10 replies to this topic

[andrewlennox]

Hey Everyone,

I'm thinking of getting this HP EliteBook 2540p and putting Mac OS X on it to avoid Windows. What do you guys think?

As we all know, Macs are quite expensive. Yes I know I can work a little harder and earn that extra cash, but I've always wondered about this much cheaper alternative we all know as Hackintoshs. Has anyone had good / bad experiences with this platform? Has anyone tried it on a Laptop? I know I can probably google all this but if you guys have any personal experience or a link which I might have missed, that would be great as well

Always appreciate your help

Oh and here are a link that I was looking at that may help.

[Janichsan]

An one year old comment here implies you can.

[andrewlennox]

Janichsan, on 14 March 2012 - 02:36 AM, said:

An one year old comment here implies you can.

Cool. I don't think anyone has tested it yet though. Do you have any experience with Hackintoshs?

[Janichsan]

andrewlennox, on 14 March 2012 - 02:45 AM, said:

Do you have any experience with Hackintoshs?

Not really. I was pondering the idea for a while but the further I looked into it, the more unattractive the idea seemed. The days when I had the patience to tinker around endlessly with hard- and software to get things running are over and building a Hackintosh is not something to be done in three easy steps.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

I turned an old notebook (a dell celeron M 1.3Ghz laptop)  I have into a hackbook. Basically I had to load up a bunch of hacked drivers like for the intel graphics chipset it has and the PS/2 based keyboard and trackpad that are in that laptop. But this was a while back and it was with 10.5 and since then I haven't updated it to anything newer since it's not a 64-bit machine and it has an older intel graphics chipset and there's no guarantee that I can find hacked drivers for it for anything newer. Instructions that are made in the past don't necessarily apply to the process right now it could be harder, it could be easier.

But you'll probably still end up loading up kernel extensions either manually or with a utility to get everything running which could be harder depending on how far your setup strays from average Mac setups from Apple. As for the install process when I did it it wasn't any harder than the normal install process on a regular Mac. The time consuming\hard part was locating and getting to work certain things that strayed from apple's configurations.... or other niggling details that they may cause. Like sometimes my keyboard and mouse would stop working until I rebooted and I had to figure out why.

[andrewlennox]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 14 March 2012 - 03:18 AM, said:

I turned an old notebook (a dell celeron M 1.3Ghz laptop)  I have into a hackbook. Basically I had to load up a bunch of hacked drivers like for the intel graphics chipset it has and the PS/2 based keyboard and trackpad that are in that laptop. But this was a while back and it was with 10.5 and since then I haven't updated it to anything newer since it's not a 64-bit machine and it has an older intel graphics chipset and there's no guarantee that I can find hacked drivers for it for anything newer. Instructions that are made in the past don't necessarily apply to the process right now it could be harder, it could be easier.

But you'll probably still end up loading up kernel extensions either manually or with a utility to get everything running which could be harder depending on how far your setup strays from average Mac setups from Apple. As for the install process when I did it it wasn't any harder than the normal install process on a regular Mac. The time consuming\hard part was locating and getting to work certain things that strayed from apple's configurations.... or other niggling details that they may cause. Like sometimes my keyboard and mouse would stop working until I rebooted and I had to figure out why.

Would you say that all that effort was worth it in the end? Or would just that little extra cash spent on a real mac been a better option?

[JaguarGod]

andrewlennox, on 14 March 2012 - 03:25 AM, said:

Would you say that all that effort was worth it in the end? Or would just that little extra cash spent on a real mac been a better option?

FIRST, I do not recommend building hackintosh computers if you are easily frustrated or if you do not like working with hardware. Also, I do believe in buying Apple products and I have a $hitload of Macs and have spent many tens of thousands of dollars on them!!!!! But when I built these hackintosh computers, I was seeing how much I could do and how well I could do it and still get it right.

BACK TO THE SUBJECT: I think it depends on which Mac you are thinking of getting or trying to copy. It is definitely worth a look if you want a real powerhouse machine that resembles a Mac Pro. I have put together quite a few Hackintosh builds even turning a white Shuttle V2 into a Mac (though this probably does not count due to the fact that it was way too easy and the hardware was already configured), but I only kept the HackPro. The reason was simple, it was hard to get right, but the money saved was substantial. A $5000 Mac can be created for a much, much smaller amount. My HackPro would have been around $5,600 from Apple at the time, but cost me about $2,500. Also, I overclocked the CPU and added some better cooling so the machine is a bit faster. But I will also admit that it was not fun! I really do not like tinkering with hardware too much and this was a lot of tinkering. I am now looking to get another actual Mac Pro.

