Duo Hackintosh builds (desktop and Lenovo laptop)

[CC Ricers]

I have plans to do a smaller portable rig that could help be a nice middle ground between my home PC and laptop, especially since laptop's been having screen issues and also it's still a laptop grade CPU so it's not the best at compiling code for my work. Also I plan to do some home studio DJing and a more powerful CPU will help with responsiveness in DJ software and reading/analyzing mp3 files.

With that said, the list of parts to be used is still pretty open-ended. I don't know whether I'll be going with AMD or Intel for the CPU. However, I will want a thin Mini ITX board again. This won't be a gaming-first PC and won't have a dedicated graphics card. It will be a more focused on CPU so at least 6-core if I'm going with Intel. With AMD options are more limited since the number of cores maxes out at 4 with Ryzen that had integrated graphics. Plus I would like to Hackintosh it at some point. I will use a non-K processor to keep temperatures cooler.

The monitor will be another essential part to keep it portable. I have have not narrowed down yet on portable monitors but 1080p would be ideal.

So here are the parts for now:

• CPU: (Intel) Coffee Lake 8th or 9th gen, at least 6 cores (AMD) Ryzen 5 2400G or 3400G
• Memory: 2x8GB DDR 2400
• Motherboard: (Intel) H310 based Thin Mini-ITX (AMD) ASRock A320TM-ITX
• CPU cooler: Intel HTS1155LP
• Storage: TBD
• Power: 100W external brick
• Case: probably custom

The first part I'll buy is probably the motherboard and that will determine how I follow up with this build, including the type of monitor I'll buy (not sure if I will prefer HDMI or USB-C for connectors).

 

[Dapuma]

I have heard of one intel thin itx coffee lake board being hackintoshable, though I can't remember which. It might be the asus prime h310t, though take that with a grain of salt. Anyways, I'll be following this just in case you do get something that you can hackintosh.

 

[CC Ricers]

I've seen at least one build log using the Asus Prime H130T, so that may be it. I'm going forward with Intel at this point because Ryzen APUs are still pretty much a no go getting the Vega IGPU to reliably work in a Hackintosh.

 

[CC Ricers]

I think I've decided on using a barebones Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny instead. It will be a few generations older (like Haswell) but this will make the build much cheaper and will leave me more budget for upgrading my home gaming PC. A lot of Hackintoshes have been made reliably with the Lenovo PCs.

 

[CC Ricers]

Part of me wants to go with a laptop instead such as the T440 so I can use it as a secondary laptop with a more recent MacOS. I can find some older gen laptops for under $150 but I'm surprised by the upgradeability and expandability of these (even so far as being able to swap the CPU and a higher res screen).

 

[Windfall]

Would like to see what you come up with regardless!

 

[CC Ricers]

I bought a Lenovo x131e for cheap, with a Ivy Bridge i3 and Windows 10 pre-installed. I mainly picked this model for its small size. But that Windows 10 drive will be removed eventually for the Hackintosh process. My plan is to copy my personal files from my Win7 SSD partition to the Win10 drive as a temporary storage and then wipe the SSD to install MacOS in it.

 

[CC Ricers]

Update on the laptop: got a better deal on a T430 so I got a refund on the x131. Yes it's bigger but I prefer more upgradeable parts. I also believe the CPU is socketed so you can upgrade that too

 

[Windfall]

Update on the laptop: got a better deal on a T430 so I got a refund on the x131. Yes it's bigger but I prefer more upgradeable parts. I also believe the CPU is socketed so you can upgrade that too

Pictures when it comes?

 

[CC Ricers]

Yep, there will be pictures. My laptop arrives in the middle of next week.

It has no hard drive and 4GB of RAM. I will upgrade to at least 8GB of DDR3L especially if it's true that improves battery life by 10% because of its lower voltage. RAM is easy, but I don't know if I should upgrade other parts like the screen and CPU first, or install MacOS first.

The stock screens on the T430 are kind of garbage though so I do want a better screen regardless. One that came with the Alienware M14x R2 with model number called B140HAN01.3 (sold here in AliExpress) to bump up the resolution to 1600x900. Despite also being TN it should have darker blacks.

