Hackintosh on a "refurbished" iMac?

[Pfanner]

Hey,

this might sound weird but I found a good deal on a used iMac from 2009 / 2010 with an i7, 6GB RAM and a 500GB SSD.
Problem is, it only runs Linux because it got repaired.
The GPU was dead so the owner replaced it with a GTX 660M.
He says that macOS won't boot anymore, but since it's really cheap I was going to put my hands on it.

Anyways to the question - could a hackintosh work on this machine? I have a MacBook Pro so getting an image (thought High Sierra because of GPU support) isn't a problem.

Would like to know your two cents before I blow 150€ on a project which isn't worthwile.

 

[trs96]

With a 660M MXM card you should be able to install at least Sierra or High Sierra on it. It was fully supported and used in newer iMacs than your (2009 ?) model. I'm not making any guarantees though. I don't know what was previously done to it. "It only runs Linux because it got repaired" is a rather vague statement isn't it ? Since you have no guarantee from the seller that macOS will install and run, tell him it's definitely not worth paying 150 Euros. You could buy a used 2012 Mac mini for that which will easily work with Catalina.

If you give this a try you won't need Clover bootloader. Just make a regular USB installer with CreateinstallMedia method and try it.

 

[Pfanner]

Yeah, the 660M should work, but I asked him as well.

He said macOS wouldn't boot, but I am unsure why - all he said was that he replaced the dead GPU with a 660M from a different board (didn't ask if it was from a different iMac or what other device).

By my logic, a hackintosh would work as it's all original Apple parts besides the GPU (but my logic can be flawed).

Might be a cool side project though..