Upgrade mid 2007 iMac, worth it?

[gertruded]

Just ran across this interesting thread. I have just ordered an SSD for my mid 2007 20" iMac and did not realize other mods are possible.

Yes it is great machine, but we just lost the original HD. Thanks for the postings.

 

[nandor690]

Glad to know everything is working, besides the cosmetic "About this Mac" problem.
But it seems benchmark wise you are going down 20% on the multi-core performance...
Fortunately it feels better, probably because it is a Penryn with SSE4.1, 45nm Die topping at 1.250V (instead of 65nm and 1.375V) and has 6MB Cache...

I tried myself the AppleSysteminfo.strings trick, but it did not work out. Even after restarting... I think when the iMac finds a match for the CPU it does not take into account the following keys/strings... (I used TextWrangler to edit them)...

<key>SpeedAndTypeFormat</key>
<string>%1$d x %2$@</string>
<key>UnknownCPUKind</key>
<string>Unknown</string>

What about the System Report CPU and FSB speeds?

I was also trying to figure out how to edit/update the EFI with rEFIt... But I think I am not capable of.
If there existed any Firmware Update for the iMac 8,1, we might have found someone with the expertise to update it into the 7,1. Mostly in the same way people update their iMac 4,1 to 5,1 in order to install a Core 2 Duo. I think there is a similar update for the Mac Pro, exactly from 4,1 to 5,1 as well... Go figure...!!!

Regarding the Wireless connections... Did you test the old 0x88 Card on Sierra? What about the original BT 2.0?

Cheers!

I'm going to look into a few ways to edit the about this mac info this weekend.
Yeah even with going down 20% it honestly feels more smooth than before. As you stated, those are probably some reasons why it does. There must be something with the X7900 that causes some kind of bottle neck.
Also, I'll be testing out the old wifi and Bluetooth cards tmrw.
I'll post back on my results then.

 

[nandor690]

Glad to know everything is working, besides the cosmetic "About this Mac" problem.
But it seems benchmark wise you are going down 20% on the multi-core performance...
Fortunately it feels better, probably because it is a Penryn with SSE4.1, 45nm Die topping at 1.250V (instead of 65nm and 1.375V) and has 6MB Cache...

I tried myself the AppleSysteminfo.strings trick, but it did not work out. Even after restarting... I think when the iMac finds a match for the CPU it does not take into account the following keys/strings... (I used TextWrangler to edit them)...

<key>SpeedAndTypeFormat</key>
<string>%1$d x %2$@</string>
<key>UnknownCPUKind</key>
<string>Unknown</string>

What about the System Report CPU and FSB speeds?

I was also trying to figure out how to edit/update the EFI with rEFIt... But I think I am not capable of.
If there existed any Firmware Update for the iMac 8,1, we might have found someone with the expertise to update it into the 7,1. Mostly in the same way people update their iMac 4,1 to 5,1 in order to install a Core 2 Duo. I think there is a similar update for the Mac Pro, exactly from 4,1 to 5,1 as well... Go figure...!!!

Regarding the Wireless connections... Did you test the old 0x88 Card on Sierra? What about the original BT 2.0?

Cheers!

I installed some fakesmc.kext sensors on my iMac and was actually able to see the frequency of the cpu. and I can confirm that at idle the T9300 runs at 1.19GHz and at full throttle it runs at 2.39GHz.


The bluetooth card model number A1115 that was the original card that came with the 2007 20" iMac does get recognized


I can also confirm the (0X88) BCM94321MC is NOT recognized

I checked all this while being on macOS Sierra 10.12.3 beta 4(16D30a)

 

[Neo_Hunt]

I installed some fakesmc.kext sensors on my iMac and was actually able to see the frequency of the cpu. and I can confirm that at idle the T9300 runs at 1.19GHz and at full throttle it runs at 2.39GHz.

I can also confirm the (0X88) BCM94321MC is NOT recognized

Thanks a bunch nandor! So we need at least the BCM94322 as you've already said...
Interestingly your T9300 does not seem to top at the nominal 2.5GHz... Instead of 12.5x, it seems to be locked at 12x multiplier.
[doublepost=1484965176][/doublepost]

Just ran across this interesting thread. I have just ordered an SSD for my mid 2007 20" iMac and did not realize other mods are possible.

