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OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / Re: Tiger only supported Sata1 (1.5gb/s) disk speeds and works best with ICH7R

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 06, 2026, 04:05:33 AM »

well i've ordered a few of these sil3132 cards that have 2 external + 2 internal ports but u use the jumpers to switch between internet or external wiring which gives flexibility on where your drive is going to be stored... lookin forward to testing it with my early hackintosh machines with ICH7 + ICH5

Reason Studios / reason 13 requirements

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 06, 2026, 04:03:31 AM »

reason 13 requirements

System Requirements
macOS
Fast, stable internet connection
Intel or M1/M2 Mac with multi-core processor
4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
6.5 GB free system disk space required, plus 20 GB for optional content. Additionally, program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space and additional space for cached graphical assets
macOS 10.15 or later (64-bit)
Monitor with at least 1280x768 resolution
CoreAudio compliant audio interface or built-in audio hardware
MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
For using Reason as a VST Plugin, a host with VST3 support is required
For using Reason as an AU plugin, a host with AUv2 support is required
For using Reason as an AAX plugin, Pro Tools 12 or later is required

Windows
Fast, stable internet connection
Intel or AMD multi-core processor
4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
6.5 GB free system disk space required, plus 20 GB for optional content. Additionally, program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space and additional space for cached graphical assets
Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
Monitor with at least 1280x768 resolution
Audio Interface with ASIO driver
MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
For using Reason as a VST Plugin, a host with VST3 support is required
For using Reason as an AAX plugin, Pro Tools 12 or later is required

OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / original mac pro first acheived SATA2 with ICH7R

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 10:15:00 PM »

Conclusion:
If you want to stay "Vanilla" and use only onboard ports,
yes, 975X + ICH7R is effectively your only choice for a fully functional "SATA II" capable Tiger experience.

If you are willing to use a PCIe expansion card, you can use *any board* that has a free pcie slot, and supports slot 771/775 cpu, such as a E8600.

Several ASUS motherboards, primarily from the LGA775 era (mid-2000s), feature the Intel ICH7R southbridge, which is known for supporting SATA RAID (0, 1, 10, 5) and Matrix Storage Technology.

Key ASUS motherboards with the ICH7R chipset include:

ASUS P5W64-WS Professional
ASUS P5WD2-E Premium
ASUS P5WD2 Premium
ASUS P5LD2
ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe
ASUS P5LD2-E

ASUS P5BV (Server Board)
ASUS P5BV/SAS (Server Board)
ASUS P5M2-E/4L (Server Board)
ASUS P5M2/SAS (Server Board)

These boards were generally paired with Intel 955X, 975X, or 945P northbridge chipsets to provide the ICH7R functionality.

OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / NCQ + hot plug capability without addon card requires 975X + ICH7R specific mb

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 07:37:24 PM »

so the only way for me to get NCQ + hot plug capability in OSX TIGER on a intel hackintosh, with 7600GT gpu, and e8600 cpu, would be to use a motherboard that has 975X + ICH7R? is that correct? anything higher or lower will not work is that correct?
Gemini said
Strictly speaking, for onboard Intel SATA on Tiger (10.4.x), your assessment is almost entirely correct. Tiger was the first Intel-capable Mac OS, and its AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) drivers were incredibly primitive and specific to the hardware Apple was shipping at the time (primarily the first Mac Pro and iMacs using the 945/975X chipsets).

Here is the breakdown of why the 975X + ICH7R is your "Goldilocks" zone, and why deviating from it usually leads to a dead end:

1. The ICH7R Requirement
Tiger's AppleAHCIPort.kext was written for the specific Device IDs of the ICH7 series.

Lower (ICH6 or below): Most of these do not support AHCI at all or lack the specific registers Tiger expects for NCQ (Native Command Queuing).

