Re-Pondering Hackintosh Build

[Pyromethious]

So it's been a while since I bothered with a Hackintosh as I eventually acquired a Mid 2012 MBP since I last built one. The two devices have basically similar core specs except for the better GPU and 32Gb of RAM in the PC. The latter is the real reason for the pondering as system memory has been limiting with what I toy with on the MBP. Namely, for whatever reason I have chosen to create VMs of Win and MacOS in Parallels 16 and periodically update the actively supported ones. In fact, I've been archiving the MacOS 11 & 12 installers as they release new ones directly from the Mac App Store (using the VMs and URLs I found online to trigger the exact ones). In reality, I'm not really doing all that much and most of what I do aside from the VMs can be done in my default Win machine.

That all said, since I can fully separate UEFI settings and drives into profiles in the BIOS on the main, it's entirely possible for me to separate my OS builds to create a clean multi-boot setup. Much easier than I tried doing it ages ago that caused conflicts between the Win and Mac bootloaders. So my big question is, is it truly possible to create a Monterey build on this hardware or am I stuck with Big Sur? The reason I'd like to have the former is that Parallels 17 has some features that 16 doesn't and I 'think' they require MacOS 12.x. I'd have to go back to the forums to refresh what they are and if that's true, but I know that when I ran v17 on the M1 iMini I had for a while, I had access to more things. I sold that model partially because the M1 bootloader emulation is restricted to Monterey and Big sur, but you had to have a Monterey Host just to install the Big Sur for some reason. My MBP is able to handle Monterey as a Guest os in v16 just find though, but if that machine ever fails. I'd like to have something else. Even if it's only technically a mac. Or until I can somehow pull $$ out of my butt for an M1/2 Studio with lots of storage.

Current hardware for refresher: (copied from elsewhere)

Windows 7/10/11 Beta x64 (Isolated drives)

• Thermaltake Chaser Series Chaser MK-I (VN300M1W2N) Black SECC Extra Big ATX Tower Computer Case Support ATX PS2 Power Supply
• Thermaltake SP-1000M 1000W ATX 12V 2.3 & EPS 12V 2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply
• GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W BX80637I73770K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000
• G.SKILL Ares Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C10D-16GAO
• EVGA GeForce GTX 970 04G-P4-2978-KR 4GB FTW GAMING w/ACX 2.0, Silent Cooling Graphics Card
• LITE-ON 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner with 3D Playback iHBS212-08 LightScribe Support
• TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Dual Band Wireless N900 PCI Express Adapter, 2.4 GHz 450 Mbps / 5 GHz 450 Mbps, IEEE 802.1a/b/g/n, WEP / WPA / WPA2
• Dedicated HDD/SSD undecided but likely going to use a:
  • Samsung SSD 860 EVO 250GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-76E250B/AM) (OS/App drive)
• Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated Keyboard — Backlit Keyboard, Fast-Charging, Dropout-Free 2.4GHz Connection
• Logitech Performance MX Wireless Mouse
• CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS System, 1500VA/1000W, 12 Outlets, AVR, Mini Tower

 

[Bustycat]

GTX 970 is not supported by macOS Mojave and later. HD 4000 is not natively supported by Monterey.

 

[Pyromethious]

GTX 970 is not supported by macOS Mojave and later. HD 4000 is not natively supported by Monterey.

Well crap, That build started with a GTX 770 Ti, but that got fried along with the original PSU. :/ Looks like the Mid 2012 MBP I have has HD 4000 + GT 650M inside it. With the PatchedSur method, I was able to get Big Sur on the hardware with minimal issue, but I guess you're saying that even this model couldn't handle Monterey then. Actually, that's not quite true as there IS a similar GIT for that (that I've not followed in a while), so perhaps someone has made some KEXTs since I've last looked. Either way, it looks like you're saying that I'd have to choose between the HD4000 and GTX 970, but that would be problematic as this would require me to physically swap the HDMI cord whenever I wanted to go Mac.

Ugh, why are the pre-M1 iMinis so expensive...

 

[Bustycat]

Well crap, That build started with a GTX 770 Ti, but that got fried along with the original PSU. :/ Looks like the Mid 2012 MBP I have has HD 4000 + GT 650M inside it. With the PatchedSur method, I was able to get Big Sur on the hardware with minimal issue, but I guess you're saying that even this model couldn't handle Monterey then. Actually, that's not quite true as there IS a similar GIT for that (that I've not followed in a while), so perhaps someone has made some KEXTs since I've last looked. Either way, it looks like you're saying that I'd have to choose between the HD4000 and GTX 970, but that would be problematic as this would require me to physically swap the HDMI cord whenever I wanted to go Mac.

Ugh, why are the pre-M1 iMinis so expensive...

It can be patched to install Monterey by OpenCore Legacy Patcher on some Macs but I don't have a Hackintosh build with HD 4000 to test.

 

[Pyromethious]

I wonder if it would be prudent to look into perhaps New a mini-ITX build that's compatible with what I have in mind? I probably couldn't afford to do it anytime soon, but I don't mind learning how to do it. I guess I'd have to look into the specs of say the last Intel Macs.