MoGoMatic Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 Hey guys, So Im planning on building up my own hac pro here in the near future, but in the mean time I was wondering what kind of mods I could use in my existing 2.16 Imac Core 2 duo 20'' .. I was going to open it up and drop a 1 tb drive in it, since it doesn't have firewire800.. and it got me wondering if I could drop in a new 2.93 intel core 2 duo.. Would the pin sets be the same? would i have limitations or problems with the mother board?? Also, does anyone know if I can swap out the video card in one of these machines.. I'd like to make it a nice little stand alone system or render/encode node on my existing network.. any thoughts? thanks! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/188490-imac51-processor-upgrade/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 I don't know if it's anything like the MacBook series, but if it is then the cpu is soldered directly into the logic board. Unless you really want to get into that, then no you can't change the cpu. Edit-From what I'm seeing, they aren't directly soldered into the logic board, which means good news. However, whatever cpu you replace it with, make sure it's the same core with the same socket. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/188490-imac51-processor-upgrade/#findComment-1278209 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonestonne Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 i agree with vbetts, although you will need to keep in mind the technical difference between what you have and what you want to get. the Core 2 Duo you have is most likely 65nm, not knowing the exact model number means I can't check. the Core 2 you're looking at is 45nm, which is generally more powerful while physically being a cooler processor, however not all motherboards or logic boards support this manufacturing tech, so your logic board may not be compatible with the 45nm CPUs (it would require a firmware update beyond what apple would provide). also, the same basic principal goes with the 1TB drive, because the SATA chipset may only support certain platter densities, so it's possible that the drive will work just fine, but i wouldn't be surprised if the largest drive you can put in is 750GB (and that's not that bad, considering 2TB drives are now released, 750gb is getting pretty cheap). as for the video card, i'd say that's a trick to search google for, as long as the interfaces are the same, you should be able to swap out the cards without a problem. the one thing you need to worry about, the same as the CPU, is changes in heat. a faster graphics card will produce more heat than what you have, so you'll need to watch out for that added heat affecting performance (i've seen this first hand in my girlfriends dad's G5, his Radeon X800XT needs a new heatsink, and the graphics are starting to be affected. luckily i'm doing a fan swap soon (within the next few days) so he doesn't lose the $500 he spent on that thing.) just google the model imac you have, and then add upgrade xxxxx, where xxxxx is the CPU, the hard drive, or graphics card model you want to either upgrade to, or to see if a general compatibility list exists. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/188490-imac51-processor-upgrade/#findComment-1279107 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 It's not the motherboard/logicboard that wouldn't support it, most likely it's the efi chip. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/188490-imac51-processor-upgrade/#findComment-1279158 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoGoMatic Posted September 24, 2009 Author Share Posted September 24, 2009 i agree with vbetts, although you will need to keep in mind the technical difference between what you have and what you want to get. the Core 2 Duo you have is most likely 65nm, not knowing the exact model number means I can't check. the Core 2 you're looking at is 45nm, which is generally more powerful while physically being a cooler processor, however not all motherboards or logic boards support this manufacturing tech, so your logic board may not be compatible with the 45nm CPUs (it would require a firmware update beyond what apple would provide). also, the same basic principal goes with the 1TB drive, because the SATA chipset may only support certain platter densities, so it's possible that the drive will work just fine, but i wouldn't be surprised if the largest drive you can put in is 750GB (and that's not that bad, considering 2TB drives are now released, 750gb is getting pretty cheap). as for the video card, i'd say that's a trick to search google for, as long as the interfaces are the same, you should be able to swap out the cards without a problem. the one thing you need to worry about, the same as the CPU, is changes in heat. a faster graphics card will produce more heat than what you have, so you'll need to watch out for that added heat affecting performance (i've seen this first hand in my girlfriends dad's G5, his Radeon X800XT needs a new heatsink, and the graphics are starting to be affected. luckily i'm doing a fan swap soon (within the next few days) so he doesn't lose the $500 he spent on that thing.) just google the model imac you have, and then add upgrade xxxxx, where xxxxx is the CPU, the hard drive, or graphics card model you want to either upgrade to, or to see if a general compatibility list exists. -- Thanks for the info, i really appreciate it. About the firmware update.. is that something maybe the manufacturer of the chip or logic board would provide? Or is that something that will have to be generated on its own? From what I'm seeing the 2.93 core 2 duo (T9800) is the same pin set/size as the 2.16 core 2 duo (T7400) so i feel like it will drop right in, however that firmware update has me wondering what to do.. As for the hard drive/graphics card... is there a way i can figure out how high the SATA capacity is on this machine? I feel like when they released this model Imac you could get an optional 1TB drive in it, but I dont rememeber it was late 06 when I got it.. I can settle with a 750gb if i had too. Just want to get all the info and everything lined up before I crack into it. Thanks again for all of your help and advice. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/188490-imac51-processor-upgrade/#findComment-1279170 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonestonne Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 Well, before Core i7, Intel everything was based on the motherboard support. the BIOS would support up to a specific processor based on the memory controller. With i7, the memory controller is now integrated on the CPU die, so that's no longer an issue. As for the iMac compatibility, after googling a little, I found that you can in fact upgrade your HDD to 1TB, if you can find a specific model, the one I find listed is the Western Digital Caviar Black series, those are what Apple will put in themselves, but do be aware of heat issues (which was also mentioned). http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9855328 As for the CPU, I can only find mention of 2.0 and 2.16ghz models. I can't find mention of the bus speeds, but I'm guessing it's 800mhz. The E4700 may be the fastest available CPU upgrade, but that's a question you may want to raise at the apple discussion board for a more definitive answer. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/188490-imac51-processor-upgrade/#findComment-1279489 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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