Plug and Play Laptop for Hackintosh

[xinsanityx]

Hey guys, Figured i'd start a thread to see what has been the most successful of laptops.
I am interesting in buying a cheap laptop cause obviously macs are retardedly over price. I figure people are looking for a hackintosh with everything working thats a laptop for around 400-500$ so...... What are some suggestions for easy next to vanilla installs? Any methods you have tried that were super easy to get everything working or straight up vanilla installs would be great... Once again i'm doing this for the budgeted. I want a laptop that will run it smoothly obviously, not a pile of crap. is this possible for under 500$

 

[big mac n' cheese]

Thank you sir. I'll be watching this forum closely. As I stated in another forum which I seemed to hijack, I'll post my efforts of buying a laptop with an i7 720QM processor here. Well, to be honest, the processor isn't really that important. I would like something that's pretty darn fast because I encode lots of videos and the i7 that I've seen in a Dell and a Sony are in my price range - the top of my price range but my price range never the less.

So to get to the point, Has anyone had any luck with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 or NVIDIA GeForce 310M cards?

 

[xinsanityx]

There's definitely drivers for the ATI 4xxx there isn't for the nvidia 3xx so i think a better bet would be ati although nvidia (2xx) series works better for hackintosh's

 

[thelostswede]

Well, there are some rules you have to follow to make it simple for yourself, but which may not be possible to purchase...

1. Get a CPU and chipset that is more or less supported, Core 2 machines with an Intel chipset will do the trick, although it seems like the Core i machines with the PM55 chipset works as well.
2. Make sure you get a notebook with a supported graphics card from ATI or Nvidia, Intel's graphics don't work on any new notebooks.
3. Get a notebook with suitable network solutions, something that could be very hard to check, but Centrino branded devices won't work when it comes to WiFi for example.
4. Be aware that some things like memory card readers, PCMCIA (are these still in use?) slots, etc. might not ever work.
5. Also be aware that the Fn+ whatever key may not work for adjusting things like screen brightness etc.

There are a lot of problems getting a notebook that just works, we've got a few forum members waiting for their machines, but I wouldn't recommend anyone building one at this moment, as there are too many things that might not work as expected. However, if you're willing to take a risk, try things out and not be too concerned if it doesn't work, then by all means, go ahead.

 

[xinsanityx]

Bestbuy has a 14 day return policy. I guess if someone has the niceness they could just keep buying and returning laptops until they get one to work.

I just want an exact model something stable with everything running. Thats why I made this forum. I dont want to have to build or add pieces so thats wait the aim for this thread is.

 

[xinsanityx]

I think that I might settle with a Dell Mini 10V After looking at it. It looks like it would be the easiest next to vanilla install out there and it's under 300$

 

[thelostswede]

Except there's no longer any support for Atom processors, so you'll have to use a patched kernel.

 

[tonymacx86]

And Atom OS X netbooks are doggggg slow. :

But, while saying that, a lot of people have em, so it would be supported- check out the mydellmini forums- good stuff there including all-in-one usb installer images and such.

Also, Dell's refurb site sometimes has Dell Mini 9s (the best supported network/graphics/sound) for $150-200.

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSale ... l=en&s=dfh

 

[xinsanityx]

damn, back to the drawing board. What hmmmm Best Bang for the BUCK?!? Suggestions Guys?

 

[thelostswede]

Well, why don't you read some of the threads here? We do actually have a few semi successful notebook builds. Although I guess you'd really want to go Core 2, as they're cheaper at the moment. CULV maybe? Acer has some affordable models with 4330 ATI cards in them.