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EFiX: OSx86 gone commercial?


apowerr

efi-x.com, last updated June 9th, claims to offer the ability to install OS 10 on a non mac with the retail disc. The EFiX website states:

EFiX is the best solution for installing and using Mac OS X on your PC.

It allows its user to install Mac OS X straight from the original DVD without having to worry about patches,

replacing files and anything like that.

That means you can buy a regular PC, Mac OS X and EFiX and enjoy what the Mac users have always enjoyed:

unmodified Mac OS X on your computer, safe, easy and fast, exactly the way it should be.

 

The development of EFiX took a lot of time.

During the development phase, we had to deal with various problems, including sabotage.

This process also involved testing, which has been conducted for the last 6 months in production environments.

Industry leading professionals(who work for TV stations, recording studios and many others) rely on EFiX and Mac OS X running on standard PC hardware to get their tasks done.

 

EFiX is in the final testing phase.

All the testing has went far better than what we expected and the testers have given positive feedback.

 

We have planned to release it on 23rd of June, 2008. More information will be added soon.

Longtime OSx86 contributor netkas has posted EFiX in action on his blog. According to netkas, EFiX is hardware which plugs into your USB port.

 

As the June 23rd release approaches, many questions about EFiX remain unanswered:

-Is it an EFI emulator like PC_EFI or Chameleon?

-Is the USB device required every time you boot or just during installation?

-While this device may allow OS 10 to be installed, won't the driver situation be just like that of the OSx86 project?

-How will Apple respond to this?

-Will EFiX's EFI implementation be usable on traditional OSx86 DVDs?

 

Something of note is the EFiX contact page:

International dealers:

(If you can not find dealers in your region please contact us)

Germany

Россия

Украина

Taiwan R.O.C.

P.R.China

Japan

Korea

Notice here that the United States, along with many other countries are ignored. Also, netkas who has a sample of the device, stated:

they don't plan to sell it in US.

 

So, forget about dmcs in this case.

Thoughts?


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A while back there was some discussion of the Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2 which was listed as partially supported by EFI-X. The issue was the on-board video and also the failure of their Northbridge tests. This has now been clarified by the EFI-X people. Since there was quite a bit of interest here as well as some unofficial statements to the contrary I am pasting his reply to a request for some official statement. Feel free to delete if this is inappropriate.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R

by WhiteDragon on Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:27 am

 

Dear friends,

 

Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R is officially unsupported by EFiX V1,

We will not write drivers for this motherboard in near time, and it will probably be abandoned.

Info:

Using of Hardware out of HCL void your right to use our support.

We cant handle Hardware which isnt approved officially in our Lab, and this is related to any Motherboard types and Brands.

 

To ensure quality and satisfaction of our customers we have to limit our HCL and we will extend it after the october update , but we will concentrate on high end modern Hardware and modern Software.

It is sometimes possible that we will get back to some older hardware and write drivers for it in our free time, but right now we are working 24 hours a day for the upcoming update and preplaned our time for at least 6 months in the future.

 

Best Regards

 

Wilhelm von Vnukov

President

Ancient Gate™ R&D Team

http://www.art-studios.net

 

EFI-X™ R&D Team

http://www.efi-x.com

 

ART-X™ R&D Team

 

------------------------------------------------------End of quote---------------------

 

The message is on their public forums and is the only definitive statement I can find regarding that board. They will apparently add some other mATX board to their list (possibly from DFI and the only one they make is the LanParty Jr. which is very nice but quite expensive.

 

The point is that the only supported boards are ATX tower boards and they are fairly pricey. I guess they really meant it when they said the point of EFI-X was not to save money ;)

 

The current price of the DFI board is around $170. The current price with shipping but not taxes/duty from Europe for the EFI-X is around $190.

 

The Gigabyte mATX board works perfectly with Boot-132, and by perfectly I mean everything works (including XP on an NTFS partition on a GUID drive and an LG DVD-RW IDE drive).

