Early 2006 iMac Upgrade(s)

[drccw]

Long time reader first time poster...
Couple of questions....

My early 2006 iMac has given up the ghost... the HD has the click of death...

It's not a daily user; primarily an archiver of photos/videos on externals..so really runs only lightroom...

I've already got a spare 1TB Sata drive but it got me thinking.. if i'm going to crack the thing open....

T7600 is my best option for upgrading the CPU right? I see them about 90 bucks on ebay... why not right?

Should I look at a PCI-E 802.11N card on ebay as well?

What else- it's maxed out at 2 GBs... upgrading the CPU does not remove that limit right?

thanks for help!

drccw

 

[iBookG4user]

I don't think it's really worth it to upgrade a 6 year old Mac at this point for the minimal boost in speed that will result. I would put the money towards a current Mac Mini which would be a huge speed boost.

 

[drccw]

I don't think it's really worth it to upgrade a 6 year old Mac at this point for the minimal boost in speed that will result. I would put the money towards a current Mac Mini which would be a huge speed boost.

I think the upgrade will just run me 90-120. Much less than a new Mac mini. I am fine with the speed of the old iMac. I was just thinking that if I am going to open the case might as well do a couple other cheap upgrades.

Drccw

 

[drccw]

Well I cracked open my iMac.

Took out the old dead 250 Gb hard drive and replaced it with a 2 Tb drive that I has bought for something else but wasn't using. Cost to me; $0 cause I had already spent the money.

T7600 upgrade: $88.50

New AirPort Extreme card: 9.50

Screw driver set: $17

Efi 4,1 to 5,1 update

2 2gb sodimms I had laying around : $0

Given that I found the old iMac usable I feel I've gained a significant upgrade for less than $125.

One thing though is that the AirPort Extreme card I bought is capable of -N but only seems to connect at -G speeds. It does see -N networks fine. Any suggestions? Did I need a second attenna?

Cracking open the iMac was very very time consuming. All the upgrades took me about 2.5 hours. But I took it super slow and followed the excellent I fixit guides.

Drccw