X-8 Featuring White Lightning. An 8 core Hackintosh...

[ALXAndy]

 

OK. So basically after recently building a new PC and shuffling parts around to create more PCs I found myself with some left over parts.

 

As I was building The Big Purple Monster I managed to get hold of an 8 core Ivybridge CPU. I also found a board for it, so whilst I had the cash floating I decided to invest (£160 all in for both). I switched out my AMD FX 8320 with it and have had some fun with it. I was going to sell the 8320 but then I had an idea.....

 

I love Macs. Especially the big powerful ones.. Could I liberate enough hardware to actually build one? the short answer is yes.

 

So I went around all of my computers today, here's what happened.

 

Now I had no memory to replace what I wanted to use. My media rig was running 4gb of very expensive Geil Extreme memory (known to do 2333mhz easy). However, all I had was ECC... I put 4gb ECC into the media PC and it fired up immediately.. Phew ! memory GOT !.

 

Then I liberated the GTX 480 Lightning, as I hear Nvidia cards are good for Hackintosh. I then let the media PC fall back on its integrated Radeon which is more than up to the job of smashing out movies.

 

OK, so here is what I have piled up to the right of me...

 

1 x Philips DVDROM drive.

4x Black and white SATA cables.

1x GTX 480 Lightning.

Intel E5 V2 8 core Ivybridge Xeon.

2 x 2gb Geil Extreme DDR3.

160gb 7200 RPM SATA laptop drive.

XFX Pro edition 750w non modular (Seasonic)

 

All I need now is a case, and a PSU to replace the XFX which I am going to steal from the media PC. I only need 400w or so for that.

 

More to come soon, now it's off to make an inventory list of the things I need. These are -

 

Case (I want a white one for modding)

CPU cooler (if any one has one LMK ! needs to fit 2011)

 

[ERSCreeper]

This is going to be awesome. If you need help with the software side please do ask.

[apt-get install Windows]

Always wanted to build a hackintosh myself, followed your thread

[ALXAndy]

Just bought 50ft of this.

 

 

Will probably do the PSU. Only the power connectors though. Drive wiring will be hidden any way.

 

Nicholas - thanks ! I will definitely be asking a lot of questions. One for you now though, what is the latest OS I can install? is it Mavericks or ML?

[ERSCreeper]

Nicholas - thanks ! I will definitely be asking a lot of questions. One for you now though, what is the latest OS I can install? is it Mavericks or ML?

Mavericks 10.9.4 is the latest at the moment. 

[ALXAndy]

Sounds good to me man. Does Steam and all of that work OK?

[ERSCreeper]

Sounds good to me man. Does Steam and all of that work OK?

Perfectly. I think the only thing I have a problem with is iMessage and I am just to lazy to fix it

[ALXAndy]

I don't need that I've got an Iphone 4

 

Actually I'm sitting here typing this to you on my mint condition Powerbook 17" with an SSD in it

 

Should be really nice though to have a mega powerful mac. I was looking at the Mac Pros before I built my big purple machine but they just didn't offer enough for the money.

 

Also.. I forgot to say.. I have a Gigabyte X79 UD3. Is this a good board to hack? I hear that X79s are very well supported.

[ERSCreeper]

I don't need that I've got an Iphone 4

 

Actually I'm sitting here typing this to you on my mint condition Powerbook 17" with an SSD in it

 

Should be really nice though to have a mega powerful mac. I was looking at the Mac Pros before I built my big purple machine but they just didn't offer enough for the money.

 

Also.. I forgot to say.. I have a Gigabyte X79 UD3. Is this a good board to hack? I hear that X79s are very well supported.

Yes that board should work but I will do some research now and find what you will need and some other things. I to am planning to do a build but mine will be a bit different: http://imgur.com/a/HpTVu

[ALXAndy]

I hadn't considered actually using a mac case. I want something smaller tbh. I'm going to try and make it very compact so that I can hide it away.

 

Many years ago now (2005ish) I took a G3 and fitted a PC into it then ran PearPC. I used to use it as my web server. Was sooo easy doing that on a mac !

 

I've been browsing cases today. Got my eye on a few. Most will need pretty heavy modding but all are pretty nice to look at

[ERSCreeper]

I hadn't considered actually using a mac case. I want something smaller tbh. I'm going to try and make it very compact so that I can hide it away.

 

Many years ago now (2005ish) I took a G3 and fitted a PC into it then ran PearPC. I used to use it as my web server. Was sooo easy doing that on a mac !

 

I've been browsing cases today. Got my eye on a few. Most will need pretty heavy modding but all are pretty nice to look at

I really want to get my hands on a G3 Blue & White to make a small LAN system.

[ALXAndy]

Yup that's the one I modded

[Laputacake]

Yup that's the one I modded

When installing mac os use niresh's as in terms of working out of the box its better than windows, for me i only needed to install audio and its working fine. 

[ALXAndy]

OK so today I've been planning the build in my head as much as I can. Firstly I found a load of brand new fans that have empty LED holes. So first thing to do was to order some white LEDs. However, I CBA wiring them because you can buy them pre wired, so I just went for 40 of these.

 

 

Then it was time to take stock of what I have for the build. A few fans..

 

 

Corsair 140 AF with empty LED holes.

 

 

This thing was a really nice bonus. Basically when I bought the Cosmos 2 it had a hotswap drive unit in the front. It didn't fit with what I wanted but I'll sure as heck make use of it now

 

 

Two 120mm F12s and a F9, all in white

 

 

Black and white SATA cables.