Higher (ICH8, ICH9, ICH10): While these do support AHCI, Tiger lacks the built-in Device IDs for them. While you can "spoof" them by injecting IDs into the kext, you often run into a specific Tiger-era bug where only two SATA ports are recognized, or the system fails to initialize NCQ because the register offsets shifted slightly between ICH7 and ICH8.

2. Why NCQ + Hot Plug is so picky
In Tiger, if you aren't using a "recognized" AHCI controller, the OS defaults to using AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext.

PIIXATA treats SATA drives as if they are old-school IDE/PATA drives.

The Result: You lose NCQ, you lose Hot Plug, and you are capped at "Legacy IDE" speeds (effectively SATA I or worse).

3. The "Higher" Chipset Trap
If you use a P35/P45 board (ICH9/ICH10) with your E8600, you will likely get Tiger to boot, but you will almost certainly be stuck in IDE emulation mode. You might see the drives, but they will show up as "Internal" (not hot-swappable) and won't support the queueing depth required for NCQ.

Is there any other way?
If you don't want to hunt down a rare 975X board (like the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe), there is one "cheat code" that actually works better for NCQ and Hot Plug on Tiger:

The Silicon Image 3132 PCIe Card.
As you've noted in your recent research, Tiger has excellent third-party support for the SiI3132 or SiI3124 chipsets.

The Benefit: If you put a $15 SiI3132 card into any Core 2 Duo motherboard, the FirmTek or Silicon Image drivers will give you full SATA II speeds, true Hot Plug (the drive will appear/disappear on the desktop like a USB drive), and NCQ.

The Catch: You usually can't boot the Tiger installer from these cards easily; you often need to install to a drive on the onboard SATA first, install the drivers, and then move the drive to the card.

Summary Checklist for your Build:
Feature   Onboard (ICH7R)   Onboard (ICH8/9/10)   PCIe Card (SiI3132)
Tiger Compatibility   Native (Best)   Patchy/Difficult   Driver Dependent
NCQ Support   Yes   Rarely (in Tiger)   Yes
Hot Plug   Yes   Often No   Yes
SATA Speed   3.0 Gbps   3.0 Gbps   3.0 Gbps

General / Miscellaneous / users who hadnt logged in in hte last year have been purged

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 07:29:34 PM »

you will have to go through the registration process again sorry

OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / does SIL3132 support continue past TIGER?

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 07:15:20 PM »

does Sil3132 support continue for macosx thru the next versions past tiger? leopard? snow leopard? lion? mountain lion? where does support for 3132 dissappear?

Great question — this is actually where the SiL3132 really shines, because its support lifespan in macOS is much longer than most people expect.

Here’s the real progression:

🧠 SiL3132 macOS Support Timeline
✅ macOS Tiger (10.4)
Works with third-party kexts (Silicon Image driver)
Common in OSx86 builds
Bootable + full SATA II (3 Gb/s)
This is where it became popular in Hackintosh
✅ macOS Leopard (10.5)
Best support overall
Many distros (iATKOS, Kalyway) include SiL3132 kexts
Fully:
Bootable
Stable
SATA II + NCQ working

👉 This is basically the “golden era” for Sil3132 on Hackintosh.

✅ macOS Snow Leopard (10.6)
Still works very well
Requires:
32-bit kernel (recommended), or
Properly patched 64-bit kext
Many users report:
Stable operation
Boot support still works
Good performance

⚠️ Caveat:

64-bit support is less consistent unless you have the right kext
⚠️ macOS Lion (10.7)
Support starts to degrade
Apple moves heavily toward:
AHCI
Native Intel/Apple storage stack
SiL3132:
May still work with older kexts
Often non-bootable or unstable
Kernel extensions may need modification
❌ macOS Mountain Lion (10.

and newer
Support effectively disappears
Reasons:
Apple drops a lot of legacy 3rd-party driver support
Moves fully to AHCI / AppleAHCIPort stack
64-bit only kernel (breaks old drivers)

👉 SiL3132:

Usually not detected, or
Requires heavy hacking (and even then unreliable)
this is fine because from here on outt apple has built in AHCI drivers that work better thean the sil3132 probably anyway

OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / even if u have no PCIE slots SIL3124 on PCI133 still benefits OSX TIGER+

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 05:33:03 PM »

for early intel hackintoshes that may lack pcie express slots, (pentium 4s, early socket 775 boards etc) While the raw throughput is indeed limited by the legacy 32-bit/33MHz PCI bus (which caps out at a theoretical 133 MB/s), moving to an SiI3124-based controller offers significant architectural advantages over the integrated IDE or early SATA controllers typically found on motherboards of that era.

