[SOLVED] Installing Mac OS on a windows based laptop

[videogmark]

First off, I'd like to know if the process involved in installing Mac OS X on a windows based laptop (replacing the windows OS not necessarily dual booting) is an advisable decision.

For school next year, I would like to have a laptop with Mac OS so that I can use certain software (mainly Final Cut Pro). As well as to experiment with the Mac OS, after all this time without having ever used the OS, I'm very eager to try it out.

However, based on the budget I have for this particular laptop (~2000$) I would much rather spend it on a windows based PC and get better componants than spend the same on a Macbook Pro. The OS is really all I'm looking for, is this a wise decision? Or could messing with the Bios in this way potentially cause some problems.

I guess what I'm really looking to know is, if I buy a 2,000$ laptop off a website like www.cyberpowerpc.com , and seek to replace the windows OS with Mac OS, am I making a decision that could cause stability issues? Or should I just spend my 2,000$ on a Macbook if I really want to use Mac OS X?

 

[ValiantZX]

http://www.hackintosh.com/

 

[videogmark]

I'm checking out some stuff now, its names like these that still make me weary though, haha "Hack"intosh -.- Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty comfortable with computers, but I don't want to risk having issues with my laptop.

 

[HugoStiglitz]

it takes quite specific hardware to create a Hackintosh and needing it in a laptop makes it quite alot harder as you cannot customize the hardware to fit your needs.

i would advise just to get a macbook pro as even if you do get the hardware right then updates / upgrades can cause problems.

 

[SchizTech]

I've done it for a customer, but it was a royal pain in the ass to get the OS to load, then to get the drivers needed. If you need to do it, check that your laptop is compatible. Reportedly there are more complications with AMD-based PCs (though I can't say since I don't know the hardware in yours)

 

[videogmark]

This is exactly or at least very close to what I'm looking for...

Notebook: Clevo P170EM Gaming Notebook 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080 Display w/ Built-in 2.0 MP Webcam, Fingerprint Sensor, HDMI Port, Li-Ion Battery, & Universal AC Adapter

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM Mobile Processor 2.40 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 3.50 GHz

Motherboard: Mobile Intel HM77 Chipset Mainboard

Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3-1333 SODIMM Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)

Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 675M 2GB PCIe Video

Hard Drive: 120GB Corsair Force Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 550MB/s Read & 510MB/s Write (Single Drive)

Data Hard Drive: 1 TB 5400RPM SATA300 Hard Drive

Optical Drive: 8X DVD±R/RW/4X + DL Super-Multi Drive (NB-AAA-DVDRW)

Sound: Built-in 3D Premium Surround Sound

Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: Killer Wireless-N 1103 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi Card


Any chance you can give me some insight on whether or not you think these components will work? I'm currently looking around on the web but haven't found anything yet.

 

[dontcrosthestreams]

any people do business with apple why? they pretend to be green and dress in turtle necks to trick people into thinking they are community college professors and not globalist who charge 200-400$ more than they should for their products.

 

[videogmark]

I agree that they are overpriced, this is why I'm interested in just installing the OS. However it seems according to this: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/iboot-multibeast-install-mac-os-x-on.html I shouldn't have any issues, unsure if this corresponds to laptops though as well or if that's considered a completely different beast...

 

[math1337]

The worst you could to is erase your HDD. Make a full image backup before trying anything and you'll be fine.

 

[SchizTech]

It looks like you should be able to get OSX on that system, though I'm not certain about some of those peripheral devices. The killer wireless-N card appears that it might not be supported; perhaps you can configure the laptop with a better supported card. The fingerprint reader there probably isn't a Mac driver for (though it's something you can easily do without) and the webcam, I'm not sure. As to the sound, we'd need to know the precise controller (built-in 3d sound is a pretty broad description). Apple has used Nvidia graphics so I'd bet that'll work.

 

[videogmark]

Best answer selected by videogmark.

 

[videogmark]

It looks like you should be able to get OSX on that system, though I'm not certain about some of those peripheral devices. The killer wireless-N card appears that it might not be supported; perhaps you can configure the laptop with a better supported card. The fingerprint reader there probably isn't a Mac driver for (though it's something you can easily do without) and the webcam, I'm not sure. As to the sound, we'd need to know the precise controller (built-in 3d sound is a pretty broad description). Apple has used Nvidia graphics so I'd bet that'll work.

Thanks a lot, I think I'm going to give it a try, I figure worst comes to worst I can just install windows 7 on the laptop until I can figure something out. Thanks loads for the assistance all, tomshardware truly is the place to ask these kinds of questions and get legitimately helpful answers.

