CPU Upgrade iMac Mid 2011

[Bartaz]

Hello, I've an iMac 12,1 21,5" with 16GB ram, SSD (Crucial MX500 1T SD NAND) and NVIDIA Quadro K2100m (55Watt TDP) running Ventura with OCLP.

Is it recommended for me upgrade with i7 2600S or can I upgrade up to i7 2600 95W? My idea is to upgrade with Xeon Sandy Bridge but I'm not understanding what problems I might encounter...

 

[Adamov]

Hello, I've an iMac 12,1 21,5" with 16GB ram, SSD (Crucial MX500 1T SD NAND) and NVIDIA Quadro K2100m (55Watt TDP) running Ventura with OCLP.

Is it recommended for me upgrade with i7 2600S or can I upgrade up to i7 2600 95W? My idea is to upgrade with Xeon Sandy Bridge but I'm not understanding what problems I might encounter...

Bartaz, i am starting the process of upgrading one 21.5" mid-2011 imac as well. As of now i will upgrade the ram and the ssd. I am desperately trying to find CPU in Bulgaria but no luck. I want to upgrade with less modifications. My question to you is what mods this Quadro K2100m needs?

 

[Bartaz]

Bartaz, i am starting the process of upgrading one 21.5" mid-2011 imac as well. As of now i will upgrade the ram and the ssd. I am desperately trying to find CPU in Bulgaria but no luck. I want to upgrade with less modifications. My question to you is what mods this Quadro K2100m needs?

Hello, you only need Nick [D]vB's rom file

 

[Adamov]

Hello, you only need Nick [D]vB's rom file

But i am lost with all those hundreds of pages. Can you please (when you have time) share how exactly this need to be done? Thanks a dozen times!

 

[___]

we can use intel xeon e3 1270 v2 but we must to configure intel efi manualy with efiTool )))

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im now interesting how to do this because my stock amd gpu and i5 2400s in imac 12.1 do not work at all from the apple web boot of high sierra 10.13.6 )))))))))))))) iam from Russia and i also read sources https://habr.com/ru/post/211574/
i have try OC Opencore with BigSur but i donot like this hard way want to fix efi boot like it must be

The V2 is an ivy bridge chip, did it really work?

 

[kirya]

The V2 is an ivy bridge chip, did it really work?

Ahaha i think of course if u write it in efi bios boot ))) all of LGA 1155 will work with uefi fix

Honesty my buisness is bad. I bought ssd Kodak 128 pro from Shinzen, wait mail about two mounths, but when i get my post i find there 256 gb Kodak pro. I get worry for waiting to long and known that 256 ssd will broke my iMac video card. It not compatble from the box. I reed more about it in web.So i spend money and time, i put it in pc, it turn on pci speed to 6 gb i instal Big Sur on it from Mr Macintoch How To's & in several days it broked power chip on my Ati Amd 6750M MXM-A on my Sandy Bridge Mac ))) Now i need to fix the power of video card and write in there efi chip 6 gb speed logic. That the story i have now. Also i bought Genius usb keyboard after 12 years, but i cant use it because i have black screen ))) I found later people in Moscow who can help me to weld new chip and write 6 gb logic for 16 bit, so i waiting for answer when they can back to work my Best Mac and i will truly use my friend on his 6 gb logic speed. I know that they best in there job to service Apple computers. So i will wait, if not i do it myself in hard way of reseching what to do.

 

[TerrorUniverso]

Hello, I've an iMac 21,5" 2011 and I want upgrade my cpu, Im thinking about Xeon 1260L 4/6 2.4ghz 45w and Xeon 1270 4/6 3.4ghz 80w, from what i've seen the Xeon 1270 is way better than xeon 1260L but Im a bit worried about my 21,5" cant handle the 80watts.
Do you guys think I will have temperatures problems?
Thanks

 

[m0bil]

Hello, I've an iMac 21,5" 2011 and I want upgrade my cpu, Im thinking about Xeon 1260L 4/6 2.4ghz 45w and Xeon 1270 4/6 3.4ghz 80w, from what i've seen the Xeon 1270 is way better than xeon 1260L but Im a bit worried about my 21,5" cant handle the 80watts.
Do you guys think I will have temperatures problems?
Thanks

I'm running a 95W i7 2600 in the 21,5" 2011 for over a year without problems, so I don't think you'd have any with a 80W cpu.