Even if you aren't "breaking the sound barrier" with transfer speeds, here is how those specific features and the controller's design provide a better experience:

1. Beyond Throughput:
IOPS and NCQThe most noticeable benefit isn't the top speed, but the responsiveness of the system.Native Command Queuing (NCQ): Standard legacy IDE controllers handle requests one by one.

If the OS asks for ten files, the drive waits for one to finish before starting the next. NCQ allows the drive to accept all ten requests at once and reorder them so the drive head moves the shortest distance possible.

System Feel:
This drastically reduces latency during multi-tasking or heavy OS disk activity (like booting or launching large applications), making an old mechanical drive or SATA SSD feel much "snappier" than it would on a non-NCQ controller.

2. Hot-Plug Support & StabilityOn many mid-2000s motherboards, SATA ports were often treated like internal IDE drives—meaning if you unplugged them while the system was on, you risked a kernel panic or hardware damage.

True Hot-Swapping:
The SiI3124 is a server-grade chipset that natively supports the SATA hot-plug spec. This is perfect for using removable drive bays or external eSATA enclosures for backups without needing to reboot.

eSATA Capability:
Many of these 3124 cards feature eSATA ports, allowing you to connect modern external storage at the full 133 MB/s bus speed, which is still significantly faster than the 30-40 MB/s real-world limit of USB 2.0 found on those boards.

3. Overcoming "IDE Emulation" Limits
Many early onboard SATA controllers (like the Intel ICH7 or early VIA chipsets) operate in "Legacy" or "IDE" mode to maintain compatibility with older operating systems.

Breaking the 128GB Barrier:
If your motherboard BIOS has trouble seeing large modern drives (e.g., 2TB+), the SiI3124 uses its own independent BIOS. This allows you to use much larger drives that the motherboard’s onboard controller might reject.

SATA II Protocol:
Even though the PCI bus is slow, the link between the card and the drive is SATA II (3.0 Gbps). This ensures better compatibility with modern SSDs and HDDs that might struggle to "handshake" properly with ancient SATA I (1.5 Gbps) controllers.4. Efficient Data Handling (DMA)The SiI3124 is a sophisticated controller compared to cheaper "Win-RAID" cards.

It features:Large Internal FIFO Buffers: These help smooth out data transfers and prevent the PCI bus from becoming a bottleneck for tiny, "bursty" data packets.Reduced CPU Overhead: Because it handles the heavy lifting of the SATA protocol and NCQ in hardware, your CPU (like a Core 2 Duo or Quad) spends less time managing disk I/O and more time running your applications.

Comparison:
Integrated Legacy vs. SiI3124 PCIFeatureOnboard Legacy SATA/IDESiI3124 PCI CardMax Bus SpeedVaries (often shared)133 MB/s (Dedicated PCI)Command QueuingNone (Synchronous)NCQ (Asynchronous)Drive SwapReboot requiredHot-plug supportedMax Drive SizeOften limited by BIOSSupported via Card BIOSBootabilityNativeSupported (via Option ROM)

In short, you are trading raw bandwidth (which the PCI bus can't provide anyway) for modern storage intelligence. It’s the difference between a fast car on a congested one-lane road versus a smart car that knows how to navigate traffic efficiently.

will my sil3124 pci card worth with asus p5pe-vm
Gemini said
The ASUS P5PE-VM is a unique motherboard that uses the Intel 865G chipset, which creates some specific hardware constraints for your Silicon Image 3124 card.

