few questions on Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming (7567) Ok idea or meh?

I have been running OS X for years on my desktop custom build without much problem. I now need a laptop for long-term travel and cannot imagine going back to Windows after all these years...

I am looking at the current Inspiron 15 7000 (7567):
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop
It looks capable enough and it's on the cheaper end so it won't hurt so badly if I have to live with Windows (%^@#&$).

So a few questions before I hit that DELL BUY button...
1) How much trouble might I run into with the 7567 series of Inspiron? There are these slightly-outdated DELL Inspiron guides with relatively good success:
[Guide] Dell Inspiron 15 7559 El Capitan Hackintosh
[Guide] Dell Inspiron 15 7559 (Skylake, i7-6700HQ, Intel HD 530)

2) I am thinking about getting a NVMe M.2 drive for OS X (El Capitan) so I can keep Windows on the other drive for data and emergencies if OS X craps out. Does any NVMe M.2 work? or should I go for Samsung to avoid problems?

3) Since NVIDIA Announces 'Pascal' Graphics Drivers Coming to MacOS happened, I am hoping maybe one day the dedicated GPU can be used under OS X? or is there too much difference on the laptop graphics switching architecture for this to work?

Thanks for your input!

cookme said:

I have been running OS X for years on my desktop custom build without much problem. I now need a laptop for long-term travel and cannot imagine going back to Windows after all these years...

I am looking at the current Inspiron 15 7000 (7567):
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop
It looks capable enough and it's on the cheaper end so it won't hurt so badly if I have to live with Windows (%^@#&$).

So a few questions before I hit that DELL BUY button...
1) How much trouble might I run into with the 7567 series of Inspiron? There are these slightly-outdated DELL Inspiron guides with relatively good success:
[Guide] Dell Inspiron 15 7559 El Capitan Hackintosh
[Guide] Dell Inspiron 15 7559 (Skylake, i7-6700HQ, Intel HD 530)

Click to expand...

The applicability of those guides is going to depend on how similar the 7567 is...
You won't know until you get it.

2) I am thinking about getting a NVMe M.2 drive for OS X (El Capitan) so I can keep Windows on the other drive for data and emergencies if OS X craps out. Does any NVMe M.2 work? or should I go for Samsung to avoid problems?

Click to expand...

Samsung M.2 can work, but requires patching for 512byte block size (vs. 4k that macOS expects).
It would be better to use an NVMe that can be changed to 4k.

3) Since NVIDIA Announces 'Pascal' Graphics Drivers Coming to MacOS happened, I am hoping maybe one day the dedicated GPU can be used under OS X? or is there too much difference on the laptop graphics switching architecture for this to work?

Click to expand...

You should read the FAQ regarding dual GPU...
http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...faq-read-first-laptop-frequent-questions.html

Thanks RehabMan, will contemplate more on this...

RehabMan said:

...
Samsung M.2 can work, but requires patching for 512byte block size (vs. 4k that macOS expects).
It would be better to use an NVMe that can be changed to 4k....

Click to expand...

Ouch, one of those (Intel DC P3100) with adjustable block sizes are not cheap...
Is that the only series (M.2) available with 4k block size support?

cookme said:

Ouch, one of those (Intel DC P3100) with adjustable block sizes are not cheap...
Is that the only series (M.2) available with 4k block size support?

Click to expand...

I would not recommend an Intel SSD. They have performance problems using generic NVMe drivers (from Microsoft, Linux, or macOS....). Some sort of dependency on Intel RST mode.

You might want to read the various NVMe threads to get an idea which SSDs can change to the 4k block size. From my somewhat cloudy memory, Toshiba SSDs can, and maybe Hynix... There are probably others.

Of course, maybe the SSD that comes with the laptop can be changed... It is easy to check (read the info/links provided on NVMe in the FAQ).

Thanks for the expert tips, I'll do more research on this.

any updates on this? I was interested on this laptop because it looks a good option for building a hackintosh~ the tutorials are really helpful but I dunno since cpu is a kabylake. Also, I probably know the answer, but asking doesn't kill :v, since the built in graphics card looks like a standard 1050, does it mean there is no optimus(I'm kinda noob doing this on laptops, and every model with the "M" was always optimus)?

redvulps said:

any updates on this? I was interested on this laptop because it looks a good option for building a hackintosh~ the tutorials are really helpful but I dunno since cpu is a kabylake. Also, I probably know the answer, but asking doesn't kill :v, since the built in graphics card looks like a standard 1050, does it mean there is no optimus(I'm kinda noob doing this on laptops, and every model with the "M" was always optimus)?

Click to expand...

Oops, forgot to update this thread. I picked an Asus laptop instead, since the DELL lacks dedicated graphics under OS X.

And *No*, the 7000 gaming 7567 does indeed have Optimus, and it's not the user-switchable kind. So if you are looking for dedicated GPU under OS X, don't choose the 7000 gaming. See "Nvidia dedicated GPU: G-Sync vs Optimus?" if you are interested.

cookme said:

Oops, forgot to update this thread. I picked an Asus laptop instead, since the DELL lacks dedicated graphics under OS X.

And *No*, the 7000 gaming 7567 does indeed have Optimus, and it's not the user-switchable kind. So if you are looking for dedicated GPU under OS X, don't choose the 7000 gaming. See "Nvidia dedicated GPU: G-Sync vs Optimus?" if you are interested.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much, sadly most of the laptops with optimus-free or with the ability to disable optimus where I live are way too expensive. Considering that I want a dual boot solution for work(web/mobile development)/gaming, disabling the discrete graphics for osx seems to be the best solution.

redvulps said:

Thank you so much, sadly most of the laptops with optimus-free or with the ability to disable optimus where I live are way too expensive. Considering that I want a dual boot solution for work(web/mobile development)/gaming, disabling the discrete graphics for osx seems to be the best solution.

Click to expand...

If you don't mind the now older GPUs, there are some great deals on the 9-series Maxwell models with gen i6 Intel CPUs. I believe there are models with switchable Optimus towards the high end of the gaming laptops. But you have to hurry, since most of them are now "discontinued by manufacturer" and it will be harder and harder to find new ones. See this list for more info on the older models: https://alteredqualia.com/texts/notebooks/