 

[TerrorUniverso]

I'm running a 95W i7 2600 in the 21,5" 2011 for over a year without problems, so I don't think you'd have any with a 80W cpu.

a 95w into Imac 21,5'' ? crazy 😄 can you tell me the temps idle and full load? please

 

[kirya]

i think yes Logic Board is too thin for hot tepreture

 

[m0bil]

a 95w into Imac 21,5'' ? crazy 😄 can you tell me the temps idle and full load? please

Around 46ºC on idle and 76ºC on heavy load. I use Macs Fan Control to control the CPU fan, set to monitor CPU Core 1 temperature, min fan speed at 40ºC and max fan speed at 75ºC (expect some fan noise under load).

 

[kirya]

70c its a peak celsium temperature) for this cpus. By the way they are the hevy duty - hotest the best from all intel history from pentium )

 

[sxydbl]

Bonjour,

It would have been better to test with your original processor ?, knowing that many worlds have tested the installation of Ivy Bridge processors without modification of the rom, if not as soon as I have time, maybe today, I would give you a tutorial, trying to make you do a simple copy-paste, rather than a long and tedious modification.

I remind you that there is still no guarantee that the Ivy Bridges will work on our machines, even if, and that only engages me, I believe that at the hardware level it should pass.

I am in China and my English is very poor. I have an imac 2011 that has already been replaced with a GPU AMD m5100 and now I want to replace it with a CPU. There is a Taobao platform in China where purchasing a CPU is very cheap. E3 1220v2 only costs 3 US dollars and E3 1230v2 only costs 10 US dollars. You can purchase it at will. What should I pay attention to? I can disassemble chips welded by BGA and PGA, but I won't modify EFI ROM

 

[HoreaG]

Bought me another iMac 27" 2011. Came with an i7 2600k. Just wanted to mention it. It has Win10 installed, so I do not know if the 2600K will run on MacOs.

 

[m0bil]

I am in China and my English is very poor. I have an imac 2011 that has already been replaced with a GPU AMD m5100 and now I want to replace it with a CPU. There is a Taobao platform in China where purchasing a CPU is very cheap. E3 1220v2 only costs 3 US dollars and E3 1230v2 only costs 10 US dollars. You can purchase it at will. What should I pay attention to? I can disassemble chips welded by BGA and PGA, but I won't modify EFI ROM

E3 1220v2 is Ivy Bridge. Ivy Bridge CPUs will NOT work in the 2011 iMac. Get a Sandy Bridge xeon (sleep/wake does not work with xeons) or any other Sandy Bridge CPU like i7-2700k ig you want best performance.

 

[m0bil]

Bought me another iMac 27" 2011. Came with an i7 2600k. Just wanted to mention it. It has Win10 installed, so I do not know if the 2600K will run on MacOs.

Yes, "K" CPUs work fine on MacOs.

 

[HoreaG]

Yes, "K" CPUs work fine on MacOs.

Does it have some advantage over the plain 2600? As far as I know it is not upclockable in the iMac.

 

[m0bil]

Does it have some advantage over the plain 2600? As far as I know it is not upclockable in the iMac.

Not right now, but there will be soon a public release of an UEFI firmware mod to enable CPU overclocking in Sandy Bridge iMacs. If interested, keep an eye on this thread for release details.

 

[Bartaz]

Hello, I have an iMac 12,1 21,5" with 16GB RAM OWC, SSD (Crucial MX500 1T SD NAND), NVIDIA Quadro K2100m (55Watt TDP) and the module Wi-Fi + BT BCM943602CDP with adaptor. The iMac is running Ventura with OCLP.

Recently I've replaced the Intel Core i5-2400S with the Intel Core i7-2600S... is it normal that temperature of the cpu is often around 76/77/78 degrees? Could it be a problem with thermal paste?

PS: I'm using Macs Fan Control in AUTO

 

[m0bil]

Hello, I have an iMac 12,1 21,5" with 16GB RAM OWC, SSD (Crucial MX500 1T SD NAND), NVIDIA Quadro K2100m (55Watt TDP) and the module Wi-Fi + BT BCM943602CDP with adaptor. The iMac is running Ventura with OCLP.

Recently I've replaced the Intel Core i5-2400S with the Intel Core i7-2600S... is it normal that temperature of the cpu is often around 76/77/78 degrees? Could it be a problem with thermal paste?

PS: I'm using Macs Fan Control in AUTO

Temps are a bit on the high side for your CPU, I did a stress test in mostly same config as yours, including an i7-2600S (geekbench + background compiling) and got around 70ºC on CPU and 60ºC in heatsink:

You can try setting MFC something like 35/75 either in CPU Core 1 or heatsink to see if it improves. Also, for the GPU you should never leave MCF in auto. Apple preferred lower noise than better cooling in these macs, so probably just that will fix it.

