Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Hackintoshing a Sandy Bridge Laptop: HP Probook 4530s


People who know me know that I always recommend Apple laptops. I am convinced that they are the best laptops on the planet and worth every penny. However, a few weeks back, I picked up the HP Probook 4530s to review and monkey around with. This particular model has gathered a lot of steam on the forum, and considering the price ($475) and relative compatibility it seemed like a cool little project.
Compared to building a custom desktop computer, hackintoshing a laptop is a dramatic undertaking, and can be a very painful process. It's not like building a computer from parts, choosing which compatible components you want or need. Only certain very specific models work well. Things like power management become more important because of the battery and using the lid to sleep the computer. For networking, having functional wifi is way more important than ethernet. And the keyboard and trackpad can be a nightmare.
With the launch of Mac OS X Lion, Intel's onboard HD 3000 graphics, integrated into all Sandy Bridge mobile CPUs, became fully compatible. The only thing necessary to achieve full acceleration is a MacBook Pro 8,1 system definition. Therefore many more laptops now have functional Intel graphics, and are viable hackintosh candidates.

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