Internal differences between 2009 and 2010 27" i5/i7 iMacs

[r6mile]

I recently damaged the logic board on my 2010 27" i7 iMac (yes I am an idiot, please see here for the whole saga). As I do not have the skills to repair the logic board, and it will likely be too expensive to pay someone to do it, I am thinking of purchasing a 2009 or 2010 i5/i7 iMac and swapping the insides - and then sell what I've got left for parts.

The reason why I am looking at 2009 and 2010 is because they, unlike the 2011 model, can do Target Display Mode to non-Macs which I use for my work PC daily. Though if I see a 2011 for a good price I might be tempted.

Looking through Everymac, it strikes me that these models are very very similar. It looks like they have the same CPU socket, the same SATA II speeds, etc. The only differences seem to be that the 2009 has lower speed RAM (PC3-8500 instead of PC3-10600), and does not have the secondary SSD connector (which I am not bothered by as I had the SSD in my main bay in the 2010 iMac anyway). It also looks like the 2010 has a SDXC reader instead of a normal SD reader.

I have seen a 2009 27" with the i5 2.7Ghz CPU going for a reasonable price. I was thinking from my old iMac I could just swap the i7 2.9 CPU, the RAM (which I know will run at lower speed), the SSD, and my K2100M GPU and it should work.
On paper all this should be fine: can anyone confirm that? Are there any other differences I've missed?

Finally, is it at all possible to put the SDXC card reader from the 2010 into the 2009? I only ask because I use an SDXC card (it's the only one I had) to run OpenCore to get brightness on the K2100M GPU - though I could just get another SD card if that's not possible.

Thanks,
R

 

[USB3foriMac]

Hi R,
Most important question would be, does it fit physically? Same size, same location of USB ports, screw holes, etc? I can't say, but you need to check and answer that for yourself. The card reader is via USB, so you can use the SDXC reader. In any case, I would try to put a working logic board into the newer machine, not the older.

A note for your consideration: I use tightvnc server (FOC) on my (windows) work laptop, and a vnc client that supports listening mode (vncviewer -listen) on my 2011 linux iMac. If you can install a vnc server on your work machine, that would allow you to go for the 2011, which will give you faster SATA, a more modern CPU, and a few other benefits, and still remote control your work PC.

 

[r6mile]

Hi R,
Most important question would be, does it fit physically? Same size, same location of USB ports, screw holes, etc? I can't say, but you need to check and answer that for yourself. The card reader is via USB, so you can use the SDXC reader. In any case, I would try to put a working logic board into the newer machine, not the older.

A note for your consideration: I use tightvnc server (FOC) on my (windows) work laptop, and a vnc client that supports listening mode (vncviewer -listen) on my 2011 linux iMac. If you can install a vnc server on your work machine, that would allow you to go for the 2011, which will give you faster SATA, a more modern CPU, and a few other benefits, and still remote control your work PC.

Thanks, that's a good idea but my work PC is very tightly controlled so can't install anything at all.
I didn't end up getting that auction for the 2009 iMac, but this will be really helpful if one comes up again, thank you again!