It took a while to optimize. But I finally installed macOS Catalina on my desktop PC with X79/LGA 2011 motherboard, Xeon E5-2650 CPU and Radeon™ RX 580 GPU. Specs listed below.
| Part | Model Number |
|---|---|
| CPU | Xeon E5-2650 |
| Motherboard | Ant Country X79 Basic |
| GPU | RX 580 4B (AMD OEM) |
| Memory | Samsung 8GB DDR3-1333Mhz ECC x 4 |
| PSU | Evesky 650W |
| CPU Cooler | Frostwind (Taobao) |
| mATX Case | 钢铁侠M1-N5 (Tmall) |
| Storage | 128GB SSD (macOS), 256GB SSD (Windows 10), 1TB HDD (Shared Storage) |
| Keyboard | 赤暴Readson FH87 |
A word of warning; you should modify the EFI (a lot) if your system specs are different. I use an ”Ant Country X79 Basic” Chinese motherboard, very similar to Huanan X79. The CPU type 0x0a01 I set in Clover is only applicable to 8-core CPU models. You should edit that out if your CPU config is different. Also, note that I’ve manually set my system memory info (4x 8GB) within the SMBIOS in Clover. You should edit that as well.
Nota bene
- Proceed with caution. Don’t blame me if you didn’t back up.
- Delete VoodooHDA from Kexts/Other, if the AppleALC Kext is working.
- The guide is not applicable to Opencore bootloader. Go ahead though, if you know what you’re doing.
- I haven’t tested these settings against the latest version of Clover.
Download The EFI folder for X79
My EFI folder is applicable for Vanilla approach and SSD hot-swap (just replace/paste EFI folder – not recommended though.) If things go south, use the clover settings attached in the starter-EFI folder of my repo. But then you’ve to tweak settings a bit more.
What Doesn’t Work?
Sleep/wake- Ethernet (For the time being. Catalina broke the ethernet for me. I use a WiFi adapter anyway. So no plans to fix it real soon.)
- FaceTime/iMessage (It will work after SMBIOS edits. You should do that.)
Resources
- Guide to create a bootable macOS Catalina USB install drive (on macOS)
- Guide to create a bootable macOS Catalina USB install drive (on Windows)
Post USB preparation
- Install Clover to the USB flash drive.
- Use Clover Configurator (macOS) or DiskGenius (Windows) to mount the EFI folder within the USB flash drive.
- Paste my /EFI folder to the EFI partition.
Good luck!
Tip Me: