New Motherboard Promises Out-of-the-Box Hackintosh Support

[Kaido]

Yep it would. Do you know if the mini displayport cinema display would work. Ideally plugged into a 7870?

I have used Displayport successfully, so I'd imagine Mini Displayport would work. I'm curious to see if anyone has cracked the Thunderbolt display hookup for Hackintoshes yet. I only keep up on the main stuff these days due to other projects, but I haven't heard of any changes on that front yet.

 

[rhys216]

Still no reply to emails from this outfit.

 

[Kaido]

Still no reply to emails from this outfit.

Have you emailed their tech support address? From Twitter:

Tech Support email has been set up. email us tech@quocomputer.com please include your order#, serial number and specifications.

 

[rhys216]

I sent them another message to their sales email address. I will admit it did contain a couple of swear words as I was at the end of my tether, and finally got this back.

"We apologize for the mistakes.
We have provided with you upgraded DHL service. Your scans on tracking number will be updated Monday morning."

Also it looks like it is at least possible to get Thunderbolt displays working.
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/285920-new-os-x-compatible-motherboard-quo/page-25

 

[Subyman]

rhys216, you should have used tony's suggested list of parts. I had mine up and running within 30 minutes. Better yet, if you aren't well versed in hardware/software then a Mac Mini or 4.1 Mac Pro would have been a better path to go down.

 

[rhys216]

rhys216, you should have used tony's suggested list of parts. I had mine up and running within 30 minutes. Better yet, if you aren't well versed in hardware/software then a Mac Mini or 4.1 Mac Pro would have been a better path to go down.

Well I asked Quo if TB monitor would work and they said yes. I then assumed it would also hold true with my gigabyte board I got as I couldn't wait to build the machine. The components other than the TB display should work. For gaming I'l use windows.

I probably should have got a mac, but I wanted to build a high end system in a small foot print, overclock/internally watercool it + powerful graphics + SSD raid array, and have it all run COMPLETELY silent. A tall order I know, but I did it. Just couldn't get OSX to boot with a TB display, so now stuck on windows.

Below is the case I managed to fit it all in, as well as a 140mm rad.
http://www.cooltek.de/en/cubes/coolcube-maxi/13/coolcube-maxi?c=110

 

[rhys216]

Received board. Worked for a few hours but now continually keeps shutting down and starting again, although it never get's to actually post bios.
Reported to quo, they say the following.

"It appears that your BIOS has been corrupted by overclocking modifications/power.

Please follow instructions to reset dual BIOS.

Turn off computer
Turn off PSU power (switch).
Hold computer power button down and while holding down turn PSU power switch on.
You might have to do this 3-5 times.
At times you might have to follow procedure many more times.

Finally when you turn on power you will get BIOS recover screen.

Please include your serial number in next communication."

This hasn't allowed me to get to a bios recovery screen. The fact that you seem to have to do this so many times and with no exact number suggests this really isn't a proper method. I would have thought a bios switch would be ideal if the idea is to temporally access a different bios.

Also dubious that bios corruption is the issue. I only applied a mild overclock, and I have never witnessed bios corruption from overclocking before. The most I have ever had to do was clear the cmos on a board. Also when I shut down from within OSX operating system, the system would shut down and start up again. Personally I think there may just be a fault with the board itself.

I can say though, when the board worked it was great.

I will report on the customer service, hoping to get the board replaced.

 

[Kaido]

Received board. Worked for a few hours but now continually keeps shutting down and starting again, although it never get's to actually post bios.

Man, you've had a pretty rough go at it :\

 

[Kaido]

Also got some photos of the board?

 

[rhys216]

Below are some pics..

http://www.rhysphotograph.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RW1_0486.jpg

http://www.rhysphotograph.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RW1_0491.jpg

 

[Kaido]

Below are some pics..

http://www.rhysphotograph.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RW1_0486.jpg

http://www.rhysphotograph.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RW1_0491.jpg

Nice thanks! Pet tiger?

Looks like a fairly standard board. If Gigabyte made it, then the hardware quality should be good. I wonder if the entire fault lies with a (assuming) custom BIOS?

 

[vailr]

Nice thanks! Pet tiger?

Or: one of these?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_(cat)

 

[rhys216]

^^^
Yeh he's a Bengal.
http://www.rhysphotograph.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RW1_5222-Edit.jpg

Also can be seen getting up to mischief below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NdfcXeDbhk

 

[rhys216]

Looks like a fairly standard board. If Gigabyte made it, then the hardware quality should be good. I wonder if the entire fault lies with a (assuming) custom BIOS?

Yes custom bios. However it flashed ok, I installed OSX ok. It didn't shutdown properly within OSX though and 50% of the time would restart.
Now it just continually restarts.
Also I have only found one other user who has had a similar problem, but apparently he had a faulty PSU. My PSU works great and I now have cinema display, so now I have my original gigabyte board working ok (no issues with restart etc.) although I'm unable to get my 7870 working properly. I think it may be an issue with the bootloader, as if I boot with the monitor plugged into mobo, I can see both HD4000 & AMD7870 in OSX, so the OS recognises the card ok, and I'm running 10.8.4 so it should work natively.

Edit: 7870 working ok now, just ethernet & app store to fix.

Edit2: All working on the gigabyte board now.


