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The Quest For The Sexiest Hackintosh Gaming Laptop

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blindwarrior

blindwarrior

Joined
Sep 28, 2010
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Motherboard
EVGA Z77 FTW
CPU
i7-3770K
Graphics
Nvidia GTX 670 x 2
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I'm starting this thread to see how viable it is to merge a gaming laptop with OS X capability. As a gamer I love gaming on the go and as an OS X enthusiast I love my OS X, especially for work and school. But it's hard to game and have OS X together! So I'm putting this thread out there to see where the Quest takes us.

As for me I've been on a Hackintosh desktop since 2010. I'm looking at getting a laptop since I will have to travel to school this semester for a few days a week. Currently I'm looking at the Haswell Macbook Air which is actually looking very nice for gaming. I play Final Fantasy XIV and I did a test on HD 4000 graphics on my work Hackintosh and it runs great on standard settings, which means it'll probably be even nice with the fast SSD and the HD 5000 in the MBA. This is sounding like such a sweet option to me go be able to do some occassional FFXIV online gaming and Star Craft 2 with one of the best laptops in the world. But the fact that it's under-specced compared to other, thicker laptops does make me a little sad! Definite tradeoff between sexiness and specs, unfortunately. As a gamer I don't know if I should give in to the temptation to go for the thickest, higher-specced beast or give in to my Apple loving side and just get the MBA, higher gaming settings be damned! :D

So currently the sexiest gaming laptops are:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510/w SLI! 750Ms ~$1000

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/index.html

Note: (If anybody on there is interested in this one I can get a substantial discount through an online gaming network I'm a part of :)

Razer Blade w/ 765M ~$1800

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade

MSI GS70 w/765M ~$1700

http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GS70-STEALTH.html#overview

I'm going to go ahead and hit post for now to roundup some first impressions but I'll change this OP later to reflect our findings as we go! May the sexiest gaming laptop win!
 
Yo, I'm in the same boat as you

Stuck forever between the 2013 MBA, waiting for the new retina 13, or going for this 13" beast: http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7330-clevo-w230st-p-6163.html

I currently also have the ASUS n550jv, which is great, but too big so I'll have to return it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tY-O0_Dom8

Some notes:
the gt 750m is as good or better than the classic GTX 260 core 192.
the build quality on the ASUS is better than average, but that aluminum body is thin aluminum, and the
bottom aluminum panel is very light and weak feeling (i don't even know if the bottom panel is aluminum, but reviews say so)
screen is great. colors could be more saturated, but it's a solid IPS display. so yeah, it's all alright minus the big size and build quality doesn't compare to a macbook. BUT THE SPECS are great.
 
Hi, hamiltus!

I'm actually looking for the same laptop! Does the hackintosh installation been successful? The graphic card is recognized?

recognized?

Thanks for your time!
 
Upig08 said:
Hi, hamiltus!

I'm actually looking for the same laptop! Does the hackintosh installation been successful? The graphic card is recognized?

recognized?

Thanks for your time!
Click to expand...

Sorry but i don't have one so I can't answer that. Hopefully 10.8.5's Haswell support helps but I found out it uses nVidia's Optimus gpu switching so that's an issue already.

I really hope this machine can run at least with Intel's GPU if the GTX 765M doesn't work
 
Apple Pippin 2
GA-Z77-DS3H |  i5 3570K |  GeForce GTX 670
hamiltus said:
Sorry but i don't have one so I can't answer that. Hopefully 10.8.5's Haswell support helps but I found out it uses nVidia's Optimus gpu switching so that's an issue already.

I really hope this machine can run at least with Intel's GPU if the GTX 765M doesn't work
Click to expand...

Optimus is not supported across OS X, so if you guys are looking for a gaming laptop, then I would suggest a dedicated graphics card. I believe the ASUS laptops come with dedicated cards but you will have to check according to the model.

TBH if you guys are going to be spending a lot of money I would just by a 15" MBP, you can take advantage of the sleek looks and full compatibility of OS X, and then you can always install Windows on it to run your games.
 
Build 1
H65 Board |  i7 Other |  HD 3000
Hello, I have the GS70 and I realllly love it. I got it modded from Xoticpc with laser etching, an extra 512ssd, and a 7200 1TB hdd and it is beautiful and so fast.

I just installed MacOSX 10.9 on it. See my guide here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ll-macosx-109-mavericks-on-a-msi-gs70-laptop/

Note, the accelerated graphics and internal wifi are not working. MacOS is not my main OS (I usually use Linux Mint and am triple booting with 10.9 and Windows 8). I love the machine, hardware support is pretty basic on OSX right now, maybe with some more time and love you could do more with it.
 
linuxgirl said:
Hello, I have the GS70 and I realllly love it. I got it modded from Xoticpc with laser etching, an extra 512ssd, and a 7200 1TB hdd and it is beautiful and so fast.

I just installed MacOSX 10.9 on it. See my guide here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ll-macosx-109-mavericks-on-a-msi-gs70-laptop/

Note, the accelerated graphics and internal wifi are not working. MacOS is not my main OS (I usually use Linux Mint and am triple booting with 10.9 and Windows 8). I love the machine, hardware support is pretty basic on OSX right now, maybe with some more time and love you could do more with it.
Click to expand...

Awesome guide. I read through it and found it very informative. Great job.

Couple of questions though :

Is a Clover boot loader required or can I use Chimera as an alternative ?

How is the battery on OS X and the performance of the Intel GPU ?
 
Apple Pippin 2
GA-Z77-DS3H |  i5 3570K |  GeForce GTX 670
- I spent a long time trying to get other bootloaders to work but I found Clover did so many things automatically and allows for easy testing of boot options and DSDT patching without a bunch of extra work and without risking borking your install. If you are using other boot loaders, you may need to patch your DSDT, you may need "busratio=24" in the boot options, and you need to inject the EDID.

- I don't really use MacOS so I can't comment on the battery use, it seemed fine, because accelerated graphics don't work it might even be pretty good :)

- The GPU seems fine for basic stuff, the Elan trackpad is fidgety and even USB mice have little delays sometimes, I think this is because of the graphics support. I have not spend much time looking into this, maybe someone has gotten better results for the integrated intel graphics? Maybe someday nVidia support will be better.

Hope that helps!
 
What is your budget?
 
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