Yes it is great machine, but we just lost the original HD. Thanks for the postings.

You won't regret...!!!

 

[nandor690]

Thanks a bunch nandor! So we need at least the BCM94322 as you've already said...
Interestingly your T9300 does not seem to top at the nominal 2.5GHz... Instead of 12.5x, it seems to be locked at 12x multiplier.

If you look at the cpu in istat menus it isn't completely maxed out. So I may have misspoke when I said full throttle

 

[Neo_Hunt]

I was looking into the Merom and Penryn CPUs at cpu-world.com and ended up on the X7900 page where SSE4.1 is strangely listed as one of its features, more precisely, on the s-Spec QZDX Engineering Sample page (http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/QZ/QZDX.html).

That was the Core 2 Duo Extreme (Merom XE) 2.8GHz, Stepping G0 and CPUID 06FBh.
Different to the Production Models SLA33 (Stepping E1 CPUID 06FAh) and SLAF4 (Stepping G0 as well, unknown CPUID).

Would anyone have more info on that? Would that be possible? Or is it probably just a typo?
Being an Engineering/Qualification Sample, created after the launch of the Penryn and its SSE4.1, who knows...

 

[Zeke D]

I have a question about the optical drive...
I've already upgraded my 24" to a 240GB SSD, but I don't want to divide it up for Windows. I occasionally need Windows, and my optical drive is junk. I know I can replace the optical with a 2.5" adapter. I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time, since the CPU fan is always going full speed, and the light sensor in the front is separated from the PCB.

It's a 24" with a 2.4ghz C2D, 4gb ram, the 256mb gpu, 240gb SSD, and a dead ODD.

 

[nandor690]

I have a question about the optical drive...
I've already upgraded my 24" to a 240GB SSD, but I don't want to divide it up for Windows. I occasionally need Windows, and my optical drive is junk. I know I can replace the optical with a 2.5" adapter. I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time, since the CPU fan is always going full speed, and the light sensor in the front is separated from the PCB.

It's a 24" with a 2.4ghz C2D, 4gb ram, the 256mb gpu, 240gb SSD, and a dead ODD.

I think it's worth it. Your fan runs at high speed because either a sensor isn't connected right or bad. You can use https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23137/fan-control
To control the fans and monitor the temps.

What light sensor is seperared?
[doublepost=1485050462][/doublepost]

I have a question about the optical drive...
I've already upgraded my 24" to a 240GB SSD, but I don't want to divide it up for Windows. I occasionally need Windows, and my optical drive is junk. I know I can replace the optical with a 2.5" adapter. I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time, since the CPU fan is always going full speed, and the light sensor in the front is separated from the PCB.

It's a 24" with a 2.4ghz C2D, 4gb ram, the 256mb gpu, 240gb SSD, and a dead ODD.

It looks like in the pic that the hard drive sensor isn't touching the hard drive and I can't see where the optical drive temp sensor is

 

[nandor690]

I think it's worth it. Your fan runs at high speed because either a sensor isn't connected right or bad. You can use https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23137/fan-control
To control the fans and monitor the temps.

What light sensor is seperared?
[doublepost=1485050462][/doublepost]
It looks like in the pic that the hard drive sensor isn't touching the hard drive and I can't see where the optical drive temp sensor is

looking at that 24". looks like the only difference is the size of the speakers to take up the extra room. Wonder if I could find one that needed a logic board and just stuff my 20" internals in it

 

[Zeke D]

Yeah, I use macfancontrol to set the CPU fan to the heatsink temperature.

The sensor on the PCB on the heatsink to the left of the wireless card. I think I damaged it when I was connecting the microphone - I'm pretty sure it happened when I was putting the panel back on.

The ODD temp sensor is in a plastic doo-dad under the optical drive. I just put the HDD sensor in the same general area, because the SSDs don't really get hot.

