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E6420 or E6430 for Hackintosh


a219810

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Would it be worth picking up a refurb Dell E6420 on Newegg to Hackintosh? Or would it be better to jump to the E6430 since that model is a generation newer? A Dell E6420 refurb goes for about $250 on Newegg with the lowest specs and a Dell E6430 is $100 more.

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It all depends on the specs. Both are good hackintoshes. Preferably without optimus, those are harder to get sleep working. Without optimus, with just Intel HD3000/HD4000, both able to sleep and HDMI works.

I prefer the higher display resolution if you could find out with a good price.

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All of these have the nvidia card. I intend to swap out the HDD for an SSD. They are all Grade A but the E6430 has a 768p display. A 1600x900 display replacement costs ~$53. Generally the E6420 w/4GB, i5 costs $250 refurb and E6430 w/4GB i5 $350. I'm coming from a 7 year old HP Pavilion C2D and I'm hoping to make one of these Dell Latitudes a daily driver for at least 5 years. What do you think?

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If you have to go with the models with Nvidia, then go with the E6420's. There's a beta DSDT out there by Wern that allows sleep with nvidia, but not for the E6430.

The Quadcore model is nice to have but that also depends on what you use it for. Be warn that battery life will not be very good with the nvidia as it's a power hogger. There is a DSDT to disable the nvidia card and use only the Intel HD3000, but you'll lose the capability to connect to an external monitor through HDMI. 

 

So it all comes down to what's your need.

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I went with the Dell Precision M4600. The E6420 is a great notebook but I personally think it's too old for 2015. The E6430's price is around the same as the M4600, but the M4600 has better specs. I'll be working on getting Yosemite working on this thing. Thanks for the feedback Jake Lo!

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[...]The E6420 is a great notebook but I personally think it's too old for 2015. [...]

:rolleyes: M4600 is based on SandyBridge like the E6420 so both are of exact same generation... E6430 is based on IvyBridge so the following generation. True, the M4600 will have a better graphics card (and possibly higher screen res depending on the model) but I would say that's where the better specs stop.

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The E6420 does not have USB 3.0, 1080p LCD, swappable graphics (the M4800 GFX card is compatible w/M4600), or Quad i7 w/HT. Don't get me wrong. The E6420 is a great notebook but it lacks so many things that I'd want in a laptop in 2015. Regardless, I think the E6420 even beats some of the newer MBPs and I'd definitely recommend it for a budget Hackintosh.

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