2011 iMac OpenCore

[ShockTroop]

Looking for some feedback on the risks of using OpenCore. I have a 2011 iMac that I use for mostly a media hub (photos, music, movies, idevice syncing and backing up). I also use it to share my media library to my Apple TV.

What if any issues should I be aware of? Is it even worth doing if I don't need to upgrade to Ventura for specific software?

thanks!

 

[theMarble]

As long as you keep backups, there is no risk to using OpenCore. I personally don't have anything running it at the moment, but I had a 2010 White MacBook (A1342) running Big Sur and for a short period of time Monterey. Ran extremely well for a system of that age. Of course make sure that you have an SSD since nothing above El Capitan runs well on a mechanical drive.

 

[ShockTroop]

i have a Fusion Drive, does that matter?

 

[theMarble]

i have a Fusion Drive, does that matter?

A Fusion Drive is nearly as bad as a mechanical drive these days. The boot up time will be slightly better than an HDD, but for nearly everything else the improvement is minimal. If you want to run a modern macOS version, you are going to need an SSD.

The best way to do this is to open up the iMac and replace the internal 3.5" mech drive with a SATA3 SSD. You can get 128GB and 250GB ones for very cheap these days, though I recommend getting at least 500GB if you can afford it. iFixit has really good guides on how to replace it.

An external USB SSD is a no go on the 2011, since it only has USB 2.0 which will drain most of the speed improvement of an SSD. Thunderbolt SSD enclosures do exist, however they are much more expensive than just upgrading the internal drive.

 

[ShockTroop]

Yeah, not interested in all of that. The plan is to upgrade at some point. Hard to spend a bunch of cash to replace something that still does what I need it to do. Waiting on the M1 iMac to get a refresh.

 

[ShockTroop]

but will a modern OS function fine on the Fusion Drive?

 

[theMarble]

but will a modern OS function fine on the Fusion Drive?

It really depends on what OS it is. El Capitan should run fine, but is getting old now and none of the top browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari...) support it anymore. Sierra and High Sierra is a wildcard, it may be fine but will definitely feel slow at times. Mojave and newer will just be awful on a Fusion Drive.

El Capitan is your best choice unfortunately, new-ish browsers still work like Firefox 78 ESR, which was released in 2020. CC 2018 will be as far you can go in terms of Adobe apps. IINA and presumably VLC still work on their latest versions. Keep in mind that at some point sooner or later, El Capitan's version of iTunes will be too old to sync with modern iDevices. What OS are you currently running?

If you're wanting a cheap upgrade, I suggest looking for either a Late 2012 Mac mini or a 15" Retina MacBook Pro from between Late 2013 and Mid 2015 if you are fine with a laptop. The 2012 Mac mini had an option for a quad-core i7 and was the last Mac mini to be lots of upgradability. With a cheap SSD it will run Ventura very well. I (as you can see in my sig.) still run a 2015 15" Pro as my main machine, running Monterey. It's getting slower now for heavy tasks but for browsing the web it runs very well. Can also run Ventura well.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

i have a Fusion Drive, does that matter?

A Fusion Drive means your iMac was opened and added with a SATA SSD.
In that case, just de-Fusion it and use the SSD on OS, the HDD on Data separately.
This way, there won't be any problems with newer OS patched with OpenCore.

 

[theMarble]

In that case, just de-Fusion it and use the SSD on OS, the HDD on Data separately.

That is another way to go about this, however in most cases the SSD is tiny, simply because it was meant for caching, not for the full OS. IIRC it is anywhere between 24 and 32GB on these old ones.

Another thing that I've just checked is that the 2011 iMac doesn't have a Fusion Drive. It's either a full SSD or a 500GB-2TB mech drive. The Fusion was not introduced until the Late 2012 "thin" iMacs.

 

[ShockTroop]

I believe the SSD is 256gb. I had the fusion put in by an aftermarket store.

 

[ShockTroop]

A Fusion Drive means your iMac was opened and added with a SATA SSD.
In that case, just de-Fusion it and use the SSD on OS, the HDD on Data separately.
This way, there won't be any problems with newer OS patched with OpenCore.

How do I just install the os on just the ssd drive and have all my data on the hdd?

 

[Amethyst1]

IIRC it is anywhere between 24 and 32GB on these old ones.

Fusion Drives initially included a 128 GB SSD. The downgrade to 24 GB (the SSD is actually 32 GB but not all of this is accessible) happened in 2015 — but only for 1 TB Fusion Drive setups.

 

[ShockTroop]

Fusion Drives initially included a 128 GB SSD. The downgrade to 24 GB (the SSD is actually 32 GB but not all of this is accessible) happened in 2015 — but only for 1 TB Fusion Drive setups.

 

[ShockTroop]

Confirmed on my receipt, it’s a 240 SSD

 

[Amethyst1]

Confirmed on my receipt, it’s a 240 SSD

I was talking about built-to-order Fusion Drives.

How do I just install the os on just the ssd drive and have all my data on the hdd?

You split up the Fusion Drive so that the SSD and HDD appear as individual drives again. You format both the SSD and HDD and (re-)install macOS and all your applications on the SSD. Afterwards, you copy your user folder (/Users/YourUserName) to the HDD, open System Preferences > Users & Groups, right-click on your account and select Advanced Options. There, you can select the new user folder on the HDD.