Upgrading the 2007 iMac - is it worth it?
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- My Patreon Link: / curtisgross
The 2007 iMac has some life left in it. In this video I am going to compare an upgraded 2007 iMac with a t9300, High Sierra, SSD, 3gb of Ram vs a stock 2007 iMac with t7700, El Capitan, HDD, 3gb Ram.
Overall, the 2007 iMac, once upgraded, gives you access to a newer version of MacOS that should enable chrome, facetime, time machine, basic browsing and more, at a nice low price.
Curtis I have the exact iMac you reviewed. I had already installed an SSD & upgraded the RAM to max about 4 years ago. It is used as my iTunes library for my home network and browsing the web - that is it. I did find that I did find those 2 upgrades made my machine much faster to start up. (about 23 seconds from pushing the button to ready to go) My last question was whether or not to upgrade the GPU. Thanks to this video I see there is not a real upside to it I am running El Capitan and find it works fine. Thank you very much for taking time to make this video. It has helped me a great deal.
Glad to hear! I am also going to be doing a similar upgrade to my 2nd 2007 imac, going to upgrade the CPU and record that whole process to see how much of a difference it makes. I think that is the only upgrade I would recommend if you have the SSD and RAM already!
Oh the ssd makes a hell of a difference. I have a 2008 iMac and it’s slow af. Like really slow. I need to wait around 5 minutes From boot up to actually be able to use it. The other day I tested an iMac with an ssd and it’s day and night. Add more stuff to them and you’ll notice the difference. I’m thinking of doing the upgrade soon.
Fun fact: if you install windows 10 first versions it will run great and still have a updated machine for some more years
i cloned the HDD to an SSD usb drive and reset startsequence to boot from USB: much faster booting. loading and opening times without having to open up the imac, even with just USB 2 standard
Funny I just picked one of these up last week. Looking forward to taking a poke at it.
Eddie Slabb fairly easy to work on them, hardest part is getting the screen glass out
@@messing-with-computers not sure if I'm going to go to all the trouble of switching up a hard drive after all that's quite a bit of surgery Ram ain't no problem
I have a 24" Mid 2007 iMac with OWC upgraded 6GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, runs great but caps out at El Capitan. Bought it refurbished in 2008 from apple for $1,200. Its been an awesome machine so I would like to keep it going. My optical drive has recently begun grinding and clicking with every power cycle so I have been trying to figure out if it is worth fixing. After watching this video and several others I believe it is. While I am under the hood upgrading the optical drive I can install a T9500 CPU and hopefully get a few more years out it. I also have a 2020 MacBook Pro so I anticipate that I will eventually transition everything over to it, but not sure how to handle the memory discrepancy between the two. Going from 1TB iMac to 256MB MacBook; any suggestions on that?
Went through this myself. An external drive is the cheapest/easiest fix.
Human malware! Lol, love it.
Great videos.
Im upgrading my 2011 imac, old hard drive burned out, im gettin an Hdd seagate, Timetec 16gb kit but i was wondering...im interested in mining bitcoin, low level , would you recommend upgrading the gpu or cpu or both?
And Any recommendations?
Thanks a lot!
VinnyLogz bitcoin mining on a Mac? You could probably mine an “alt coin” but if you want to do any sort of serious mining you want to grab a Radeon 5700 and build a Linux or windows mining machine.
Curtis Gross gotcha, yea i figured switching to a non mac would be recommended.
Im a novice to say the least when it comes to mining. Can you suggest any mining equipment for a beginner?
VinnyLogz - i use my macs for daily work or browsing. I built a few cheap miners based on older amd platforms or intel platforms. You are looking for the lowest power, cheapest cpu - with a nice motherboard with as many pcie slots possible. I have a old fm2+ motherboard (990fx asrock extreme I think) and the cheapest dual core I could find. To play around a few of the rtx 470 4gb Radeon cards are good to mine Ethereum still, and cheap to get off AliExpress or eBay. Now that I think about it, I’ll make a video next week about my mining rigs.
Curtis Gross wow, thanks man. Yea make that video! Lol
Ive watched so many, but it seems its always geared towards people who already know the lingo and the equipment. make the video like your audience is 10yrs old! Lol
I truly want to set something up for some passive income!
Thanks for answering again man!
VinnyLogz will do! We all have to start somewhere.
The video I needed!
Siri came up on my phone after one of the 'high sierra' mentions
Honestly I have the 2007 iMac and I haven’t replaced the HDD with and SSD and it works pretty well I’m just a bit scared to open up my Mac
Bro I'm in the same situation! I'm also thinking on getting a 6gb (4x2)
Your video was super helpful! 2 questions for you! We were just given a 2008 is this the same process as the 2007 IMAC up-date process? and where did you find the T9300 chip cheap only finding used ones at that price?
