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Hey all

So, found you via a google search, and, fingers crossed, this is the site I need :)

Im a Scottish musician and producer, living in Northern England, and, bit into my techy stuff

Not new to the hackintosh scene, although, its been maybe 10-15 years since I used it haha, so, in tech terms, I probably AM new to it again haha. 
When I had my old machine, a friend specced it as an intel based mac pro, as I wanted it to run protools and logic. Since it died, I have pretty much been in windows hell, and, thats where I am at :)

I remember having chameleon, creating a dual boot, the wonderful world of kexts, but they became less on that last one, as all the hardware ran on a legit version of OSX, I just had to create the boot basically. 

So, I am actually looking to see if I can install it on the machine I currently have (will stick specs at the end, let me know what I miss!), before I go and actually buy a new one. Can this still be done? This thing is pretty powerful, but, maybe 10 years old?

Also wondering if its a proper pain in the hole haha, knowing my luck, it will be


Anyway, this is what I gleaned from my system, hardware wise (128Gb SSD main drive, and, about 10TB of storage)

 

Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Motherboard
Bios F9 - UEFI
Processor - Intel Core i5-4690K @ 3.50GHz (4 cpus)
Ram - 16Gb
Display - Intel HD Graphics 4600 - 2Gb
Sound - Intel HD

 

Any help and advise would be massively appreciated. I dont need the latest version of OSX to run protools or logic, so, if theres a way to get something on here, and dead simple, that would be ace

J

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1 hour ago, jjcitykids said:

 

 

Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Motherboard
Bios F9 - UEFI
Processor - Intel Core i5-4690K @ 3.50GHz (4 cpus)
Ram - 16Gb
Display - Intel HD Graphics 4600 - 2Gb
Sound - Intel HD

 

Any help and advise would be massively appreciated. I dont need the latest version of OSX to run protools or logic, so, if theres a way to get something on here, and dead simple, that would be ace

J

This graphics will not go in Ventura so last system for you is Monterey.

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@jjcitykids I did a quick web search and found lots of posted solutions for your motherboard.  Google is your friend if you want other solutions to compare to the solution suggested by Allan.  Agree with Slice that you want to stick with Monterey for "native" macOS support.  If you do find the need to run Ventura, there are solutions for that, too.

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On 2/14/2023 at 9:01 PM, deeveedee said:

@jjcitykids I did a quick web search and found lots of posted solutions for your motherboard.  Google is your friend if you want other solutions to compare to the solution suggested by Allan.  Agree with Slice that you want to stick with Monterey for "native" macOS support.  If you do find the need to run Ventura, there are solutions for that, too.

 

I did have a google, and got a bit confused :) Appreciate all the tips here. In principle I think I would like to be able to be as up to date as possible, but, for programs like Protools and Logic, thats not overly important. 

I "think" I have a geforce graphics card in a cupboard, I will dig it out and check what it is, but, I know it wasnt compatible with Windows 10, so, do I go with the assumption that it probably wont work with Ventura either?


Then again, I like the "native" idea far far more, so, I will get on and try that first

 

Thanks all SO much, I will post success or failures soon

 

On 2/14/2023 at 8:52 PM, Slice said:

This graphics will not go in Ventura so last system for you is Monterey.

 

Much thanks, thats very good to know :)

 

On 2/14/2023 at 8:24 PM, Allan said:

Hello @jjcitykids, be welcome to InsanelyMac!

 

You can choose the macOS version here, and download it.

 

After that, burn the image on a USB stick, at least 16GB, and try to boot. If you face problems, post them here. 😀

Hey, 
So, if I choose the links off the main page there it wants me to sign up to something like "buff gaming"? But, the list of links has me downloading a pkg file. all the installs are basically about DMG (I kinda get how to create a bootable usb from them :) Will this work with pkg? or, should I sign up to the gaming site?

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Ok, so, managed to get one downloaded, actually from elsewhere, as a dmg. Did the transmac thing to create the usb drive, can’t boot from it :)

so, I know I will need a Bootloader, but this clover thing, and looked at opencore and got really REALLY confused haha. Last time I did this, think I just burned an iso of chameleon to a cd, put it in and restarted. But, beyond struggling now with this. Given up for the night and will try and read some more, especially articles that don’t need a Mac already haha. 
I will be missing something dumb no doubt and making it harder than it is

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On 2/16/2023 at 4:43 PM, Allan said:

Don't use Transmac, go to Etcher 😉

"graphical interface".... thats me sold haha

 

Thank you... again!

