A few months ago I already blogged about a possible upgrade path from a Dell D430 hackintosh. With preliminary support from the OSXlatitude.com community for the Dell E-series, I’m reconsidering.

Let’s first explain why I want to upgrade. I’m doing a lot of Adobe After Effects video creation, as well as webcast recordings, and the rendering times are between 1-14 hours at the moment! And while it’s rendering I can’t do much else then waiting. That’s unacceptable, as I’m losing business hours. Now I could configure my Shuttle X200 as a second workstation. And I probably will while, deciding on what kind of new Hackintosh laptop configuration I want, but need something bigger, better, portable … at a pricetag that’s lower than whatever Apple is offering :o)

Update 21feb12: Moved the entire matrix to http://www.osxlatitude.com/compare-specs/

Let’s first go into some forum treats I started at OSXlatitude.com explaining my thought processes:

• “OSXLatitude for E-series?”
• “DELL E6220 research threat”
• “Need your guys advice in buying a new OSX latitude”
• “I see … I see … DSDT people”

Here you can find my initial wishlist. What has to be added:

• same or higher resolution than 1280×800 (extra height is most important; thus WXGA+)
• preferably built-in webcam (as I do a lot of video communication and Skyping)
• Solid State Disk (preferably Intel X-25 / 320 / 510, Crucial M4, OCZ Vortex 2 or 3)
• CPU: > Core 2 Duo 2GHz
• RAM: >= 4GB.
• Budget including 60-80GB SSD ~ €500.

• Dell Latitude E4300. Bad OSX results. CPU: Core2Duo. Max. 8GB. 13.3″ LCD 1280×800. Webcam! Weight: 1.5KG.
• Dell Latitude E4310. Bad OSX results. CPU: Fast i5/i7. Max 4GB. 13.3″ 1440×900. Webcam! Weight: 1.6KG
• Dell Precision M4300. Great OSX Lion support. Max. T8300 CPU. Max. 4GB RAM. Weight: 2.8KG = heavy. No webcam. However 15″ screen, but with native 1900×1200 resolution. Pricetag: ~ €200 (w/o SSD). It’s basically a D830 with a different lid, higher native resolution and slightly faster videocard.
• Dell Latitude E5510. Good OSX support. Fast i3/i5 CPU. Max. 8GB. Weight about 2.5KG  = heavy. Webcam! 15″ screen with low 1366x768 resolution. Pricetag: ~ €500.
• Dell Latitude E5520 … to be added soon. Pricetag: ~ €375.
• Dell Latitude E6400. Good OSX SL support (insanelyMac link). CPU: Core2Duo P8400-8600. Max. 4GB RAM, No webcam. Weight: 1.95KG. 14.1″ screen with resolution: 1440×900. Pricetag: ~ €300-400.
• Dell Latitude E6410. Support: ‘so-so’ OSX SL. CPU: Fast i5. Max. 8GB RAM. 14.1″ screen with WXGA+ resolution. Weight: 2.3KG. Battery time: 6-7 hours. No webcam. Pricetag: ~ €450. Looks promising! Checkout this great notebookreview.
• Dell Latitude E6420. GoodOSX SL support. CPU: Fast i5/i7. Pricetag:  ~ €750
• Dell Latitude E6220. Good OSX Lion support. CPU: i5 2520M. 12.5″LCD with WXGA resolution. HD: 128GB Samsung 470 SSD. Max. 8GB RAM. 12″. Weight: 1.43KG. Pricetag: ~ €850

• CPUbenchmark.net to compare Core 2 Duo T and P model CPUs
• 13″ MBPs – Core 2 Duo vs. Core i3 Processors @ MacRumors (must read!)
• http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.7.2/Portables
• MacTracker App (to compare with Apple MacBook equivalents)