Thanks for the help!
The process is the same. I have been buying the chips from AliExpress (shipped from China) because they were cheap. Buuut. With the rona going around, the shipping delays have been pretty intense. Might be able to get one off eBay - but the price has been creeping up. No good answers at the moment.
A great video, thank you for sharing.
Human malware...those words sound cool
Nice video, keep it up! ;)
I wonder why the iMac with the SSD isn´t really faster than the one with the HDD... Cause i have the same one and as i switched to the SSD the machine was MUCH faster in every task....
Greetings from germany!
Right? I am going to do a teardown and upgrade of the non-upgraded iMac and record that process. I'll try to do a few more benchmarks. My guess is that either my SSD is not the best (it is pretty cheap) or I am just not running into the limits yet. I know FOR SURE when your RAM fills up (3gb isnt much) the SSD makes the machine way more responsive. I still plan to use an SSD in any build!
@@messing-with-computers My machine shipped with 4GB ram... could be possible that the one GB makes the difference here...
So i´m looking forward for your next video ;)
@Jorge Koechlin a SSD along with the 4GB RAM would be definately a better performance than a standard hard drive. El Capitan runs really well on my machine with that config. So yes, go for it ;)
@Mohamad Naja - Yeah, I think there is still some improvement, but the limitations of sata ii are pretty dramatic.
I Still use the mid 2007 IMAC as my main computer but I use cloudready os
like if you use the computer in 2021 or in the future
Hello, very good video. I have an Imac 7.1 with 7700 cpu with OS version 10.6.8. It can be updated to the El Capitan version without changing the cpu. If so, would you have a tutorial or links to study it and be able to do the work? Thank you so much.
did you know how to upgrade it to El Capitan?
How did you get your 2007 Imac to High sierra? i’ve tried the patcher but it doesn’t work do i need to add something?
Any idea where to find if a memory is suitable for iMac mid 2007 20 ?
1. Why update to High Sierra and not to Catalina?
2. Your CPUs are too close to make a substantial performance difference. The difference between the base T7300 (2,0 GHz) and the max T9500 (2,6 GHz) should be more noticeable. At least in benchmarks.
Hi, i will try to upgrade my imac mid 2007 with a new cpu and ssd hard drive. I found this CPU "Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 CPU Laptop processor PGA 478 cpu" is this the one? is it possible to connect a newer?
Can i buy any ssd or does it have to be a specific?
Great video by the way.
u can adjust the color in the setting
Why only 3GB you can put 6GB in without any special terminal trickery
Gin Capachinno - I actually bought 2x2gb stocks and found that together they did not work. But separated they would work with 1 of my original 1gb sticks ... same for both machines. So there is some ram compatibility issues going on for sure. Maybe I’ll try again later, but I wasn’t using it all yet.
@@messing-with-computers the ddr2 4GB OCW chip is rather expensive in comparison to modern RAM but if you have this machine laying around it does put life into it for basic school work and 1080p movies. My next upgrade for it will be an SSD and CPU upgrade. I can't believe how long this machine has lasted!
Hola. Cual es la fecha para lnstalacion?
So the T9500 is compatible with these 2007 imacs?
i have early 2008 i mac
Great video! Thank you.. Any advice on how to add memory to the 2007 iMac? I can't seem to find a way to upgrade the operating system without memory.
I get an effort sating I don't have enough storage. 1gb, but it requires 2 for Mojave.
i have an imac 21.5 mid 2011 with 12GB a AMD 6750m graphics. i use one extra screen now but i want to use multiple screens.... how can i add more screens do i need to get a new graphics card? which one do i need do i need more ram?
Hi Curtis,
I like your video,
Can you help me please? When I want to clean install with bootable USB, when finish hold the "Option" , that USB doesn't show up? Have you ever seen like that? Please tell me if you have a good tutorial for my problem.
Thanks before.
I am currently downloading El Capitan. I have only 2 GB of RAM so I'll browse amazon tomorrow for some 2×2 GB. I read read that you can go up to 6 GB, do you know if that's correct? I really enjoyed your video you have a really comforting voice a la Bob Ross.
I read the same thing about 6tb max memory. Seems to be tricky to get the right memory though. Maybe start with a single 4gb stick to see if it works with your existing memory?
@@messing-with-computers I went for the two 2gb sticks. I didn't want to spend more than 15$. I'm dealing with sporadic shutdowns now and after researching I am positive it's the power supply which isn't something easy to fix and really not worth it for me. Oh well.
