[noob's guide] Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3, Intel i7 860, 10.6.4, DAW / Audio workstation use

[manta]

Just built a pretty nice i7 hackintosh and thought I'd share my experiences.. what I've written up here isn't rocket science and I can't take credit for any of it at all (apart from a few comments about some hardware components), but maybe it might help some people. I'm going to be using it for high performance audio / DAW work with Logic 9 and plugins, so I'll update this thread with additional info about the reliability for this purpose after using it for a while. I hope linking to guides on other sites is OK - there's a rule in the Genius Bar but it didn't mention anything on this forum. This guide is really for noobs like me so hopefully it's okay.

 

I've included retail links to the parts in case they are hard to find.

 

Hardware list

I was fairly pressed for time so there may be better components than these available for the money. It's up to your budget obviously, but you could definitely find more 'elite' RAM, hard disks, PSU, case etc. This is just an example of a proven set of components that will work.

 

Graphics card - Gigabyte 9800GT Silent (passive)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002B9J...=A1AUCPBF2P18HS

 

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 (rev 1.0)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/194679

This board has USB3 which obviously won't work in OSX yet. It does not have firewire, but IMHO firewire is a dying platform, and if you have hardware that requires it, a half-decent PCI or PCIe firewire card will do the job just fine.

 

PSU - OCZ ModXtream Pro

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174182

 

OS hard drive WD 500GB

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228

 

DVD drive - I guess anything will work

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

 

CPU - Intel Core i7 860

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172754

 

RAM - 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179278

 

Cooler - Zalman CNPS10X Performa

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198976

 

This cooler was really fiddly to install... really couldn't believe some of the steps required. If you're considering this cooler, check the Zalman website for the docs/flash videos to see exactly how bizarrely fiddly it is. It's designed for about 5 or 6 different sockets so there are way too many weird options. It's obviously up to you how much research you want to do into coolers, you may be perfectly happy with the Intel stock cooler.

 

Case - Fractal Design Define R2

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190873

 

This case is generally quite awesome. Lots of space, a good cable-tidying system. One small problem is that the PSU sits at the bottom so 1 of the cables from the PSU to the board (ATX 12V 8pin) couldn't be threaded through the cable-tidying system, and in fact runs underneath the PCI/PCIe cards near the edge of the case. This issue could be fixed by this, I will try it at some point:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/NZXT-Power-Extensi...sxp_grid_pt_2_0

 

It is a little annoying that case manufacturers don't think about this stuff and include PSU extension cables if the PSU is at the bottom of the case. I can't imagine I'm the first one to have this problem!

 

One other issue with the case - the front panel USB doesn't seem to work so far. The ports may be borked on the case itself, or perhaps the motherboard headers are faulty. I'm not desperate for this functionality so I'm going to live with it. There are plenty of ports on the normal motherboard i/o section, and you can connect a hub. Front panel audio is fine, but I haven't tested the eSata port yet (connected to a motherboard internal Sata header - so it won't be hot-swappable).

 

Install method:

I can't take credit for this, everything went exactly as this following guide said it would, and it was very easy. Make sure you take care and follow the instructions closely.

 

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/ibo...ac-os-x-on.html

 

Notes - I used the '[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] supported' bootloader CD and used the 'UserDSDT' method in the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] section of the guide, with the DSDT file linked below. The '[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] supported' bootloader installs a vanilla retail kernel (unhacked). Once you install the 10.6.4 update, the P55 chipset is natively supported in OSX.

 

If you get any kernel panics/grey screens during the install process, just reboot and try again... it may happen once or twice but I think this isn't fatal. Machine is rock solid after the entire guide is completed.

 

Latest versions of required bootloader CD and tools:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/Public/[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]-Supported.zip

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/07/mul...210-update.html

 

DSDT file:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/Public/DSDT-GA-P55-USB3-F6.aml

 

(make sure you flash the motherboard to the F6 Bios - you can do this from the Bios itself and a USB stick, you don't need a floppy drive/windows etc, although the zip self-extractor for the Bios download needs to be run in Windows to extract the bios image - ugh Gigabyte, what's wrong with a zip!?)

 

Motherboard F6 bios:

http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/BIOS/...p55-usb3_f6.exe

 

Kexts:

LAN:

Realtek R1000 in [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 2.10 tool

 

Misc:

IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector in [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] tool for proper drive icons (cosmetic)

 

Audio:

http://www.kexts.com/view/408-alc888_hd_audio_10.6.4.html

(there are others - http://www.kexts.com/search.html?q=alc888&b= )

 

There may be a better way of getting the audio working, as the modified AppleHDA kext will probably be knocked out by an OS update.

 

This may also be the case for the other kexts, I haven't done an update yet (aside from the 10.6.4 update before installing the kexts). But since there are only 3 kexts to install, it's not such a massive deal if an OS update knocks them out.

 

If installing kexts with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url], remember to check the 'Repair permissions' items. The AppleHDA kext link contains installation instructions (install with Kext Utility, which can be installed from [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]).

 

Other required items

You'll also need a Snow Leopard retail install disk (buy it!) and the 10.6.4 combo update.

 

Initial status report

The machine is working great so far, Shutdown/Restart are working without any kexts, although I haven't tried Sleep yet. I'll update this thread with info on this and any other usage issues I encounter.

[blazeburns]

Great guide!

 

I just finished an almost identical install using the Rev 2 motherboard which introduces a couple of other problems that will require adjustments for those who want to follow this guide.

