iATKOS | United Kingdom

Hey Hackintoshers,

I recently upgraded an old 2007 iMac for my dad as a Birthday present (it's a 7, 1) and in doing so I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the Mac OS and I've fallen in love with it. I've been using Windows my entire life and it's been fantastic, but something about Mac OS really appeals to me. Because of this, I'm really considering purchasing a new laptop with Mac OS but whether that's a Hack or authentic is TBD. I will be using this for my own recreational use as well as my college laptop. I am a triple major in Comp. Sci, Information Security, and Applied Math so specs are important. Finally, I'm trying to do this on a budget of about $3-600

Here's where I'm at now:

I currently have a 2015 Surface Book 1 w/ 256gb SSD, 8gb RAM, and discrete dgpu. I love this machine and all of its functionality, and honeslty I'd love to be able to keep it and just run Mac OS on it, but from what I've read on here, that usually doesn't go over well and the surface book ends up loosing a lot of its features that made it useful to begin with. If giving this Mac OS isn't practical, then I'd like to do one of the following:

Purchase a Macbook

From what I've read, the newer MacBooks are not upgradable because the internals are all soldered. Because of this, I'm leaning towards a 2012 MacBook pro that I can max the RAM out to 16gb and install a 120gb or 250 gb SSD. However I'm a little concerned about lack of update support from Apple. About how much longer would you imagine this machine to still get the latest updates from Apple. This is extremely important for me because in order to run Xcode I'll need to be on the latest OS. This is the choice I'm most leaning to, but again, I'm afraid of not receiving updates. I realize I could go out and buy the newest MacBook with maxed out specs, but that's not feasible because of my budget. I recently found a mid-2012 MB Pro for $250 on my local Facebook Market. The seller says claims it's a mid-2012 and that the battery will not charge. Would this be a single battery replacement? Any inputs here? Overall what MB should I go with if I decide to go this route?

Hackintosh

By far the most fun decision. I do not have any experience with creating a hackintosh but I know there's a plethora of guides and resources available here. What I'd like to know is how feasible is getting my Surface Book to run Mac OS? And will I be able to retain the touch screen, wifi, pen, discrete dgpu, etc.? If the answer is no to either of these, then I'd like suggestion for a good latptop to hack. I realize no machine will be perfect unless it's actually an Apple product, but I would like something that has minimal issues. Also, how does upgrading to the latest OS work? As I mentioned earlier, I'll need to be updated the the most current OS for Xcode. Is it an easy process? Im willing to do an occasion 2-3 hour update process as long as it isn't necessary for every little patch (ideally I'd want to only have to deal with this for updates such as El Capitan -> Sierra and not for every little security patch). Let me know how this all works. I may end up going this route if it fits better in my budget or if I can get better specs for value.