Well, the USB thing is actually pretty crazy....mostly due to the fact that I have something like 12 USB ports and a real Mac doesn't have anywhere near that....all that without a hub too. Install is fairly easy if you have the right components. I've been doing this for a long time, not only for myself, but for clients, so, I'd say over the years, I've done 20 or more of these. It has gotten easier, but the single most important thing is selecting the correct compatible components. You still may be able to get it to work, but, you will be in for a much steeper learning curve if you don't.
I can tell you this; a recent build I did for a friend, came in right around $1000 and in benchmarks, blows away everything that Apple has currently, and that is with upgrading the Apple stuff to the top tier. That $1000 machine easily beats a $3500 offering from Apple!
My biggest resource for all the Hackintoshing is TonyMac. That site really helps immensely in the selection of components. There is also a great community of people there willing to help.

Also, I do have an actual MBP, and have worked on many real Apple machines. The USB3 issue is a thing, but, you just have to be careful about what chipset you get (if an add-in card or hub)

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer to the best of my ability.

One thing to consider about Mavericks, Waves has stopped supporting Mavericks. Just Yosemite and higher. So, if you want to continue with the latest Waves stuff, I'd think about rolling back to Yosemite. There are also alternative kexts for the USB3 part, that work great for Yosemite. I have a client with a 12 core Mac Pro that was having issues, and finding that GENERICUSBXHCI.kext made all the difference. His machine went from kernel panics and not even recognizing the USB to zero problems after switching the kext. You may want to look into that even for the Sierra issue you are having now. Might save you a bunch of time...

 

I've upgraded from Yosemite (older non supported Macpro) to El Cap with (on a newerish Mac Pro) no problems. The only thing I noticed was some cracked plugins needed to be recracked but nothing major. I would suggest backing up before updating so if there are any issues you can revert back to Yosemite.

 

tried 3 different hubs before, from cheap belkin to expensive Anker, it wasn't a great solution for a lot of devices used simultaneously.
i can recommend Sonnet Allegro USB 2 version, about 15 bucks/card at the bay
i now have 13 USB 2 ports on my mac pro, "it just works" ;)

 

Thanks.

I've looked up hackintosh again now. I've done so every once in a while over the years. Still seems to be over my head. lol

I just found this thread from gearslutz that seems interesting in that some usb hubs are outputting the voltage from their power adapters over the usb cable back into the host computer, causing much problems.
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1080922-computer-killing-powered-usb-hubs.html

Now I'm thinking maybe a non powered hub might help but then again, I have 4 new seagate externals that'll trash my system plugged directly into the mini so there's probably a separate usb issue beyond the hub.

It's not a big problem as the ext. hdd's I'd like to connect just have a lot of archived software instructional vids and such that, while I would like to view them on one monitor as I follow along with the software open on the other, I do have a couple laptops... a pc and a 2007 macbook.... that have absolutely no problems using any of my drives, in order to watch vids on.

B&H are selling a new 2013 Macpro in the 3.7 GHz Intel Xeon E5 Quad-Core / 12gb ram configuration for 1999. Considering a quad i7 2.6ghz late 2012 used Mini is around 12-1400 bucks the MP seems a bargain. Tempting if I had the spare cash, lol

I did a quick lookup of this GENERICUSBXHCI.kext. What exactly do you do with it? IOW, where does it 'go'? And how would I reverse its effects if it doesn't help?

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2017

I used to have an Anker usb3 (before it broke through no fault of its own) that worked when I had Mavericks. Well, not a 100%. I was subject to the odd disconnects that seem to plague many Mac users. But besides that, everything played nice together.
However the 2 I recently bought and returned were a Hhusali and Pluggable usb3

I notice you say USB2. Well I forgot to mention. It's USB3 that seems to be the problem. USB2 stuff & ext hdd's seem to work. And when googling the issue it does seem to be a usb3, rather than 2 problem. I suppose I could try a usb2 hub but my brain fights against it as 'dammit...that's going backwards, slower!' lol

Two of the newest Seagates I bought wouldn't even re-format under Sierra. That was another problem I had to search online for an answer. Turned out I had to use my windows laptop disk manager to delete some bit of recovery sector on them in order to then Mac format with the Mini. Of course, my older macbook with Snow Lep had no issue reformatting when I tried that

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2017

i don't really like USB 3, it interferes at 2.4 Ghz, wifi/bluetooth, multiple devices connected used at the same time can cause all kinds of problems. ofc you can use USB 2 cables on them and the problem is gone but the driver still has issues on mac.
USB 3 speed is way better but i have no use for that. USB 2 is fast enough for my Soundcards/midi controllers.
then there is max cable length to operate without issues:
USB 1 - 3 meter
USB 2 - 5 meter
USB 3 - 3 meter
my hub experience: loosing connection, not charging, after reboot i had to reconnect some devices or the Hub itself...meh

 

I started with Mountain Lyon and have upgraded ever since, Im now running Sierra 10.12.6. I havent had any problems with any k'ed apps or plug-ins with the exception of a few and to be honest I think those problems occured from operator error. Not installing properly. But I have no problems with my mac.

 

You're right. I don't need usb3 speed as all controllers, dongles are usb2 and even watching vids on ext hdd's don't need the extra speed. Actually the only thing I've found the speed really really helps for is large file transfers which in my experience can be the difference of days vs hours, lol

I'll take your advice and try a 2.

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2017

keep your pristine machine... get a new mac to fuck around with tim cooks ideas

 

you have to get a mac compatible one, i got this version:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegro_express_usb.html
no longer available new but cheap used ;)

 

the trashcan mac pro second hand prices will drop substantially after this December the iMac pro launches and a lot of businesses will switch from mac pro to iMac pro, and then even more when the new modular mac pro launches, but who knows when.

then theres this, Ryzentoshes

or a self upgraded iMac, looks a lot easier:

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 20, 2017

Thanks but aaah, can't use. I have a Mini.

Maybe I'll get a hub at OWC. Maybe their hub offerings are a little better in the compatibility area than looking around amazon or newegg

 

Thanks for all your advice gents. I'm going to cc clone and do time machine backup update to 10.9 and see how far i can update in increments. I might just stay at 10.9 though, seems to be minimum requirement for most software.

 

Well I did the exact same thing as you 2 month ago and for me it worked like a charm.I find Sierra faster than Mavericks (MacbookPro 2013) and got no problem with USB hubs neither with external drives (2X1,5 T° on firewire 800 port for sample streaming) and a SSD drive installed in place of the superdrive.As always, it's different from one configuration to another .....

 

Updated (finally) to 10.9 but eventide stuff no longer works. Tried doing the open SSH stuff but plugin disabled in ableton and won't open. Anyone got an older version of ilok such as 2.0? Recon it's the newer driver downloaded from them that could be the issue.