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Hackintosh VS Macbook Pro 15"

L

Liquinn

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 10, 2011
3,016
57
I'm thinking on hackintoshing my Samsung 15.6 RV511 while I wait for the new Macbook Pros (2012)

Should I wait or get to use OS X on my Samsung laptop and then I'll be familar with OS X? As I don't want to spend $1000+ on something which I may not like.. but I'll get a feel for the OS.

But a hackintosh won't be the same, but I do plan on buying a 15/17" 2012 MBP next year.

What shall I do?
 
How easily will the samsung take OSX?

Not all laptops are equal and some can easily be turned into a hackintosh, others, not so much
 
maflynn said:
How easily will the samsung take OSX?

Not all laptops are equal and some can easily be turned into a hackintosh, others, not so much
Click to expand...
Not sure, I do have a VM running Leopard, but it's not the same. But enough for me to get to grips with OS X? But I can't get the programs like FCP, Photoshop and stuff on it, hmm.

I'm not sure what to do here :(
 
You're options are running windows in a VM session or bootcamp.

If you don't think vmware will suit your needs, then your decision has been made for you - bootcamp
 
maflynn said:
You're options are running windows in a VM session or bootcamp.

If you don't think vmware will suit your needs, then your decision has been made for you - bootcamp
Click to expand...

Mister moderator, I think some reading comprehension is in order here, that was not the question asked, at all.

OP, IMO I wouldn't bother hackingtoshing it, it's too much trouble for too little benefit, I know of nobody that has switched to OS X and disliked it. It's stable, easy to use and very powerful as an OS.
 
snaky69 said:
Mister moderator, I think some reading comprehension is in order here, that was not the question asked, at all.

OP, IMO I wouldn't bother hackingtoshing it, it's too much trouble for too little benefit, I know of nobody that has switched to OS X and disliked it. It's stable, easy to use and very powerful as an OS.
Click to expand...

You're right, I was replying to another thread and guess what, I was in this thread at the time :eek:
 
Liquinn said:
I'm thinking on hackintoshing my Samsung 15.6 RV511 while I wait for the new Macbook Pros (2012)

Should I wait or get to use OS X on my Samsung laptop and then I'll be familar with OS X? As I don't want to spend $1000+ on something which I may not like.. but I'll get a feel for the OS.

But a hackintosh won't be the same, but I do plan on buying a 15/17" 2012 MBP next year.

What shall I do?
Click to expand...

For laptops, definitely stick with Apple, wait until next year, and lump the cost.

I've done some reading, and even experts in the field of "hackintoshing" basically say it's a "science experiment" to attempt to put OS X on laptops. It can be tricky to accomplish, and even cruising such forums, there are lots of questions and lots of problems.

As was said, not all models will work completely or properly, and almost always you won't have compatibility (especially with wi-fi, bluetooth, audio, and video).

Now, some models can be managed to run OS X almost completely, and with surprisingly little hassle. I did read the HP Elitebook 8740W makes a good candidate (and it too gets up to 90C under full load! :D ), but given it costs $3500, and a 17" MBP costs $2500, add $80 to upgrade to 8GB of RAM, and $100 for a 7200RPM HDD... (is the Elitebook worth an added $800, for - after adding in a a couple of kexts - 99% OS X compatible? Not really... especially when the 17" MBP offers better battery life...)

Lastly, I was a Windows user for nigh on two decades - I moved to Mac in 2009, and have no intention of going back to Windows without good reason (of which there is only one, and that's based solely on conjecture and not worth bringing up yet...)

P.S. I do, from most- to least- in terms of order:

* Photography
* web design
* Microsoft Office (Windows version, so I use Parallels)
* web browsing
* watching movies (no blu-ray, though, which is sad as I love the format)
* games (I'm trying to quit - too easy to become addicted to content consumption over content creation... of course, if everybody created and nobody consumed, just think of all those companies that would go out of business...)
 
Going to buy a real Macbook Pro 17" next year, a hackintosh won't be worth bothering with =/
 
In the really worst case, you have two weeks to give it back. I wouldn't recommend hackintoshing as a method to try OSX. There will be things that don't work, and this can lead to a bad impression of a OS that you otherwise might like.

I think hackintoshing makes more sense for people who really want to use OSX, but are unhappy for some reason with the hardware that apple offers, or just can't afford a macbook.
 
thundersteele said:
In the really worst case, you have two weeks to give it back. I wouldn't recommend hackintoshing as a method to try OSX. There will be things that don't work, and this can lead to a bad impression of a OS that you otherwise might like.

I think hackintoshing makes more sense for people who really want to use OSX, but are unhappy for some reason with the hardware that apple offers, or just can't afford a macbook.
Click to expand...
Yeah, a friend let me use a OS X Leopard Virtual machine of his and it just wasn't the same.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

As a relatively poor university student, I have tried to go down the hackintosh route with a self-built PC, thinking I could save lots of money while not giving up on OS X. The benefits were obvious: it'd be cheap, very powerful and easily upgradable.

I lasted less than a day.

The problem wasn't so much the "hacking", since I am quite familiar with OS X in general. But it was just the overall feel I used to have when looking at and working on my 2007 iMac (which it was meant to replace). I immediately took the hackintosh apart and sent it back. Since then I had saved up for the MBP that finally gives me the satisfaction I always had with my iMac.

My point, then, is that hackintoshes are in no way comparable to the real thing. Especially since you'll have to maintain the hackintosh so frequently just to keep it running properly. Really, the overall user experience is just way off compared to real Macs.

