Intro & Hardware

OpenCore Visual Beginners Guide

This is intended to be a beginner friendly OpenCore guide which uses mostly GUI Tools like OCAuxiliaryTools and OCLP to create a vanilla hackintosh install. This should make starting out with OpenCore more accessible. Everything done by these tools is transparent to the user and allows complete customization. All downloads are from official sources, usually from the Github repos of the original developers. This guide is based on the OpenCore Install Guide by Dortania only making minimal changes when using compatible GUI tools. You do need to read, study and understand the basics of the OpenCore Install Guide first before embarking on any hackintosh project.

OCAuxiliaryTools

Who this guide is for ...

• those who are fairly new to setting up a hackintosh.

• those who are new to OpenCore, and would like a quick-start to get into OpenCore.

• those who are experienced with OpenCore, but would like to try a more efficient workflow, which may also help to get friends or family to learn how to hackintosh their computer.

Desktop Hardware Recommendations

• Those who have not set up a hackintosh previously, should gain experience on straightforward desktop hardware. (Laptops are much harder for beginners!)

• CPU: Intel Core i3 to i9, preferably Kaby Lake (6th Gen) to Comet Lake or Ice Lake (10th Gen). For experienced users Alder Lake and Raptor Lake (12th-14th Gen) will work as well; see Using Alder Lake.
• MB: Preferably a Gigabyte or Asus motherboard, but most major brands should be fine.

• GPU: Intel iGPU or preferably a dedicated AMD GPU (Radeon RX 560 up to RX 6900 XT). Sapphire, Gigabyte or Asus are recommended.

• RAM: 8 GB or more.

• STORAGE: A SATA SSD or NVMe main drive with at least 250 GB (preferably not a Samsung NVMe).

• WIFI: Fenvi FV-T919 which has Bluetooth included, or Intel Wifi.

Detailed Hackintosh hardware information about all compatible configurations can be found here: Hardware Limitations, GPU Buyers Guide, Wireless Buyers Guide, Anti-Hackintosh Buyers Guide and in the FAQ Hardware Compatibility.

Prerequisites

• An existing computer or VM running a fairly recent version of macOS (preferably Monterey or newer)

Showing a sample Config.plist in a plist editor.

• Familiarize yourself with the OpenCore Install Guide and use it to follow along in the relevant sections for more detailed configuration options.

Following the OpenCore Install Guide is essential

Example Hardware

For this guide I have selected recent compatible hardware for a beginner friendly example of installing Monterey or Ventura. I have used this workflow with comparable hardware for multiple systems. My links to the OpenCore Install Guide point to the relevant 10th Gen Comet Lake sections.

The example hardware is similar to the internals of a mid-2020 iMac:

• CPU: 10th Gen Comet Lake i5-10400 (or any i3-10100 to i7-10700K)

• MB: Gigabyte B460 (or Z490, H470, H410)

• GPU: Sapphire RX 580 (or other AMD Polaris, or RX 6600+)

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International — CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Attribution by link to chriswayg · GitHub.