Whether it will work depends on the specific variant of the Sil3124 card you have and what you intend to do with it.

1. Physical Compatibility (PCI vs. PCI-X)
The Sil3124 chipset is natively a PCI-X (Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended) controller.

The Card: Most Sil3124 cards are long, 64-bit PCI-X cards.

The Motherboard: The ASUS P5PE-VM only has standard 32-bit PCI slots.

Can you plug it in?
Yes, usually. PCI-X is backward compatible with standard PCI. If your card has the universal "notches" (3.3V and 5V), it will physically fit into the motherboard's PCI slot, though the "tail" of the connector will hang off the end of the slot.

2. Performance Bottlenecks
Because the P5PE-VM uses standard 32-bit/33MHz PCI slots, you will experience a massive bandwidth "choke":

Sil3124 Potential: Up to 1064 MB/s (in a 133MHz PCI-X slot).

P5PE-VM Limit: Approximately 133 MB/s total shared across the entire PCI bus.

If you are trying to achieve SATA II (3.0 Gbps) speeds, the card will technically provide the SATA II protocol, but the actual data transfer will be capped at the speed of the old PCI bus.

3. OS and Driver Support
Since you are likely working with legacy environments, here is how the Sil3124 behaves:

Mac OS X (Tiger/Leopard): The Sil3124 is generally well-supported by third-party drivers (like the old Silicon Image or Sonnet drivers). It is often preferred over the Sil3132 for stability in older builds.

Windows: Drivers are readily available for XP and Windows 7.

Booting: Whether you can boot an OS from a drive attached to this card depends on the card’s BIOS. Some "RAID" versions of the Sil3124 can be finicky with the P5PE-VM’s BIOS when trying to set the boot priority.

Summary Checklist
Feature   Compatibility
Physical Fit   Yes, if it's a universal PCI/PCI-X card.
Speed   Limited to ~133 MB/s (PCI Bus limit).
Boot Support   Variable; depends on the card's firmware.
Power   Check 3.3V vs 5V; ensure the card is keyed for 5V (standard PCI).
One thing to watch out for: The P5PE-VM is a Micro-ATX board. Ensure the length of the Sil3124 card (which is often quite long) doesn't hit your RAM slots or any capacitors on the right side of the board.

You said
i kno it will be capped at 133mb/s but it will support hot swap + NCQ? right?
Gemini said
Yes, you are correct on both counts. Despite the bandwidth bottleneck of the 32-bit PCI bus, the Silicon Image 3124 chipset handles these features at the controller level, meaning it doesn't "lose" them just because it's running in a slower slot.

Here is the breakdown of how those features will behave on your ASUS P5PE-VM:

1. Hot Swap (Hot Plugging)
The Sil3124 natively supports hot-plugging. However, there are two caveats to keep in mind for your specific setup:

The OS Matters: For Hot Swap to work, the operating system and the driver must support it. In Windows (XP/7), you usually need the "BASE" (non-RAID) driver for the drive to appear as a removable device. In Mac OS X (Tiger/Leopard), it generally works well with the Silicon Image SATARAID5 or BASE drivers, but the drive might take a few seconds to mount.

Power: Standard Molex-to-SATA power adapters technically don't support the "staggered" pin entry required for safe hot-plugging. If you plan to swap drives frequently, use a proper SATA power connector from your PSU.

2. NCQ (Native Command Queuing)
The card fully supports NCQ, which allows the hard drive to optimize the order in which it executes read/write commands.

Efficiency: Even though your throughput is capped at 133 MB/s, NCQ will still help with latency and "seek" efficiency, especially if you are running an OS with heavy background indexing (like Spotlight in Tiger/Leopard).

Drive Compatibility: Your SATA drive must also support NCQ (most drives made after 2005 do).

