Laptop recommendation

[watrworld]

Hi, I have been using a Lenovo X220 for years, I love that little machine as I have it dual boot (Win10 & Catalina) on 2 different physical drive (one mSATA SSD and regular SSD).

But really it has now run out of oomph.

It's hard to look and find, so many options to investigate.

Does anyone have any decent recommendation of a laptop model 1 or 2 years old, that runs Monterey fairly easily and can have 2 actual physical drives? I'd like to be able to at least install 32G ram, more is better.

Thank you!

 

[etorix]

I have no experience with hackintoshing laptops, but you'd need a laptop with a supported iGPU, that is a laptop with a 10th generation CPU (and not the lowest models) and a 400-series chipset. So the question may be: What can you still find at retail?

 

[Bogito]

A bit old but it's rock solid - Dell Precision 5510/5520. Great 4K screen, decent performance , 2 SSD's. Gettin' really hard for laptop hacks nowadays. Most of the 11th gen Intel's laptops are using Iris graphics that will never work with macos. I am using Dell 7490 last 2 years. Can't complain, all is working well under Monterey 12.2.

 

[pastrychef]

It's a bit older than two years old, but I love my Vostro 3480. It has a Whiskey Lake i5-8265u, 14" 1080p display, 32GB RAM, one NVMe SSD, and one 2.5" SSD.

I think that it's compatible with 64GB...

Mine is fully updated to latest version of Monterey. Everything truly works great and feels like a real MacBook, including the trackpad.

 

[WhenMusicAttacks]

HP laptops have dvmt in the bios options making it easier to get good multi monitor support (as patched framebuffer does not play nice with multiple screens or 4k ones). I would stick to 8th gen like 8265 as they support undervolt wich gives a huge performance and efficiency boost over the locked 10th gen cpus

 

[watrworld]

It's a bit older than two years old, but I love my Vostro 3480. It has a Whiskey Lake i5-8265u, 14" 1080p display, 32GB RAM, one NVMe SSD, and one 2.5" SSD.

I think that it's compatible with 64GB...

Mine is fully updated to latest version of Monterey. Everything truly works great and feels like a real MacBook, including the trackpad.

Thank you for that, looking at the specs, this is exactly what I am looking for. I'm guessing the Intel Graphics 620 is also whats needed, for some reason I found one with Radeon R5-M430GPU. I'll keep looking.

 

[pastrychef]

Thank you for that, looking at the specs, this is exactly what I am looking for. I'm guessing the Intel Graphics 620 is also whats needed, for some reason I found one with Radeon R5-M430GPU. I'll keep looking.

I always avoid dGPUs when looking for a Hackintosh compatible laptop. It's just much simpler to get macOS working right when you don't have to contend with a dGPU.

 

[Gigamaxx]

I always avoid dGPUs when looking for a Hackintosh compatible laptop. It's just much simpler to get macOS working right when you don't have to contend with a dGPU.

Amen! Power consumption is an issue as well in battery mode.

 

[watrworld]

I always avoid dGPUs when looking for a Hackintosh compatible laptop. It's just much simpler to get macOS working right when you don't have to contend with a dGPU.

My thinking exactly. Any preference between Intel graphics 520, 610 & 620? I am finding those 3.

 

[pastrychef]

My thinking exactly. Any preference between Intel graphics 520, 610 & 620? I am finding those 3.

Given a choice, I would stick with the 600s for their better handling of H.265.