Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What CAN I do to my iMac 24"?

J

jaimiepeeters

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2011
5
0
Hey guys

Currently I own an imac7.1 (mid 2007) 2,4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
with 4 Gig memory, an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB videocard
running Lion.

Sometimes I get a bit frustrated with Photoshop and Lightroom being a tad slow. Especially using Photoshop adding filters and using a bunch of layers.

I was wondering if somebody could tell me what I could do to my iMac to make it a bit faster/stronger.

Somewhere I read that although 4Gig ram is the max, 6 Gig is what could be achieved by using some brand of memory?

Also, will SSD drives give me some extra speed and power, noticable.
Perhaps I could even change my processor? Is that possible?

Anything that is possible and worthy, please advise me.

:)
 
It sounds like it may be time to upgrade your iMac. You can't change the CPU, and while an SSD would help for some things, more RAM and a better CPU would certainly be beneficial for PS and Lightroom. 6GB will work, and that would be an easier, cheaper upgrade that could help.
 
alust2013 said:
It sounds like it may be time to upgrade your iMac. You can't change the CPU, and while an SSD would help for some things, more RAM and a better CPU would certainly be beneficial for PS and Lightroom
Click to expand...

Its a long stretch though from this iMac to the 27" 2011 model.. financially
Anything I can do in the meantime that is noticeable ?
 
jaimiepeeters said:
Its a long stretch though from this iMac to the 27" 2011 model.. financially
Anything I can do in the meantime that is noticeable ?
Click to expand...

I looked it up and you can do the 6GB RAM, which is just replacing one of your 2GB modules with a 4GB module, and is fairly inexpensive. More RAM is pretty much always a better thing with image processing and should help.
 
alust2013 said:
I looked it up and you can do the 6GB RAM, which is just replacing one of your 2GB modules with a 4GB module, and is fairly inexpensive. More RAM is pretty much always a better thing with image processing and should help.
Click to expand...

ah that would help a bit for the time being. That's noticeable right? Its upgrading ram by 50%..

what happens if you replace both 2Gbs for 2 4Gbs?
 
alust2013 said:
It should be. The chipset won't recognize more than 6GB, so if you do 2x4GB it just won't boot.
Click to expand...

Ok thats step 1 that i'm doing tomorrow.

Anything else.. SSD not worth the trouble or together with the extra 2Gram yes?
 
jaimiepeeters said:
Only the SSD or Ram to 6Gb also possible?
Perhaps you could tell me which SSD drive I could get (I live in Amsterdam).
Click to expand...

I have the same thing as you. You can replace the drive with a faster one. Instructions are out on the Internet for how to do it. You need a small Torx screwdriver set and a suction cup to remove the glass over the screen. You remove the glass, remove the bezel, remove the screen, and there's the hard drive. I replaced my dying 340 GB with a faster 1.5 TB, and my only problem is the noise level went up slightly.

If you choose to replace with an SSD, you need to find one with a 3.5" form factor. Otherwise you need to find a way to secure it in the slot meant for a 3.5" hard drive, since they usually come in a 2.5" (laptop-size) form factor. Something like this should work:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227512

Final hint, do a Time Machine backup before you do this. After installing the new hard drive, put in the OS X DVD to install it, and at the end of the install it will ask you if you have a time machine backup to restore the users and their data, and the applications too if you want. It worked flawlessly for me.
 
I wouldn't bother with an SSD, and even adding more ram is questionable, as filters generally make use of CPU power, not hard drive speed or RAM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back