I think it's worth it. Your fan runs at high speed because either a sensor isn't connected right or bad. You can use https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23137/fan-control
To control the fans and monitor the temps.

What light sensor is seperared?
[doublepost=1485050462][/doublepost]
It looks like in the pic that the hard drive sensor isn't touching the hard drive and I can't see where the optical drive temp sensor is

[doublepost=1485090838][/doublepost]I have a 20" also. It has the same issue with the CPU fan going full blast. I've only had it open once, to upgrade the HDD to a larger one. I know that the PSU is physically a different shape, but I never took any photos.

looking at that 24". looks like the only difference is the size of the speakers to take up the extra room. Wonder if I could find one that needed a logic board and just stuff my 20" internals in it

 

[Neo_Hunt]

I was looking into the Merom and Penryn CPUs at cpu-world.com and ended up on the X7900 page where SSE4.1 is strangely listed as one of its features, more precisely, on the s-Spec QZDX Engineering Sample page (http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/QZ/QZDX.html).

That was the Core 2 Duo Extreme (Merom XE) 2.8GHz, Stepping G0 and CPUID 06FBh.
Different to the Production Models SLA33 (Stepping E1 CPUID 06FAh) and SLAF4 (Stepping G0 as well, unknown CPUID).

Would anyone have more info on that? Would that be possible? Or is it probably just a typo?
Being an Engineering/Qualification Sample, created after the launch of the Penryn and its SSE4.1, who knows...

Please disregard my own reply...! Just checked some units manufacturing date... All of them produced before the launch of the iMac 7,1 and the Penryn's presentation... Little to no chance of having SSE4.1 on any Merom's Engineering Sample.

It would be nice though for someone to be able to "update" ours iMac's EFI with Intel 800MHz Socket P Penny's CPU list...

 

[nandor690]

Yeah, I use macfancontrol to set the CPU fan to the heatsink temperature.

The sensor on the PCB on the heatsink to the left of the wireless card. I think I damaged it when I was connecting the microphone - I'm pretty sure it happened when I was putting the panel back on.

The ODD temp sensor is in a plastic doo-dad under the optical drive. I just put the HDD sensor in the same general area, because the SSDs don't really get hot.


[doublepost=1485090838][/doublepost]I have a 20" also. It has the same issue with the CPU fan going full blast. I've only had it open once, to upgrade the HDD to a larger one. I know that the PSU is physically a different shape, but I never took any photos.

I'm pretty sure it's because the senor for the hard drive isn't actually touching it. That's why your fan is full blast
[doublepost=1485103884][/doublepost]

Please disregard my own reply...! Just checked some units manufacturing date... All of them produced before the launch of the iMac 7,1 and the Penryn's presentation... Little to no chance of having SSE on any Merom's Engineering Sample.

It would be nice though for someone to be able to "update" our iMac's EFI with Intel 800MHz Socket P Penny's CPU list...

Yes it would. I wonder how hard it is to edit these files

 

[Neo_Hunt]

Yes it would. I wonder how hard it is to edit these files

I do think it is rather difficult indeed. There is an user named MacEFIRom I found on netkas.org's forum who created the Firmware Update Tool for both the Mac Pro and iMac to go from 4,1 to 5,1. On the latter case, mostly in order to install the new Core2Duo and more than 2GB RAM. Probably he found it was simpler to create this tool than to "include" somehow the new Core2Duo information on the original EFI. He's kind of an Apple Genius though...

In our iMac 7,1 case, if such an update is feasible, it would probably come from the 2009 iMac 9,1, since I have yet to find the EFI file for the 8,1 (no update at apple). But the iMac 4,1 and 5,1 seem to have much more commonality than the 7,1 and 8,1/9,1. The FSB is different and, in the case of 9,1, its Graphics Card as well.

By curiosity, which Bus Speed do you get on your System Report, under Hardware? It should read 800Mhz...

 

[ch02ce]

Already had 6gb of ram and an SSD, but you've convinced me to give this project a go. Ordered all the parts this morning. Is it 'worth it'? Who knows, but for ~$50 it is going to be fun.

