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Mid 2010 27" iMac i3

A

Andythed

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 13, 2011
54
1
Yo Macrumours

I have the above imac which I love. However it is sadly getting slow.

Thinking of firstly upgrading the 4gb ram with and extra 8gb.

Also thinking of installing an SSD later down the line. I have found crucial 500GB ones for circa £170 and a apple reseller have said that they can fit for £90.

Because of the beautiful display and casing I want to prolong the computers life for as long as possible (coming up to 4 years ownership). I am not a heaving user.

Realisticly, is this going to make much difference on the performance and life span of the computer?


I absolutely adore it but do not want to spend lots of money if it is not going to make much of a difference because I can not upgrade the processor etc.

Starting the system up and applications etc is what really annoys me and seems to take more time than it should.

Best regards,
Andy
 
I put 16GB of RAM in my 2010 27" iMac when I first bought it. Then about 2 years ago I put a Samsung 840 SSD in it and have been very pleased with it. If you do end up putting an SSD into it, you'll need to solve the HDD fan issue, which I did here.

Having the added RAM and SSD makes this computer feel far more future proof than when it was new.
 
I can tell you with more RAM and an SSD you'll make that Mac much faster than it currently is. While the RAM and SSD are quite affordable these days, the SSD upgrade isn't the easiest procedure (the glass and display have to come out, and then you run the risk of dust getting caught in the air gap between glass panel and LCD). If you're not feeling up to it, pay a service provider.
 
Thank you both,

SandboxGeneral - the apple reseller said they would fit the ssd for me if it was compatible. I thought very reasonable at £90 - not something I would want to try.

Is the Samsung one the best type to use?

Would they know about the fan issue and rectify it when they do the install?

Best regards,
Andy
 
Andythed said:
Thank you both,

SandboxGeneral - the apple reseller said they would fit the ssd for me if it was compatible. I thought very reasonable at £90 - not something I would want to try.

Is the Samsung one the best type to use?

Would they know about the fan issue and rectify it when they do the install?

Best regards,
Andy
Click to expand...

I've always liked the Samsung SSD's and have them in almost all of my computers. But there are other good ones out there too.

I don't know if they would know about the fan issue, but if you're having them do the work, I would brief them on it and maybe point them to my link about it so they can do something about it before putting it back together and sending you home with a fan that will run at full RPM's all the time.

After the SSD install you'll need to install a third-party TRIM enabler as well.
 
An SSD will make an enormous difference.

While you are in there, you can drop in faster processor as well. The logic board will take a quad core i7. (As opposed to the 2010 21.5", which can only be upgraded to a dual core i5.) If you are marginally handy, swapping the processor takes about 30 minutes and doesn't require any additional tools over swapping the hard drive.
 
nrubenstein said:
An SSD will make an enormous difference.

While you are in there, you can drop in faster processor as well. The logic board will take a quad core i7. (As opposed to the 2010 21.5", which can only be upgraded to a dual core i5.) If you are marginally handy, swapping the processor takes about 30 minutes and doesn't require any additional tools over swapping the hard drive.
Click to expand...

No kidding? I didn't know you could swap the CPU's in these. It doesn't matter for me because I already have the quad-core i7 in mine.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
No kidding? I didn't know you could swap the CPU's in these. It doesn't matter for me because I already have the quad-core i7 in mine.
Click to expand...

Within certain limitations, yes. It's best to stick either to processors that *were* sold by Apple, or processors with the same TDP as those sold by Apple. This is believed to be the limitation in the 21.5" 2010 - only the dual core i5 has a comparable TDP to the i3, and since it was never sold with anything better, Apple never bothered to allow for more.

A little research on the exact processor to choose is critical, but unlike the crap 2009 C2D machines, you get options with an i3. And I can verify this from personal experience.
 
nrubenstein said:
Within certain limitations, yes. It's best to stick either to processors that *were* sold by Apple, or processors with the same TDP as those sold by Apple. This is believed to be the limitation in the 21.5" 2010 - only the dual core i5 has a comparable TDP to the i3, and since it was never sold with anything better, Apple never bothered to allow for more.

A little research on the exact processor to choose is critical, but unlike the crap 2009 C2D machines, you get options with an i3. And I can verify this from personal experience.
Click to expand...

I also have one of those crap 2009 C2D's as well! It's still running fine though.
 
nrubenstein said:
Yeah, I've got one shoved in the garage. For $200 getting liquidated out of the office, I couldn't say no. As long as the loads are light, it runs *fine*. But they get overwhelmed very easily and have for years.
Click to expand...

I only use it for light GarageBand recordings. Even at that, it still has the original HDD and that's where it suffers the most.
 
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