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[HowTo] Building an overclocked Core2Duo box for OSx86.

bofors

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in OSx86 10.4 (Tiger)

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icyderguru
icyderguru
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Just for comparison, here is my Core 2 Duo 6600 running at 3806 MHZ, 2GB DDR2845, x1600 pro

Ordered a MSI 7900 GTO today, cant wait to get it :D

 

bofors: I love your rig building posts, everything is so detailed and well structured, i hope you can archieve to get Dual Displays working sooner or later - if not a 30 inch Dell isnt too shaby :)

 

and yeah, i have set correct fsb values :huh:

 

Results 301.72

System Info

Xbench Version 1.3

System Version 10.4.8 (8L2127)

Physical RAM 2048 MB

Model ACPI

Drive Type Maxtor 6V320F0

CPU Test 198.96

GCD Loop 450.90 23.77 Mops/sec

Floating Point Basic 217.17 5.16 Gflop/sec

vecLib FFT 160.82 5.31 Gflop/sec

Floating Point Library 141.56 24.65 Mops/sec

Thread Test 382.51

Computation 349.91 7.09 Mops/sec, 4 threads

Lock Contention 421.82 18.15 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test 206.79

System 247.51

Allocate 201.10 738.52 Kalloc/sec

Fill 263.88 12830.31 MB/sec

Copy 297.75 6150.00 MB/sec

Stream 177.58

Copy 173.11 3575.42 MB/sec

Scale 177.97 3676.90 MB/sec

Add 181.21 3860.08 MB/sec

Triad 178.21 3812.28 MB/sec

Quartz Graphics Test 316.98

Line 233.51 15.55 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 304.42 90.88 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 289.47 23.60 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 259.88 6.55 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 1106.38 69.21 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 317.61

Spinning Squares 317.61 402.91 frames/sec

User Interface Test 903.81

Elements 903.81 4.15 Krefresh/sec

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icyderguru
icyderguru
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icyderguru, what kind of cooling are you using :(

 

everything is running on air with 4 fans (5 if you count the one on the gpu :D), (sonic tower), 2 fans on the cpu cooler, 1 blowing air to the ram+northbridge, another one blowing air to the southbridge

 

but if i cant get 4 ram sticks to work with the 333 strap i will have to use the 266+50% setting (3,6 ghz)

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bofors
bofors
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bofors, dose your ram get to hot, because it seems as though you have big concerns.

 

No, not with two the two 50mm Delta fans on it and copper heatspreaders. It seems to be just a few degrees above ambient during Rember (memtest) memory testing, same goes for the northbridge heatsink. But I did notice the memory getting hot in my other box, that is under 1.8v, 4-4-4-12, DDR2-667 (not overclocked). I want see what happens with 4 x 1GB first, but I am actually thinking about adding a third Delta 50mm to cool the memory or switching to two 60mm fans (50mm seems a little narrow).

 

This is awesome!! How do get along with your OSX 10.4.8 install - all stable? System clock works correctly?

 

I have not done any rigorous testing on the clock but it seems about right. It kept the time straight for the few minutes I watched it and the GUI animation speed seems normal now (it was hyper before I set the FSB kernel flag).

 

I am using the version of Mifki's kenrel that JaS but on his 10.4.8, that is Rufus build 0.0.3. It is not quite 100% stable. I have had my system a few twice during Rember testing on all memory. But on the other hand, it completed 15 full loops (over several hours) with no problem and because Rember allocates all free memory (leaving none for anything else) it is not surprising that the system might have some problems when it is running. I have also had some issues with Rember on my PowerMac G5.

 

EDIT: My system just rebooted itself while running Rember. I am going to try testing on less RAM and see if the problem goes away.

 

EDIT 2: This Rember generated instability does not appear when testing less that the full amount of RAM, it really is not a legitimate problem.

 

Anyways, there is a new version of Mifki's kernel availible (he claims it is perfect) and I will be switching to that soon.

