Hackintosh on x86 platform – Part I Hardware

“Hackintosh is a computer that runs Apple’s Macintosh operating system macOS on computer hardware not authorized for the purpose by Apple.”

Wiki

All credits belong to the OpenCore official guide. I cannot complete without the super detailed guide. 🙂

Hardware is the first step for Hackintosh. You need compatible computer parts that macOS can support. I have successfully build my Hackintosh system on a desktop PC and a laptop.

Please refer to the OpenCore official guide to buy your computer parts. I will only share my experience in this article.

CPU

First of all, I recommend Intel CPU. According to the guide. It appears a bit hard and extra steps if you use AMD CPU.

Memory

Memory is more flexible. I have tried from high-end Samsung DIMMs to some super cheap DIMMs (32GB per DIMM). I didn’t see any issue.

Hard Disk

Hard disk is also flexible. You can use SATA to NVMe. However, I would recommend SATA SSD or NVMe SSD. It’s much faster. My macOS loading speed is about 4 – 6 seconds with NVMe SSD. And any brand is ok. My desktop PC use SAN Disk. And my laptop uses a cheap ($85 for 512 GB) no-brand SATA SSD.

GPU

A graphics card is essential. It impacts Apple TV+, NetFlix, and any other online streaming services that use Apple DRM technology. I assume you are using Intel CPU. And you only want to use the embedded graphics card. You will not be able to watch movies on Apple TV+. (I have tried all options. Please let me know if you figured it out.) If you use an external graphics card. AMD card is the best choice since Apple’s computers use only AMD graphics cards.

And “iGPU” means the embedded graphics card. “dGPU” means the external graphics card. If you have a proper dGPU, you build a Hackintosh computer by following the OpenCore official guide. And you find Apple TV+ still doesn’t work. In addition, you need to run the following command in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.AppleGVA gvaForceAMDKE -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.AppleGVA gvaForceAMDAVCEncode -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.AppleGVA gvaForceAMDAVCDecode -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.AppleGVA gvaForceAMDHEVCDecode -bool YES

Wifi and Bluetooth

The wifi card is a critical part of achieving most of Apple’s unique functions. Such as AirDrop, SideCar, AirPod, and Apple Watch unlock, etc. The suggestion is to buy a second-hand Apple wifi card or something natively supported by macOS. For example, my laptop uses the DW1820A wifi card. The part number is CN-08PKF4 which is perfectly running on my Dell Inspiron 15-7569! I would recommend the same card if you have a Dell laptop. Please make sure the part number is the same as mine. I tried some other model on the Dell laptop. No one works.

Other Consideration

In addition. You also need to prepare a USB keyboard and mouse if you build Hackintosh on a laptop. The laptop keyboard and touchpad may not work in the macOS installation if you do not configure OpenCore properly. So you may need to use the USB keyboard and mouse temporarily.