 

Ok, Etcher is wonderful! Thats a wicked tool, thanks for the headsup on that

 

Ok, so, while I have been trying things, at work I thought about it, and the endgame will replace this machine anyway, so, I did some digging and thought about building essentially an intel version of a Mac Studio and trying to install to that

 

Also, thought I would put this here to not clog up loads of threads :)  See what you reckon, the case is mint haha

 

Case - Streacom FC8 (looks REALLY Mac Studio like

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/streacom-st-fc8s-alpha-htpc-aluminium-chasis-silver-ca-052-sr.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6LyfBhC3ARIsAG4gkF-oWvCxplXHIUR3y6qwQf_04OrdFsUDsz6TdPhbw5hukNhJ5L61mtwaAiV2EALw_wcB

 

PSU - the case has a recommended one, so, that

 

Motherboard (although it seems, if I can actually find one

Gigabyte Z490I Aorus Ultra

CPU

Core i3-10100

 

Will of course go with 64Gb Ram, 1TB SSD, and that lets me have a slim optical drive too, just in case, but, does that look sensible? I read "stick to 10th Gen CPUs" So, they look like they would work, and, the board has plenty inputs I need. But, any other suggestions would be cool like. The more I read, as much as I "want" the latest OS, I dont actually need it for Pro Tools (it still runs on Mac Pro 5,1), but, forward planning suggests I go with something capable. 

 

I may have got this all wrong, but, works out around £700, which doesnt suck too much

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Today you can use the last version of Intel CPUs, the only thing that isn't compatible is the iGPU.

 

Take this example: i5 11gen + a compatible AMD video card, you're good to go! So the main hardware that you should worry about is the video card. Always go to one that is supported by Apple.

 

Look here: https://dortania.github.io/GPU-Buyers-Guide/modern-gpus/amd-gpu.html

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I think when you understand all this stuff you should get some kind of certificate! :) 

 

im getting slowly around the very basics and really appreciate all the help

 

Just thinking, using Etcher, I am now getting "flash failed" on both Catalina and Monterey

This happens after the checking section

Should I check my bios and make sure something isnt on or off that shouldnt be? I remember having to do this before

 

Success! But then I forgot you have to format disc so had to come out, will do this after the footie :)

 

And… currently installing, fingers crossed haha

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Ok, so all good, nearly! haha


Installed, reinstalled my studio software (its actually offering me an upgrade to Ventura

 

But, 


When i restart, if I dont have the usb in, it doesnt boot. Do I have to do something after install to just make it boot without the usb?

 

Other than that, very happy :)

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Is that the one from the usb? Or do I need to find one on machine somewhere?

 

also, this thing has 16gb ram at the mo, am sure it’s ddr3. Are there any restrictions? Could I grab 2 x 32gb and boost it that way? It’s something I need to do, don’t wanna buy the wrong thing

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Hello!

 

3 hours ago, jjcitykids said:

ok, heres the EFI folder from the USB that let me install it, hope this is right

If this is the one that you're booting macOS, that's right!

 

UPDATE: It's showing an error, can't download the file through this link 😕

 

4 hours ago, jjcitykids said:

also, this thing has 16gb ram at the mo, am sure it’s ddr3. Are there any restrictions? Could I grab 2 x 32gb and boost it that way? It’s something I need to do, don’t wanna buy the wrong thing

32GB would be good if you want to multitask 😃

 

 

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They seem to be, from what I can tell. I’m into nitpicking now :)

 

ram - it’s showing as 1333/1300, but I’m sure it’s quicker :) would I be restricted to 32gb or could I go 64?

 

how do I check I’m running usb3, not usb2? When I look in system, it shows usb 3 hub, but then 2 in the tree. Only reason is I want to make sure my audio interface and external usb3 hub is actually using that

 

don’t think restart works, but I think I read that was a thing?

 

is it possible to have an app load on startup? 

 

boot seems to entirely be in verbose mode, is it possible to make it look “pretty”? Haha

 

none of these are really important. End of the week, will be picking up more ram, and a 1tb ssd as my 128gb is nowhere near big enough

 

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24 minutes ago, jjcitykids said:

would I be restricted to 32gb or could I go 64?

It depends about your Motherboard

 

24 minutes ago, jjcitykids said:

how do I check I’m running usb3, not usb2? When I look in system, it shows usb 3 hub, but then 2 in the tree. Only reason is I want to make sure my audio interface and external usb3 hub is actually using that

Plug and USB 3 stick, and check if the speed is 5GBs. If is, that's ok

 

25 minutes ago, jjcitykids said:

don’t think restart works, but I think I read that was a thing?

If you're using OpenCore or Clover, there's some quicks and kexts that can help you

 

26 minutes ago, jjcitykids said:

is it possible to have an app load on startup? 

Yep! System Preferences > Users and groups, click on your user and you'll see an option to add or remove apps to startup with macOS

 

28 minutes ago, jjcitykids said:

boot seems to entirely be in verbose mode, is it possible to make it look “pretty”? Haha

Sure! Just remove the -v boot argument

 

 

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