 

I wish I had something like this when I was working on mine, although again, my results would have been different than yours due to the REv 2 motherboard. Specifically for someone following the guide, it appears the sound and networking have different chips and have to be handled differently.

 

The networking requires the official Realtek Kext and currently only works in 32 bit mode.

 

The sound requires Voodoo 0.2.1 kext, but I believe I had to remove another kext from S/L/E to get it to work. I'm sorry I can't remember which one now - should have been taking notes, but it was something like "AppleAAU..." or something like that. I've seen other solutions people ahve posted that supposedly work too though.

 

I'm really excited to try the kext you mentioned for the cosmetic issue of the drives showing as external. It is jsut cosmetic, but it's been bothering me and I"m going to give it a try when I get back to my hackintosh. Thanks again for the great info!

[mega]

I have a rev2 setup, telling it to sleep reboots the box

 

I use the dsdt install, and the only kext I install is voodoo 0.2.2 for sound

 

everything I tried to get the lan card to work failed, and some of the kexts would cause sever instability on reboot. I gave up and purchased a dynex gigabyte card from bestbuy.

[fmillion]

I have a similar board based on the same chipset, the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, and my build is mostly the same as yours except for a core i5. I have everything working using the same exact kexts you used. Only problem I'm having is random freezes which I believe may be related to my use of a 1.5TB drive, I'm trying a 500GB drive to see if that solves the problem; the problem is hard to reproduce as it usually only occurs after a few days of uptime.

 

Sometimes my shutdown fails too, it will KP or just lock at the blue screen, but this isn't a huge concern to me as normally all my boxes stay on 24/7. Restart also won't always work which is a bit more annoying but tolerable. Haven't tried yet messing with CPU power management hacks.

 

Only thing I wonder if I can get to work is SATA hot swapping. When using the AHCI injector, it seems to allow a non-used SATA channel to receive a new drive while powered on (e.g. my ESATA port) but it can't seem to handle ejecting and accepting a new device on that channel.

 

Also the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD enabled the ATA ports, but the kexts I have in the OS don't enable it, and the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD just has an mkext file so I'm not sure what kext I could use to enable that...

 

DVD drive is also giving me trouble but that's another story for another post.

 

-FM

[manta]

A small update - sleep doesn't work. This doesn't really bother me at all, and there may be a way of getting it to work but as it's not important to me I don't really have the time to investigate it. I think sleep on hacks in general is always going to be a touch and go situation. It's really not important in anything but a laptop in my opinion.

 

Another update - the front panel USB issue was a hardware issue with the case. Upon further inspection of the contents of the box, it actually came with a replacement cable to connect from the front panel to the board with the correct wiring for the front USB to work properly! The Fractal Design case is just amazing... incredibly quiet and sturdy as f**k!

 

In other news, I think there is now a new driver for the LAN which I still haven't tried but I will soon and report back.

 

 

blazeburns - you're welcome, but I can't take any credit for the guide Tonyx86 blog/forum was invaluable in my research. The IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector kext is safe, I've used it in all hacks I've built with no issues.

 

mega - try the more recent LAN kext (after checking it works with the LAN chip on the rev2.0 board)

 

fmillion - are you using a proper DSDT for your particular board? If not, you will definitely run into issues. The Tonyx86 site has DSDTs for most Gigabyte boards.

[VeriChip]

Hi, I'm new, and I'm building my first hackintosh. I'm following the tonymac [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]+[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] tutorial but I'm having some issues.

 

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/ibo...ac-os-x-on.html

 

I've set up the bios settings as directed. I was able to get osx installed, however I cannot get past step 3 to update to 10.6.5 or install [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]. When I put in a disk or plug in my thumb drive (formatted fat32) the system just does not see it. I have no idea why my usb thumb drive wont show up, I'm using a usb keyboard and mouse and they work fine. I don't see how to transfer the necessary files to my hackintosh to get it up and running smoothly.

 

Do I need to flash the bios first and then reinstall? Should I use "[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] supported" instead of just [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]? I havn't seen anyone with my problem anywhere on the forums.

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/05/ibo...kernel-for.html

 

Hardware:

Gigabyte P55-USB3 rev2

core i3 540

2x2GB corsair xms3 ddr3 1333

BD combo drive (HP)

evga GT210

corsair vx550w

WD caviar black 500GB

retail snow leopard 10.6.3

 

help appreciated!

[manta]

Verichip - you should be using a DSDT file created for a specific BIOS version of your board, and flash your board to that version before installing. The rev 2.0 board is different to the 1.0. If you can't find a working DSDT file, you'll need to make one! I've never had to do it so I can't help there, but there are plenty of tutorials on this forum. There should be a DSDT available, judging from a quick google:

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q...ved=0CCgQrQIwAA

[waynesphotos]

Hi Manta

 

im wondering if you can help how do i tell which revi i have cant see anything on the board its self,

also if i flash the bios to f6 this wont affect any chances of not being able to boot to windows?

 

i have spent about 3 days trying to get this up and running i cant get the install done ok its when i try to update to 10.6.8 that i start having issues. and so far i have only managed to get ethernet working no sound.you said you did an install of 10.6.4

so did you do snow leopard then, 10.6.4 the 10.6.8 or did yo udo the ones inbetween?

 

 

any help would be great im slowly loosing it after 3 days

 

thanks

wayne

 

ok i used cpu-z to find out that my board is a f9 revision if that helps