 

Something is wrong with this picture. I have nothing against EFI-X. Seems like a neat product. It does appear to be aiming at people who want high-end Mac Pro Lites, so to speak, or perhaps more accurately to PC users who would never buy an Apple computer.

 

This does not seem to be a product for a hobbyist with a mortgage:)

 

ls

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Weird that people claim to be having problems running the EFiX with a EP45-DS3R - that's exactly the board I got from Newegg and I had no problems whatsoever. For a day I ran 3 HD's and 2 DVD-R's without a problem (then I decided this was going to be a dedicated mac and pulled 1 HD and 1 DVD for use in a 'games only' winbox to reside next to the hack-pro EFiX box.

 

My sleep/shutdown/restart all work great... well with the exception of not waking up from sleep with mouse-click, but I think that may have to do with the mouse port... had the same problem on my genuine Mini as well at first. It does wake from sleep with the power button... and brings up the desktop in about 1 second flat... seriously, it beats my LCD coming out of sleep!

 

I haven't had any problems with TimeMachine... it worked without a hitch as well. Same with Fusion 2.0 - although to be honest I haven't really had time to put a virtual machine through it's paces yet. Toast burned beautifully, iLife and iWork all apps run flawlessly as does Aperture and Adobe CS3 Design Premium. All of the Apple branded software updated in one run along with the hardware, etc... not even a hiccup.

 

All board devices seem to work properly, both GBE's, FW & USB, etc...

 

Now don't get me wrong... everything worked 99% on my Kaly'd box and my Boot132 test as well... still had sleep and restart issues with both however... and of course couldn't do a straight update from 10.5.1->10.5.5 with the Kaly box... but as far as usability I really didn't get much of a gain for my ~$1000 MacProLite...

 

oh yeah... EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT I SPENT LESS THAN TWO HOURS INSTALLING EVERYTHING!!!!!!! That's the OS, all 3rd party software, all patches for the OS and 3PS, device drivers, etc... I spent more time than that just trying to download my first Kalyway image from 'the bay'... not to mention the dozens of hours spent pouring through hundreds of threads here and elsewhere trying to get X piece of hardware to cooperate... etc.. etc...

 

Now if I was still a kid in college... and my time was practically free, then the EFiX is waaay overpriced. However, I'm not that kid - in fact if I could get a smaller form factor Genuine MacPro for ~$1.5K... I'd do that and be done with it. Considering the value of my time... I'd gladly pay $300-400 for something that would make it as painless to run OSX on the system that I configured exactly as my needs dictate... the fact that I only paid $160 for it is like money in the bank.

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I've just taken delivery of the EP45-DS3 (not the R version), along with an 8800GT card and some extra RAM ready for when my efix arrives. I know a lot of you are using the DS3R, but has anyone used the DS3?

 

The main thing I want out of this setup is hassle free upgrades using the built in software update tool in Leopard. Can anyone clarify what the sound support is like in the DS3 / DS3R also? I heard some people mentioning that only the SPDIF port is supported, whereas I really need the standard analogue sound ports working on the motherboard to use my speaker setup. This is one thing I miss with my current Kalyway install on a 965P Gigabyte board.

 

Longer term I still think I will spring for a Mac Pro, but at the moment for a few hundred pounds I can get Mac Pro like performance for far less than the 1500 pounds I was looking at for a refurb base spec MacPro. If efix can get Snow Leopard compatability in place when it comes out that will be the icing on the cake.

 

Also its not a great time to be looking at a MacPro as they are overdue a refresh which looks likely year end, after which time the refurb prices may come down significantly on the current generation machines.

 

As others have said, I think the efix product has a very targetted market. A lot of people like me who are more than comfortable with building their own machines, but are looking for a quick, pain free way to keep their Leopard installs up to date and are willing to pay a premium for that convenience. If I had more spare time I think I would go down the Boot132 route, but these days time is the one thing I always seem to be short of!!