 

[nandor690]

I do think it is rather difficult indeed. There is an user named MacEFIRom I found on netkas.org's forum who created the Firmware Update Tool for both the Mac Pro and iMac to go from 4,1 to 5,1. On the latter case, mostly in order to install the new Core2Duo and more than 2GB RAM. Probably he found it was simpler to create this tool than to "include" somehow the new Core2Duo information on the original EFI. He's kind of an Apple Genius though...

In our iMac 7,1 case, if such an update is feasible, it would probably come from the 2009 iMac 9,1, since I have yet to find the EFI file for the 8,1 (no update at apple). But the iMac 4,1 and 5,1 seem to have much more commonality than the 7,1 and 8,1/9,1. The FSB is different and, in the case of 9,1, its Graphics Card as well.

By curiosity, which Bus Speed do you get on your System Report, under Hardware? It should read 800Mhz...

Sorry I responded so late, I didn't see the notification. It shows 400 MHz.

Now when I use clover and boot it with a smbios for a late 2013 iMac, it shows almost all the correct info.
I was booting like this to get Night Shift to work. I found a way to edit the hex number in CoreBrightness from a late 2013 iMac to where it looks for a 2007 iMac and newer to enable Night Shift. So I don't have to use Clover anymore.

 

[Rikiki]

Hi all and thanks. I have found this thread by chance and like it a lot!!

I have an iMac mid 2007 24 inch. My HD crashed like 5 years ago and was replaced for a 2TB new one.

I also changed myself !!! the Ram and now have 2X 2GB.

I guess that my question is already answered so I may try to change the CPU but I am not very good with computers so I may need some help.

I found the Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 2.60GHz 6M 800MHz SLAYX CPU Dual-Core Processor for 29£ on ebay uk and the 4GB Ram (to make it 6GB) for 39,9£ also on ebay uk.

So my question now is: Is it easy to replace it by myself, considering my lack of expertise??? I mean the CPU??
Some help with that???

Thanks a lot to spend your time telling about your experience, so helping others!!!

 

[Neo_Hunt]

Sorry I responded so late, I didn't see the notification. It shows 400 MHz.

Now when I use clover and boot it with a smbios for a late 2013 iMac, it shows almost all the correct info.
I was booting like this to get Night Shift to work. I found a way to edit the hex number in CoreBrightness from a late 2013 iMac to where it looks for a 2007 iMac and newer to enable Night Shift. So I don't have to use Clover anymore.

Hey nandor... Sorry for the late re-reply as well. Glad to know things are improving. It would be nicer to still be able to read iMac (Mid 2007) in About this Mac thought...

Was thinking of a - perhaps - more challenging upgrade, as per netkas.org discussions... Our ATI MXM II Card!

I ended up replaying 2007's Crysis to test my new WineSkin setup, and it worked quite well.
I used a mix of Mid to High settings (mostly Medium though) and a rather low resolution of 1024x640.
I started with 1280x800, but during crowded scenes it struggles a lot... at least for my Merom 2.4GHz/ATI HD2600.

Reading some forums I realized this kind of game is much more GPU than CPU constrained.
There are a lot of MXM 3.0 (Types A/B) Cards out there, but not too many MXM II (Our format)
Even the 2008's 24" NVidia 8800GS is on a special MXM HE/IV connector format, with an additional power tab on the card.

Most importantly, besides physical fitting, we'd need to flash a compatible Apple EFI. Tried to figure out how to at netkas.org, but it seems quite complicated (to me), more over because booting the old/original card BIOS renders no image on the iMac's display... Not to mention it seems Apple MXM's EFI seems to be 1Mbit versus the original BIOS' 512kbit. And many times others OEMs put normal DDR2/DDR3 in place of the more expensive GDDR3 commonly used by Apple and its old iMacs, which could possibly cause timing incompatibilities...

netkas.org link:
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=i3luoss8vqs68dorstlk2j2c5lg0rn8d&topic=490.0