Important: BASE vs. RAID Firmware
Since you are likely using this for a boot drive or a single-drive setup, check which BIOS is flashed to your card. Silicon Image cards usually come in two flavors:

RAID BIOS: Good if you want to mirror drives, but can sometimes hide S.M.A.R.T. data from the OS.

BASE BIOS (Non-RAID): Generally better for single-drive performance and "truer" SATA behavior.

Potential Conflict: The P5PE-VM BIOS
The ASUS P5PE-VM has a somewhat "crowded" BIOS interrupt map because it’s a Micro-ATX board with onboard video (865G).

Tip: If the system hangs during the "Detecting storage devices" phase of the Sil3124 splash screen, try moving the card to the bottom PCI slot and disabling any unused onboard peripherals (like the Parallel or Serial ports) in the BIOS to free up IRQ resources.

OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / 23" DVI cinema display 1920 x 1200 16:10 Single-Link DVI

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 05:01:14 PM »

whats the max resolution for a 23" dvi cinema display
https://everymac.com/monitors/apple/studio_cinema/specs/apple_cinema_display_23.html

The maximum (and native) resolution for both the aluminum and the earlier polycarbonate 23" Apple Cinema HD Displays is 1920 x 1200.

Since this is a 16:10 aspect ratio display, it provides a bit more vertical screen real estate than a standard 1080p (1920 x 1080) monitor.

The resolution of 1920 x 1200 is most commonly known as WUXGA, which stands for Widescreen Ultra Extended Graphics Array.

While it shares the same width as the more common 1080p (Full HD) resolution, it is slightly taller. Here are a few ways it is categorized:

Aspect Ratio: It uses a 16:10 aspect ratio. This was the professional standard for high-end monitors and laptops for years before the 16:9 (1920 x 1080) "widescreen" standard became the dominant consumer format.

Total Pixels: It contains roughly 2.3 million pixels. This provides about 11% more vertical screen real estate than 1080p, which is particularly helpful for productivity tasks like coding, video editing, or viewing two documents side-by-side.

Common Use Cases: You will mostly find this resolution on business-class monitors (like the Dell UltraSharp series) and ruggedized or older "pro" laptops.

In some technical contexts, it may also be referred to simply as 1200p.

Key Technical Specs:
Resolution: 1920×1200 pixels

Aspect Ratio: 16:10

Interface: Single-Link DVI (for the aluminum A1082 model) or ADC (for the older M8537 polycarbonate model).

Pixel Density: 98.4 ppi

Compatibility Note
While the larger 30-inch model requires a Dual-Link DVI connection to reach its full resolution, the 23-inch model works perfectly at its maximum resolution using a standard Single-Link DVI cable or adapter. If you are using a modern Mac or PC, a simple USB-C to DVI or HDMI to DVI adapter will typically drive it at the full 1920 x 1200 without issues.

OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / Re: For 10.5 Leopard: The GeForce 8800 GT is the undisputed champion for speed

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 04:59:26 PM »

Quote

was the 8800 GT the first to support 2 30 inch cinema displays?
Gemini said
Actually, no—while the 8800 GT was a popular and powerful choice for the 30-inch Cinema Display era, it was not the first card to support two of them.

To drive a 30-inch Apple Cinema Display at its native resolution of 2560 x 1600, a graphics card requires a Dual-Link DVI port. To drive two of them simultaneously, the card needs two independent Dual-Link DVI pipelines.
+1

The True Pioneers
Several cards preceded the 8800 GT (released in late 2007) in offering dual 30-inch support:

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 (2005): This was the high-end workstation beast for the PCIe Power Mac G5 and the first Intel Mac Pro. It was specifically marketed for its ability to drive two 30-inch Cinema HD Displays right out of the box.
+1

ATI Radeon X1900 XT (2006): When the first Intel Mac Pro launched, this was the "pro-sumer" upgrade option that featured two Dual-Link DVI ports, allowing for dual 30-inch setups long before the 8800 GT arrived.