But, if you are not willing to put in the time and effort and you are NOT OK with the "try and try and try again" method, it will not be worth it. Save your money and purchase an actual Mac that you know you can upgrade without problems. There are not too many hackintosh configurations that work totally and free of any problems. And even then, updates to the OS or hardware upgrades can prove to be frustrating. It is a neat project though if you are up for it.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

My situation was kind of different because I didn't buy a brand new notebook specifically with the intention of turning it into a Hackbook. I used a spare one my family wasn't using... removed XP and put OS X on it..... I also swapped in a spare hard drive since it had become spare after I upgraded the hard drive in my Mac Mini and it uses the same size of drive. Well, anyway.... for me it I would say it was worth it because I ended up with a notebook I could use when I was on trips or during emergencies where I would end up out and I would use the hackbook at wifi hotspots. Apart from the troubles with the PS/2 based keyboard and trackpad which I ended up fixing and the fact that it's a rather outdated computer in general so it's only good for basic stuff I never had much trouble with it.

Whether or not it would be worth it to actually buy a PC notebook with that purpose in mind is another story.... and to be honest I'm not sure I'd trust it as a production machine. You have to keep in mind that you are basically on your own with such a setup and you have to be careful with software update especially when updating the OS to a new point release... that sort of thing can easily hose your system as it relies upon custom drivers and even kernels at times.

[JaguarGod]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 14 March 2012 - 07:13 PM, said:

My situation was kind of different because I didn't buy a brand new notebook specifically with the intention of turning it into a Hackbook. I used a spare one my family wasn't using... removed XP and put OS X on it..... I also swapped in a spare hard drive since it had become spare after I upgraded the hard drive in my Mac Mini and it uses the same size of drive. Well, anyway.... for me it I would say it was worth it because I ended up with a notebook I could use when I was on trips or during emergencies where I would end up out and I would use the hackbook at wifi hotspots. Apart from the troubles with the PS/2 based keyboard and trackpad which I ended up fixing and the fact that it's a rather outdated computer in general so it's only good for basic stuff I never had much trouble with it.

Whether or not it would be worth it to actually buy a PC notebook with that purpose in mind is another story.... and to be honest I'm not sure I'd trust it as a production machine. You have to keep in mind that you are basically on your own with such a setup and you have to be careful with software update especially when updating the OS to a new point release... that sort of thing can easily hose your system as it relies upon custom drivers and even kernels at times.

Yes, I would agree with you as you got a Mac for something you had that was not being used and that is definitely a good thing! You are also correct in your statement in regards to updates causing major problems. My HackPro is the only hackintosh that has been almost perfect. Running vanilla kernel and able to run a lot of actual Apple kexts. It has made all the 10.6 updates, but I have not gone to 10.7 on it yet as I know what will happen.

The reality is, hackintosh computers are NOT ideal for someone looking for a Mac for major use and updates. It just isn't stable enough. You also have to have a lot of knowledge of how the hackintosh works with OSX and what hardware is best to run.

Just my opinion. There are many hackintosh users who really disagree with how Apple prices their hardware and take building hackintosh computers very seriously. I just do not have the time anymore to do them.

[andrewlennox]

JaguarGod, on 14 March 2012 - 08:50 PM, said:

Yes, I would agree with you as you got a Mac for something you had that was not being used and that is definitely a good thing! You are also correct in your statement in regards to updates causing major problems. My HackPro is the only hackintosh that has been almost perfect. Running vanilla kernel and able to run a lot of actual Apple kexts. It has made all the 10.6 updates, but I have not gone to 10.7 on it yet as I know what will happen.

The reality is, hackintosh computers are NOT ideal for someone looking for a Mac for major use and updates. It just isn't stable enough. You also have to have a lot of knowledge of how the hackintosh works with OSX and what hardware is best to run.

Just my opinion. There are many hackintosh users who really disagree with how Apple prices their hardware and take building hackintosh computers very seriously. I just do not have the time anymore to do them.

It does seem like there's a lot of work that must go into them. I really wish they could make macs more affordable. But I guess there're trying to do that with the iPad and iPhone devices. Here is to hoping that they might be able to come up with a better solution soon

[Tetsuya]

andrewlennox, on 15 March 2012 - 05:17 AM, said:

It does seem like there's a lot of work that must go into them. I really wish they could make macs more affordable. But I guess there're trying to do that with the iPad and iPhone devices. Here is to hoping that they might be able to come up with a better solution soon

A Mini is pretty affordable and pretty beefy for everything except games.