 

i hope you can archieve to get Dual Displays working sooner or later

 

I am working on the dual display issue full time now and do not plan to stop until it is fixed. It looks trivial and in fact, looking over the Natit source, it appears that it might already work with a CRT and LCD.

 

EDIT: The is new version of Natit that is set up to use Plists, so no programming is actually required to experiment with it now and it has removed the CRT vs. LCD business: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...1833&st=29#

 

EDIT2: I now have dual displays working in extended desktop mode on this machine with a 3D Fusion 7600GS (VGA/DVI) and two Samsung 712n panels. Here is the version of Natit that is setup to make this work: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...view=getnewpost

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David7586
David7586
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Posted

guys does anyone know the compatibility of the bad axe 2's sound chontroller? instead of the 9221 series the bad axe 2 iwill be suing the Intel® High Definition Audio (Sigmatel STAC9274D). I really hope this chipset works because it seems this new revision of the bad axe seems perfect with its enhanced OC'ing abilities

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bofors
bofors
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guys does anyone know the compatibility of the bad axe 2's sound chontroller? instead of the 9221 series the bad axe 2 iwill be suing the Intel® High Definition Audio (Sigmatel STAC9274D). I really hope this chipset works because it seems this new revision of the bad axe seems perfect with its enhanced OC'ing abilities

 

David, I am not sure what the state of OSx86 driver support is for HD Audio, but I would not count on anything. With the 9221 support seems to be limited to stereo out right now and I suspect that with some work we will get the same with 9274.

 

I am trying to wrap up this build both in terms of software and hardware. Hardwise, the Samsung DVD-ROM I have been trying to use with mix results has turn into too much of a hassle with unreliable booting and now apparently the inability to play DVD movies (even the BIOS seems not to like this drive, boots are slower with it in). So, I ordered a Pioneer (which is the brand that Apple uses) DVR-111D from NewEgg for under $38 shipped.

 

Attached is the version of AppleHDA.kext (courtesy of Kiko) that I used to get the 9221 outputing stereo through the blue jack (not the green).

 

Also attached is the latest Mifki/Vitaliy/Daemon kernel which I am using. It automatically detects and sets the FSB speed but requires some particular version of AppleSMBIOS.kext which is included.

 

Here is the complete Xbench with an XFX 7600GS driving dual VGA displays:

Results	217.75	
System Info		
	Xbench Version		1.3
	System Version		10.4.8 (8L2127)
	Physical RAM		2048 MB
	Model		ACPI
	Drive Type		SoftRAID_Media
CPU Test	170.28	
	GCD Loop	384.56	20.27 Mops/sec
	Floating Point Basic	185.98	4.42 Gflop/sec
	vecLib FFT	137.46	4.53 Gflop/sec
	Floating Point Library	121.37	21.13 Mops/sec
Thread Test	326.81	
	Computation	299.61	6.07 Mops/sec, 4 threads
	Lock Contention	359.43	15.46 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test	229.14	
	System	228.95	
		Allocate	194.37	713.78 Kalloc/sec
		Fill	262.42	12759.52 MB/sec
		Copy	241.09	4979.54 MB/sec
	Stream	229.34	
		Copy	224.02	4627.08 MB/sec
		Scale	226.45	4678.37 MB/sec
		Add	235.92	5025.63 MB/sec
		Triad	231.34	4948.91 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test	244.68	
	Line	199.11	13.26 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
	Rectangle	257.14	76.77 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
	Circle	246.12	20.06 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
	Bezier	221.13	5.58 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
	Text	340.32	21.29 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test	241.60	
	Spinning Squares	241.60	306.49 frames/sec
User Interface Test	690.42	
	Elements	690.42	3.17 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test	108.98	
	Sequential	196.60	
		Uncached Write	169.66	104.17 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	300.25	169.88 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	123.08	36.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	333.74	167.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	75.39	
		Uncached Write	35.46	3.75 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	128.30	41.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	98.22	0.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	145.33	26.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

My disk scores are from a 10 GB partition on the fast edge of a three disk striped RAID set. I ordered four disks but one arrived DOA. and TigerDirect no longer carries these $20 refurbished drives. When I get a forth drive my disk scores should go up by about 30%.