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT/GTX (2005): While many consumer versions only had one Dual-Link and one Single-Link port, certain high-end versions (and the Mac-specific 7800 GT for the G5) were capable of dual 2560 x 1600 output.

Why the 8800 GT is often remembered for this:
The 8800 GT holds a special place in Mac history because it was the first affordable, single-slot card that made dual 30-inch displays accessible to more users.

Space Efficiency: Previous cards like the X1900 XT or Quadro FX 4500 were massive, "double-slot" cards that took up a lot of room and generated immense heat.

The "Upgrade" Era: It became the go-to upgrade for first-generation Mac Pro owners who wanted to run modern (at the time) dual-monitor setups without the reliability issues of the older ATI cards.

Technical Note: If you are setting this up today, remember that "Dual-Link DVI" refers to the number of pins and the bandwidth of the cable, not the number of monitor ports on the card. A standard DVI-to-HDMI adapter will usually limit you to 1920 x 1200, so you must use a true Dual-Link DVI cable to get that full 2560 x 1600 resolution on your Cinema Displays.

100

OsX86 Hackintosh (Intel / AMD) / how many different "MAC EDITION" gpus were there?

« Last post by chrisNova777 on April 05, 2026, 04:57:19 PM »

how many different "mac edition" gpus were sold for between 2006-2012?
Gemini said
Between 2006 and 2012 (the era of the "Classic" Mac Pro towers), there were 11 distinct GPU models officially sold by Apple or authorized third-party manufacturers (like EVGA and Sapphire) as "Mac Edition" cards.

This count excludes "flashed" PC cards or standard PC cards that work without a boot screen; it only includes cards that shipped with official Mac EFI firmware.

Official Apple & Third-Party "Mac Edition" GPUs (2006–2012)
Year   Model   Manufacturer   Notes
2006   NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT   Apple/NVIDIA   Standard entry-level card for the Mac Pro 1,1.
2006   ATI Radeon X1900 XT   Apple/ATI   The high-end BTO (Built-to-Order) option for 2006.
2006   NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500   Apple/NVIDIA   Workstation-class card with 512MB VRAM.
2008   ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT   Apple/ATI   Standard card for the Mac Pro 3,1.
2008   NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT   Apple/NVIDIA   Popular mid-range upgrade; often sold as a standalone kit.
2008   NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600   Apple/NVIDIA   Ultra high-end workstation card with 1.5GB VRAM.
2009   NVIDIA GeForce GT 120   Apple/NVIDIA   Standard for the 4,1; essentially a rebranded 9500 GT.
2009   ATI Radeon HD 4870   Apple/ATI   High-end upgrade for the 4,1 and 5,1 models.
2010   ATI Radeon HD 5770   Apple/ATI   The most common "legacy" upgrade card; supported until 2012.
2010   ATI Radeon HD 5870   Apple/ATI   The powerhouse flagship for the 5,1 Mac Pro.
2012   NVIDIA Quadro 4000   NVIDIA   A dedicated Mac Edition workstation card released by NVIDIA.
Late-Era Third Party Additions (Announced/Sold ~2012-2013)
Right at the end of the "Classic" tower's life cycle, two major third-party cards were released specifically for these machines. While they launched near the very end of 2012 or early 2013, they are often grouped with this era:

EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition: Released to provide a modern Kepler-based upgrade for the 3,1 through 5,1.

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition: Released specifically to give legacy towers GCN-architecture support (and a white fan shroud to match the Mac aesthetic).

Key Technical Distinctions
The "Boot Screen" Factor: The defining trait of these "Mac Edition" cards is the EFI firmware. Standard PC versions of these same cards will often work inside a Mac Pro once the OS loads, but you will see a black screen until the login window appears, making it impossible to use FileVault or select a boot drive.

Power Requirements: Most of these cards (except the 7300 GT, GT 120, and HD 5770) require one or two 6-pin mini-PCIe power cables connected directly to the Mac Pro motherboard.

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