iBoot 3.1 Update

iBoot has been updated to 3.1. Pick up the latest version at tonymacx86.com/downloads. 

• Added 10.8.0 Kernel from Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update
• Universal 1155/1156/1366 CPU support for 10.6.x
• Updated bootloader to Chimera v1.4.1 r877

Please do not upload or redistribute iBoot to any other sites.  

If this utility has helped you, please consider a contribution to support further iBoot development.  Thanks in advance, and enjoy!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

Building a Sandy Bridge CustoMac: Recommended Builds for OS X

Last week Mac OS X was updated to version 10.6.8, with native kernel support for Sandy Bridge. It's now a snap to get these systems up and running with a retail Mac OS X Snow Leopard installation. At long last here are recommendations for fully compatible Socket 1155 builds running Mac OS X as the primary operating system.

All builds are fully compatible with the default iBoot + MultiBeast method. Each configuration has a pre-edited DSDT available in our DSDT Database. And best of all, upon the release of OS X Lion, all will be fully updateable. 

All Builds Include:

• Gigabyte LGA 1155 Motherboard
• 2011 Intel Core i-series "Sandy Bridge" Dual-Core or Quad-Core CPU 
• 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of RAM
• 1 TB Hard Drive
• Optical Drive
• Case
• Power Supply
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard Retail DVD

Not Included:

• Monitor 
• USB Keyboard and Mouse
• Wifi / Bluetooth

We've included all components besides monitor, keyboard and mouse, as any standard ones will do. You can use these recommendations as a jumping off point for further customization, or as a shopping list. Prices reflect lowest totals available on Amazon.com as of June 2011, and do not include shipping, tax, or rebates.

Sandy Bridge CustoMac Build #1

$442.35

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 with Intel HD 3000 Graphics - Amazon  Newegg 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H67M-D2 - Amazon / Newegg

RAM: Corsair XMS3 4 GB 1333mhz DDR3 (4GB) - Amazon / Newegg 

Case: Cooler Master Elite 341  - Amazon / Newegg

Power Supply: Corsair CX430 - Am44.99azon / Newegg

Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc - Amazon / Newegg  

Hard Drive: Seagate 1 TB 7200RPM - Amazon / Newegg

Installation DVD: Mac OS X Snow Leopard

  

Sandy Bridge CustoMac Build #2

$730.33

CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 - Amazon / Newegg  

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3 - Amazon / Newegg

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5770 - Amazon / Newegg

RAM: Corsair XMS3 4 GB 1333mhz DDR3 (4GB) - Amazon / Newegg 

Case: Cooler Master Elite 341  - Amazon / Newegg

Power Supply:  OCZ 500 watt ModXStream Pro - Amazon / Newegg

Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc - Amazon / Newegg  

Hard Drive: Seagate 1 TB 7200RPM - Amazon / Newegg  

Installation DVD: Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Sandy Bridge CustoMac Build #3
$850.52

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K - Amazon / Newegg  

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 - Amazon / Newegg

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6850 - Amazon / Newegg

RAM: Corsair Vengence Blu 1600Mhz DDR3 (8GB) - Amazon / Newegg 

Case: Cooler Master Elite 341 - Amazon / Newegg

Power Supply: OCZ 500watt ModXStream Pro - Amazon / Newegg

Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc - Amazon / Newegg

Hard Drive: Seagate 1 TB 7200RPM - Amazon / Newegg  

Installation DVD: Mac OS X Snow Leopard

 

Sandy Bridge CustoMac Build #4

$1232.79

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K - Amazon / Newegg

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 - Amazon / Newegg

Can't find this particular board? Check out Updated Compatible Z68 Motherboards

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6870 - Amazon / Newegg 

RAM: Corsair Vengence Blu 1600Mhz DDR3 (16GB) - Amazon / Newegg 

Case: Cooler Master Elite 370 - Amazon / Newegg

Power Supply: OCZ 600watt ModXStream Pro - Amazon / Newegg

Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc - Amazon / Newegg    

Hard Drive: Seagate 1 TB 7200RPM - Amazon / Newegg    

Installation DVD: Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Optional Accessories

Apple Wired Keyboard with Number Pad $49.99

Apple Wireless Keyboard $69.00

Apple Magic Mouse  $69.00

Apple Magic Trackpad $69.00

Asus USB 2.0 Bluetooth Adapter: $9.99

Optional Upgrades

OCZ 120 GB Agility 3 SSD SATA 6.0 Gbps 2.5" Sold State Drive: $224.99

Scythe Shuriken CPU Cooler: $29.95

Remember, when building your own rig, it's easy to get frustrated- don't give up! There are users with similar specs in the tonymacx86 Forum to help you out if you get stuck. 

Oh, and don't forget, if you end up buying anything, click through one of the links above or in the sidebar. That way, you'll be supporting the site, as well as getting the best prices. Thanks in advance! 

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

Related Posts: 
Building a CustoMac: 3 Upated LGA 1156 Builds for OS X

Building a CustoMac: CustoMac Pro 2010

Building a CustoMac: CustoMac Mini
Fully Compatible NVIDIA Graphics Cards

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update

Today Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.8 the 8th (and final?) major update to Mac OS X Snow Leopard. To update for any supported CPU, we recommend that you download the entire standalone Combo installer here.

Download the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update

Be sure to back up any important data, and if possible clone your hard drive before applying the update. Testing is underway. Report your results in the forum here. 

All updated information will be posted here.

What we know about 10.6.8 so far...