 

I was hoping they would be able to bring efix to market closer to the original 80 euro price initially mentioned, but even at 125 euros delivered its still worth it to me for the convenience.

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Couldn't agree with ya more Chris... and as far as OSX is concerned the analog and digital outputs all work. I can't say with 100% assurance as I only have the analog L/R ports used in my setup, but in the hardware listings it shows line out, line in, microphone, digital out - under audio... and the analog works without loading anything (no patching whatsoever) - I seriously did not use anything but my retail Leopard DVD and the CD's for installing my 3rd Party and Apple software... no codecs or kext patching required at all.

 

All updates from software update went without a hitch in one shot from a fresh install off the retail DVD - which is 10.5.1. You shouldn't have any problems with the DS3 board as opposed to the DS3R - as the only difference at all between them is the ICH10R vs ICH10 southbridge. So other than losing raid - which isn't supported at this time via EFiX anyway (well onboard isn't I should say... it will support other RAID solutions) - you'll have a great experience I think.

 

:)

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My DS3R is working perfectly fine for me! Just no sleep. I probably will not buy the efi-x dongle because i highly doubt its anything faster than my chameleon retail method. Fastest hack pro i've owned. I just cant overclock it for {censored}. Would like to send my q6600 to 3GHz it just cant handle it

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Weird that people claim to be having problems running the EFiX with a EP45-DS3R - that's exactly the board I got from Newegg and I had no problems whatsoever. For a day I ran 3 HD's and 2 DVD-R's without a problem (then I decided this was going to be a dedicated mac and pulled 1 HD and 1 DVD for use in a 'games only' winbox to reside next to the hack-pro EFiX box.

 

My sleep/shutdown/restart all work great... well with the exception of not waking up from sleep with mouse-click, but I think that may have to do with the mouse port... had the same problem on my genuine Mini as well at first. It does wake from sleep with the power button... and brings up the desktop in about 1 second flat... seriously, it beats my LCD coming out of sleep!

 

...

 

Maybe the rest of us just got a bad batch of EP45-DS3R boards. You're the first EP45-DS3R user to tell me you don't have the issues the rest of us are having. What firmware are you running?

 

Also, these boards only wake via power button under Leopard, it's perfectly normal.

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Maybe the rest of us just got a bad batch of EP45-DS3R boards. You're the first EP45-DS3R user to tell me you don't have the issues the rest of us are having. What firmware are you running?

 

Also, these boards only wake via power button under Leopard, it's perfectly normal.

 

Mine doesnt wake up :blink:

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I'm thinking that the DS3R users should start comparing Bios settings....... ?

 

Using the latest, F10 i believe. Only adjustment i've made is AHCI mode of course.

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ok just got time to trade out my mobo for a p35-ds3r (got it for like $80 ) and installed efix....

 

-had to get one of those cheap e-bay ide to sata converter for my dvd drive

 

- sleep works and wake with power button

 

-time machine didnt work at first, had to use the time machine fix from a kaly disk

 

- sometimes the usb mouse doesnt work upon wake up

 

........... it is nice, the fancy boot menu and it is driver free except for time machine fix. it does seem to have one or two bugs. my boot123 set up had none. ill give it a shot for a while ..... if anything ill ebay it and go back to boot123

:D

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Board recommendations revised:

 

http://forum.efi-x.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&...1d468a837#p1597

 

Looks like there is a bad batch of EP45-DS3R boards...over 50 of us are having issues. This is a Gigabyte problem, not an EFI-X problem. Personally I've had one bad board and one quirky board so far. I think I'm going to RMA my EP45-DS3R and move up to something like the EP45-DS4P.

