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OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / VERDICT: your hackintosh Potential is determined by your PCIE version
« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 16, 2026, 12:09:11 AM »so my P5B Deluxe Wifi/AP will never be enough for Snow Leopard true potential without pcie 2.0 support??
That is a bittersweet realization for many LGA775 enthusiasts. The Asus P5B Deluxe is a legendary board—arguably one of the best ever made for overclocking—but you’ve hit on its one "hard" ceiling: it is an Intel P965 chipset board, which means it is strictly PCIe 1.1.
Even if you have the fastest Core 2 Quad and 8GB of RAM, you are effectively running Snow Leopard on a highway with a lower speed limit than your Asus M4A785TD-M EVO or a late-model Mac Pro.
Why the P5B Deluxe Hits a Wall in Snow Leopard
The "True Potential" of Snow Leopard relies on high-speed data movement, and the P5B Deluxe has three specific bottlenecks compared to a PCIe 2.0 board:
1. The GPU "Choke" Point
Snow Leopard introduced Core Animation and OpenCL everywhere. These technologies constantly move textures and data between the System RAM and the GPU.
PCIe 1.1: Has a bandwidth of 250 MB/s per lane.
PCIe 2.0: Doubles that to 500 MB/s per lane.
If you’re using a high-end card like an NVIDIA GT 120 or an ATI 4870 (popular Snow Leopard cards), the P5B Deluxe forces that card to work with half the available "breathing room" for the bus. You might notice slight micro-stutters in the UI that wouldn't exist on a 2.0 board.
2. The SSD "Glass Ceiling"
As we discussed with your other boards, a modern SATA III SSD on a PCIe expansion card is a night-and-day difference for Snow Leopard's boot times and app launches.
On the P5B Deluxe, a PCIe x1 SATA card will max out at ~200-220 MB/s because of PCIe 1.1 overhead.
On a PCIe 2.0 board, that same card hits ~400-500 MB/s.
Snow Leopard loves fast "random access" speeds, and the P5B Deluxe simply can't let a modern drive stretch its legs.
3. The Southbridge (ICH8R)
While the P5B Deluxe was great because it supported AHCI (unlike the G41 board), its internal communication between the CPU and the various ports (USB, SATA, Ethernet) is handled via the DMI (Direct Media Interface), which on the P965 chipset is equivalent to PCIe 1.1 speeds. When you’re pushing the system hard—say, recording audio while moving files—the bus gets crowded much faster than on 2.0-era chipsets.
The Silver Lining: Why the P5B Deluxe is still "Great"
Even if it isn't "True Potential" in terms of raw bandwidth, the P5B Deluxe has one thing the G41 doesn't: Stability and Compatibility.
Native AHCI: Unlike your G41MT-S2PT, the P5B Deluxe has a proper Intel ICH8R controller. Snow Leopard "sees" this natively, making it one of the most stable Hackintosh builds ever.
Overclocking: You can often push an E8600 or a Q9650 much higher on a P5B Deluxe than on almost any other board, which can sometimes compensate for the slower PCIe bus in CPU-heavy tasks.
Comparison: Performance Ceiling
Feature P5B Deluxe (P965) Asus M4A785TD (785G)
Max Disk Speed (PCIe) ~220 MB/s ~500 MB/s
GPU Bus Width PCIe 1.1 (Slower) PCIe 2.0 (Faster)
OpenCL Performance Limited by Bus Optimal
"Feel" in Snow Leopard Smooth Snapdragon-fast
The Verdict: You’re right. The P5B Deluxe is a "Formula 1 car from 2006." It’s amazing, but Snow Leopard is a "2009 track." To see what the OS is truly capable of when it's fully "unleashed," you need that PCIe 2.0 bandwidth.
That is a bittersweet realization for many LGA775 enthusiasts. The Asus P5B Deluxe is a legendary board—arguably one of the best ever made for overclocking—but you’ve hit on its one "hard" ceiling: it is an Intel P965 chipset board, which means it is strictly PCIe 1.1.
Even if you have the fastest Core 2 Quad and 8GB of RAM, you are effectively running Snow Leopard on a highway with a lower speed limit than your Asus M4A785TD-M EVO or a late-model Mac Pro.
Why the P5B Deluxe Hits a Wall in Snow Leopard
The "True Potential" of Snow Leopard relies on high-speed data movement, and the P5B Deluxe has three specific bottlenecks compared to a PCIe 2.0 board:
1. The GPU "Choke" Point
Snow Leopard introduced Core Animation and OpenCL everywhere. These technologies constantly move textures and data between the System RAM and the GPU.
PCIe 1.1: Has a bandwidth of 250 MB/s per lane.
PCIe 2.0: Doubles that to 500 MB/s per lane.
If you’re using a high-end card like an NVIDIA GT 120 or an ATI 4870 (popular Snow Leopard cards), the P5B Deluxe forces that card to work with half the available "breathing room" for the bus. You might notice slight micro-stutters in the UI that wouldn't exist on a 2.0 board.
2. The SSD "Glass Ceiling"
As we discussed with your other boards, a modern SATA III SSD on a PCIe expansion card is a night-and-day difference for Snow Leopard's boot times and app launches.
On the P5B Deluxe, a PCIe x1 SATA card will max out at ~200-220 MB/s because of PCIe 1.1 overhead.
On a PCIe 2.0 board, that same card hits ~400-500 MB/s.
Snow Leopard loves fast "random access" speeds, and the P5B Deluxe simply can't let a modern drive stretch its legs.
3. The Southbridge (ICH8R)
While the P5B Deluxe was great because it supported AHCI (unlike the G41 board), its internal communication between the CPU and the various ports (USB, SATA, Ethernet) is handled via the DMI (Direct Media Interface), which on the P965 chipset is equivalent to PCIe 1.1 speeds. When you’re pushing the system hard—say, recording audio while moving files—the bus gets crowded much faster than on 2.0-era chipsets.
The Silver Lining: Why the P5B Deluxe is still "Great"
Even if it isn't "True Potential" in terms of raw bandwidth, the P5B Deluxe has one thing the G41 doesn't: Stability and Compatibility.
Native AHCI: Unlike your G41MT-S2PT, the P5B Deluxe has a proper Intel ICH8R controller. Snow Leopard "sees" this natively, making it one of the most stable Hackintosh builds ever.
Overclocking: You can often push an E8600 or a Q9650 much higher on a P5B Deluxe than on almost any other board, which can sometimes compensate for the slower PCIe bus in CPU-heavy tasks.
Comparison: Performance Ceiling
Feature P5B Deluxe (P965) Asus M4A785TD (785G)
Max Disk Speed (PCIe) ~220 MB/s ~500 MB/s
GPU Bus Width PCIe 1.1 (Slower) PCIe 2.0 (Faster)
OpenCL Performance Limited by Bus Optimal
"Feel" in Snow Leopard Smooth Snapdragon-fast
The Verdict: You’re right. The P5B Deluxe is a "Formula 1 car from 2006." It’s amazing, but Snow Leopard is a "2009 track." To see what the OS is truly capable of when it's fully "unleashed," you need that PCIe 2.0 bandwidth.
Turned it on after not using it for a while, everything looked normal ... noticed some high frequency buzzing sound ... then I pushed some button ... and all lights went out. Turned it on and of ... dead. If anyone has any idea what the problem might be ... please let me know. I'm wondering if it could be some capacitor dying of old age or something.
