@Stork Thanks for the info on Ivy Bridge and SSDT. I was under the impression SSDT was just for Sandy Bridge. MultiBeast only has options for Sandy i5/i7, so I assumed Ivy didn't need SSDT.

Never tried Mac Mini smbios for my big i7-3770L/HD5870 rig, as the CPU/GPU more closely match real Apple iMacs and Mac Pros vs those found in Mac Minis. Is there something else special about the Mac Mini def that unlocks the hot sauce?

I have to admit my approach to Hackintosh mirrored my approach to GH2 patches. First stage, read everything. Second, try everything. Third, once things reach a point where they stop getting better, stop. I got there with Intravenus 2, and I'm there now with my current Hackintosh setup. It Geeks at 17K, Luxmarks at 700, renders in realtime and doesn't make a peep. And it never, ever crashes. So I just don't worry on it anymore. It's doing what I want it to do. At a certain point I need to stop dicking with patches and Hackintosh hacks and get to work.

@Shaveblog, The iMac System Definitions are defined in Apple’s OS X to have either idle or “full bore” states. The gurus that hang out in the tonymacx86 DDST and SSDT forum sections recommend the use of the Macmini6,1 (for Ivy Bridge i5 processors) and Macmini6,2 (for Ivy Brdige i7 processors) SysDefs along with a SSDT, which gives a fairly good P-state spread, for desktops.

However, you can try a SSDT to see if your system benefits from it. But, you’ll need to use a MacMini6 SysDef as using a SSDT with an iMac SysDef brings problems. Or, press on with your current situation if you’re a happy camper. :D

I’m experimenting (re: trying) the Macmini6,1 and an appropriate SSDT with “DropSSDT=Yes” in the /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist file. (See this post for more information and my Thunderball build description in my signature block.) The SSDT generator app is in the first post of the thread mentioned in the first paragraph. Notice in my post, all I did was run the Terminal app with the processor as the only parameter.

Here’s the P-state range for my i5-3570K processor:

Macmini6,1 & SSDT = 16, 21, 28, 34, 37, 38 (need “DropSSDT=Yes” in /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist file when using a SSDT)

Macpro3,1 /& no SSDT = 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 38

So, I’m getting a better processor P-state range from idle to max Turbo speeds. From were I’m at in my evaluation...well, I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not.

I advise newbies of two philosophical approaches for getting to know a hackintosh. First, get it working - use the defaults unless it’s advised not to do so (non Gigabyte motherboards, for instance). Second, (olde coaches adage) don’t rush to fail.

Given that, do your do diligence and backup, backup, backup. :D

@Shaveblog, +1 concur.

@Shaveblog, I hear you and I have the same philosophy on setting up and learning about the hackintosh

"If you see better performance with SSDT, more power to you. I didn't, and the more I read that thread the more I feel they're chasing something that's more of a bandaid for suboptimal builds than necessary part of a fully optimized Hackintosh."

I've just started to experiment with SSDTs on my Ivy Bridge "Thunderball" system just to see what the hype was all about. (Thunderball > i5-3570K | GA-Z77X-UP5-TH | GTX 650 Ti | Mountain Lion ) I have used the default System Definition MacPro3,1 and have been a happy camper. However, a fellow Moderator at tonymacx86.com gave me an i5-3570K SSDT to play with to see if I noticed a difference. (See this post.) So, I changed my SysDef to Macmini6,2 and added DropSSDT=Yes in the /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist file. I have not noticed a difference in performance by just using the computer. I plan to try MacMini6,1 when I get a moment.

As you can tell from the P-State read out in the post, the SSDT did give me a lower P-State (12 vs. 16), but as you can tell from my system components, I'm not worried about running a lower P-State since I have liquid processor cooler. Nor do I think a 12 vs.16 lowest P-State will amount to much on a desktop, anyway.

So, I'm with you. For general purpose computing, you are better off with the MultiBeast default MacPro3,1. Then, when Apple updates OS X, you aren't sitting there scratching your head trying to figure out why the update screwed up your system. However, if you want to learn about hackintoshing and it's a hobby for you, go for it. But, putting on my coach's hat, "don't rush to fail!" Research is your best friend.

@jclmedia I run an ATI HD5870 in my main video editing Hackintosh, as it's ideal for the apps I work with - FCPX and After Effects for the most part. It's plenty fast for what I do and with an aftermarket cooler it's all but silent. I've used Nvidia cards but I feel for a Hackintosh primarily doing FCPX, it's hard to significantly beat the HD5870 without spending silly money, and then you're dealing with more noise and lots more watts out of the wall.