 

EDIT: TigerDirect has the $20 refurbished SATA hard drives back in stock, so I ordered two more.

AppleHDA.kext.zip

DaemonES_Kernel.zip

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bofors
bofors
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By the way, in case people don't know, the Bad Axe 2 is starting to show up at retailers: http://www.tankguys.biz/intel-d975xbx2-sat...dio-p-1703.html

 

EDIT: TigerDirect has the original Bad Axe on sale for $200: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...mp;Sku=I69-2121

 

(But I certainly think the Bad Axe 2 for $240 is a better deal, we will see how far these old Bad Axes drop in price soon).

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rschultz101
rschultz101
Posted
Posted

why not abit aw9d board, cheaper, dual gigE + sound ?

http://www.nordichardware.com/Reviews/?pag...p;skrivelse=489

 

for me, just looking for 6+ sata,

the asus is more money, ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP has wifi,...

 

also looking for cheap, cool , quiet cpu,

so far on the D 352 celeron, is running hotter than E6300,...

at least cheap to start for a server

 

thanks, Rob

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bofors
bofors
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The Abit AW9D Max is a very popular board at Xtreme Systems: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=115839

 

I too like the idea of getting dual ethernet on a board in this price range. It also has an eSATA port off an Sil 3132 controller which should work with OSx86: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=24254

 

However, I am not sure what LAN and audio chips it uses, so there could be issues with OSx86 compatibility there.

 

Personally, I am sticking with the Intel boards for now. This is for a few reasons, one is that I want to continue to advocate on getting EFI working on OSx86. Intel is almost the only vendor that offers EFI motherboards. Another reason is that Apple now bases its own motherboards, to the extent of even making the firmware compatible, on Intel boards.

 

The lastest reason I am favoring Intel, is that I am very pleased with my Bad Axe (which I got for much less than a new Abit AW9D Max). While I may have been able to overclock a little higher on some other board, my system runs great. My vCore is set all the down, so my E6300 run very cool. Finally, being a former Mac person, I have no hands-on experience with Asus, Gigabyte, Abit or others. I would like to take steps to avoid getting a bad board, so Intel is a safe, conservative choice for me.

 

Now, I am waiting to see some overclocking results from the Bad Axe 2. If it overclocks much better than the original, it could really justify the price of a new one.

_Demonoid.com__MAC_OS_X_10_4_8_Intel_Only_Jas_re_seed__SSE3_Only_NO_AMD__657855.0704.torrent.zip

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Thade
Thade
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Quote: To go higher with OSx86, you probably need to do the "OC Debug": http://forums.legitreviews.com/about6375.html

 

I found that I was able to run the CPU at the lowest vCore setting, which is good because it runs much cooler.

 

 

 

I hesitate to do the debug mod for a couple of reasons. I haven't been able to verify that it has been done on a rev 306. Also, I am currently at 50% OC and I was under the impression that the MB would automatically max out at 30%. There may be something different about this rev

 

I also picked up a sb Live! external which is working great. I boot into Win mostly for gamers and didn't want to swap blue-green connectors. My old Asus MB had a pop up for choosing boot disk. This was great because my OSs are on seperate disks so I used that as my "boot menu". No such feature on the Bad Axe that I can find so I went to the chain0 method and it's working fine

 

Temp monitor app works but I believe it's wrong. Idle temps in OSX 50C vs 36-39C in Win and bios

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bofors
bofors
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I hesitate to do the debug mod for a couple of reasons. I haven't been able to verify that it has been done on a rev 306. Also, I am currently at 50% OC and I was under the impression that the MB would automatically max out at 30%. There may be something different about this rev

 

They changed the BIOS a while back to enable 50% OC, my rev 305 Bad Axe had the same option without doing the "OC Debug" mod. With the "OC Debug" you are just connecting a jumper that Intel clipped, it enables more OC features in BIOS and nothing more. There really is no risk.

