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[Guide & Software] Complete Intel Bad Axe 2 Walkthrough with Software

weaksauce12

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in OSx86 10.5 (Leopard)

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weaksauce12
weaksauce12
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One thing I find interested is that Geekbench is showing the overclocked speeds for you.

 

If I overclock and the speeds do speed way up, Geekbench still shows the 2.4 Quad...

 

You know what? It's a mixed bag - sometimes I'll overclock, run Geekbench, and it shows the "correct" speed, but other times it shows 2.4ghz even when overclocked. Weird huh?

 

theotherone, bummer - I was hoping CopyCatX would be our solution. So you install Leopard or Tiger to a USB drive, boot off there, unmount the other drives, and then clone using CCX?

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weaksauce12
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Weaksauce,

 

What Bios are you running on your BadAxe 2?

Still a BadAxe version 1 bios?

 

Originally I was running 2802 (I just linked to the wrong BIOS originally earlier in this thread, apparently I wasn't actually running it lol). I upgraded to 2809 tonight. No differences that I can see. I ran Xbench 1.3 on just the disks (WDC WD5000AACS for both boot and backup). Here are my results: (in overall Xbench points on just the drives, nothing else)

 

ACHI: 78.94 (Boot), 82.72 (Backup)

IDE: 81.19 (Boot), 82.81 (Backup)

 

More or less the same, a few points faster on IDE. ACHI mode shows the drives as removable under Leopard (orange icon), while IDE mode shows the drives as fixed (hard drive icons). I leave it on IDE because I like having normal drive icons, plus it's a little teeny bit faster.

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theotherone
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heotherone, bummer - I was hoping CopyCatX would be our solution. So you install Leopard or Tiger to a USB drive, boot off there, unmount the other drives, and then clone using CCX?

 

Yep!

 

I tried with the ICHR7 Controller to build a raid to nao avail (stuck at boot with "94"). Maybe its needed to first format these raid with windows to "see" and reformat them also in the mac-environment. But these was to much hassle for me, i also have no win available for this (will install a vista later...). So i gave up on that and build a raid with apples diskutility ( 2 x 500 GB SAMSUNG HD50LJ Drives. I hope to get the APPLE-RAID to boot...

 

What's weird abaut these raids is that (at the moment) my hardware-raid withe Highpoint-controller gives me weaeker scores then my APPLE-RAID (APPLE RAID 0, new, no data) the Highpoint-Controller-RAID with 2 500 GB wd drives gave was 90% full and gave me scores of 105,88 while apple-raid gave me 131,76 and for comparsion a 750GB Seagate Drive scores at lame 39,76. Maybe this is because i started of a USB-Disk, dunno, must redo these comparsions later under normal circumstances.

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weaksauce12
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Yep!

 

I tried with the ICHR7 Controller to build a raid to nao avail (stuck at boot with "94"). Maybe its needed to first format these raid with windows to "see" and reformat them also in the mac-environment. But these was to much hassle for me, i also have no win available for this (will install a vista later...). So i gave up on that and build a raid with apples diskutility ( 2 x 500 GB SAMSUNG HD50LJ Drives. I hope to get the APPLE-RAID to boot...

 

What's weird abaut these raids is that (at the moment) my hardware-raid withe Highpoint-controller gives me weaeker scores then my APPLE-RAID (APPLE RAID 0, new, no data) the Highpoint-Controller-RAID with 2 500 GB wd drives gave was 90% full and gave me scores of 105,88 while apple-raid gave me 131,76 and for comparsion a 750GB Seagate Drive scores at lame 39,76. Maybe this is because i started of a USB-Disk, dunno, must redo these comparsions later under normal circumstances.

 

I suspect there's something funky with the Hackintosh hard disk driver implementation, but maybe that's not it. I don't know. My speeds seem okay (66 MB/sec - 81 MB/sec) when using a non-RAID SATA drive. I'll probably order up an SI 3132 RAID card (the 2-port) and give that a shot for testing purposes.

 

I really hope SuperDuper updates for Leopard soon.

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hakeem9
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Things which crash my system completely, and other weirdness that I've experienced:

 

1) Hitting F5 on my Mac USB thin keyboard locks the system completely. I think it's a snapshot or screenshot of some sort that it's taking, but it's a hard reset issue.

 

2) Using retouch in iPhoto also crashes the OS completely, hard reset needed.

 

3) Certain applications crash completely as soon as they are loaded - example is PokerStars mac client (although it is in beta)

 

4) My combination of monitors (Dell 3007WFP 30" and Dell 2001FP 20") creates some slightly unusual side effects - anything using 3D acceleration causes the 20" screen to flicker rapidly - easiest way to make it happen is to load iDVD and choose the default theme that has the rotating cylinders. This didn't happen when I was using 2 x 20" screens so might be something to do with powering a screen via duallink DVI.

