hello, im looking at upgading my early 2012 21" imac to the best specs possible. now i know on some intel boards that some generations shared the same cpu sockets. so like the second gen and third gen cpu sockets used the same socket and chip set. would it be possible to put a 3rd gen i7 cpu in a 2012 imac? and what is the max amount of ram? and can i upgrade the hdd to a ssd? what about upgrading the graphics? i know dosdude1 aka collin minster can upgrade the soldered on ram chips on the logic board but we would need to find a compatible bios to use on the imac to get it upgraded to 4gb of vram. how is this possible? any one have a vbios aviable for download?
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how do i upgrade the 2012 21" imac?
- Thread starter themacpronovice2022
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CPU: Core i7-3770s.
RAM: (perhaps) can be added/replaced with 2 sticks of 8GB DDR3 SODIMM.
HDD to SSD: can be upgraded with 2.5" SATA SSD.
GPU chip is soldered on the logicboard. Not upgradable.
Dosdude1 upgraded the soldered RAM chips, check his youtube video on how he did it. (2014 model)
Just don't screw up the iMac during the tear-down, re-assembling process.
There is no "early 2012" iMac so you need to clarify what you actually have to get upgrade advice.
everymac.com
Having said that, the improvement you'd see booting from an external USB3 SSD wouldn't be much less than doing all that other stuff.
All Apple iMac Specs (1998-Current): EveryMac.com
Tech specs for all Apple iMac from the original to the latest (1998-Current). Dates sold, processor type, memory info, storage details, configuration options and more.
everymac.com
Having said that, the improvement you'd see booting from an external USB3 SSD wouldn't be much less than doing all that other stuff.