Anyway, below 80ºC the CPU should be safe, and it has throttling mechanisms to lower clock in case of overheat. I'm using a i7-2600 (non S) CPU in same config and getting high 70sº temp without problem.

Edit: I kept the i7-2600S clang compiling 8 threads for an hour and it reached 75ºC core temp (65ºC heatsink)

 

[sxydbl]

My iMac replaces the CPU with i7-2600 or i7-2600k, and their core graphics cards are Intel ® HD Graphics 2000 Intel ® Does HD Graphics 3000 work in iMac?

 

[Bartaz]

Temps are a bit on the high side for your CPU, I did a stress test in mostly same config as yours, including an i7-2600S (geekbench + background compiling) and got around 70ºC on CPU and 60ºC in heatsink:


View attachment 2287888


You can try setting MFC something like 35/75 either in CPU Core 1 or heatsink to see if it improves. Also, for the GPU you should never leave MCF in auto. Apple preferred lower noise than better cooling in these macs, so probably just that will fix it.

Anyway, below 80ºC the CPU should be safe, and it has throttling mechanisms to lower clock in case of overheat. I'm using a i7-2600 (non S) CPU in same config and getting high 70sº temp without problem.

Edit: I kept the i7-2600S clang compiling 8 threads for an hour and it reached 75ºC core temp (65ºC heatsink)

Thank you so much!!

 

[T2U]

I recently upgraded my 21.5 iMac with the i7-2600, but some form of throttling is happening and its not related to thermals.



The original processor was 65W and the new one is 95W but it never goes beyond the 65W mark.



The symptom is never reaching the max turbo boost, in example, with prime95 running 8 threads it reaches only 2.9GHz and with HWiNFO64 I can see the processor power consumption around 65W.

A external kill a watt shows a total power usage of 150 W for the iMac. Core temps around 70oC (fans @FuLL blast).



Any ideas to unlock the full potential of this processor?





The test was done in Windows 11 (OCLP / UEFI). I did a NVRAM reset after the processor upgrade.

Besides the lower frequency on highly multithreaded workloads (it runs @ 3.8Ghz with 1 thread), everything works as expected.

 

[m0bil]

I recently upgraded my 21.5 iMac with the i7-2600, but some form of throttling is happening and its not related to thermals.



The original processor was 65W and the new one is 95W but it never goes beyond the 65W mark.



The symptom is never reaching the max turbo boost, in example, with prime95 running 8 threads it reaches only 2.9GHz and with HWiNFO64 I can see the processor power consumption around 65W.

A external kill a watt shows a total power usage of 150 W for the iMac. Core temps around 70oC (fans @FuLL blast).



Any ideas to unlock the full potential of this processor?





The test was done in Windows 11 (OCLP / UEFI). I did a NVRAM reset after the processor upgrade.

Besides the lower frequency on highly multithreaded workloads (it runs @ 3.8Ghz with 1 thread), everything works as expected.

Interesting... can you please use ThrottleStop to further see what's happening to core clocks while benchmarking ? Interface is a bit weird, but you can run benchmark inside ThrottleStop app (TS Bench) and set number of threads, while watching individual core clocks.
Expected behavior with turbo enabled is: 4 cores max speed 3500 Mhz, 3 cores max speed 3600 Mhz, 2 cores max speed 3700 Mhz, 1 core max speed 3800 Mhz. (you'll see cores duplicated due to hyperthreading).

 

[T2U]

Interesting... can you please use ThrottleStop to further see what's happening to core clocks while benchmarking ? Interface is a bit weird, but you can run benchmark inside ThrottleStop app (TS Bench) and set number of threads, while watching individual core clocks.
Expected behavior with turbo enabled is: 4 cores max speed 3500 Mhz, 3 cores max speed 3600 Mhz, 2 cores max speed 3700 Mhz, 1 core max speed 3800 Mhz. (you'll see cores duplicated due to hyperthreading).

I've got the following results:

1 Thread
FID (aprox. average) 36.87 (Multiplier 37x?)
PKG Max Power 28W
Temp (max) 58 oC
iMac total power 90W
Result 115.708

2 Threads
FID (aprox. average) 35.9 (Multiplier 36x?)
PKG Max Power 37W
Temp (max) 62 oC
iMac total power 104W
Result 59.338

4 Threads
FID (aprox. average) 34.01 (Multiplier 34x?)
PKG Max Power 53W
Temp (max) 66 oC
iMac total power 132W
Result 32.472

8 Threads
FID (aprox. average) 33.2 (Multiplier 33x?)
PKG Max Power 61W
Temp (max) 67 oC
iMac total power 138W
Result 27.324


Fans set to full blast. Win 11