 

5) Using an Atheros-based wireless card (Netgear WG311T) if I hit "Advanced" in the network settings, my entire system locks up. The card is recognized as an Airport Extreme and works perfectly otherwise.

 

6) Mute doesn't work.

 

7) At Settings -> Desktop & Dock if you choose "Pictures Folder" on the left to choose a picture to use as your desktop background, the OS locks completely. You can use a picture as a desktop background in other ways, but again this seems to be a hardware accelerated CI problem.

 

Other than that it's been a fairly flawless experience using a variety of applications. VMware Fusion runs flawlessly and XP emulation is extremely fast for everything other than the most poorly written apps. Hopefully 10.5.2 will give us some improved Core Image support which will fix alot of the bugs mentioned above.

 

Thanks again Onetrack/weaksauce for putting together these guides and making my life easier <_<

 

Just thought I should give everyone a heads up on the above - all the graphics related problems above were fixed when I went back to the original 10.5.0 Geforce.kext/bundle's and the original OpenGL.framework. I had installed the 10.5.2's but they gave me alot of problems.

 

FYI, F5 shows you all your spaces if you have spaces enabled. Now everything works perfectly again! G80 Geforce users stay away from the 10.5.2 kext's!

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weaksauce12
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The screenshot shortcuts (ex. Command-Shift-Control-4) don't produce anything for me in my latest installation. I have a new BIOS, a new IONetworkingFamily kext, and a new version of NVinject, so I'm not exactly sure what caused it. I have to use Apple's Grab utility to take any screenshots. Do the screenshot shortcuts work for anyone else? <_<

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hakeem9
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The screenshot shortcuts (ex. Command-Shift-Control-4) don't produce anything for me in my latest installation. I have a new BIOS, a new IONetworkingFamily kext, and a new version of NVinject, so I'm not exactly sure what caused it. I have to use Apple's Grab utility to take any screenshots. Do the screenshot shortcuts work for anyone else? :P

 

Work fine for me...

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lindmar
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I'm not at my system right now but I will try shortly.

 

Like I said, I went back to BIOS 2333 because many sites and users claimed it was the best BadAxe 2 Bios. I don't really know how to tell in our situation.

 

I'm also worried about changing BIOS too much but maybe the newest is better, I dont really know.

 

I'm tempted to build another hackintosh but I really want to see what happens when 10.5.2 is released..Also waiting for Weaksauces Home Theatre hack..

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funstuie
funstuie
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Hello All,

 

I landed on this site via a couple a torrent sites and I have spent a few days reading round. I read the first page of this thread and thought that'll do me. so I ordered:

 

 

BAD AXE 2 S775 I975X BOXD975XBX2KR

 

CORE 2 QUAD Q6600

 

Nvidia GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty 256MB PCI-E

 

2GB 800MHZ DDR2 NON-ECCLOW-LATENCY CL4 DIMM

 

LiteOn DH-20A1S - Disk drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - 20x/20x/12x - Serial ATA - internal - 5.25" - black

 

Antec New Solution NSK4480B-UK - Mini tower

 

I think I have got everything I need (just waiting for the graphics card to turn up - should be here tomorrow).

 

I have read through this whole thread and I just need a couple of questions answered.

  1. Should I upgrade the bios on the Mobo? If yes which one should I use?
  2. Is the graphics OK? I had a quick read and this card is supposed to be well supported.
  3. The sound issues are fine as I have a USB soundcard in a drawer somewhere.

So should I just follow weaksauce's guide as is or should I wait for an update?

 

Stu

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weaksauce12
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I'm not at my system right now but I will try shortly.

 

Like I said, I went back to BIOS 2333 because many sites and users claimed it was the best BadAxe 2 Bios. I don't really know how to tell in our situation.

 

I'm also worried about changing BIOS too much but maybe the newest is better, I dont really know.

 

I'm tempted to build another hackintosh but I really want to see what happens when 10.5.2 is released..Also waiting for Weaksauces Home Theatre hack..

 

What exactly did the users claim as far as features go for keeping a previous BIOS?

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theotherone
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I landed on this site via a couple a torrent sites and I have spent a few days reading round. I read the first page of this thread and thought that'll do me. so I ordered:

 

 

BAD AXE 2 S775 I975X BOXD975XBX2KR

 

CORE 2 QUAD Q6600

 

Nvidia GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty 256MB PCI-E

 

2GB 800MHZ DDR2 NON-ECCLOW-LATENCY CL4 DIMM

 

LiteOn DH-20A1S - Disk drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - 20x/20x/12x - Serial ATA - internal - 5.25" - black

 

Antec New Solution NSK4480B-UK - Mini tower

 

I think I have got everything I need (just waiting for the graphics card to turn up - should be here tomorrow).