 

[CC Ricers]

I got my T430 yesterday, in good condition and BIOS loads properly. Gave it a spin first with a live Manjaro Linux on USB, then transferred over my Samsung Evo 250GB with Windows 7 which worked surprisingly with no hardware ID errors. Just had to reinstall the Intel graphics drivers and I'm well on my way.

Lastly it came with a 9-cell battery (so lasts a while longer than the regular one) and 4GB of RAM. I plan to add more RAM and also bought a WD Blue 500 GB SSD to transfer Windows files over. The Samsung Evo will take its place as the Hackintosh drive.

When I can get that done I will then buy a low profile GPU to use in a custom external GPU dock. It would be great if the GPU is also Mac compatible but it's not a hard requirement for this build.

 

[Windfall]

I got my T430 yesterday, in good condition and BIOS loads properly. Gave it a spin first with a live Manjaro Linux on USB, then transferred over my Samsung Evo 250GB with Windows 7 which worked surprisingly with no hardware ID errors. Just had to reinstall the Intel graphics drivers and I'm well on my way.

Lastly it came with a 9-cell battery (so lasts a while longer than the regular one) and 4GB of RAM. I plan to add more RAM and also bought a WD Blue 500 GB SSD to transfer Windows files over. The Samsung Evo will take its place as the Hackintosh drive.

When I can get that done I will then buy a low profile GPU to use in a custom external GPU dock. It would be great if the GPU is also Mac compatible but it's not a hard requirement for this build.

Epic! I have a T60 that's practically mint, and I need to get TempleOS running on it!
Can't wait to see your egpu setup!

 

[CC Ricers]

Well, I decided on ordering a EVGA GT 1030 card for my dock, but then realized the RX 550 might actually be a bit better because of Freesync support. But the GT 1030 shipped out so fast that I wasn't unable to cancel the order, so I guess I will be getting both cards now.

 

[CC Ricers]

I've decided to go finally upgrade my Skylake build with something more current-gen with a H370 motherboard and i3-9100F. I could get both cheap at MicroCenter and plus they are easy to Hacknitosh as well, so instead of making another thread I'm just going to put my desktop progress here as well. These will be both updated in tandem as I figure out the quirks of each system to get MacOS running in each.

The new desktop will go in a mini case about 4L in size and I think I will use the GT 1030 because it is reported to have an easier time using in a Hackintosh than the RX 550. The 550 uses a Lexa GPU and not the original Polaris which MacOS doesn't support for now.

Plus, since the GT1030 is all passive I will go for an all passive build with the desktop, so the CPU will also have a passive cooler. All that in 4 liters will be very nice I think.

 

[Windfall]

I've decided to go finally upgrade my Skylake build with something more current-gen with a H370 motherboard and i3-9100F. I could get both cheap at MicroCenter and plus they are easy to Hacknitosh as well, so instead of making another thread I'm just going to put my desktop progress here as well. These will be both updated in tandem as I figure out the quirks of each system to get MacOS running in each.

The new desktop will go in a mini case about 4L in size and I think I will use the GT 1030 because it is reported to have an easier time using in a Hackintosh than the RX 550. The 550 uses a Lexa GPU and not the original Polaris which MacOS doesn't support for now.

Plus, since the GT1030 is all passive I will go for an all passive build with the desktop, so the CPU will also have a passive cooler. All that in 4 liters will be very nice I think.

I wish I had a microcenter closer to me. You think my proximity to silicon valley would help, but no.

 

[CC Ricers]

This past weekend I upgraded the laptop screen and it was a success. Connecting the converter board was very straightforward. I tested it for a couple minutes completely exposed to make sure iit worked before turning off the computer. But what wasn't trivial is removing the entire bezel of the keyboard to get underneath and actually disconnect the old cable completely. Only then is it possible to install the screen behind the top bezel.

After that, it continued working flawlessly. The detail and colors are great, especially watching videos. Some people said they had issues with how to properly place the converter board inside, because it would bulge the back of the lid, but I didn't have this problem at all.

Next up, the CPU upgrade.

 

[rfarmer]

Very nice, what is the resolution difference between the monitors?

 

[CC Ricers]

Very nice, what is the resolution difference between the monitors?

It's 1366x768 for the old one and 1920x1080. You can go higher, there is a 1440p screen upgrade for the T430 on Taobao, but it's even more expensive and kind of hacky in that it uses the docking station port (maybe for required bandwidth)