Anyways, last week I found at eBay what seemed to be the most advanced MXM II card, an ATI (Mobility) Radeon HD 4670 with 512 GDDR3, I think originally from MSI (that's why I am assuming its GDDR3 and not DDR2/3). It was still for sale from Spain, but I think it was already sold. There is also another sold listing from Germany. Its a 1GB card, but I don't know whether its DDR2, DDR3 or else:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...+MXM+II.TRS0&_nkw=ATI+HD+4670+MXM+II&_sacat=0

According to Wikipedia, the HD 4670 has 400+ GFLOPS, which would be 3 to 8 times more powerful than ours HD 2600 Pro / 2400 XT (~150 and 50 GFLOPS respectively). Not only that, but the Late 2009 and Mid 2010 iMacs had exactly this chip (probably on a more advanced MXM format and with 256MB GDDR3 only). So there exists an original Apple EFI for this Chip!

I suppose the 256MB to 512MB Memory difference is no big deal. The problem is confirming the original EFI would work on a different MXM format. If the EFI does not fit the original BIOS CHIP, an original Apple EFI chip could be soldered instead...

Anyone here thinks we have any chance? Cheers!

 

[nandor690]

Hey nandor... Sorry for the late re-reply as well. Glad to know things are improving. It would be nicer to still be able to read iMac (Mid 2007) in About this Mac thought...

Was thinking of a - perhaps - more challenging upgrade, as per netkas.org discussions... Our ATI MXM II Card!

I ended up replaying 2007's Crysis to test my new WineSkin setup, and it worked quite well.
I use a mix of Mid to High settings (mostly Medium though) and a rather low resolution of 1024x640.
I started with 1280x800, but during crowded scenes it struggles a lot... at least for my Merom 2.4GHz / ATI HD2600.

Reading some forums I realized this kind of game is much more GPU than CPU constrained.
There are a lot of MXM 3.0 (Types A/B) Cards out there, but not too many MXM II (Our format)
Even the 2008's 24" NVidia 8800GS is on a special MXM HE/IV connector format, with an additional power tab on the card.

And, besides physical fitting, we need most importantly to flash a compatible Apple EFI. Tried to figure out how at netkas.org, but it seems quite complicated (to me), more over because booting with the old/original card BIOS renders no image on the iMac's monitor... Not to mention it seems Apple MXM's EFI seems to be 1Mbit versus the original BIOS' 512kbit. And many times others OEMs put normal DDR2/DDR3 in place of the more expensive GDDR3 commonly used by Apple and its old iMacs, which could cause timing incompatibilities...

netkas.org link:
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=i3luoss8vqs68dorstlk2j2c5lg0rn8d&topic=490.0

Anyways, last week I found at eBay what seems to be the most advanced MXM II card, an ATI (Mobility) Radeon HD 4670 with 512 GDDR3, I think originally from MSI (that's why I am assuming its GDDR3 and not DDR2/3). It was still for sale from Spain, but I think it was already sold. There is also another sold listing from Germany. Its a 1GB card, but I don't know whether its DDR2, DDR3 or else:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...+MXM+II.TRS0&_nkw=ATI+HD+4670+MXM+II&_sacat=0

According to Wikipedia, the HD 4670 has 400+ GFLOPS, which would be 3 to 8 times more powerful than ours HD 2600 Pro / 2400 XT (~150 and 50 GFLOPS respectively). Not only that, but the Late 2009 and Mid 2010 iMacs had exactly this chip (probably on a more advanced MXM format and with 256MB GDDR3 only). So there exists an original Apple EFI for this Chip!

I suppose the 256MB to 512MB Memory difference is no big deal. The problem is confirming the original EFI would work on a different MXM format. If the EFI does not fit the original BIOS CHIP, an original Apple EFI chip could be soldered instead...

Anyone here thinks we have any chance? Cheers!

Very interesting! I will look at this more this coming week and let you know if I can figure anything out

Also, I was able to figure out how to get Night Shift working natively on our 2007 iMacs without having to use clover or smbios or anything like that. You can find the instructions at the bottom of my post here.

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View...T9300+for+macOS+Sierra+install+Is+it+worth+it

If you try it out let me know how it goes!!!!

