I have an iMac 7,1 ("Mid 2007", the first Aluminum iMac.) It was originally a 2.0 GHz model with the "Merom" chip. I upgraded it with a 2.6 GHz "Penryn" CPU, and it works just fine. With one caveat...
OS X doesn't recognize the CPU properly. In Windows via Boot Camp, it shows up just fine as a Core 2 Duo at 2.6 GHz. But in OS X, it shows up as "Core 2 Duo 700 MHz." Multiple rounds of benchmarking show it is definitely operating at 2.6 GHz speeds (more than 30% faster than the previous CPU, which, between the raw speed boost and the architectural improvements is about right.)
The problem is iMovie apparently sees "700 MHz" and decides that's too slow to import AVCHD. Thus, even though it's faster than my other iMac (previous-gen white-plastic Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz,) it won't import video where my older iMac will.
My nasty workaround has been to import video on the white iMac (slow) then copy over WiFi to the Aluminum iMac (takes forever - they're at opposite ends of the house.) I know there are hacks from the Hackintosh community to make Hackintoshes fake certain CPU info, but since this iMac is fully supported in Mountain Lion, I'd rather avoid using boot loaders that are unecessary.
Does anyone know of any way (EFI hack, boot-time kext change, etc,) to let OS X know the proper speed? (The way there was a CPU-speed-hack to convince OS X Leopard that you had a fast enough PowerPC system to install.)
OS X doesn't recognize the CPU properly. In Windows via Boot Camp, it shows up just fine as a Core 2 Duo at 2.6 GHz. But in OS X, it shows up as "Core 2 Duo 700 MHz." Multiple rounds of benchmarking show it is definitely operating at 2.6 GHz speeds (more than 30% faster than the previous CPU, which, between the raw speed boost and the architectural improvements is about right.)
The problem is iMovie apparently sees "700 MHz" and decides that's too slow to import AVCHD. Thus, even though it's faster than my other iMac (previous-gen white-plastic Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz,) it won't import video where my older iMac will.
My nasty workaround has been to import video on the white iMac (slow) then copy over WiFi to the Aluminum iMac (takes forever - they're at opposite ends of the house.) I know there are hacks from the Hackintosh community to make Hackintoshes fake certain CPU info, but since this iMac is fully supported in Mountain Lion, I'd rather avoid using boot loaders that are unecessary.
Does anyone know of any way (EFI hack, boot-time kext change, etc,) to let OS X know the proper speed? (The way there was a CPU-speed-hack to convince OS X Leopard that you had a fast enough PowerPC system to install.)