 

I have read through this whole thread and I just need a couple of questions answered.

 

Your welcome! I try to answer as best as i can, others & especially weaksauce will surely chime in also.

 

Should I upgrade the bios on the Mobo? If yes which one should I use?

 

I simply updated to the latest bios. Has worked for me.

 

Is the graphics OK? I had a quick read and this card is supposed to be well supported.

 

The graphics card is OK, i have the exact same, no problems in this regard, it just works and is fast enough. But i'm not a gamer, so if you want play crysis or other win-based heavy-duty games you may consider one out of the 8800-series.

 

The sound issues are fine as I have a USB soundcard in a drawer somewhere.

 

May work fine, if it works consider the small program called "SoundSource" from Rogue Amoeba, it's Freeware, it sits in your menubar and lets you switch soundsources back and force.

 

So should I just follow weaksauce's guide as is or should I wait for an update?

 

If you have the souces for the weaksauce-install laying around and couldn't wait you could start. Weaksauce have another revision of the tutorial and files in the works, so if you can wait i would recommend that. Also i would recomend having at least a second or better two more HDs at hand, it helps alot in testing out things, etc., but if just want install and forget it works the way you are configured now.

 

On your Hardware-List: I would recommend getting a better PSU, yours is listed at 380 Watt which i see as a small problem if you will demand more (more HDs, better graphics, Overclocking). It' definitely worth it to have at least 500 watts to have stable power for the board and all its components. I would recommend to start with what you have and look later for a better case (ventilation) a good cooler for your Q6600 and a quality psu with at least 500 watts (only for case, psu & CPU-cooler i have spend around 250 Euros, but YMMV..).

 

So, hope that helps alittle, happy building, configuring and testing your new hack pro... :|

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weaksauce12
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Hello All,

 

I landed on this site via a couple a torrent sites and I have spent a few days reading round. I read the first page of this thread and thought that'll do me. so I ordered:

 

 

BAD AXE 2 S775 I975X BOXD975XBX2KR

 

CORE 2 QUAD Q6600

 

Nvidia GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty 256MB PCI-E

 

2GB 800MHZ DDR2 NON-ECCLOW-LATENCY CL4 DIMM

 

LiteOn DH-20A1S - Disk drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - 20x/20x/12x - Serial ATA - internal - 5.25" - black

 

Antec New Solution NSK4480B-UK - Mini tower

 

I think I have got everything I need (just waiting for the graphics card to turn up - should be here tomorrow).

 

I have read through this whole thread and I just need a couple of questions answered.

  1. Should I upgrade the bios on the Mobo? If yes which one should I use?
  2. Is the graphics OK? I had a quick read and this card is supposed to be well supported.
  3. The sound issues are fine as I have a USB soundcard in a drawer somewhere.

So should I just follow weaksauce's guide as is or should I wait for an update?

 

Stu

 

The guide is working and stable as-is, aside from the small quirks (only stereo output for sound and no second SATA controller yet). My next guide release will simply be to iron out the bugs. After that I am planning on releasing an update to EFI 8.0, provided it works well.

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funstuie
funstuie
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Thanks for the replies gents.

 

Hopefully the card will be here tomorrow so I can get started, I won't be playing games on this machine so if this card works I am happy with that. I will get on with what I have got for now and follow weaksauce's guide.

 

One quick question did you guys burn leopard to a dual layer disc or did you strip it out to make it fit a normal dvd before burning?

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weaksauce12
weaksauce12
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Thanks for the replies gents.

 

Hopefully the card will be here tomorrow so I can get started, I won't be playing games on this machine so if this card works I am happy with that. I will get on with what I have got for now and follow weaksauce's guide.

 

One quick question did you guys burn leopard to a dual layer disc or did you strip it out to make it fit a normal dvd before burning?

 

It fits on a normal DVD, no stripping required. Just follow the guide and get a couple single-layer DVD-Rs and you're set.

