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sunsetblow

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 6, 2013
171
25

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
13,740
11,446
I haven't done it personally, and I personally wouldn't bother, but if you're determined to do it, check out these pages:

http://lowendmac.com/2016/cpu-upgrade-options-for-mid-2007-imacs/
http://lowendmac.com/2018/penryn-t9300-9500-cpu-upgrades-for-the-2007-imac/

Your best options are the Core 2 Duo T9300 or T9500 (with 800 MHz bus speed and 6 MB cache). The T9500 is a bit faster than the T9300 but costs twice as much. But then again, it's still only about $40 total, so not a big deal. They will still be slow machines, maybe half as fast as a fanless MacBook Core m3, but they would be significantly faster than a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo. It would make for a noticeable improvement in surfing speed.

I have a Core 2 Duo 2.0 and a Core 2 Duo 2.26 (both with 1066 MHz bus speed and 3 MB cache) and the 2.26 is actually noticeably faster, despite having only a 13% improvement in clock speed. It makes a difference for some web pages and for watching videos. Even though the h.264 is hardware accelerated on both those machines, the extra CPU speed means less dropped frames and glitchiness. I suspect it'd be even better with a 2.6 GHz T9500.

Also, if you upgrade to T9500, you can install 10.13 High Sierra on it. High Sierra runs well as long as you have at least 4 GB RAM and SSD. It's bad with a laptop hard drive, but with a desktop hard drive, it can be tolerable as a secondary machine.

EDIT:

Hmmm... That machine has a Radeon HD 2600 Pro. AFAIK, that does NOT support hardware h.264 acceleration. If true, then that's a downer. Surfing without hardware h.264 acceleration is that much more sluggish when viewing a webpage with video on it.
 
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sunsetblow

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 6, 2013
171
25

mreg376

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2008
1,220
403
Brooklyn, NY
Wow this is all so helpful. Thanks so much for this. I'm gonna tool around and see what I want to do. I don't need anything too hardcore, just a secondary desktop that'll be easier to do light work on

I have the 2007 iMac 24"/6GB. Still works pretty well. I'm sitting here with the T9300 CPU and the supposedly required wireless card upgrade, but I haven't worked up the nerve yet to put on the surgical gown.
 
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