Hope this helps. :)
 
thermodynamic said:
For laptops, definitely stick with Apple, wait until next year, and lump the cost.

I've done some reading, and even experts in the field of "hackintoshing" basically say it's a "science experiment" to attempt to put OS X on laptops. It can be tricky to accomplish, and even cruising such forums, there are lots of questions and lots of problems.

As was said, not all models will work completely or properly, and almost always you won't have compatibility (especially with wi-fi, bluetooth, audio, and video).

Now, some models can be managed to run OS X almost completely, and with surprisingly little hassle. I did read the HP Elitebook 8740W makes a good candidate (and it too gets up to 90C under full load! :D ), but given it costs $3500, and a 17" MBP costs $2500, add $80 to upgrade to 8GB of RAM, and $100 for a 7200RPM HDD... (is the Elitebook worth an added $800, for - after adding in a a couple of kexts - 99% OS X compatible? Not really... especially when the 17" MBP offers better battery life...)

Lastly, I was a Windows user for nigh on two decades - I moved to Mac in 2009, and have no intention of going back to Windows without good reason (of which there is only one, and that's based solely on conjecture and not worth bringing up yet...)

P.S. I do, from most- to least- in terms of order:

* Photography
* web design
* Microsoft Office (Windows version, so I use Parallels)
* web browsing
* watching movies (no blu-ray, though, which is sad as I love the format)
* games (I'm trying to quit - too easy to become addicted to content consumption over content creation... of course, if everybody created and nobody consumed, just think of all those companies that would go out of business...)
Click to expand...

That HP has a high end Quadro GPU performing on the orders of 50x more efficient in CAD optimized software... oh, and a beautiful IPS DC2 screen.
 
First of all, not all the hardware in the laptop of your choosing may be supported. This can be accommodated in desktops but it is much harder in a laptop. Also, a one of the reasons the OSX experience is what it is is down to the tight hardware/software integration. You would be losing that.

I think OSX in a VM, if you can get it running, might be a good way to demo the OS. I wouldn't consider it as a permanent solution though.
 
Believe me, a hackintosh is totally worth it. Going through the trouble of installing and troubleshooting a hackintosh will give you not only experience with OS X but also knowledge of how to troubleshoot and fix it.
And yes, I speak from experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XA6rioomds

iATKOS (forgot which version), took me 2 months to get it right. It's on unsupported hardware, which means it's even harder to get the graphics working. There's practically no problem that I can't solve now that I've got a real MacBook Pro.
 
Last edited:
Quinoky said:
As a relatively poor university student, I have tried to go doMy point, then, is that hackintoshes are in no way comparable to the real thing. Especially since you'll have to maintain the hackintosh so frequently just to keep it running properly. Really, the overall user experience is just way off compared to real Macs.
Click to expand...

Overall, the three hackintoshes that I have built over the years were superior to iMacs or Minis. And they are relatively low maintenance provided you choose a highly-compatible logic board. My latest is a Core i5 quad-core with HD3000 gpu (2.5 gHz 2405s) mini ITX-based hackintosh with a low-footprint enclosure. Total component cost was about the same as the entry level Mac Mini, but it has 8 gb of RAM, a 60 gb SSD boot/applications drive, a 2 TB 7200 rpm 3.5" data drive (with my home folder), a Blu-ray ROM drive (that burns CDs and DVDs), dual HDMI, bluetooth, 3 Firewire 800 ports, eSATA and gigabit ethernet. The only things it doesn't have is IR, airport, ThunderBolt or the size of the Mini (it's about 4x surface area and 2x higher). I could even have USB3 if I added the kexts (but I don't have any USB3 devices). It's not as low-maintenance as a real Mini, but it is far more capable.

Everything is a trade-off and I'd rather spend an hour after each Lion update sorting things out and having a much better computer. I do not want a computer with glossy display, no easy way to add or replace the hard drive (iMac) or one with a low-speed hard drive and minimalist cpu (Mini). But to each their own.
 
Time is money. I can't count the hours I've "wasted" over the years getting a hackintosh working on my D820. Granted, it has gotten easier every release because of better hardware support. Depending on hardware it's impossible to upgrade without some glitch or problem you have to work through. For me the decision was to go Apple hardware to avoid all of that.
 
Cave Man said:
Everything is a trade-off and I'd rather spend an hour after each Lion update sorting things out and having a much better computer. I do not want a computer with glossy display, no easy way to add or replace the hard drive (iMac) or one with a low-speed hard drive and minimalist cpu (Mini). But to each their own.
Click to expand...

Believe me, I know what you are talking about. I had the same thoughts when building my own Hackintosh, and if you'd read my post properly: I didn't mind spending time to get it working either since I am relatively experienced with this stuff.

My problem was simply that I couldn't stand using Mac OS X on a device that is not a Mac. I know this is rather vague so please bear with me here..

My very first Mac was the first aluminum iMac (2007). The satisfaction I had from unboxing the device to working on it was amazing, just looking at the device made me happy. Mac OS X just felt at home on this beautiful, sleek and (at the time) fast machine. Then, some four years later, I decided I needed an upgrade. I had been watching the Hackintosh community for some time and soon took the plunge and bought the (very compatible) hardware components. That's where Mac OS X felt out of place: running off this big, lumpy PC case.

I think that's the thing: the superb specifications just didn't justify it for me, even for that low price compared to Macs. I was simply reminded why I loved Macs again -- these computers are more than just raw specs. That's why I returned the parts and saved up for this absolutely incredible MacBook Pro, which is probably one of the best decisions I have made.
 
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