 

Temp monitor app works but I believe it's wrong. Idle temps in OSX 50C vs 36-39C in Win and bios

 

How are you measuring temp. in OS X?

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greenman100
greenman100
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They changed the BIOS a while back to enable 50% OC, my rev 305 Bad Axe had the same option without doing the "OC Debug" mod. With the "OC Debug" you are just connecting a jumper that Intel clipped, it enables more OC features in BIOS and nothing more. There really is no risk.

How are you measuring temp. in OS X?

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=28051

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DRKRONNIN
DRKRONNIN
Posted
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Hello everyone Im a NOOB here and Ive been reading this forum for a few months as a guest and finally decided to take part. Im in the process of picking parts for my Conroe OSx86 box but im stuck on one thing. Im planning on getting the ASUS P5W DH becuase I like its features over the ones offered on the intel "Bad Axe" board. I have yet to hear anything wrong with it aside from the fact that the wireless router doesnt work in OSx86. Is there any factors that place the Intel "Bad Axe" board over the Asus P5W DH? My problem is I'm trying to select graphics cards but Im unsure if "Crossfire" is supported by OSx86 has anyone ever had any success running a OSx86 box with dual graphics Cards? Im looking at the new x1950 pro cards

Here

Im unsure if there supported (Checking the compatability list at the wiki). I wouldnt mind running crossfire with two of these.

 

BTW Im still a noob when it comes to OCing a computer so if anyone has any tips feel free to tell me.

 

Thanks again everyone :D

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bofors
bofors
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Is there any factors that place the Intel "Bad Axe" board over the Asus P5W DH?

 

No, not really. The P5W is also a top choice for OSx86:

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=23246

 

My problem is I'm trying to select graphics cards but Im unsure if "Crossfire" is supported by OSx86 has anyone ever had any success running a OSx86 box with dual graphics Cards?

 

We have made a major progress with graphics cards lately, but I am not sure if anybody has even tried sticking two graphics cards in a Hackintosh. Furthermore, I do not think Crossfire or SLI is supported by OS X's drivers (yet).

 

BTW Im still a noob when it comes to OCing a computer so if anyone has any tips feel free to tell me.

 

This was my first overclock, so I am hardly an expert. I think northbridge cooling is an important issue with overclocking these boards. Other than that, overclocking is a simple "trial & error" process, so be prepared to spend a few hours tweaking parameters. The key voltages seem to be vMCH (this is why northbridge cooling is important), vDIMM and vCore (although this seems to have had no effect on my overclock). One approach is to raise them all to maximum (safe) values, find your maximum overclock and then lower the voltages until your overclock is unstable.

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DRKRONNIN
DRKRONNIN
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Thanks Alot for you help bofors!!!! :hysterical: Im planning on building my machine so I can run Final Cut and Avid Xpress on one system. I thought both boards seemed really good so my deciding factor is going to be based soley on which one i can get the best deal on when I go to buy.

 

I also wanted to know is it possible to build the machine, set up a raid 0 configuration then boot xp pro and osx86?

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bofors
bofors
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Here are a couple notes for people thinking about building an overclocked Core 2 Duo system.

 

Fry's / Outpost.com has the E6400 on sale for $207 shipped: http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4893650

 

Spending an extra $25 or so more for it over an E6300 is certainly worth the money because you get a multiplier of 8 instead of 7. That would place my overcock at 3.7GHz (although realisticly I would expect a little less) over the 3.3GHz I am at.

 

However, when shopping for a chip to overclock, one now also has the option of buying "Xeon" branded Conroe's. These are supposed to be of higher quailty: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=122224

 

So instead of buying E6600, I may spend a little more and get a Xeon 3060 (which is technically identical) instead: http://store.pagecomputers.com/store/produ...&scs=NEXTAG

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