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I've wanted to upgrade my old hackintosh config (from 2015) who served me well over the years, and also wanted to play around with a mini ITX build, so that's what I did!
The specs are the following:
- CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
- CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X53 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
- Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z390-I GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
- Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
- Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
- Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card
- Case: NZXT H210 Mini ITX Tower Case
- Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
- Custom: OEM Dell Wireless DW1560 802.11ac Broadcom BCM94352Z M.2 NGFF WIFI Card 6XRYC
Like I said above, I've been running a hackintosh for the past 5 years now. My previous build has seen many configurations and OSes: El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Multibeast/Unibeast (boo!), then a sorta stable vanilla Clover install.
So out of habit I've wanted to go for a vanilla Clover install, unfortunately, nothing really worked, no matter how hard I tried.
So after ~4-5 failed attempts, I've decided to bite the bullet and give OpenCore a try, and what do you know, everything worked first try! I can't thank the authors of the guide enough for how clear and well documented it was.
Steps I followed:
- Installed the Dell WiFi+BT card in the motherboard, by following those instructions (open the spoiler). Warning if you attempt this: the contacts for the antennas are VERY finnicky, I had to re-do the procedure all over again after my 1st boot on Windows because it turns out I didn't push the antenna cables hard enough and they didn't clip into their socket.
- Built the machine like normal.
- Tweaked my BIOS following this guide over at tonymac. Although I'm pretty sure the BIOS section of the OpenCore guide would have worked.
- Created my USB using the guide, installed Catalina like normal
- Done!
What works:
- iMessages
- FaceTime
- Continuity / Handoff
- Copy-paste across devices — although it's finnicky at times. But it's also like this on my real Macs so I'm not worried.
- Unlock with Apple Watch — seems finnicky too, but it's not 100% reliable on a real Mac either.
- iCloud
- Booting into "BootCamp" Windows through OpenCore
What doesn't work:
- Sidecar – I've read that it requires the iGPU to be enabled and I disabled it so that probably explains it. I'll try to figure it out but it's not a deal breaker.
- Audio – I don't really care because I have an external USB audio interface/sound card that works OOB on macOS
A few notes:
- I was confused by this in my first reading of the guide, so I'm putting this here so others don't do the same mistake: SSDT-EC and SSDT-USBX are useless if SSDT-EC-USBX is already present! Sounds obvious but it can be easy to miss
- In the same area, do not add the DSDT.aml file! That's what messed up Windows' boot for me.
- My BIOS would be sent in safe mode after shut off from macOS. I had to apply the RTC patch to fix it.
- I've posted my configuration files on Github. I found that using a Git repo for the configuration was extremely helpful as it means I can easily go back in time and remember what I did, when, and how.
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