iATKOS | United Kingdom

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Hi all. I've been a Hackintosher for about 8 to 9 months. I always wanted to use macOS but I couldn't afford real Macs (well at least until my somewhat recent purchase of a MacBook Air). I didn't build my PC around Hackintoshing but I guess I was lucky that my part selection was (mostly) compatible.

Anyway, for most of my time in the Hackintosh scene, I used Beast tools and Clover to install macOS Catalina and didn't give much extra thought about it. For a while, Beast tools and Clover worked sort of well. Everything ran at a good speed, somehow iMessage worked, etc. What didn't work was updating macOS using combo updates or system preferences, I had to use the app store and download the whole installer! There were also weird quirks such as graphical artifacts. When I updated Clover to r5123, it couldn't boot because I didn't know how quirks and other hybrid OpenCore/Clover features worked, which led me to conclude that I need to learn OpenCore if I want to continue Hackintoshing.

With the backstory out of the way, I eventually nuked the old Beast tools Hackintosh install and transitioned to OpenCore with a fresh start. I'm so glad to have learned how to use OpenCore instead of continuing to use Beast tools, especially after I learned about the bad things Beast tools do compared to OpenCore. Such as how Beast tools require SIP to be disabled for their kext injection I believe and just generally leaving macOS a mess. I also just enjoy the satisfaction I got learning everything I know now.

For my Hack, I used the Dortania guide. I had set up the USB on Windows as well. I also used a bit of my previous Beast tool Hackintosh experience to help me deal with audio fixes and SMBIOS configuration (Edit: whoops I forgot to add that I had to use CodecCommander to get audio to work). I plan on using my Hackintosh install as a secondary OS for my day-to-day tasks.

My setup:

• Intel Core i5 6500
• Intel HD 530 (I have an Nvidia RTX 2070S but I disabled it in macOS)
• Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI motherboard (BIOS rev. F22f, Realtek ALC1150 audio, Intel i219-V Ethernet)
• Corsair Vengeance RAM (2x8GB, 2400MHz)
• SanDisk SSD PLUS 240GB for macOS, several other drives for Windows and Ubuntu
• Broadcom BCM943602CS WiFi/BT installed onto a PCI-E card I picked up off of eBay
• An HDMI switch so I can switch between my iGPU and 2070S easily
• rEFInd boot menu (I mainly wanted to avoid issues with Windows and Ubuntu due to OpenCore injecting my macOS config into them)

What works:

• It boots!
• iMessage
• Audio (well, most of the time)
• Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth
• AirDrop
• Handoff, continuity, and iCloud
• Siri
• SIP (after an NVRAM reset)
• USB ports (fully mapped too!)
• QE/CI

What doesn't work:

• DRM (UGH!)
• Boot chime is glitchy when I switch from Windows to macOS, but works 100% on the desktop
• Sleep (Pretty annoying flaw, but it's whatever for me)

Things I haven't tried yet:

• Software updates
• FaceTime

I want to thank the community and developers for the guides and help they give! They all made the transition from Beast tools to OpenCore much easier than I thought it would be! And for anyone just starting out with OpenCore, don't worry! The community and guides are here to help.