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I'm looking for a good laptop.

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Metalsonic20

Metalsonic20

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Aug 6, 2012
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Mac
  1. iMac
  2. MacBook Air
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
I'm in the market for Mac OS X, and a Macbook Pro, from 2009, with a Core 2 Duo and integrated graphics is over $500! But I've seen people make "Hack-book Pros", and thought to ask on the primary Hackintosh forum for Lion and Mountain Lion non-distros. I have, give or take a little, $373. I will start getting $20 every other week in a few weeks. I'm looking for at least 2.0GHz Intel Core i3, Intel HD Graphics 3000, and support for Lion/Mountain Lion. I have found a few Laptops. I'm asking for suggestions and info on if what I've found is compatable. (Sorry for long post.)
Here goes: Dell Inspiron i17R-1713 17-inch laptop
Dell Inspiron i15RN-7296DBK 15-inch laptop
Dell Inspiron i1464-4382OBK 1464 14-Inch Laptop
Dell Vostro V3550 15.6" LED Notebook
Dell Inspiron 15 Laptop I15N-2657OBK
Dell Inspiron 15R 15.6" Notebook
Dell Inspiron 15 i15-N5040 15.6-Inch Laptop
Dell Inspiron 14Z i14z-2026DBK 14-Inch Laptop
Samsung - NP300E5A-A01UB Laptop
HP g7-1070us Notebook PC
 
i have an i3 n5050 from the dell outlet. the only issue is the wifi but i just started hackentoshing 2 days ago so im a noob at this. im running mountain lion.
 
Thanks! Just looked it up, and there's a cheap refurb! I've read for other Dells, all you need for WiFi, is a certain new card, or certain USB adaptor. That might help you. Also, I'd like to get one sooner rather than later. I'm going to say that right now my Max price is about $450. I found a desktop that was rated highly for Hackintoshing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XZMESO/
 
Thanks! Just looked it up, and there's a cheap refurb! I've read for other Dells, all you need for WiFi, is a certain new card, or certain USB adaptor. That might help you. Also, I'd like to get one sooner rather than later. I'm going to say that right now my Max price is about $450. I found a desktop that was rated highly: Dell STUDIO XPS 8300 X8300-196NBK Desktop
 
Are you asking for good in the sense of specification of the laptop? That should be fairly straight forward if you just make a MS Excel list and compare side-by-side.

If you're looking for 'good' in the sense of it being easily adapted to run Mountain Lion with few of any problems, I'd suggest the follow approach which I actually did for my desktop build: spend a few days going through the laptop ML install threads and try to identify the builds that the most people are using. This is actually a bit tricky because #posts =/ #users. After finding a couple really popular ones, then use price to help guide which specific one to choose. I ignored this though when selecting a GPU to save money, and now problems I run into with that I'm basically on my own with, so definitely consider that when selecting a laptop... the larger the user base, the more likely you are to have a problem solved quickly.

I'm not sure what you plan to use the laptop for, but I strongly urge you to consider screen size and weight. For example, the i17R is beefy compared to 14" ones listed, but I personally work on a laptop so frequently that I can't have something <16" in size.
 
Metalsonic20 said:
I'm in the market for Mac OS X, and a Macbook Pro, from 2009, with a Core 2 Duo and integrated graphics is over $500! But I've seen people make "Hack-book Pros", and thought to ask on the primary Hackintosh forum for Lion and Mountain Lion non-distros. I have, give or take a little, $373. I will start getting $20 every other week in a few weeks. I'm looking for at least 2.0GHz Intel Core i3, Intel HD Graphics 3000, and support for Lion/Mountain Lion. I have found a few Laptops. I'm asking for suggestions and info on if what I've found is compatable. (Sorry for long post.)
Here goes: Dell Inspiron i17R-1713 17-inch laptop
Dell Inspiron i15RN-7296DBK 15-inch laptop
Dell Inspiron i1464-4382OBK 1464 14-Inch Laptop
Dell Vostro V3550 15.6" LED Notebook
Dell Inspiron 15 Laptop I15N-2657OBK
Dell Inspiron 15R 15.6" Notebook
Dell Inspiron 15 i15-N5040 15.6-Inch Laptop
Dell Inspiron 14Z i14z-2026DBK 14-Inch Laptop
Samsung - NP300E5A-A01UB Laptop
HP g7-1070us Notebook PC
Click to expand...

I suggest this http://www.apple.com/why-mac/compare/notebooks.html.
 
ASUS P55 Series
P7P55D |  i5 750 |  Radeon HD 5570
ASUS Z170 Series
Z170-Deluxe |  i7 6700K |  Radeon HD 5770
GIGABYTE 6-Series
GA-H67N-USB3-B3 |  i3 2125 |  HD 3000
GIGABYTE 7-Series
GA-Z77X-UP5-TH |  i5 3570K |  HD 4000
GIGABYTE 9-Series
GA-Z97X-UD5H |  i7 4770K |  HD 4600
A real 2012 Mac is out of my price range for at least 2 years. I'm really anxious. I like ek9hatch0wn3r's idea. It seems to me that right now most people are using HP ProBooks and Lenovo Thinkpads as Hack-Books. However, today I was walking my dogs and thought about a G5 Hackintosh. It's a matter of finding cheap, working parts. I can build it in one of my old cases while I wait for the money needed for a Low-End/Broken G5 case, and a cheap monitor. An Apple Studio Display is an option. (Heck, it came from the PowerPC Era!) Price=~$530. (Intel i3 Processor, VGA GeForce 210{Maybe!}, Barracuda 1 TB Internal Bare Drive, Gigabyte Intel Z77 LGA 1155 AMD CrossFireX/NVID​IA SLI W/ HDMI,DVI,Dispay​Port Dual UEFI BIOS ATX Motherboard GA-Z77X-UD3H, Power Mac G5, my own PSU and RAM, Apple Studio Display 17") However, a HP ProBook is around that price. I really would like a laptop, but if that's not the way to go, G5 is. -EDIT- I found ProBooks under $400!! I will look into them, as tonymacx86 likes them as a Hack-Book.
 
I can buy a ProBook with a 500GB HDD and Core i3 2.3GHz for ~$460, whereas I can buy a ProBook with a 320GB HDD and Core i3 2.1GHz for ~$400. Core i3s and i5s and i7s can auto-overclock. Which is the better buy? (Yes, I am willing to expand my max price.)
 
The laptop would probably wind up being the same model tonymacx86 used.(2.1GHz i3, 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM) (He has a link on his ProBook blog post.) I'd need $399.99 or $408.57 to get it off of Amazon.
 
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