Apple coded FCPX for ATI GPUs at the high end and Intel HD3000/4000 integrated graphics at the consumer end, and this is what works best in my experience. Getting the very best from a high-end Nvidia GPU is still a bit of a crapshoot with a Hackintosh. Gaming performance and video production performance are not the same thing, and what you want to be looking at is Open_CL performance (Luxmark benchmark) not Open_GL (Heaven or whatever that elf village walkthru benchmark is called). It looks like Adobe is moving away from CUDA toward standard Open_CL as well so that's the benchmark you want to be looking at if you're building a machine to edit video.

Depending on your needs you might find the previous GTX 5xx generation more performant, or the 680 being total overkill. That test on tonymac is with a game engine benchmark, doesn't say much about video editing (in case that's what you're after). Have a look here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3823/graphics-card-for-video-editing/p3

My opinion is for video editing/color correction you are not really going to see that much difference between a 650ti and a 660ti.

The jump in bandwidth would come with the 680 which has 2x as much. (256bit bus vs 192bit and an extra mem controller)

Ohhhh, but just stumbled on this table at tonymac: http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/95703-nvidia-performance-benchmarks-10-8-3-geforce-gt-640-gtx-680-a.html

which seems to show rather substansial differences, depending on brand and specific models of the cards you mention.

@ninetto Well, I don't know if the bootloader falls into the same category of secondary tweaks like SSDT. One you can't boot without, and the other is an add-on which even its proponents admit is mostly a cosmetic patch.

If all Clover brings to the table is faster boot, then no, it's not worth it to me in terms of learning a whole new boot loader scheme with all its quirks, care and feeding. Chimera boots my Hackintoshes faster than any real Apple I've ever owned, so boot speed just isn't an issue for me, plus I rarely need to reboot anyway. But if Clover does bring true UEFI boot to Hackintosh, then there are significant reasons to investigate it as a Chameleon/Chimera replacement. Just making Hackintoshes more resistant to Software Update snafus would be reason enough to go Clover.

In researching this over the past few days I feel Clover is more a work in progress at this point than a fully mature AIO installer like Chimera/MultiBeast, but there is impressive work being done and when it's ready for prime time I'll surely give it a try on a test system.

Laptops I've given up on. Mostly because I'm iPad only these days when doing field work, by choice. But also because even when I'd get just the right combo of OSX-friendly laptop and all the right kexts, it still meant dealing with the inherent shitty experience of using an HP/Dell/etc. laptop. I know lots of guys own a single computer and it is a laptop but that's really no way to live and if you do live that way you're far closer to losing all your shit at any given moment due to any number of cost-cutting measures than you should be.

Even when I did manage to align the stars and put OSX on a WinOEM laptop, the cheap construction, the inelegance of every parameter of design, the bendy creaky case, and just the overall dismal MTBF of Windows laptops permanently soured me on trying to find my perfect Hackintosh portable. Closest I came was an Acer a few years ago and even that was a POS compared to just spending a few hundred more and getting a refurb MacBook. I'm much happier on an iPad, and good riddance to laptops. I'll never buy another one as long as I can have a powerful OSX desktop in the studio and an iPad on the road. I've even done FCPX edits from the road using iTeleport to beam into my desktop.

@alcomposer

Very interesting. I don't follow the Hackintosh fora much but from what I gather from Google, there's a kind of nerd rage between Tonymac on the Chimera side and everyone else moving to Clover. I feel Tonymac did heroic work in consolidating a lot of disparate noise and dev chatter into one unified Hackintosh installer, and I owe much of my comfort level with this stuff to his site and guides. That said, if Clover does the job better and makes for an even more stable and vanilla OSX installation, I'm all for trying it. Any particular guides you recommend?

@alcomposer I'm not as familiar with the Clover bootloader as I am with Chimera/Chameleon. I understand Clover is purportedly UEFI but what does this really bring in terms of advantages over Chameleon? I'm not dubious, I just don't seem to notice anything suboptimal about my installed base of Chimera builds that might be attributed to the bootloader. But as always I am open to new and better methods if they develop. Interested in what improvements you saw using Clover vs. Chimera.

Thanks for No Update! That'll save a bundle of headaches. Now if I can get the family Hackusers to stop reinstalling Flash player...

@Shaveblog

thought it might get a chuckle..

I've had many phone calls in the wee hours from family members who clicked on Hack Killer button ( software update )...Now they have to buy the overpriced Realintoshes!