# Research: laptop Hackintosh 32GB?



## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 3, 2016)

2007 MacBook Pro needs new battery, PRAM battery, and drive. Even if that rejuvenates it, it's still heavy and lasts less than three hours on a charge. Not worth it.

So there are two choices: smallest MacBook Air (11"), use it only for general computer stuff when traveling; or pony up for MacBook Pro, which would be useful for audio and music.

The problem is that the MBPs only hold 16GB, which today makes them neither fish nor foul.

Is anybody using a Hackintosh laptop that holds more RAM and not swearing at it constantly?

TIA


By the way, I do know about the tonymac site. But those threads are literally 140 pages long, and most of the people there seem to be computer sportsmen rather than musicians.


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## rpaillot (Feb 3, 2016)

Yeah I agree. Macbook Pro should really support 32 gb .. But it's not going to happen any time soon. There's no demand from most of apple consumers..

That said, laptop hackintosh 32 gb is definitely possible, with a bit of work and perseverance. I made one which works perfectly for music production. It was a little hard to do as i'm not a developer. The hardest thing to fix was to make the video acceleration works. Without that, OSX works but it's a bit laggy, sluggish.. I had to ask someone on tonymac to fix some system files.
Almost everything is perfect except a few minor things like battery status constantly showing 0 % ( but if you click on it , it shows how many hours remaining ) internal sound card working even with Logic , Cubase ,Protools, ethernet working ,wifi working, bluetooth ..trackpad working.

It's a great laptop regarding fan noise, almost no fan noise audible, except when you have to bounce a cue, then the fan noise becomes more audible, but it's really not that much.


I suggest you try Asus G751 JM , it's the one I use. Too bad I had not the courage to take note of all the steps I did ..
But as I say , with some trials and errors , and many read on tonymac, you should succeed.

The downside of such a laptop : very heavy ( must use a back pack to transport it ) , trackpad isnt as sexy and fluid like the Macbook one , and battery only lasts 3 hours, most of the time if you do music, it will last 2 hours and a half, sorry..
You wont find any 32 gb laptop that is not heavy, and have a long battery life..


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 3, 2016)

Ag. Thanks very much, but being heavy and short battery life are nonstarters.

Maybe the next generation...


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## jaddne (Feb 3, 2016)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Ag. Thanks very much, but being heavy and short battery life are nonstarters.
> 
> Maybe the next generation...




Nick,

You may want to research the new Lenovo P50 or P70. Up to 64GB RAM! The P50 seems like a reasonable compromise w/respect to size & weight (5.6 lbs). Not a MacBook Pro but until (if ever) Apple makes an equivalent spec'd MacBook Pro this may be a good alternative. With (2)M.2 slots (BTW M.2 now available in 1Tb)+ (1)2.5" slot, This could be all one needs on the road. You can load it up w/ 2-M.2 1tb ssd's + 1- 2tb 2.2" ssd. 4tb of ssd storage + 64gb RAM... wow... I'm just starting to look into this myself.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9503/...ile-workstations-with-first-mobile-xeon-chips

Joe


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 3, 2016)

Thanks Joe.


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## Udo (Feb 3, 2016)

Nick,

I've had a Lenovo W530 i7-3940xm (3.2GHz base speed), 32GB, 2x 1TB SSD + 250GB mSATA SSD (for OS and progs) for about 3 years and have been very happy with it. You'll be able to get one 2nd hand for a song these days. They're easy to upgrade if not configured the way you want (that's what I did).


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## Iostream (Feb 3, 2016)

rpaillot said:


> Yeah I agree. Macbook Pro should really support 32 gb .. But it's not going to happen any time soon. There's no demand from most of apple consumers..



Actually, I expect the next macbook pro will support 32GB. The memory controllers for modern chips are on the CPU itself. With Intel Skylake CPUs, DDR4 at 16GB per chip is supported, so simply refreshing the CPU would allow them to put 32GB in a Macbook pro without having to re-engineer and add 2 more memory slots.


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## OleJoergensen (Feb 4, 2016)

This one supports 64 GB of RAM but its heavy.
*ASUS ROG G752VY-GC227T*


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## Udo (Feb 4, 2016)

OleJoergensen said:


> This one supports 64 GB of RAM but its heavy.
> *ASUS ROG G752VY-GC227T*



That model is only available in Scandinavia. Search for ASUS ROG G752VY


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 4, 2016)

Thanks very much for the replies.

Remember, I'm only interested in running Mac OS X. Will these machines do that? A big part of my question is whether it's worth trying to run a hackintosh.


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## rpaillot (Feb 4, 2016)

Udo said:


> Nick,
> 
> I've had a Lenovo W530 i7-3940xm (3.2GHz base speed), 32GB, 2x 1TB SSD + 250GB mSATA SSD (for OS and progs) for about 3 years and have been very happy with it. You'll be able to get one 2nd hand for a song these days. They're easy to upgrade if not configured the way you want (that's what I did).





Nick Batzdorf said:


> Thanks very much for the replies.
> 
> Remember, I'm only interested in running Mac OS X. Will these machines do that? A big part of my question is whether it's worth trying to run a hackintosh.




I think it's possible on Lenovo, But it wont be like "load a DVD , then install, tweak a few things... and voilà" , it will be days of trying to make it work.. There's no easy solution to hack a laptop.


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## Darthmorphling (Feb 4, 2016)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Thanks very much for the replies.
> 
> Remember, I'm only interested in running Mac OS X. Will these machines do that? A big part of my question is whether it's worth trying to run a hackintosh.



Having been tempted, in the past, to build a desktop hackintosh, I learned that it all comes down to the compatibility of the components. With a desktop, you can make sure you only buy parts that have been established to work. With a laptop, there may be one particular chipset present that makes OSX not work. There may be tweaks to get it to work, but there is a risk. If it doesn't then you are stuck with a kickass Windows machine.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 4, 2016)

Right, hence my question. 

Nothing wrong at all with a kickass Windows machine, but I'm not interested in one for this application. I should probably have a newer Windows machine - the four I have are all P4s from 13 years ago  - but that's a different thing.

This is for traveling mostly, but I was just considering whether I could make it serve double duty, or whether it's worth trying. It sounds like probably not, especially since weight, size, and battery life are important.

Thanks again for all the replies. You're not telling me what I wanted to hear, but I appreciate it anyway.


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