Update: I'm really happy with the upgrade. It was soooo worth it! haven't had any issues with shutdowns. *fingers crossed*
Sabrina W great to hear! I’ll be making another video upgrading the cpu in these older iMacs as well.
@@messing-with-computers intersted in that one... i did not know about upgrading cpu's... My mid 2007 imac is now upgaded to 6gb ram and a 1t ssd harddrive and running El Capitan smoothly but High sierra would give me a bit more up to date software acces that might need... but im wondering if the wifi and usb gates still work? Do you have some info on that?
I have a mid 2007 iMac running El Capitan with 4gb of ram. would you suggest running chrome instead of safari for these computers?
I'd get at least a 250GB SSD because this computer only has one SATA slot. People often tend to fill up beyond 120 GB even with casual use, but 250GB not so much. I myself have installed a 300GB SSD because I also like to try out how well linux and windows run on this machine. Thanks for your information, the new cpu is on its way.
Maybe it has changed by now but I had no trouble downloading the installer program for El Capital, installing that on the old macOS snow leopard install, and run that to install it on an empty partition
What is the installer pgorgram for EL Captain?
thinking of putting a core 2 extreme x9000 and 8gb of ram in my imac and selling the old parts that prob no one will buy because I have a base model imac
I sell all the old parts and pretty much break even. My old i5 2500s sold for $30 and that is how much I paid for my xeon upgrade.
Curtis Gross nice m8
THANKS!
I have a question about a 2007 can I call you directly
我有一台和你一样的机器 更换了t9300和500g ssd 如何全新安装？ 我用u盘和光盘试了都不行🤣
Have you ever tried to upgrade the GPU of this 2007 iMac?
Can I upgrade to the newer software just by adding ram? Or will I need the CPU upgrade as well?
Ram will get you up a few versions but for the later versions you need the cpu update as well.
Will the T9300 permit to upgrade to Mojave and Catalina? I want to upgrade a 24" 2007 iMac7,1 which is stuck on El Capitan. I was thinking of the T95 CPU chip but as you mentioned, it is more expensive than the T9300 CPU chip. I also wish there was a way to upgrade the GPU but I think it is already at its max. Thanks in advance for any feedback and/or advice.
Hey Bob - the latest version you can run is high Sierra. No matter the cpu selection. So - price performance winner is the t9300.
@@messing-with-computers Thank you very much for your reply and honest opinion. Before noticing your reply, I actually took a chance and purchased a T9500 CPU via ebay but it did not seem to work in the 24" 2007 iMac7,1. I was very disappointed in waiting so long to receive it for no result and wasted about $60. I read in another post that the iMAc needs a Penryn based chip and I tried Googling that term but I still do not know how to tell which CPUs are identified as such. Can you offer a link toward a source you trust for the T9300 CPU so I can purchase one that could work? I am trying not to waste more money but really need to upgrade to at least High Sierra.
Bob Bond - heya! I don’t really have a trusted source, in fact I ordered off AliExpress at the cheapest possible retailer :). It took forever to show up, but wasn’t in a huge rush.
@@messing-with-computers Thanks for the tip regarding AliExpress. Can you tel me if all T9300 and T9500 CPU chip are Penryn based? I am trying to find an official answer via Google but no success yet.
@@bobbond8232 The key thing to look for is what socket it is. You need one that is socket 'p' or PGA478
Hi Curtis I have an iMac 24" 2008 2.8GHz 2GB HDD320, what is the max cpu that can I mount on it?
I believe the t9300 or t9500. But I am less versed in the 2008, worth checking Ifixit.com as a double check.
Oh. And definitely upgrading the ram and hard disk to a ssd will do more for you!
It can handle 6gb of ram btw :) mine has 4gb.
can someone help me,
i have one of these systems and i was wondering, what is the maximum amount of ram that is supported?
4GB officially (2x2 sticks of RAM) but you can get them to work with 6gb of memory. Just do your research first, because not any RAM will work - it has to be a specific brand usually.
@@messing-with-computers thats what i thought but it won't boot with 4GB it will only boot with 1GB, 2GB or 3gb. do you have any suggestions?
also it was sold as compatible with iMac mid 2007
@@adambg02 - I ran into similar issues, I used 1 of my original 1gb sticks and can pair that with a 1, 2 or 4gb stick. BUT I can not use 2x2 (unbranded). So, I am stuck at 2, 3, or 5gb at the moment. I don't have enough pieces of older ram around to fully test the different brands though. Sorry!
@@messing-with-computers i have settled for 3GB too, that will just have to do i suppose, thanks for your help all the same