Hackintosh Build

[fuzz092888]

Finally got the stupid windows thing figured out. So now I'm installing windows on an extra hard drive, then I'll install the latest drivers for the motherboard. Supposedly this is supposed to make the thunderbolt ports functional in OSX.

I guess on the bright side I'll be able to boot windows and OSX as needed.

 

[Alex2507]

Have you tried Vista?

 

[markosti]

So long story short, I needed a new project and wanted a desktop so I could stop moving my laptop around so much. Plus I may install Kodi and a bunch of 4TB HDD's later on and call it an HTPC as well. In any case, I wanted to stay with OSX, but didn't want the awful, overpriced hardware that is quickly becoming stock or nothing so I wandered over to lifehacker and voila. They pointed me right towards the Hackintosh. A build it yourself (supposedly) OSX compatible system with just enough wiggle room to allow parts to be replaced and upgraded later on.

I used tonymacx86 to gather a parts list and then pcpartpicker to figure out where I could get the best prices for what I needed. The upside is that I saved about $200 ordering from different places, but the downside is that everything is getting here on different days and in random order. Oh well. The rest of the parts should be here by Friday. The PS is the only thing I'm worried about since that's coming from NY, but it should get sorted out soon enough.

Today marked the first arrival of parts:

Arctic Silver thermal compound
Corsair Carbide 500R
MSI NVIDIA GTX760 2GB GDDR5

I do love this project, will follow it!

 

[fuzz092888]

Have you tried Vista?

Somehow I had a feeling you'd show up some vista nonsense

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

but watch your PM on Monday so i can get some info and send you a flash drive...

I take nobody ever heard of services like http://www.dropsend.com/ (etc...) ?
Why involve snail mail?
Last I heard Fuzz was showing off his new fast Fios connection

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Finally got the stupid windows thing figured out. So now I'm installing windows on an extra hard drive, then I'll install the latest drivers for the motherboard. Supposedly this is supposed to make the thunderbolt ports functional in OSX.

I guess on the bright side I'll be able to boot windows and OSX as needed.

Wait, let me get it straight here: You need to install TB drivers on WINDOWS to make TB work in OSX ??

Error, Error. Does not compute.

P.S: I could only assume you're talking about not DRIVERS, but some firmware update which only works in windows.

 

[fuzz092888]

Wait, let me get it straight here: You need to install TB drivers on WINDOWS to make TB work in OSX ??

Error, Error. Does not compute.

P.S: I could only assume you're talking about not DRIVERS, but some firmware update which only works in windows.

Everything on the tonymac site about getting thunderbolt working uses the word "driver" and on the gigbyte website it's called a "driver" soooo I'm guessing it's a driver

I should also mention that even though some people on the tonymac site have said that this worked for them, it thusfar has failed miserably for me.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Everything on the tonymac site about getting thunderbolt working uses the word "driver" and on the gigbyte website it's called a "driver" soooo I'm guessing it's a driver

send me linky to this forum post

 

[fuzz092888]

Here's the gigabyte download page

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4995#dl

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-hardware-discussion/141470-ga-z97x-ud7-th-thunderbolt-mao.html#post871809

http://www.tonymacx86.com/desktop-compatibility/132432-ga-z97x-ud7-th-rev-1-0-success-os-do-2.html#post816504

 

[fuzz092888]

Super frustrating that I have full functionality with windows and not OSX right now. I can't even upgrade to windows 8.1 because the stupid updates for windows 8 aren't downloading. It's been stuck at 0kb 0% complete for almost an hour. I hate windows.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Tonymacx forum posters are quite funny. I knew that hackintosh are fussy. Told you much. The problem is these guys afraid for some reason to provide all the details of what they done. As i suspected internal cpu video doesn't work. So external video was a must.
I saw this post with some details on bios changes. http://www.tonymacx86.com/desktop-compatibility/132432-ga-z97x-ud7-th-rev-1-0-success-os-do-4.html#post819636
I also highly recommend to pm these members whom claim successfully installed osx.

 

[fuzz092888]

turning off the intel graphics in the bios did the trick. My thunderbolt Pegasus2 backup unit now works and I'm guessing I just need an adapter for the video card to get the LED display up and rolling again.

Thanks. All that's left is HDMI audio, but I'm not overly concerned with that at the moment.

 

[fuzz092888]

For whatever reason cmd+R isn't working when I restart the computer so I'm going to do a fresh install of OSX to see if I can load data from the Pegasus2/time machine. Hopefully everything goes back to how I just had it prior to this fresh install.

 

[fuzz092888]

So far running dual monitor. Loaded OSX on the SSD and windows on an old HDD I had lying around and then the 750GB HDD I used to have in my old laptop before it crapped the bed. Currently I have it set to boot OSX automatically, but super easy to boot windows. It's not without its quirks, but I'm more than happy with everything. One quirk in particular that I find interesting is that every once in awhile the Pegasus drive connected via thunderbolt doesn't show up so I restart and boot windows. Then restart and boot OSX and voila it appears. Still don't understand that. Sounds is still an issue. I don't know how to get HDMI audio working (although I haven't put any serious effort in) and I haven't tried analog audio yet because I'd need some new cords. So I'll stick to headphones for now.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

according to the tony's forum Thunderbolt port on current system is not plug and play. it needs to be attached before you boot osx

 

[fuzz092888]

according to the tony's forum Thunderbolt port on current system is not plug and play. it needs to be attached before you boot osx

Yea I saw that awhile back. Being plugged in when booting isn't the issue since the Pegasus drive doesn't get unplugged. Since I've done the fresh install of OSX it's been a little more consistent. I may do a fresh install of windows 8.1 (or at least try to since I have a product key that might work) and see if that does anything to help.

 

[fuzz092888]

MiniDP to DP adapter and the Mac display lives. Back to triple monitors.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

MiniDP to DP adapter and the Mac display lives. Back to triple monitors.

Sweet! I got tripplets as well, monitors that is. Very nice setup. More pitchers please

 

[fuzz092888]

Sweet! I got tripplets as well, monitors that is. Very nice setup. More pitchers please

Sure thing. Of the monitor setup or the computer. I'm thinking I may end up going with a dual monitor mount like this one so I can either stack them or do a side by side config.

Found my old Synology NAS and lo and behold there was a 1.5 TB drive hiding in there. Maybe I'll hold off on those 4TB monsters for awhile until I fill these things up. Right now I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to pull the computer out from under the desk and deal with all the wires or to just hook the external drive dock back up and pop it in that. I'm feeling pretty lazy so I think we can see which option is going to win out.

 

[fuzz092888]

Monitor mount is in. Had a little trouble getting it set up the way I wanted it, but I finally got it worked out. Still not perfect, but much better than it was, especially because now none of the speakers in the HT room are blocked. This weekend I'll try and mount the TV so that I can get the center speaker up off the floor.

Things are a mess, but it'll have to wait until this weekend until I get some time for a little cleanup.



The main issue I'm having is that the HDMI cords are long enough to take advantage of the internal routing of the stand, but the power cords are a bit too short.