my heels! my updated original post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasedeleteme Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 I am wondering if all 12g of the RAMs are recognized. The last time i was trying to build my hack, i have seen reports where KP or some sort of error would occur when more than 4g of RAM is inserted into the slot, then again, it might just be the problem with the MB (I was reading about GA-EP45-DS3L) See attached screenshot And yes, I have managed to slightly overclock this machine with stock cooling without KPs during encoding / final cut work / etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brokenjack Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 I noticed you are running 10.6.2. Any fixes you had to do after the updates? Did it go smooth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasedeleteme Posted November 21, 2009 Author Share Posted November 21, 2009 I noticed you are running 10.6.2. Any fixes you had to do after the updates? Did it go smooth? It wasn't a smooth process; before you update, make certain you remove "SleepEnabler.kext" (if you have it). If it's in place, the system will kernel panic upon boot into 10.6.2. I also had to update my audio drivers. I've attached what I'm using presently. Otherwise it was smooth sailing. The most difficult part was gaining access to the OS X drive when I was locked out due to the KP on boot (I used MacDrive on the Windows 7 partition -- which thus far has only existed as an emergency lifeline). The attached file is for ALC889a audio within the 10.6.2 environment. ALC889a.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brokenjack Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 It wasn't a smooth process; before you update, make certain you remove "SleepEnabler.kext" (if you have it). If it's in place, the system will kernel panic upon boot into 10.6.2. I also had to update my audio drivers. I've attached what I'm using presently. Otherwise it was smooth sailing. The most difficult part was gaining access to the OS X drive when I was locked out due to the KP on boot (I used MacDrive on the Windows 7 partition -- which thus far has only existed as an emergency lifeline). The attached file is for ALC889a audio within the 10.6.2 environment. I just finished updating a test install, and it booted fine and I don't see any issues. Sound still works. I don't seem to have SleepEnabler.kext installed. I don't use sleep anyway. ALC889a.kext was included in the Extra folder that I downloaded. I guess I'll pull the trigger on the real install. -Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsgetsilly Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 I've created a thread documenting a similar build to this one. The main difference is that I'm using an nvidia graphics card. You can view the results here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mofotrons Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 Install Parallels Desktop. Select "Boot Camp" partition (Windows 7 drive). You can now run Windows 7 within OS X if ever necessary, natively, from the Win7 hard drive. How did you get Parallels to use the Windows 7 partition you created? Was there anything special that you needed to do? I couldn't get it to find Windows 7 when I selected "Boot Camp" partition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waylonflinn Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 I like this build a lot. I'm looking into a similar build with an alternate graphics card (GTX 260 Core 216). I'm curious, did you ever get Sleep to work with this build? If so, how'd you do it? If not, do you have any hunches as to what might be holding you back? I'm pretty new here and don't know a lot about this process. Feel free to share anything you've learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasedeleteme Posted December 3, 2009 Author Share Posted December 3, 2009 How did you get Parallels to use the Windows 7 partition you created? Was there anything special that you needed to do? I couldn't get it to find Windows 7 when I selected "Boot Camp" partition. Try unmounting your Windows 7 drive within OS X and then selecting it within Parallels. I like this build a lot. I'm looking into a similar build with an alternate graphics card (GTX 260 Core 216). I'm curious, did you ever get Sleep to work with this build? If so, how'd you do it? If not, do you have any hunches as to what might be holding you back? I'm pretty new here and don't know a lot about this process. Feel free to share anything you've learned. No, I have not been able to get sleep to function. While display sleep works properly, in my specific scenario, I do not desire sleep as I use my computer as a streaming media server and thus should always be left on. There has been those who have achieved sleep working properly, but I do not know if its specific to this motherboard or my choice of components that prevents sleep. There also seems to be favoritism toward ATI cards, so keep that in mind when choosing your video card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aikidoka25 Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 thank you omnirune, i am building a computer using yours as reference, few components yet to arrive (display adapter, case) before i started to install os x (planned to use 10.6 and eventually upgrade to 10.6.2) do you think it is possible to achieve the sleep? i read the linked installation guide and apparently there are mixed results regarding sleep. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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