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New Hardware in Old iMac

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entrywounds

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2012
25
0
My wife does a lot of video editing and photoshop on her 27" iMac and was complaining that it was just getting slower and slower. I told her if she gave me an open checkbook I could make it so it never bogged down again so she did and this is what I did. Now it's like a brand new machine that will gobble up anything I throw at it. I LOVE IT!!!!

Before:
Early 2012 27" iMac
Core i5 2.7GHz
4GB 1333MHz ram
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD
DVD SuperDrive

After:
Core i7-3770s 3.1GHz
16GB 1600MHz Ram
1TB Fusion Drive(256GB Samsung 830 SSD+750GB WD Black 7200RPM HDD)
Panasonic UJ-235 Blu-Ray Superdrive
Fresh install of 10.8.2

Spent about $800 but I figure that 800 is much less money and that I would have spent if I bought top of the line when we purchased this when we did and got more for my money. So far pretty excited about it.
 
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K

kfernandes29

macrumors newbie
Jan 15, 2013
18
0
Pretty awesome. Always wondered how they would react with new components installed. Too bad you can't do anything about the GPU though. :( lol
 
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entrywounds

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2012
25
0
Well I could definitely upgrade the GPU but it is way too expensive and at this point not really needed.
 
H

Hexley

Suspended
Jun 10, 2009
1,641
504
Just nitpicking but Apple only released one 2012 iMac and that's the one that is taking so much time to ship to me! :D

The unit you have probably is a 2011 iMac sold 12 or so months ago.

Good upgrade though! Would you happen to know how much your 2011 iMac would have sold for on eBay?
 
J

joe-h2o

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2012
997
445
kfernandes29 said:
I didn't even realize you could upgrade the GPU in macs. Waiting on my first iMac to get here in a few days.
Click to expand...

The 2011 Sandy Bridge iMacs had MXM daughterboards for the GPU - essentially AMD just put a custom Mac EFI on the regular notebook cards they were making.

In theory you can thus upgrade those iMacs with any other MXM graphics card (eg, from AMD or Nvidia), but you'd need a board with a Mac firmware on it, so you're pretty much limited to the cards that were already made for the 2011 iMac line.

The Late 2012 model (new, thin design) go back to the old method of soldering the GPU to the logic board, although the CPU is still socketed and can be upgraded.
 
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K

kennyap

macrumors regular
Jul 14, 2012
147
1
Cayman Islands
entrywounds said:
My wife does a lot of video editing and photoshop on her 27" iMac and was complaining that it was just getting slower and slower. I told her if she gave me an open checkbook I could make it so it never bogged down again so she did and this is what I did. Now it's like a brand new machine that will gobble up anything I throw at it. I LOVE IT!!!!

Before:
Early 2012 27" iMac
Core i5 2.7GHz
4GB 1333MHz ram
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD
DVD SuperDrive

After:
Core i7-3770 3.4GHz
16GB 1600MHz Ram
1TB Fusion Drive(256GB Samsung 830 SSD+750GB WD Black 7200RPM HDD)
Panasonic UJ-235 Blu-Ray Superdrive
Fresh install of 10.8.2

Spent about $800 but I figure that 800 is much less money and that I would have spent if I bought top of the line when we purchased this when we did and got more for my money. So far pretty excited about it.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear the upgrade worked out for you, I also upgraded my iMac 2011's CPU, hdd to SSD, and GPU.
RE: upgrading to Core i7-3770: if your machine is actually a "2011 iMac" then this upgrade would not work. Highest you can go is the Core i7-2700k. Is your iMac one of the new super thin models, or the thicker (2011) model?
 
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entrywounds

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2012
25
0
Hexley said:
Just nitpicking but Apple only released one 2012 iMac and that's the one that is taking so much time to ship to me! :D

The unit you have probably is a 2011 iMac sold 12 or so months ago.

Good upgrade though! Would you happen to know how much your 2011 iMac would have sold for on eBay?
Click to expand...

You are correct it is actually a 2011 but she purchased it in April 2012. My error.

----------
kennyap said:
Glad to hear the upgrade worked out for you, I also upgraded my iMac 2011's CPU, hdd to SSD, and GPU.
RE: upgrading to Core i7-3770: if your machine is actually a "2011 iMac" then this upgrade would not work. Highest you can go is the Core i7-2700k. Is your iMac one of the new super thin models, or the thicker (2011) model?
Click to expand...

It's a thicker 2011 model and the processor I installed is a 3770s which has the same TDP as a 2600s which is why it works.
 
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Acorn

Acorn

macrumors 68030
Jan 2, 2009
2,642
349
macrumors
that blue ray player seems thicker then what you would find in a standard mac. I wonder if the imac ones allow for a larger drive then say a unibody macbook. Ive been looking for a internal blue ray slot drive for my 2010 macbook pro. it would be nice if the one you bought fit my macbook pro also. I think the macbook pro slot load is 9.5 mm though.
 
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entrywounds

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2012
25
0
Acorn said:
that blue ray player seems thicker then what you would find in a standard mac. I wonder if the imac ones allow for a larger drive then say a unibody macbook. Ive been looking for a internal blue ray slot drive for my 2010 macbook pro. it would be nice if the one you bought fit my macbook pro also. I think the macbook pro slot load is 9.5 mm though.
Click to expand...

The one in the iMac is i believe 12.7mm thick can't remember off the top of my head. You can find them for the macbook pro as well but they are kind of pricey.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-5mm-SATA-...ad-drive-Apple-Macbook-Pro-Dell-/180883494492
 
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Jules3378

macrumors newbie
Feb 6, 2013
1
0
@entrywound:
could you please tell us your motherboard details and firmware version ?
Several people tried upgrading i7 3770 on imac 27" 2011 with no success, it seem that only hackerwayne succeed with SMC 1.72f2 on iMac 12,2 with bootrom IM121.0047.B1G.

Thanks in advance.
 
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