Building a CustoMac: Three Updated LGA 1156 Builds for OS X

Posted by tonymacx86 on Thursday, February 10, 2011
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By request, here are three updated builds, based on the original CustoMac post from June 2010.  These builds are our most current 1156 recommendations for fully compatible budget builds running Mac OS X as the primary operating system.  

All three builds include:
  • Gigabyte LGA 1156 Motherboard
  • Intel Core i-series Quad-Core CPU
  • 4GB or 8GB of RAM, expandable up to 16GB
  • 1 TB Hard Drive
  • CD/DVD Burner
  • Case and Power Supply
  • Mac OS X Snow Leopard Retail DVD
We've included all components besides monitor, as any standard monitor will do.  You can use these recommendations as a jumping off point for further customization, or as a shopping list.  Prices reflect those as of February 2011, and do not include shipping or tax. 

Budget Power Build 1
Core i5-760 / Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H / GeForce GT 240 / 4GB DDR3 RAM
$683.88

Motherboard:  GA-H55M-UD2H $94.99


Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 1 TB $62.99

CD/DVD Burner: Sony Optiarc Black $36.95

Power Supply: Antec 550W Continuous Power $64.99

Operating System: Mac OS X Snow Leopard $29.00

Budget Power Build 2
Core i7-870 / Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H / Radeon HD 5770 / 4GB DDR3 RAM
$991.23


Motherboard:  GA-H55M-UD2H $94.99



Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 1 TB $62.99

CD/DVD Burner: Sony Optiarc Black $36.95

CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 2 $47.35

Power Supply: Corsair 650HX Modular 650W $119.99

Operating System: Mac OS X Snow Leopard $29.00

Budget Power Build 3
Core i7-870 / Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 / Radeon HD 5870 / 8GB DDR3 RAM
 $1211.41

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 $130.22

Graphics: Diamond ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB $234.99

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 1 TB $62.95
CD/DVD Burner: Sony Optiarc Black $36.95

CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 2 $47.35
Case: Antec 900 $99.99

Power Supply: Corsair 650HX Modular 650W $119.99

Operating System: Mac OS X Snow Leopard $29.00

Optional Accessories
NOTE: Only MODEL NO: ACB10us v1.0 will wake from sleep.

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!   

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MultiBeast 3.2 Update

Posted by tonymacx86 on Tuesday, February 01, 2011
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Today MultiBeast was updated to version 3.2.  The big change is in the Network section- we've added Lnx2Mac's RealtekRTL81xx package!  The latest version is now available at tonymacx86.com/downloads.

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

Full list of changes:
  • Replaced Realtek Gigabit Ethernet with Lnx2Mac's RealtekRTL81xx Ethernet. NOTE: When chosen it will launch Lnx2Mac's installer at the end of the Multibeast install.
  • Replaced Intel 82566 Family Gigabit Ethernet with hnak's AppleIntelE1000e Ethernet. This is a port of the e1000.sourceforge.net Intel Wired Ethernet for Linux driver.
  • Added Chameleon 2.0 RC5 - Sandy Bridge.  This is valv's branch of Chameleon 2.0 RC5 that adds initial support for Sandy Bridge CPUs.
  • Changed description for NVEnabler to relect that it's only used for older NVIDIA graphics cards.
  • Removed ATY_Init Uakari
  • Removed ATY_Init Vervet
  • Removed AppleRTL8169Ethernet
  • Removed RealtekR1000SL
If this utility has helped you, please consider a contribution to support further MultiBeast development.  Thanks in advance, and enjoy!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

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tonymacx86 Public Service Announcement: Kernels

Posted by tonymacx86 on Sunday, January 30, 2011
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Music and animation by Adamsmasher. Enjoy!

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Sandy Bridge Desktop CPUs and Motherboards

Posted by tonymacx86 on Wednesday, January 26, 2011
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UPDATE: Mac OS X 10.6.7 Update for early 2011 MacBook Pros delivers native support for Sandy Bridge CPUs.  The motherboards listed here are unavailable due to the Sandy Bridge recall. 