Quo have given me an RMA number but said I need to pay postage both ways. Not ideal but I don't have much choice so was happy to do that.
I then went to buy another board as backup (damn should of just got another mac), and I see they now only offer Fedex shipping (at least to UK). The problem is it's insanely priced ($150+) just to get the board shipped. My original shipping was only $29.99.
If they expect me to pay those kinds of fees for the RMA, then obviously it's not really financially viable to RMA.
I've asked them to clarify these shipping charges, so I'll see what they come back with.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

FWIW, I just built a Hackintosh using a Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H, Intel i7-4770K and some 1600 MHz RAM. Installed it to an SSD and with a little help from the tony followers got 10.8.5 installed and running. Bought the ML s/w for $20, via wife's iMac which is still running Lion.

 

[rhys216]

^^^
Probably what I should have done other than just getting an imac.
Seriously it's gone from bad to worse with Quo. I won't ever go near them again. The product is good (when it works), but my dealings with them have been diabolical. The RMA alone is going to cost me £80+ in postage. Quo not willing to even pay for return postage.

 

[smackababy]

^^^
Probably what I should have done other than just getting an imac.
Seriously it's gone from bad to worse with Quo. I won't ever go near them again. The product is good (when it works), but my dealings with them have been diabolical. The RMA alone is going to cost me £80+ in postage. Quo not willing to even pay for return postage.

That is incredibly shady to charge the customer to replace their faulty product. =(

 

[rhys216]

That is incredibly shady to charge the customer to replace their faulty product. =(

That's what I thought. The best they would do (after I went nuts) was combine my RMA return postage with a replacement board I ordered. But... that they would downgrade the postage to an untracked service and expect me to take the risk with $600 worth of gear, and they still wanted me to foot the £42 bill for return postage (I think Quo get a better deal with postage than me, so it would have cost them less).

Note: I only ordered a second board because the machine I was building is for business use and was somewhat urgent. I didn't want to wait weeks/months for RMA. I needed a backup board anyway as I can't go months waiting for a replacement board if this happens again. I ordered my replacement board on the 28th of September, it's been dispatched today after emailed them insisting (strongly) they don't ship the board and instead refund me (I was seriously stressed and didn't want anything more to do with them), however they decided to go against my request and ship the board immediately.. go figure...


In comparison:
The other week my Samsung 830 256gb SSD became faulty (showed 1gb available).

Informed Samsung, they collected the drive free of charge the next day. When they got the drive back they couldn't fix it and offered me a 840 256gb instead. I advised them I had just ordered 4x 256gb 'pro' version SSD's for raid zero. They then agreed to send me the pro so I could add it to my raid array all free of charge.

Sure I was disappointed the drive went down. But I was actually so happy with their customer service and really feel 'they looked after me' I will return the favour to them next time.

 

[rhys216]

Looks like Quo have tried to screw me with import charges this time around. The first board cost £15 worth of vat and duty. This time DHL are charging £36.

Why I wonder? I swear this outfit is doing it's best to mess with me.

 

[smackababy]

Looks like Quo have tried to screw me with import charges this time around. The first board cost £15 worth of vat and duty. This time DHL are charging £36.

Why I wonder? I swear this outfit is doing it's best to mess with me.

At this point, I'd tell them to give me a full refund and if they didn't, I'd just file a charge back on my credit card and let them deal with it.

Quo is either incredibly mismanaged and incompetent OR shady as heck. Either way, I'd get my money back, send them back the board with the absolutely cheapest method possible, and never deal with them again.

 

[rhys216]

^^^
What I didn't mention above, was when I asked for a refund, they said they would charge me 10% of the value. I told them I wouldn't accept them taking 10% and to just give me a full refund. It was then they came back to me saying they withdraw their offer to refund -10% fee and would send the board immediately which they did.

Below was what transpired after the request for a refund (of the new board)

Quo: Dear Rhys,
We don't have cancellation on the motherboard. We can make a special circumstance on this but there will be a 10% fee associated with it. Let us know if you want us to proceed.

We can ship the board to you today. It was not shipped earlier because of shipping not paid and an issue on a RMA combination.

Me: FFS I paid the shipping on a separate invoice as DHL wasn't selectable at checkout. I asked you to ship the board regardless of the RMA, then you asked to delay 1 day. I agreed, and now it's been much longer. Cancel the order. DONT YOU DARE DEDUCT 10%. AND REFUND THE 42$ OF POSTAGE (DHL) THAT I ALREADY HAVE PAID.

Quo: Dear Sir
Sorry I can not help you there is no refund on the board.
We have tried to help you. Please post as you wish.
Your board will get shipped today.

Both the tech department has tried to help you as well.

We are not offering the 10% fee option. Your board will be shipped today.

 

[smackababy]

Yeah, I'd contact the credit card company and do a charge back. You probably won't get the shipping back if it was on a separate transaction, but you will get the board back. If you have yet to receive the new board, simply refuse delivery and do a charge back. Even if you don't refuse delivery, if you do a charge back before it gets delivered, they will stop delivery.

Them trying to charge a restocking fee before it has even left their building is complete BS.

 

[rhys216]

^^^
The sad part is, if I hadn't of asked for a refund I likely wouldn't have received my board for weeks/months again as they didn't think I had paid postage. Even though they sent me a separate invoice which I paid. The least they should have done was made a note against my order or something. So they are definitely not well organised. I can't find much information about them, but the below yelp review doesn't give me much confidence.

http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/quo-computer-alhambra