Recent Laptop Suggestions

[stevekiss]

Hi everyone,

 

I need to build a Snow Leopard hackintosh with a Firewire port for music production. Ideally, it should be a laptop. Most of the suggested compatible hardware I have found online seems to be quite old. Does any one have any good suggestion for a recent laptop model that will work well with Snow Leopard and not have issues with Firewire? I would be happy with any device produced in the last 3 year or so.

 

Thanks

[llamafilm]

Snow Leopard is very old, and doesn't support modern hardware. Why do you want it?

If you find a good machine with Thunderbolt, you could use a TB to FW adapter. Just a thought.

[stevekiss]

Snow Leopard is very old, and doesn't support modern hardware. Why do you want it?

If you find a good machine with Thunderbolt, you could use a TB to FW adapter. Just a thought.

 

The computer is for a recording studio. I am using an old soundcard whose drivers only work for Snow Leopard. By what I can see, the latest confirmed laptop would be from the HP ProBook 4x03s series. Pretty old but may be my best hope.

[0000-1248]

Latest supported architecture for Snow Leopard is Sandy Bridge. Look for laptops/desktops with a 2000 series CPU. Look for GPU Compatibility (IGPU support is very finicky; most do not work.) Also, a lot of PCs nowadays don't come with DVD drives. You'll need one for Snow Leopard. I built a Snow Leopard rig mid last year using second hand components and it works great (see 2nd PC in my sig). I got the components off eBay, but they still work great if you can find them from reputable sellers.

 

For Intel HD 3000 one must patch one's DSDT.

            Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
            {
                If (LEqual (Arg2, Zero))
                {
                    Return (Buffer (One)
                    {
                         0x03
                    })
                }
                Return (Package ()
{
                    "device-id", 
                    Buffer (0x04)
                    {
                         0x26, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00 /* HD 3000 graphics */
                    }, 
                    "model", 
                    Buffer (0x18)
                    {
                        "Intel HD Graphics 3000"
                    }, 
                    "AAPL,snb-platform-id", 
                    Buffer (0x04)
                    {
                         0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00 /* Laptop/mobile layout */
                    }, 
                    "hda-gfx", 
                    Buffer (0x0A)
                    {
                        "onboard-1"
                    }
                })
            }

 

If your display resolution is 1600x900 or above add a DualLink parameter and change it to 1.

 

Good luck,

 

- Matt