I’ve recently looked into which laptops are the most suitable for installing macOS, and realized that the Lenovo T420 was one of the few that had a complete, detailed guide. For other laptop options, the HP Probook Series has severely anal-retentive documentation done on it, and comes highly recommended. The reason for going with the T420 however was, simply put, …cheaper. I was able to get my T420 for around $125 shipped, and it came with a fully loaded Windows 10 installation (and apparently, Office too), 500GB HDD and 8GB of RAM. That’s more than enough to hold me over until I purchase an SSD and more RAM (The T420 can unofficially do 16GB). I also had experiences with this laptop as my workplace has these laptops deployed along with the newer T460 (which is also capable of running macOS). These machines are quite easy to repair/modify, and parts are readily available.
Like any Hackintosh setup, you assume that only wired ethernet will work, no audio, and barely any graphics support. What drew me to this particular setup is the fact that the installation package is all-inclusive. All the kexts, DSDT, modifications.. literally everything is done for you. All modified files are hard-copied to the system; nothing stays in the Clover kext folders.. Not the way I generally like to do things (I prefer the kext folder).
The caveats that you will run into is that the onboard WiFi card will not work, but once you flash the BIOS with a modified one, you can install any card that is compatible with macOS. I have the Dell WiFi cards that are recommended linked below.
For my setup, I am sticking with 10.11.6 since it is final (until later this year when High Sierra is released, then I will update to 10.12 Sierra), and any updates won’t break the OS at this point. That being said, 10.12 is actively supported and quite functional.
So how to get started? Here’s the main forum post to keep attached to. It is frequently updated.
**READ THE INSTRUCTIONS THOROUGHLY**
I ran into a kernel panic after installing Clover to the hard drive and restarting because I did not change the label of the default volume in the config.plist file. I like to name my OS drives ‘Macintosh HD’, and this is by default set for ‘macOS’. Once this was fixed, I had no issues. Keep this is mind, and once again, READ THOROUGHLY!!
Resources/Specs
Processor Upgrades –
Memory Upgrades – PC3-10600 format, 1333mhz bus speed recommended. 16GB roughly $85 in cost.
WiFi Cards to use:
- Dell DW1510/1515 -> WiFi Only
- Dell DW1550 -> Continuity+Handoff Support, requires some patching to do.. see here
