PCI-E Extenders, micro-ATX, triple slot card, Virtualized macOS

kwakeham · October 2, 2019

I have a project that might involve me needing temporary access to a Mac. I have a Ryzen 2700x in a Gigabyte B450M DS3H mainboard with a Asus Strix 1070TI. In order to virtualize a hackintosh I want to add a graphics card, probably a Radeon RX580 or similar and maybe a dedicated USB controller for passthrough. The board has a 1x and 16x physical that are 1x and 4x (but also pcie 2.0 I believe, since these run from the chipset). The need is being able to edit and compile some code for Apple Watch for testing in xcode. I wish to avoid having to purchase a macbook as I'm not into that kool aid.

I'm less concerned with the software setup but I believe my NVME is using 4 3.0 lanes from the CPU, and my 1070TI is using 16 lanes of the cpu, so the rest are chipset. I don't think this has an impact on the setup (except performance, just need it not laggy in the desktop) but with the mATX and a 2.5/3 slot GPU I can't access the 1x or the 16x slots. I already have a hard enough time with the GPU and 90 degree sata's.

Anyone have experience with using risers to run a USB controller and GPU and if any can fit under oversized GPU's. Is new mainboard the only real option? I'd rather not put the GPU on riser as it's going to be a mess in there. Case is some fairly cheap generic corsair (270R I believe) thing with a window and doesn't support vertical GPU mounting.

Thoughts?

SlayerOfHellWyrm · October 4, 2019

You really should get an actual mac. I know it's not the answer you wish to hear, but there's no guarantee the virtualized macOS will work correctly, nor is it supported at all by Apple. If you're trying to do anything with the Apple Watch, I hope you don't plan on getting it to the app store as they won't be happy if they somehow learn you used a VM for stuff.

Could this be done? Yes, but it's not the best idea. As for whether riser stuff can fit under, that will depend on the rise in use, as well as the clearance between board and GPU. I know you aren't "into that kool-aid" but then you shouldn't be developing for the Apple Watch, and there's cheaper options like a low end Mac Mini or something.

I'll get flak for this I imagine, but eh, I'm not gonna sugarcoat things.