 

If you have an EP45-DS3R board, please post your Serial Number (working or not) here:

 

http://forum.efi-x.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&...mp;p=1653#p1653

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Board recommendations revised:

 

http://forum.efi-x.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&...1d468a837#p1597

 

Looks like there is a bad batch of EP45-DS3R boards...over 50 of us are having issues. This is a Gigabyte problem, not an EFI-X problem. Personally I've had one bad board and one quirky board so far. I think I'm going to RMA my EP45-DS3R and move up to something like the EP45-DS4P.

 

If you have an EP45-DS3R board, please post your Serial Number (working or not) here:

 

http://forum.efi-x.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&...mp;p=1653#p1653

 

I can still return mine lol, thinking i should go for the DQ6?

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I can still return mine lol, thinking i should go for the DQ6?

 

I'm looking at the EP45-DS4P, basically the same but in place of the second PCI slot it has a 4x PCIe slot. $180 though, $50 more than my board. I already lost almost $30 on the restocking fee for my first board RMA, now I have to return my second one (also having issues). The two boards minus restocking fees will be just enough to cover one DS4P ;) I know better than to be an early adopter, dangit...there are always these weird little issues. Even though it's not EFI-X's fault, it would have been good to know which boards were having problems. Oh well. Aside from the quirks, the machine has been GREAT so far and I will DEFINITELY be buying more EFI-X chips. If the DS4P works, I'll just stick with those.

 

It's a pity, because all of my DS3L boards are rock-solid, never had a problem with any of them. Now I have two bad EP45-DS3R boards in a row, with reports of over 50 users with issues. Terrible, Gigabyte, just terrible.

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Board recommendations revised:

 

http://forum.efi-x.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&...1d468a837#p1597

 

Looks like there is a bad batch of EP45-DS3R boards...over 50 of us are having issues. This is a Gigabyte problem, not an EFI-X problem. Personally I've had one bad board and one quirky board so far. I think I'm going to RMA my EP45-DS3R and move up to something like the EP45-DS4P.

They claim the same problems with the GA-P35-DS3P & GA-EP35-DS3P boards which have been on the market for quite some time. They also claim that this problem is nothing to do with EFiX but might be due to the boards being X-rayed by Customs!!! Both claims seem unlikely.

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Anyone know if this applies to the vanilla EP45-DS3 as well?

 

If not this board is a cheaper option if you don't need the RAID capability.

 

Interestingly my current Gigabyte 965P-DS3P occasionally "forgets" its overclocking settings and I have to re-apply them. Seems to be related to times when I have to manually power down my machine because the shutdown doesn't always work with the current Kalyway setting. Maybe the BIOS reset issue is related to the way the machines are powered down?

 

I can't try my EP45-DS3 until my efix turns up sometime after the 7th Oct, so a bit concerned if there is a problem with these boards.

 

P.S. Has the board layout chaged for anyone else on InsanelyMac since yesterday? I haven't changed any settings, but I can only see the threaded post view..... :huh:

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P.S. Has the board layout chaged for anyone else on InsanelyMac since yesterday? I haven't changed any settings, but I can only see the threaded post view..... :huh:

 

Just go to the top of this page where you have thread title on the left and rating and options on the right - in options under display mode choose standard

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Just go to the top of this page where you have thread title on the left and rating and options on the right - in options under display mode choose standard

Thanks - haven't had my caffeine shot this morning, can't believe I didn't see that :D

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They claim the same problems with the GA-P35-DS3P & GA-EP35-DS3P boards which have been on the market for quite some time. They also claim that this problem is nothing to do with EFiX but might be due to the boards being X-rayed by Customs!!! Both claims seem unlikely.

 

I can't think of any other explanation though...it doesn't make sense that EFI-X would work on some DS3R boards and not others, that can only mean that the boards are bad. Both of my EP45-DS3R boards have problems outside of EFI-X too. My guess is that there's a bad batch. I'm compiling working and non-working serial numbers in this thread to see if we can nail down the batch:

 

http://forum.efi-x.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&...mp;p=1674#p1674

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