Any successes with the crazy ROG CROSSHAIR VIII Extreme? Especially with the AQC113CS??

agent2

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Hi together,

It‘s been a while since I‘ve been here, it’s good to be back, and my question is this: ASUS just recently announced their latest batch of X570 motherboards and I was wondering if the networking on the crazy, yet awesome CROSSHAIR VIII Extreme is going to work. I know with this mobo that I would be going into a lot of unknowns but I would want to give it a try anyway. But what I feel has been neglected a lot on Hackintosh systems is the plethora of networking chips that are found on these boards.
So yeah to get to the point: The C8E has two NICs: An Intel I-225V if I’m not mistaken (which should work with a little fix from the guides) and … here comes: An Aquantia AQC113CS. This guy’s is a bit of a mystery to me. Will there be workarounds for this guy from the Hackintosh gurus here or is it natively supported? My hunch is a bit of both, as the 10Gbit NIC in the M1 Mac Mini is called AQC113, not CS or anything. Can someone verify of inform me if I‘m thinking correctly? I don‘t want to make the same mistake buying this board as I did with my CROSSHAIR VIII Formula, as I thought because it has an Aquantia NIC it’ll be supported, which it isn’t though.

Please please can someone help me verify these thoughts? The AQC113CS is already on some high-end Z590 boards, notably the AORUS Master/Xtreme and the Maximus Extreme from ASUS. So yeah any previous experience is appreciated as well.
Thanks everybody and cheers!!
 
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Shaneee

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agent2

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Alright thanks for your help @Shaneee! Maybe some of the other maestros of this site could chime in and give their opinion too? And if this FakeID route would be the only option, then how does that work?
 

agent2

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But the 2.5Gbit LAN is useable isn’t it?
 

Shaneee

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The i225-V might work yes. Take a look here,

 

agent2

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@Shaneee So what I can gather from that thread is that the macOS 12 support for the i-225V is still a bit iffy, but it works just fine in Big Sur or not? I’m not planning to upgrade just yet but keeping up to date is still useful so thx for sharing it!
 

agent2

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Really sorry for the ping @Aluveitie and @AudioGod but what are your thoughts on this? Is it safe to go through or is it too risky?
 

Aluveitie

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I don't have an I-225V, but I'd assume it should be working on Monterey too since the i225LM is supported natively by macOS. The I211AT didn't run because the SmallTree Kext does not work with Monterey.

If you're worried about compatibility just install Monterey alongside Big Sur on a new APFS volume and dual boot until you're sure everything you need is working.
 

agent2

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I don't have an I-225V, but I'd assume it should be working on Monterey too since the i225LM is supported natively by macOS. The I211AT didn't run because the SmallTree Kext does not work with Monterey.

If you're worried about compatibility just install Monterey alongside Big Sur on a new APFS volume and dual boot until you're sure everything you need is working.
Thanks dude! What I‘d appreciate is if you could give your opinion on the AQC113CS? That‘s the one I’m more worried about. Thank bloody goodness the i-225V is somewhat manageable.

Cheers!
 

Aluveitie

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I can't really say anything about the AQC113CS, though I'm using a USB-to-Ethernet dongle with the AQC111U. That one worked out of the box with MacOS, but was limited to 1000Base-T, only after installing the driver kext from Marvell it would run at 5000Base-T. But that driver is specific for those USB dongles with the AQC111U in it.

But according to ServeTheHome the new MacMini uses an AQC113 (https://www.servethehome.com/apple-mac-mini-m1-10gbe-gets-10gbase-t/2/). As CMMChris noted in the Hackintosh Forum, the driver is also available in x86. Chances are that it should either work out of the box - or with a modified device id.
 

Aluveitie

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The main problem is, that this board just makes no sense at that price. For 200$ or so more than a C8E + 5950X you can get a PRO WS WRX80E + a 3955WX. That’s octa channel memory and 7 full 16x PCIe slots. And the board also has 10Gbe.
You can get a board for less than half of that, add a 10Gbe PCIe card and instead use the money for upgrading to a 6950X (assuming Zen 3D comes to AM4). Or spend a little more and go for a 24 Core Threadripper instead.

With AM4 being at the end of it’s lifespan…
 

agent2

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The main problem is, that this board just makes no sense at that price. For 200$ or so more than a C8E + 5950X you can get a PRO WS WRX80E + a 3955WX. That’s octa channel memory and 7 full 16x PCIe slots. And the board also has 10Gbe.
You can get a board for less than half of that, add a 10Gbe PCIe card and instead use the money for upgrading to a 6950X (assuming Zen 3D comes to AM4). Or spend a little more and go for a 24 Core Threadripper instead.

With AM4 being at the end of it’s lifespan…
You most definitely have a point in that, I see the sense there, but I already have a fitting CPU and Dual-Channel RAM, and I also would like to experience the cool OC features of that board as well as mess with Thunderbolt 4 in macOS, sadly the sWRX8 socket doesn’t have those features. As awesome as I find that motherboard, it‘s also simply overkill with the RAM channels and PCIe lanes (32GB are enough for me), but of course with that C8E, it’s also kinda redundant to make the “overkill” argument, because it is for nearly everyone. But I am planning on selling my Formula when I get the chance.
 

Aluveitie

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Don't get me wrong, that board is a beautiful piece of engineering.
I could just not justify that price tag for myself because I don't see enough value in return. But it would surely be interesting to tinker around with it and see what you can get running on MacOS :)

In the good old days you could get 50% or more increase in performance with overclocking, nowadays it's like 5-10% and Ryzen is even more difficult to OC without losing single core performance.
 
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agent2

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OK I‘d be willing to do stuff with this mobo as long as it isn’t the clusterfuck like my AQC111C, which everyone apparently haven’t been able to solve for macOS. I just want to have the NICs work next time I bother with dual-networking motherboards.
By the way the PRO WS WRX80E only has an X550-AT2 which also needs a lot of tinkering, which isn‘t the ideal situation if it‘s the only NIC on the board.
 

Aluveitie

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Looking at the AppleEthernetAquantiaAqtion kext I see two device ids for the AQC113 family:
  • pci1d6a,c0
  • pci1d6a,4c0
So the question would be which device ID does the AQC113CS have?
 

Shaneee

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Looking at the AppleEthernetAquantiaAqtion kext I see two device ids for the AQC113 family:
  • pci1d6a,c0
  • pci1d6a,4c0
So the question would be which device ID does the AQC113CS have?

Code:
Marvell FastLinQ Edge 10Gbit Network Adapter (AQC113CS) Hardware ID PCI\VEN_1D6A&DEV_94C0
 

Aluveitie

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You'd have to try with faking the device id to figure out if it will work with that driver as it only supports the AQC113 but not the AQC113C/CS.
 

agent2

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You'd have to try with faking the device id to figure out if it will work with that driver as it only supports the AQC113 but not the AQC113C/CS.
Is this in the realm of doable, so it would have to be changed in the config.plist? And what would I have to do to fake the ID?
 

Aluveitie

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Same as with the I-225V
 

dawilliams660

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Hello....I was thinking on upgrading my system to this board, or should I stick to what I have or what?....any suggestion?
 
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