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weaksauce12
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$800 Build of the Day:

 

Rosewill ATX case with 300w PSU ($30)

Intel Bad Axe 2 "KR" motherboard ($190)

2.4ghz Q6600 Quad-Core Intel processor ($275)

2GB DDR2-800 RAM ($37 x 4 = $148)

256mb Biostar 7300GT ($47)

160GB Hitachi 7200rpm SATA hard drive ($49)

SATA DVD burner with Lightscribe ($32)

 

$795.76 USD total including 3-day shipping from Newegg. This builds a machine with the following specs:

 

2.4ghz Quad-core processor

8 gigs of ram

160gb 7200rpm SATA hard drive

DVD burner

1080p-capable video card

 

I couldn't match this system exactly to a Mac Pro because they were just updated to Penryn processors today, but here is a close config:

 

2.8ghz Quad-core Xeon

8gb RAM

320gb 7200rpm SATA hard drive

DVD burner

256mb ATI 2600 XT (more equivalent to an 8600GTS, afaik)

 

This configuration runs $3800 from Apple. It's not really a 1:1 match, since its a 2.4ghz Core2Quad vs a 2.8ghz Xeon, a 160gb hdd vs 320gb hdd, and a 2600XT vs a 7300GT. Still, for a not-too-far-off configuration, you save $3000. Not bad, not bad!

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lindmar
lindmar
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Update.

 

Just wanted to update. I went back to the newest BIOS.

After reading several forums saying the most stable BIOS for the BadAxe 2 was 2333 I reverted to this BIOS.

 

I did some benchmarks testing and my scores were about 400 points lower with that BIOS in geekbench. I went back to the 2809 BIOS and the scores went back up.

 

I'm not an exprt at any of this but it clearly had something to do with it.

 

Weaksauce,

 

Thanks for pointing out the new build. Like I said, I'm getting ready to build another.

Can you tell me about the case and PSU you suggest? Is that enough power? I'm running the Antec Sonata 3 which is about $100 bucks...your solution is MUCH cheaper. Just wondering how it would go.

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weaksauce12
weaksauce12
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Update.

 

Just wanted to update. I went back to the newest BIOS.

After reading several forums saying the most stable BIOS for the BadAxe 2 was 2333 I reverted to this BIOS.

 

I did some benchmarks testing and my scores were about 400 points lower with that BIOS in geekbench. I went back to the 2809 BIOS and the scores went back up.

 

I'm not an exprt at any of this but it clearly had something to do with it.

 

Weaksauce,

 

Thanks for pointing out the new build. Like I said, I'm getting ready to build another.

Can you tell me about the case and PSU you suggest? Is that enough power? I'm running the Antec Sonata 3 which is about $100 bucks...your solution is MUCH cheaper. Just wondering how it would go.

 

300-watts is fine for a non-overclocked, single-drive system. The 7300GT doesn't require a heavy power draw like an 8800 does, either. If you plan on doing a lot of expansion later, you'll want to upgrade to a more powerful power supply. Play with this PSU Calculator to get a feel for things:

 

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

Also, special thanks to aquamac for the help with the System Profiler editing. It's static, so it has to be edited to reflect the processor speed if you overclock, but it now shows the processor name correctly thanks to aquamac's work. See attachment for a pic. This will be in rev 2 of my guide :)

about.tiff

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TexAg
TexAg
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Weaksauce12, thanks for the excellent guide.

I currently have a Bad Axe2 "Hack Pro" with Tiger installed. I also have Win XP on a separate partition and use Darwin bootloader.

 

Can I just format the tiger partition and install Leopard over it (leaving the XP intact). So basically skip the kalyway formatting step in your guide(or may be just use the kalyway CD to format the Tiger partition and rename it to Leopard)

 

Also, if I want to try leopard on a External firewire Hard drive first...can I follow your guide and just pick the external drive as the "Bootable HD"

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weaksauce12
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Weaksauce12, thanks for the excellent guide.

I currently have a Bad Axe2 "Hack Pro" with Tiger installed. I also have Win XP on a separate partition and use Darwin bootloader.

 

Can I just format the tiger partition and install Leopard over it (leaving the XP intact). So basically skip the kalyway formatting step in your guide(or may be just use the kalyway CD to format the Tiger partition and rename it to Leopard)

 

Also, if I want to try leopard on a External firewire Hard drive first...can I follow your guide and just pick the external drive as the "Bootable HD"

 

I don't know...did you format using Kalway with the Make Bootable option originally? You could always give it a shot. How do you have XP installed? EasyBCD? At the very least, use Ghost or something to make a backup of the XP partition just in case.

 

As far as I know, you cannot boot to an external Firewire drive on a PC, only to a USB drive. I think Firewire boot is just a Mac thing (real Mac hardware, that is).

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weaksauce12
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Placing the order for hardware, and came accross this case, now my plan is to make a "sleeker" mac, but thought this might be kind of fun for a second project. Kind of a "Darth Mac"

 

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16811164061

 

Haha that's awesome! Although that floppy disk drive port is kinda ugly...I'm building a Gigabyte-based Hackintosh tomorrow that will have an internal 3.5" card reader, so if that works you could stick one in there to eliminate the ugliness :angel:

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