 

 

A fan splitter. Always hella useful.

 

 

160gb 7200 RPM drive. This thing actually hauls ass, so is perfect.

 

 

Front switch panel from a Silverstone Temjin. I will likely fit more than one power/reset button as I will likely need them when setting up OSX.

 

 

You'll also note I am trying to make more of an effort with the photos. It's hard in this flat.. I do have a semi decent camera but it likes light..

 

More to come later, as well as the posting of a few of the cases I have lined up. I'm still very much undecided..

[ERSCreeper]

So you want to go with a white case? C70 Artic White, Define R4 White are the two I like.

[ALXAndy]

So you want to go with a white case? C70 Artic White, Define R4 White are the two I like.

 

I'm going as cheap as I can tbh. The main reason is I want to mod it quite heavily, and expensive cases usually have it all done already. Here are the cases I am considering.

 

First up (and the favourite so far !) The Justop New Wave Q7.

 

 

 

 

The only downside that's putting me off is that it looks very cheap and tacky in a crap photo like this.

 

 

However, that's using flash and I know my Zalman case I had looked the same under flash. It has the most potential tbh. Note the mesh will come out and be painted white. Cost - £28

 

OK next up. Gigabyte. I forget the model number now.

 

 

This one is second because it's reversed ATX. £48

 

 

Which I kinda like the idea of

 

Thirdly we have some Chinese case.

 

 

Which is quite attractive. However, I would not be able to use the drive bay without it looking crap. £44.

 

Just to digress a moment. I like cases that look like number 1. I used to have an IBM Intellistation M pro back in 2000 and I loved the slatted front. It will also go well with the very server like look of the hot swap bay, and look quite mean and professional.

 

It also has a window, which will cost me around £6 if the case doesn't have one...

[ERSCreeper]

I have been looking into this case, it's very clean but I don't know that the prices are like http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Chassis/Mid_Tower_/Urban/C_00002128/Urban_S31_Snow_Window/design.htm

 

i do like the 1st case as it's got the IBM server design.

[ERSCreeper]

I did the research I said I would do and good news, everything should work since someone got it all working with ML 10.8.3 so Mavericks should do a better job. They did get sleep working which is awesome since X79 doesn't support sleep normally.

 

The main thing I will need to find now is the GTX 4xx series drivers, Should find them soon.

 

Also what model is the CPU?

[ALXAndy]

The case is quite nice. I will look that up. I also really like the XFX Bravo....

 

And dude.. Thanks ! I really appreciate you helping me with the software as I really don't have a clue what I'm doing !

[ERSCreeper]

The case is quite nice. I will look that up. I also really like the XFX Bravo....

 

And dude.. Thanks ! I really appreciate you helping me with the software as I really don't have a clue what I'm doing !

Not a problem, just need the CPU model now to confirm the small stuff since it should work without a problem. 

[ALXAndy]

The CPU is a E5 V2 Ivybridge Xeon. It has 8 cores, but there's no specifics on it because it's an engineering sample.

 

However, this should about do it...

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/76158/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2628L-v2-20M-Cache-1_90-GHz

 

Mine is 1.8ghz boost 1 core 2.3ghz and all 8 cores to 2ghz. But it's pretty much identical to that one, barring that mine is 100mhz lower clocked.

[ERSCreeper]

The CPU is a E5 V2 Ivybridge Xeon. It has 8 cores, but there's no specifics on it because it's an engineering sample.

 

However, this should about do it...

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/76158/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2628L-v2-20M-Cache-1_90-GHz

 

Mine is 1.8ghz boost 1 core 2.3ghz and all 8 cores to 2ghz. But it's pretty much identical to that one, barring that mine is 100mhz lower clocked.

Okay cool, will check up now

 

Edit: It should work perfectly since it is a Xeon with a supported motherboard.

[ALXAndy]

Okay cool, will check up now

 

Edit: It should work perfectly since it is a Xeon with a supported motherboard.

 

Awesome. Yeah it's pretty much just an IVBE dude

 

Any way, a very busy afternoon. I really wasn't going to do this yet, but I switched out the 8 core and motherboard and replaced it with the Asus CHFZ and 8320. So now the board is free, with the CPU in it.

 

 

And the board out.

 

 

And then I spent ages removing all of the crappy stickers from the fans and so on. Here are the Arctics.

 

 

Which will no doubt end up in the rig.

 

Also, some very good news ! I've found a cooler !

 

I was poking around in some old boxes and found a massive lump of aluminium that used to be in my old Dell. It needed some modding and some parts, but I've managed to get it all sorted out I even found a really cool fan to fit to it and it should look really unusual when done !

 

More to come soon. Still freeing up parts and cleaning/removing stupid stickers.

[ALXAndy]

Tease me, tease me

 

 

And here is the cooler.

 

 

It's taken from a Dell Precision T5500 (S1366). It's bigger than it looks, and is basically a milled piece of Alu. Don't expect it to look anything like that, though.

 

And here is the fan.

 

 

It will run on its own independent controller. Now what I am hoping here is that I can run the CPU passively. The CPU is only 60w, so the cooler block should be able to take care of it. This remains unknown ATM so I will be fitting the fan (don't expect the fan to look like that either) and then experimenting with fan speeds to noise etc.

[GhostWindGamer]

looks like another good build subbed