pastrychef
Moderator
- Joined
- May 29, 2013
- Messages
- 19,458
- Motherboard
- Mac Studio - Mac13,1
- CPU
- M1 Max
- Graphics
- 32 Core
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Vostro 3480 Specs
i5-8265u CPU
UHD 620 IGPU
32GB DDR4 RAM
14" 1920x1080 Display
Western Digital SN750 1TB NVMe SSD (for macOS)
Crucial BX500 2.5" SSD (for Windows)
BCM94360NG M.2 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Card
Comments
I was looking for a replacement for my old Dell Latitude 3450. I wanted something more current because the old Broadwell CPU just couldn't play H.265 videos. Looking at the current MacBook Pro 13", I saw that the MacBookPro16,3 was using an i5-8257u, so I started looking for something similar and in the same generation. My second criteria was that it had to be 13-14". I find the more common 15.6" laptops to be too large. Lastly, it had to be cheap. My theory is, if I"m going to spend a lot, I may as well just get an Apple laptop.
- The Good. I found this laptop for just about $300. The CPU vastly outperforms the CPU in my previous laptop. Can house two SSDs (one M.2, one SATA). Supports 32GB RAM. It's quite thin and light and seems to be quite sturdy. Everything works in macOS, even the SD card reader/writer.
- The Bad. The UHD 620 is greatly inferior to the Iris Plus 645 found in real MacBookPro16,3s. No Thunderbolt (I don't need it). No USB 3.1 gen 2 (bit of a bummer but not too big of a deal for me). No USB type-C port(s) (I don't need it).
- The Ugly. Battery life is not the best... I get about 3.5-4 hours of battery life. I intend to try swapping out the WDXOR battery (3 cell) for a 33YDH (4 cell) to see if it will work.
Installation
Prerequisites
- You should update to BIOS 1.11.0
- You need access to a working Mac or hackintosh.
- At least one USB flash drive. Personally, I like to stick to 16 or 32GB USB 3 flash drives due to an old FAT32 limit.
BIOS Settings
- Settings > General > Boot List Option > UEFI
- Settings > General > UEFI Boot Path Security > Never
- Settings > System Configuration > SATA Operation > AHCI
- Settings > Drives > (Enable All)
- Settings > USB Configuration > Enable USB Boot Support
- Settings > USB Configuration > Enable External USB Port
Disable CFG Lock and Set DVMT Pre-Alloc
1. Update to BIOS 1.11.0.
2. Boot from OpenCore EFI.
3. At the OpenCore boot menu, press the space bar and select modGRUBshell.
4. Enter the following:
Code:
setup_var 0x5C4 0x0
setup_var 0x8E7 0x2
setup_var 0x8E8 0x3
exitCreate Your USB Installer And Install macOS
On your working Mac or hackintosh, create your USB macOS installer.
1. Download the full Big Sur installer from the Mac App Store.
2. Plug in your USB flash drive.
3. Launch Disk Utility and initialize the USB flash drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)/GUID with the name Untitled.
4. Launch Terminal and enter:
Code:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled -- /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app6. Copy the EFI Folder to the EFI partition of your USB flash drive. (EFI Agent can help with mounting of EFI partitions.)
7. Boot from the USB flash drive.
8. Install macOS.
9. Mount the EFI partition of your USB flash drive and the EFI partition of your main system drive.
10. Copy the EFI folder from the EFI partition of your USB flash drive to the EFI partition of your main system drive.
11. Done.
Post Installation
1. Open your config.plist and populate the Serial, Board Serial, UUID, (and MAC address, if you are using OpenCore).
2. Go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select your startup disk.
3. Done.
4. (Optional) Install Karabiner-Elements to map screen brightness control to your function keys. Personally, I didn't bother. I never adjust the screen brightness...
What Works/Doesn't Work
- All trackpad gestures work.
The physical button of the trackpad does not work. Must use Tap-To-Click. (Use USB mouse for initial setup.)Update: I got the physical button working by messing around with System Preferences > Trackpad. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly toggling which setting fixed it... So play around with it...- Force Touch doesn't work. This trackpad doesn't have Force Touch.
- SD card reader/writer works. (Tip: Search for "short SD card micro SD adaptor" to find half length cards so it doesn't stick out too far.)
- Battery/charging indicator works.
- Screen brightness works.
- HDMI out works.
- HDMI audio works.
- Headphone jack works.
- Close lid to sleep/Open lid to wake works.
- Sleep/wake works.
- Wake from sleep via magic packets over Wi-Fi does not work. (Have not tested ethernet.)
Sometimes, booting stalls at the Apple logo longer than desired. Tap the trackpad several times to speed up the booting. I don't know why this happens.
Epilogue
I feel that, functionally, this laptop is about as close to a MacBook as I can possibly get. The 1080p display is surprisingly clear and legible in native resolution and I don't even need to scale. The trackpad works as well as I could ever hope and comes extremely close to those found on real MacBooks albeit smaller. Overall, I think this is a wonderful hackBook.
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