Earlier this month, Intel officially announced it's new Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 CPUs and chipsets.  While we've installed and configured Mac OS X Snow Leopard successfully on these components, unfortunately they are not used in any Apple computers yet.  Therefore, they are only in the experimental stages of support, and require a non-vanilla "Legacy Kernel" to boot.


Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 CPUs are Intel's direct successor to the previous LGA 1156 Core i3/i5/i7s.  While all older Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs are able to be overclocked, all but the new K models are locked down.  The 2 unlocked models, the Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K show unbelievably high performance when overclocked.

Intel Sandy Bridge Desktop CPUs
  • Core i7-2600K - 4 cores/8 threads - 8 MB Cache, 3.40 GHz - Unlocked for Overclocking
  • Core i7-2600 - 4 cores/8 threads - 8 MB Cache, 3.40 GHz
  • Core i5-2500K - 4 cores/4 threads - 6 MB Cache, 3.30 GHz - Unlocked for Overclocking
  • Core i5-2500 - 4 cores/4 threads - 6 MB Cache, 3.30 GHz
  • Core i5-2400 - 4 cores/4 threads - 6 MB Cache, 3.10 GHz
  • Core i5-2300 - 4 cores/4 threads - 6 MB Cache, 2.80 GHz
One of the improvements that Intel included in Sandy Bridge is the new integrated graphics controller. The new integrated Intel HD 2000 or HD 3000 graphics controller offers much better performance over the previous generation Intel HD.  However, all modern Intel onboard graphics are unsupported, and there are no workarounds.  For now the only option is to use a supported graphics card.

Please note that the P67 chipset does not support the integrated graphics controller.  If you want to utilize it in other OSes, you'll need a motherboard with a H67 chipset.


Also revealed this month were most major motherboard manufacturers' LGA 1155 offerings. Interestingly, ASUS, MSI, and others have chosen to use UEFI instead of BIOS.  This allows for more user-friendly setup and customization of CPU settings, as well as providing a full OS-style graphical user interface.  Gigabyte has instead gone the traditional route, and uses the same Award BIOS most users are accustomed to.  They will however, be transitioning to a new hybrid UEFI setup within the first part of this year.  Luckily, the Chameleon bootloader works as well with UEFI as it does with BIOS.


In initial testing, it seems as if Gigabyte and ASUS motherboards could be the best bet.  They all include new features like USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 standard.  Most also feature the friendly Realtek 8111E Gigabit Ethernet network controllers, fully supported by Lnx2Mac's RealtekRTL81xx kext.  The good news continues on the audio front, as these motherboards all use Realtek ALC888b, ALC889, or ALC892- all supported codecs using MacMan's ALC8xxHDA.
Gigabyte P67 Motherboards
Gigabyte H67 Motherboards
ASUS P67 Motherboards
ASUS H67 Motherboards
CPUs and Motherboards listed are available at the time of this posting.

All of the new Gigabyte motherboards will be added to the DSDT Database. In addition, we'll be broadening the DSDT Database beyond our current Gigabyte offerings to include a verified library of pre-edited ASUS DSDTs.

PLEASE NOTE:  Sandy Bridge CPUs and chipsets are not currently supported natively by Mac OS X Snow Leopard. We can't recommend Sandy Bridge systems yet, as there is no official support.  Hence, please don't view this as buying advice.  We don't recommend using a patched kernel for the long-term. The vanilla kernel is a much more desirable solution for a stable system.

For those of you buying new systems anyway, we've opened a special section of the forum dedicated to Sandy Bridge.  Good luck!  Let us know how it goes with these new components!

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

Related Posts: Intel's New Sandy Bridge and Mac OS X, Sandy Bridge Overclocked on Mac OS X
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tonymacx86 Public Service Announcement: iBoot + MultiBeast

Posted by tonymacx86 on Saturday, January 22, 2011
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Music and animation by Adamsmasher. Enjoy!

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