My fully working Hackintosh on Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master + i9 9900K

My fully working Hackintosh on Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master + i9 9900K

https://preview.redd.it/ttrazh702q951.png?width=2192&format=png&auto=webp&s=65257773a6f1ddcae7747ea25ebd59d56a04a008

I wanted a computer that will survive at least the next 10 years, for multi tasking: audio and video editing, graphic design, 2D and 3D game development, web development and multiple docker containers/projects running at the same time.

64 GB of RAM seems too much, and I am not sure yet if just 32 or 16 GB would have been enough, but for example with this I will be able to have an ElasticSearch container that stores data (let's say ~8GB) in memory instead of disk, giving me results as close to production as possible.

So, the amount of RAM will always depend on your needs of course. I want to be able to be full multitasking without having to worry about closing apps or containers.

After using macOS for 10 years it is very hard to go back to Windows or any Linux distro. I even tried with elementaryOS but it's not the same and I cannot use the content creation tools I already had bought in the App Store. After trying Windows 10, elementaryOS and Ubuntu I wanted to try macOS before having a final decision on which OS to stick to for long term.

So here is my Hackintosh full configuration (in case you want to build a similar one) and my experience with it so far:

macOS: macOS Catalina 10.15.5 (original download from my MacBook), configured as iMac19,1

CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K 8x 3.60GHz So.1151 (Unlocked)

GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700XT AORUS-8GD, 8GB GDDR6, 3x HDMI, 3x DP

ATX Case: Fractal Design Meshify C Midi Tower (it comes with 2 fans)

Power Supply Unit: 650 Watt Corsair RM650 80 PLUS Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Tower (x 2)

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 DIMM CL16-19-19-39 (16 GB x 4 = 64 GB)

Motherboard/Laptop Make and Model: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master Intel Z390 So.1151 Dual Channel DDR4 ATX Retail.

Audio Codec: Realtek® ALC1220-VB codec (Motherboard's)

SSD: Samsung SSD 970 Evo 1TB (NVMe) x 2

Ethernet Card: Intel® GbE LAN chip (Motherboard's)

Wifi/BT Card: Intel® CNVi WiFi A/C - B.T 5.0 (Motherboard's)

Touchpad and touch display devices: None, just a USB keyboard + mouse

BIOS revision: F11c

BIOS Settings:

  • First, I loaded the default optimized settings after upgrading the BIOS.
  • Then I set the recommended in the Vanilla Laptop Guide + this a tutorial on youtube specific to my motherboard.
  • I had to deactivate Intel VT-d (I am not 100% sure if it was causing issues though)

EFI Files (adapted to my hardware):

https://preview.redd.it/zaezcw5x1q951.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=a3d7a0caae7ecf95d82c4167985aa06bac9468e8

(itlwmx.kext is not enabled yet, I still need to try)

Which of the guides on the sidebar I used:

What's working, and what isn't working:

  • Working:
    • AMD Radeon RX 5700XT GPU
      • IMPORTANT: All Radeon 5000 series need the boot-arg "agdpmod=pikera", otherwise you will see a black screen after booting OpenCore and before booting the macOS Installer. That took me 4h to figure out.
    • Intel's Bluetooth 5.0 chipset
      • Apparently it works out of the box without extra kext files. Yay! I don't know if it's because of my motherboard of because of the updated OpenCore/kext files support.
  • Maybe working / Didn't try:
    • Sidecar app appears available but I haven't tried yet with my iPad
  • Not Working:
    • Intel WiFI, as expected. I might try with itlwm, but I will compile it myself (to be sure I compile that particular source code and I don't get any malicious kext). I'll update this post once I make it work, otherwise I will go ethernet.

Recommended steps for my hardware configuration:

  1. Have your Hackintosh initially installed with Ubuntu to if you want to generate your own DSDT file (which I recommend).
  2. Update your BIOS Firmware and reset all BIOS settings to the default ones.
  3. Download macOS from the AppStore in another Mac or have a bootable macOS USB drive ready.
  4. Follow this guide: Vanilla Laptop Guide(OpenCore, intel only, w/ or w/o a Mac)
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