• 10.8.0 Darwin kernel with native Sandy Bridge support. This means that going forward, all Sandy Bridge systems can use default iBoot + MultiBeast method. 
• SATA3 6gbps now recognized and functional on Sandy Bridge.
• Includes drivers for Sandy Bridge Intel HD 2000/3000 Integrated Graphics (No Injector Yet)
• Includes drivers for AMD 6xxx Graphics cards
• Identifies and removes Mac Defender malware
• App Store Update to "Get Ready for Lion"
• Still no NVIDIA 4xx Fermi support by default

IMPORTANT: For Socket 1155 Sandy Bridge users, installing the 10.6.8 update is causing crashes, or kernel panics. Use UpdateHelper before applying the update to solve this issue. Details here.

• Graphics - The update will replace your NVIDIA drivers.
•  If you're using a NVIDIA 4xx "Fermi" card, you will have to update to the latest official drivers BEFORE rebooting. Download here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-macosx-256.02.25f01-driver.html
• If your system is stalling in verbose mode on [ PCI configuration begin ], install the IOPCIFamily FIX available in MultiBeast 3.8.0.

• Audio - The update will replace your AppleHDA.kext. 
• If you use ALC8xxHDA for audio, you will have to reinstall AppleHDA Rollback using MultiBeast. If you're using VoodooHDA, you will not need to make any modifications.

• USB -  The update will replace your IOUSBFamily.kext. 
• To restore full USB functionality on a Non-DSDT or EasyBeast system you may need to install USB Rollback using MultiBeast before reboot. Download MultiBeast. 

Related Posts: Lnx2Mac's 10.6.8 Update Post, 10.6.7 Update, 10.6.6 Update, 10.6.5 Update, 10.6.4 Update, 10.6.3 Update

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

Demystifying Mac OS X HDMI Audio

HDMI Audio + Video can be enabled on Mac OS X for most graphics card and motherboard configurations without much hassle using the replacement audio driver VoodooHDA. Using the supplied AppleHDA.kext for HDMI audio is something of a challenge, but provides numerous benefits including native Mac OS X support, high quality digital surround audio and overall system integration.

Over the past few months, toleda has been exploring and experimenting using different methods, and has come up with what we think is a pretty definitive series of guides on the subject. Please note that this is an advanced process and is highly dependent on your exact hardware configuration.

Enabling HDMI audio via AppleHDA in Mac OS X 10.6.x is comprised of four guides:

1. Requirements - Determines if your system is capable of HDMI audio. 
2. DSDT Edits - Configures your motherboard for HDMI audio.
3. Kext Edits for AMD 5xxx - Customizes Mac OS X for your AMD 5xxx graphics card. 
4. Kext Edits for NVIDIA 4xx - Customizes Mac OS X for your NVIDIA 4xx graphics card.

We've set up a new HDMI Audio subforum to host toleda's guides and general troubleshooting topics. Good luck!

-tonymacx86, toleda & MacMan

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

DSDT Database Update: Gigabyte Socket 1155 - H61/H67/P67/Z68 Verified Edits

We've done a major update to the DSDT Database, adding hand edited, verified DSDTs for all Gigabyte Socket 1155 motherboards. To clarify, based on weeks of testing with these motherboards, we've done only bare minimal edits to help enable sleep, Turbo/Speedstep/Power Management (without NullCPU), and audio using AppleHDA Rollback & ALC8xxHDA (without HDAEnablers). 

Here's a list of the new DSDTs we've just added:

• GA-H61M-D2-B3
• GA-H61M-D2P-B3
• GA-H61M-S2V-B3
• GA-H61M-USB3-B3
• GA-H67A-D3H-B3
• GA-H67A-UD3H-B3
• GA-H67A-USB3-B3
• GA-H67M-D2-B3  - 1.0
• GA-H67M-D2-B3 - 1.1
• GA-H67M-UD2H-B3 - 1.0
• GA-H67M-UD2H-B3 - 1.1
• GA-H67MA-D2H-B3 - 1.0
• GA-H67MA-D2H-B3 - 1.1
• GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3
• GA-H67MA-USB3-B3
• GA-H67N-USB3-B3
• GA-HA65M-D2H-B3
• GA-HA65M-UD3H-B3
• GA-P61-USB3-B3
• GA-P67-DS3-B3
• GA-P67A-D3-B3
• GA-P67A-UD3- B3 - 1.0
• GA-P67A-UD3- B3 - 1.1
• GA-P67A-UD3P-B3
• GA-P67A-UD3R-B3
• GA-P67A-UD4-B3
• GA-P67A-UD5-B3
• GA-P67A-UD7-B3
• GA-P67X-UD3-B3
• GA-P67X-UD3R-B3
• GA-PA65-UD3-B3
• GA-PH67-DS3-B3
• GA-PH67-UD3-B3
• GA-PH67A-D3-B3
• GA-PH67A-UD3-B3
• GA-Z68A-D3-B3  
• GA-Z68A-D3H-B3  
• GA-Z68AP-D3
• GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3  
• GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3  
• GA-Z68P-DS3
• GA-Z68X-UD3-B3  
• GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3  
• GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3  
• GA-Z68X-UD3R-B3  
• GA-Z68X-UD4-B3  
• GA-Z68X-UD5-B3  
• GA-Z68X-UD7-B3  
• GA-Z68XP-D3
• GA-Z68XP-UD3
• GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD

NOTE: All DSDTs are verified extracts from the latest BIOS versions.

Instructions on how to use with MultiBeast's UserDSDT are available here. A full explanation and list of the Minimal Edits for Gigabyte Socket 1155 motherboards will be posted on MacMan's Blog. Good luck, and let us know how it goes with these new additions to the DSDT Database!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

Related Posts: 

tonymacx86 Public Service Announcement: DSDT

Minimal Edits for Gigabyte Socket 1156

Minimal Edits for Gigabyte Socket 1366

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!