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off_piste

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 25, 2015
762
479
Is there an airport card that works (OS X driver support, no major workarounds) and give my iMac 802.11ac? I could really use the beam forming technology due to the iMac location in the house. I've already removed the airport card to install a SSD so switching it out wouldn't be a problem.
 
lol, sorry. Oddly worded. I mean you have to remove the airport card to get behind the main board.

Ohhh, ok. Gotcha.

I can't remember if I took out the card or just the cables when I installed the 2nd SSD...o_Oo_O I just remember taking the whole motherboard out not only to connect the SATA cables, but just to look at it in amazement. :D

A word of advice.. You don't have to use double sided tape or anything like that. You can just put it behind the optical drive. When you put it back it'll hold in place anyways.
 
Just for another train of thought. I didn't want to replace the internal card and deal with the interior of the iMac, so I got a Netgear R6250 router and placed it in bridge mode. I then connected the bridge to the iMac with an ethernet cord.

I found using the latest time capsule, that I had issues with a stable AC wireless bridge connection until I renamed the 5ghz AC band to a unique name (using Airport Utility.) After I did that, my connection has been rock solid.

Of course, I don't have all the other great features such as handoff I could have by opening up the iMac and using the above kit, but at the time the kit did not exist, and I still question my ability to open up the iMac without causing damage during the upgrade.
 
Just for another train of thought. I didn't want to replace the internal card and deal with the interior of the iMac, so I got a Netgear R6250 router and placed it in bridge mode. I then connected the bridge to the iMac with an ethernet cord.

I found using the latest time capsule, that I had issues with a stable AC wireless bridge connection until I renamed the 5ghz AC band to a unique name (using Airport Utility.) After I did that, my connection has been rock solid.

Of course, I don't have all the other great features such as handoff I could have by opening up the iMac and using the above kit, but at the time the kit did not exist, and I still question my ability to open up the iMac without causing damage during the upgrade.
It's not too bad. Just make sure you have a pair of those tweezers that angle 45 degrees at the tip for pulling the cables. I think your solution would consist of pulling the glass held on by magnets, eight screws, and four clip-in cables behind the screen. The rest is just the airport card, I believe.
 
I upgraded my iMac 12.2 2011 27 with an Airport card by OSXWifi. I wonder where it is best to position the new cables, which connect the Bluetooth on the card to the connectors on the left side of the chassis.

Over the motherboard?
Under the motherboard?
Over the Powersupply?

I have them currently running over the motherboard and tapped them to the metal cage of the CPU heatsink, but I think that there might not be sufficient space between the metal cage and the LCD...

Any advice?
 
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