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CPU upgrade for 17 inch Intel iMac?

B

bbain

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 19, 2006
23
0
I'm new to Macs -- a refugee from the Wintel world with a new 17 inch Intel iMac. Any possibiity of the new, faster chips being offered as an upgrade for the 17 inch Intel iMac (maybe by third parties)? Seems like some of the chips (not sure about exactly which ones) would be a pretty straight forward swap and a speed boost. I see that some mac minis have been "upgunned", but I haven't seen any articles on doing the same with the iMac. Is that because it's a bear to take apart? A 2.9 Ghz iMac would nice! :)

Bill Bain
Atlanta
 
there were a few bits of info about people replacing there core solo's with core 2's in the mini. but really, i don't see the point.

bbain said:
I'm new to Macs -- a refugee from the Wintel world with a new 17 inch Intel iMac. Any possibiity of the new, faster chips being offered as an upgrade for the 17 inch Intel iMac (maybe by third parties)? Seems like some of the chips (not sure about exactly which ones) would be a pretty straight forward swap and a speed boost. I see that some mac minis have been "upgunned", but I haven't seen any articles on doing the same with the iMac. Is that because it's a bear to take apart? A 2.9 Ghz iMac would nice! :)

Bill Bain
Atlanta
Click to expand...
 
Other than the 'pain' of opening it up, you can buy a Core 2 Duo T5000 or T7000-series (aka 'Merom') chip from anyone, and it will work fine. Or a faster Core Duo T2000-series. Just make sure you get the 'laptop' series chip, not the desktop chip. (Like the Core 2 Duo E6000 or X6000 series chips, aka 'Conroe'.) The laptop chips use Intel's socket 479, while the desktop chips use socket 775, so they're not compatible.

Basically, make sure you get a chip with a model number starting with 'T', and you'll be fine.
 
ehurtley said:
Other than the 'pain' of opening it up, you can buy a Core 2 Duo T5000 or T7000-series (aka 'Merom') chip from anyone, and it will work fine. Or a faster Core Duo T2000-series. Just make sure you get the 'laptop' series chip, not the desktop chip. (Like the Core 2 Duo E6000 or X6000 series chips, aka 'Conroe'.) The laptop chips use Intel's socket 479, while the desktop chips use socket 775, so they're not compatible.

Basically, make sure you get a chip with a model number starting with 'T', and you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

Sorry... but surely you would need a desktop processor for the iMac (being a desktop computer)... so why are you saying you would have to buy a notebook processor????
 
markcres said:
Sorry... but surely you would need a desktop processor for the iMac (being a desktop computer)... so why are you saying you would have to buy a notebook processor????
Click to expand...
The iMac Core Duo uses the laptop chip Yonah.
 
What about heat? Couldn't the new chip generate more heat while trying to use the fans that are meant to be for the other chip?
 
The fan should work erfectly fine. And since the new chips produce less heat, your computer would run at cooler temps. Let us know if it works. I would love to know if I would be able to upgrade my newiMac CPU to a faster Core Duo 2.
 
'notebook' and 'desktop' chips are purely made up terms.

Intel even calls the Core Duo a 'desktop' chip.

The difference in Core 2 systems is that the chip marketed toward laptops uses a different socket, and a different front side bus speed than the chip marketed toward desktops.

The 'notebook' "Merom" chip uses the same 479-pin socket used by the "Yonah" Core Duo, and operates at the same front side bus speed of 667 MHz.

The 'desktop' "Conroe" chip uses the same 775-pin socket used by the older Pentium 4 and Pentium D chips, and operates at a front side bus speed of 1066 MHz.

Even though the two chips are based on the exact same core technology, and both are publicly called 'Core 2 Duo', they use different sockets, so you have to make sure you get the 'notebook' chip for your iMac, since it uses the 'notebook' socket and front side bus.

Core 2 Duo produces the exact same amount of heat as Core Duo (according to benchmarks at various hardware review sites around the 'net.)

As long as the iMac firmware supports the Core 2 chip, it should be a simple swap. And since people have done the swap without error, I would hazard a guess that the iMac firmware supports Core 2 just fine.
 
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