Ill be looking into what you talked about more and let you know what I find

 

[Intell]

The X9000 is not a good choice for a CPU upgrade. It runs with a reduced clock rate in 2007 iMacs and benchmarks about half of what a T9500 does. It is not required to flash the iMac5,1 firmware on to an iMac4,1 for Core2Duo support. It is only needed to be able to access more memory. An EFI update for the iMac8,1 is not needed to attempt to reverse engineer it for the 7,1. The MacMini2,1 firmware was extracted off of a 2007 Mac Mini and successfully tweaked and applied to a 2006 MacMini1,1. Even then, I don't believe it's possible to flash 8,1 firmware onto a 7,1. They have a slightly different chipset. At most you could possibly extract the CPU microcode for injection into the 7,1 firmware. The 9,1 firmware will not work as those machines use an Nvidia chipset.

 

[Neo_Hunt]

Very interesting! I will look at this more this coming week and let you know if I can figure anything out

Also, I was able to figure out how to get Night Shift working natively on our 2007 iMacs without having to use clover or smbios or anything like that. You can find the instructions at the bottom of my post here.

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View...T9300+for+macOS+Sierra+install+Is+it+worth+it

If you try it out let me know how it goes!!!!

Ill be looking into what you talked about more and let you know what I find

Cool nandor!
The problem is I can't test Sierra yet... I'm still running my old Merom!
But I've been using f.lux since forever though...

The X9000 is not a good choice for a CPU upgrade. It runs with a reduced clock rate in 2007 iMacs and benchmarks about half of what a T9500 does. It is not required to flash the iMac5,1 firmware on to an iMac4,1 for Core2Duo support. It is only needed to be able to access more memory. An EFI update for the iMac8,1 is not needed to attempt to reverse engineer it for the 7,1. The MacMini2,1 firmware was extracted off of a 2007 Mac Mini and successfully tweaked and applied to a 2006 MacMini1,1. Even then, I don't believe it's possible to flash 8,1 firmware onto a 7,1. They have a slightly different chipset. At most you could possibly extract the CPU microcode for injection into the 7,1 firmware. The 9,1 firmware will not work as those machines use an Nvidia chipset.

Many thanks for all the info Intell...
Indeed, my first choice, if possible, would be to simply inject the new CPU Microcodes into the 7,1 firmware...!
It would be perfect to get the Microcodes for the T9300, T9500 and X9000 (Besides possibly T6x00 and T8x00).

 

[ch02ce]

After weeks of waiting for all the parts to arrive, I am happy to say I have everything up and running! Installed the T9300 and new wifi card, then upgraded to Sierra. I had to install the volume control patch for the 2008 iMac in the Sierra Patcher Tool as my audio was stuttering and uncontrollable, but other than that, running great. My Geekbench scores improved a bit by 100 or so points in the switch from the 2.4ghz Merom to the 2.5ghz Penryn, but the best part is the temperatures - way lower now and it seems to have stopped the ghosting I would get on the screen as the system got warm with the old CPU. Thanks for the tips Nandor!

 

[Thomas Reilly]

Can anyone provide me with approximate shipping times between China and the U.S. I'm on the East coast - Maryland.

 

[gotcoding24]

Cool nandor!
The problem is I can't test Sierra yet... I'm still running my old Merom!
But I've been using f.lux since forever though...



Many thanks for all the info Intell...
Indeed, my first choice, if possible, would be to simply inject the new CPU Microcodes into the 7,1 firmware...!
It would be perfect to get the Microcodes for the T9300, T9500 and X9000 (Besides possibly T6x00 and T8x00).

Hi there, I understand that this topic is fairly old but I just wanted to know where you guys have gotten the single 4GB ram stick. The cheapest I have found is on eBay for $47. Thanks!
[doublepost=1500775022][/doublepost]

 

[elf69]

Bought my 4gb stick from china cost me £30 inc shipping but last time I looked it was a bit more around £35 but this was months ago I last looked

 

[nandor690]

Hi there, I understand that this topic is fairly old but I just wanted to know where you guys have gotten the single 4GB ram stick. The cheapest I have found is on eBay for $47. Thanks!
[doublepost=1500775022][/doublepost]

That’s as bout as cheap as you with find it