Hello!
A few years ago I bought an early 09 iMac with the GT130 GPU and 3.06 Penryn CPU. I gave it to my mother because she needed something to watch netflix, hulu, and youtube on. It works... Well it works... most of the time. It has symptoms of a bad GPU, where the screen distorts or just goes weird and computer is sometimes unresponsive, but sometimes I can still manage to shut it down through the GUI. I have replaced the TIM and upgraded it, but still no luck. It's minor and only happens on occasion, but I want to rectify it soon. I ordered a new GPU, but while it's apart I would like to replace the cpu.
After some research, I found that the only two viable options are a T9900 and E8600. The T9900 is the same spec CPU, but has a lower TDP and does slightly better in reviews. The E8600 is 3.3ghz and faster FSB, and all around faster (Confirmed working upgrade on late 2009 iMac). I know this computer is old, like, really old, but so are all of mine and I see no need to replace them as my needs are minimal.
It makes a nice conversation piece too.
What I am asking, is what is the fastest CPU I can put in? The GPU I found is an HD 6970. It should work, but who knows, for the price, it would be silly to not try. I was even considering giving my mother my i5 Mac Mini and taking back the iMac, because it's really a neat machine (assuming I could get it to work), and I want her to have something that just works with no tinkering done.
Upgrades already done are SSD and maxed out RAM (8gb) at 1067mhz. For most of what I do, this computer performed pretty good, even when comparing to my old FX8350 Gaming rig. I am a casual user that really only tinkers and watches youtube. When gaming, I use the Shadow app from www.shadow.tech and it works well on all my older core 2 duo machines, so I have no need for anything fancy, plus if I ever need the horsepower, I just use shadow.
I apologize for the long post, I have searched google high and wide, but only came up with hits for the late 09 iMac, as that is the more popular model in 09, due to the redesign.
Andrew.
A few years ago I bought an early 09 iMac with the GT130 GPU and 3.06 Penryn CPU. I gave it to my mother because she needed something to watch netflix, hulu, and youtube on. It works... Well it works... most of the time. It has symptoms of a bad GPU, where the screen distorts or just goes weird and computer is sometimes unresponsive, but sometimes I can still manage to shut it down through the GUI. I have replaced the TIM and upgraded it, but still no luck. It's minor and only happens on occasion, but I want to rectify it soon. I ordered a new GPU, but while it's apart I would like to replace the cpu.
After some research, I found that the only two viable options are a T9900 and E8600. The T9900 is the same spec CPU, but has a lower TDP and does slightly better in reviews. The E8600 is 3.3ghz and faster FSB, and all around faster (Confirmed working upgrade on late 2009 iMac). I know this computer is old, like, really old, but so are all of mine and I see no need to replace them as my needs are minimal.
It makes a nice conversation piece too.
What I am asking, is what is the fastest CPU I can put in? The GPU I found is an HD 6970. It should work, but who knows, for the price, it would be silly to not try. I was even considering giving my mother my i5 Mac Mini and taking back the iMac, because it's really a neat machine (assuming I could get it to work), and I want her to have something that just works with no tinkering done.
Upgrades already done are SSD and maxed out RAM (8gb) at 1067mhz. For most of what I do, this computer performed pretty good, even when comparing to my old FX8350 Gaming rig. I am a casual user that really only tinkers and watches youtube. When gaming, I use the Shadow app from www.shadow.tech and it works well on all my older core 2 duo machines, so I have no need for anything fancy, plus if I ever need the horsepower, I just use shadow.
I apologize for the long post, I have searched google high and wide, but only came up with hits for the late 09 iMac, as that is the more popular model in 09, due to the redesign.
Andrew.
