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Upgrading iMac Core 2 Duo

phoenixsan

phoenixsan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 19, 2012
1,342
2
Hello all....!

Coming here seeking advice about a HDD upgrade for this machine. Coworker bought it in a garage sale but seems to him with little HDD space (160 GB). I want to hear/know your suggestions for this particular model, regarding brands, capacity, prices and even pitfalls doing this kind of upgrade. I know for sure this computer uses Serial ATA (1.5 Gb/s). I would like to hear real world recommendations about the issues stated above.

As always, my gratitude for the help and advice.

:):apple:
 
phoenixsan said:
Hello all....!

Coming here seeking advice about a HDD upgrade for this machine. Coworker bought it in a garage sale but seems to him with little HDD space (160 GB). I want to hear/know your suggestions for this particular model, regarding brands, capacity, prices and even pitfalls doing this kind of upgrade. I know for sure this computer uses Serial ATA (1.5 Gb/s). I would like to hear real world recommendations about the issues stated above.

As always, my gratitude for the help and advice.

:):apple:
Click to expand...

Avoid disassembling it at nearly all costs. That thing is worse than a laptop to work on!
 
phoenixsan said:
Hello all....!

Coming here seeking advice about a HDD upgrade for this machine. Coworker bought it in a garage sale but seems to him with little HDD space (160 GB). I want to hear/know your suggestions for this particular model, regarding brands, capacity, prices and even pitfalls doing this kind of upgrade. I know for sure this computer uses Serial ATA (1.5 Gb/s). I would like to hear real world recommendations about the issues stated above.

As always, my gratitude for the help and advice.

:):apple:
Click to expand...

What year is it? Or better yet, what is the model identifier; iMac X,x type of number that you can obtain from the system info. Once you get that number, check the OWC's web site. They have pretty good video instructions on how to disassemble to replace the hard drives for all kinds of iMacs. I replaced the hard drive of my late 2007 iMac from its original 320Gb to a 1Tb 3.5". It was more involved than I anticipated. The hard drive lies behind the display panel, so you really have to dig deep. It is not an impossible thing to do but not that easy.
 
It is....

bingeciren said:
What year is it? Or better yet, what is the model identifier; iMac X,x type of number that you can obtain from the system info. Once you get that number, check the OWC's web site. They have pretty good video instructions on how to disassemble to replace the hard drives for all kinds of iMacs. I replaced the hard drive of my late 2007 iMac from its original 320Gb to a 1Tb 3.5". It was more involved than I anticipated. The hard drive lies behind the display panel, so you really have to dig deep. It is not an impossible thing to do but not that easy.
Click to expand...

a Late 2006 (September 2006), iMac 5,1

:):apple:
 
Those white iMacs are nearing the end of their life, as per Apple. You can upgrade their CPU to a Intell T7600 @ 2.33Ghz, put in 4GB of ram (with 3.3GB usable), and upgrade their hard drive/optical drive. They have a slotted GPU that is removable, but nothing else fits in it but the OEM GPU that comes with it.
 
According to Everymac.com, the late 2006 iMacs came with a 250Gb HD, while the early 2006 models came with a 160Gb HD, which is what you have; so you might want to check to see if it's actually an early '06 iMac.

That said, it doesn't matter much for replacing the HD. My standard advice for HD replacement is to put an SSD in its place, and then plug in external hard drives for storage if you need it.

My 17" mid-2006 MBP was getting pretty slow in late 2010, and I was considering replacing it when a friend mentioned trying out either one of the new (at the time) hybrid drives or a pure SSD. Newegg had a great sale on 120Gb SSD's for Black Friday, so I got one and did the replacement myself. I already had an external 250Gb drive for backups, and the 120Gb SSD was large enough to hold my data. The SSD, simply put, made my old laptop feel like new (again, at the time).

I've since replaced that laptop with a used 2010 iMac, but I did pull the SSD out of the MBP and put it in place of the 1Tb HD in the iMac. Fortunately I bought an SSD with a SATA II connection, which is what the iMac has. I put the 1Tb HD in an external enclosure, and so my setup now is the iMac with an internal 120Gb SSD, an external 250Gb HD for all music and photos, and a 1Tb HD for backups. Works great for me.

So, if budget allows, I highly recommend the SSD route. And the smaller (128Gb or less) are getting pretty reasonable in price, especially for the performance boost you get. And, it's a modification that can be migrated to another machine (like I did).
 
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Really.....

would like to go on the SSD route. But we are budget constrained....And I see it is a daunting task to cope. Anyway, thanks for the help and input. Seems to me as we have to stick to the original plan: Get a bigger HDD (500 GB-1TB) and put it into the iMac. Would like to hear your suggestions about it.

Thanks again for the input....:D


:):apple:
 
You can upgrade their CPU to a Intell T7600 @ 2.33Ghz,
Click to expand...

We have a 2.16GHz iMac 5,1 at home and there's a 2.33 GHz iMac 5,1 at work.

The 2.33 is faster but not by much. The difference is not enough to make the it worth the effort. I'm not even sure it is worth the price of a new Core 2 Duo T7600.

If you have a T7600 chip and like to tinker, go ahead. Otherwise save your money.


If the machine has 1GB of memory, adding RAM is worth it. Due to hardware limitations two 2GB sims will give about 3GB of useable memory.
 
Andrew*Debbie said:
We have a 2.16GHz iMac 5,1 at home and there's a 2.33 GHz iMac 5,1 at work.

The 2.33 is faster but not by much. The difference is not enough to make the it worth the effort. I'm not even sure it is worth the price of a new Core 2 Duo T7600.
Click to expand...

I know that the T7600 isn't faster by much, but I was only outlining the fastest CPU that could be put in to it.
 
toddzrx said:
According to Everymac.com, the late 2006 iMacs came with a 250Gb HD, while the early 2006 models came with a 160Gb HD, which is what you have; so you might want to check to see if it's actually an early '06 iMac.
Click to expand...

That's not true... I had an early '06 iMac and it came with a 250...

And to answer the OP, I installed a 1TB drive in mine... It wasn't that difficult.. 4 screws for the screen... The rest is pretty easy as well..
 
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Dopeyman said:
A USB external works as well...
Click to expand...

USB has a less maximum real world speed than FireWire 400, which is the only FireWire that iMac has. FireWire 400 wouldn't be very fast for much more than a temporary measure to maintain usability of the iMac as it is about one third as fast as the iMac's internal SATA I bus.
 
Intell man....

Intell said:
USB has a less maximum real world speed than FireWire 400, which is the only FireWire that iMac has. FireWire 400 wouldn't be very fast for much more than a temporary measure to maintain usability of the iMac as it is about one third as fast as the iMac's internal SATA I bus.
Click to expand...

you got the point of this upgrade....!......:D

Still wanting to hear about recommendations about HDDs brands. Anyway, a poster had said 1 TB is feasible and that bit of info give us hope. Only to locate a correct brand, based in real world experience.....


I have a bias towards WD drives. But dont want to make a decission only based in my opinion/likings....

:):apple:
 
I have a ST31000528AS in my iMac7,1. It's taken lots of abuse over the past two years and still works very well. It has nice fast speeds and hasn't shown any signs of problems yet. It does make the, what I find to be nice, typical hard drive grinding noise when in normal operation. But no spinning whine.
 
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