 

[mgolus]

From my experiences with "hackintoshes," the tonymacx86 blog has been an invaluable resource. He has some great tools such as iBoot and Multibeast as linked to in the the article. I also have found the forums and wiki at http://www.osx86project.org/ quite helpful.

Even with all these resources, getting OS X to work flawlessly on my hardware has been a nearly impossible task. I am running on an Intel Core 2 Quad processor and even purchased a new motherboard so I could even get the OS to boot (back when the Core 2 Quad was considered "new"). My original Foxconn motherboard would cause a kernel panic as soon as the OS would start to load. I replaced it with a Gigabyte board that various forum posts had said worked well. Right before I purchased the board though, Gigabyte released a new version and changed the physical hardware address of the audio card. As a result, the OS did not recognize the onboard audio no matter what I tried and I was forced to use an open source audio driver (Voodoo HDA) to even manage to get sound out of my machine. With this driver, only the audio out in the rear works (none of the front inputs/outpus on my case do) and I constantly get loud pops and clicks out of my speakers. The system resumes from standby only about 50 percent of the time and maybe 10 percent of the time it does not, it proceeds to reset my bois settings somehow. I can shutdown and start up just fine, but performing a reset results in the apple screen appearing while the OS loads and then my machine completely locks up. I spent over 40 hours generating custom configuration files and trying to get everything working smoothly... then apple released 10.7, breaking nearly everything that I had gotten working correctly.

What I mean to say in all of this, is that even though it can be pretty easy to get OS X to boot on any Intel machine, getting everything to work can be a monumental task. The general rule of thumb is, the closer you can get to components that Apple has used in their various machines, the better luck you will have getting OS X to run smoothly. Also it's definitely my recommendation to find a configuration of hardware that others have had success with and have provided instructions and or configuration files to get it working. From what I can see on the Clevo brand laptops, there is very little to go one from the OSX86 community which means you may be on your own when resolving issues.

My recommendation is to check out the wiki on osx86project. They have pages of success stories with various hardware configurations by OS X version. For laptops running 10.7.3 check out http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.7.3/Portables

This will give you a good idea of the luck people are having with various brands and models of laptops. Also browsing the forums on the site may give you an idea of a good machine that is fairly OS X compatible right out of the box. The community there is also very quick to respond to questions and may be able to provide you a good recommendation of hardware.

If you do go the hackintosh route, you WILL run in to an occasional roadblock. Don't expect to get everything working easily (or in some cases at all). Even if you do, expect things to break when apple releases an update, even minor ones (10.6.2 to 10.6.3 broke audio for a large percentage of hackintosh owners). If you love to tinker with hardware and have a lot of time, the hackintosh route can be fun and a great learning experience, otherwise, I would strongly recommend a MacBook Pro.

 

[videogmark]

If you do go the hackintosh route, you WILL run in to an occasional roadblock. Don't expect to get everything working easily (on in some cases at all). Even if you do, expect things to break when apple releases an update, even minor ones (10.6.2 to 10.6.3 broke audio for a large percentage of hackintosh owners). If you love to tinker with hardware and have a lot of time, the hackintosh route can be fun and a great learning experience, otherwise, I would strongly recommend a MacBook Pro.

Interesting to hear, I'll definitely keep this in mind, as although right now it may seem like I'm more than happy to spend some time with it, I'm sure in the middle of my school year I'll feel a lot different about that.

 

[mgolus]

Interesting to hear, I'll definitely keep this in mind, as although right now it may seem like I'm more than happy to spend some time with it, I'm sure in the middle of my school year I'll feel a lot different about that.

By all means then go for it! I had a ton of fun getting OS X running on my machine and I learned a lot about the internals of the OS. If it doesn't end up working, then at least you will still have a killer laptop that will run Windows just fine!

 

[tomskent]

just do 2 separate partitions and dual boot the system with both os's. Best of both worlds. And if you cant get the mac os to work right just reformat the 2nd partition and use it for windows.
There is also emulation/virtulization

 

[Arvin David vinodh]

getting mac os run on a laptop is not advisable ! you need the similar kind of hardware in a mac book for (purchasing those difficult and pricey )your laptop so its not possible with any laptop
so its better to get a mac book .if you need an alternative to final cut see this (http://www.wondershare.com/video-editing-tips/final-cut-pro-for-windows.html)

 

[xtianRay]

did you have any success?

 

[Abin Simon]

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-install-mac-os-x-on-a-pc-without-using-a-mac/

 

[Mahesh Masetti]

Hi There It is Working for me am running MAC OSX and Windows as Dual Boot i found every Thing in niresh.co website hope this will help some one who found this to read
Am Having Sony Vaio VPCEH25EN Laptop with 2GB Ram , I3 Processor,intel and 512 MB NVIDIA Graphic Card