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Dell Optiplex 7020/9020 SFF Desktops at Amazon

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Many people are venturing off to Ventura 13.0. Will these Dell 7020/9020s work ? They're not natively supported. Some people are trying to patch HD4600 to get Ventura running but I don't see that as an acceptable solution. Too many compromises.

If you feel you must have the latest Ventura, then buy the Dell Optiplex 7050 instead. The i5-7500/7700 CPU has supported HD630 graphics. You won't pay a lot more and your system will be much more secure when running Ventura. You'll leave SIP enabled and not have to break the SSV (sealed system volume).


Be careful to not buy a 7050 with the i5-6500. The HD530 iGPU is not supported in Ventura. Here's an example:
  • Manufacturer/Model: Dell Optiplex 7050MT
  • Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20GHz
  • Memory Installed: 8 GB DDR4
You can follow the standard Dortania Kaby Lake guide and create an EFI folder. Not really that difficult. Use either
the iMac 18,2 or 18,3 SMBIOS as those were Kaby Lake based and some even utilized the i5-7500 or i7-7700. One more benefit of these Kaby Lake Optiplex models is the built in NVMe slot. You can install your own drive and get fast read write speeds. The 7020/9020 doesn't have native NVMe support or a slot on the board.

Stage Manager and Continuity Camera are neat new features. I don't think I'd ever use them personally. Other than those and a redesign of System Prefs. (now called Settings) it's mostly the same as Monterey. Remember that you'll need a supported Wifi BT card for Continuity Camera to work on your Hackintosh.


The continuity camera probably wont work with a desktop PC. Are you sure the Dell optiplex 9020 can't run ventura ?
 
The continuity camera probably wont work with a desktop PC.
Why not ? It works with any Ventura supported Mac, even a 2018 Mac mini and the 2019 Mac Pro.

Screen Shot 4.jpg

Are you sure the Dell optiplex 9020 can't run ventura ?
I didn't say it can't run Ventura, it likely can with a significant amount of patching. The problem is the numerous compromises that go with it. Mostly related to security. Then there's the updates problem. Delta updates won't work. When you break the SSV, every point update will require you to download the full 12GB+ version of Ventura. That means 13.1, 13.2, 13.3 etc. etc. Who wants that ? Some have really slow internet, some people have data caps so every point update gets expensive.

The number one criteria for choosing any hackintosh hardware is: Does it have native support in macOS ? If not, it's not a good choice.
 
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I saw your linking for Open Core. Do these work for UniBeast, and MultiBeast, or are these too locked down by their motherboards, and their BIOSes?
unibeast and multibeast is clover based

you could create an installer with unibeast and replace the clover efi with an opencore efi
 

Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF Desktop - Intel Core i7-4790 up to 4.0GHz, 16GB RAM, 960GB SSD, Windows 10 Pro

These are selling for $215 right now on Amazon. The best entry level hackintosh for getting started with Monterey. Don't spend this amount of money on old 2012 or 2014 Mac minis and expect good performance. I own both and the 9020 with an NVMe is so much faster and responsive. The 9020 is also much better than the majority of Win10/11 mini PCs that cost this much or more.

Screen Shot 7.jpg
 
Really good deal on the i5 version at Amazon. $113 but you get an HDD instead of an SSD. 2.5" Sata SSDs are very inexpensive now. Get whatever size you want for the SSD boot drive. Use the HDD for storage or Windows.


Here's the best price per GB name brand SSD (Timetec is by Hynix) you can get in the 512GB size.

Screen Shot 4.jpg


The 1TB version sells for just $44.99. Go bigger if you have the money to do so. More TBW = longer SSD lifespan.
 
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Timtec SSD's are a little more expensive in the UK, 512 GB SSD - £34.15 & 1TB SSD - £49.64

 
Well, in France the Timetech SSD is the same price as the UK. I already got a brand new Crucial 1tb second hand, so no Timetech for me. Though nvme might be the next upgrade.
 
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