Legendary early 27" iMacs

[zoran]

The 27" iMac... so iconic, so legendary.
Only a few of us -users- really respected Apples try back then. Its try to design a great all in one computer! I say only a few of us, because after the gpu got toasted, many users chucked that iMac to the bin.
Some, yes a few, felt that it was no way to treat such an all in one machine. Yes its over heating flaw was most irritating and so incongruous for such a machine... but as most things in life... it just occurred. I guess in the end, the point is what -we -can -do.
RiP my good old mid 2010 27" iMac 😐

 

[Amethyst1]

Not to rain on your parade, but I consider the 27" 2560×1440 display way more legendary than the iMac which premiered it because it meant getting nearly as much real estate as with a 30" 2560×1600 display at a fraction of the cost. Those iMacs also premiered Target Display Mode for a reason.

 

[zoran]

Ok ok i hear ya!
I also don't understand why there weren't any quality implementations (like those cheap Chinese controler boards, but better) that could rescue those amazing displays (retina or non retina).

 

[zoran]

Not sure if i was clear on what i meant regarding cheap Chinese controler boards.
Im referring to those cheap boards that can make the iMac into a standalone display... they were cheap and not worthy to create a great experience when using the iMacs display. They were experiencing brightness issues, when compared to what the iMac used to produce!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

You got the earlier version of the kit, and keep complaining.
They have already developed 2nd or 3rd version of the kit, with DP and HDMI port, plus a 4 pin jack to inject extra current to the backlight board. This may or may not help, I don't know. I'll buy one to try myself. (But I got the 2011 panel, so to speak)

Still not be satisfied with the brightness? Open you skill bag and re-use the original LCD backlight board to power the LCD Panel, but learn how to draw 12V and current from another source than from the kit. Furthermore, apply decent heat dispersing solution to the controller chip, otherwise it will heat-up and break.

If you want serious brightness, take it as a serious DIY project and do your own homework and re-search, it's not a plug and play kit.

But, wait a minute, the LCD kit is aimed for iMac with dead logicboard, not your iMac 2010, which has only the dead GPU. You can just simply replace/upgrade the GPU and make it work in Target Display Mode. A Firepro M6100 will do just fine.

Oops, I forgot that you don't even want to grind the heatsink yourself, or pay extra to get a pre-ground heatsink....
We all have a dead end here....

And thus your iMac story end with a long whining....
RIP, zoran's iMac 2010....

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I've just discovered that the ancient HP ZR2740w use the same LCP panel.
Maybe I can buy one with defective LCP panel and salvage the control kit + PSU.

 

[B S Magnet]

You got the earlier version of the kit, and keep complaining.
They have already developed 2nd or 3rd version of the kit, with DP and HDMI port, plus a 4 pin jack to inject extra current to the backlight board. This may or may not help, I don't know. I'll buy one to try myself. (But I got the 2011 panel, so to speak)

Still not be satisfied with the brightness? Open you skill bag and re-use the original LCD backlight board to power the LCD Panel, but learn how to draw 12V and current from another source than from the kit. Furthermore, apply decent heat dispersing solution to the controller chip, otherwise it will heat-up and break.

If you want serious brightness, take it as a serious DIY project and do your own homework and re-search, it's not a plug and play kit.

But, wait a minute, the LCD kit is aimed for iMac with dead logicboard, not your iMac 2010, which has only the dead GPU. You can just simply replace/upgrade the GPU and make it work in Target Display Mode. A Firepro M6100 will do just fine.

Oops, I forgot that you don't even want to grind the heatsink yourself, or pay extra to get a pre-ground heatsink....
We all have a dead end here....

And thus your iMac story end with a long whining....
RIP, zoran's iMac 2010....

Me,

 

[ToniCH]

Only a few of us -users- really respected Apples try back then. Its try to design a great all in one computer! I say only a few of us, because after the gpu got toasted, many users chucked that iMac to the bin.

I dunno, maybe I am one of those few then. 🤔 But, I've haven't had any problems with my iMac 27" GPUs. Maybe I am just lucky? And I used to have 4 of these machines, still have 3. I have used iMac 27" daily since 2009 in both home and work. Until couple of years ago they were late 2009 models and then I upgraded them to 2011s.

One of these days I will upgrade my main iMacs GPU to Metal-capable one but have not had the motivation to do it yet. OCLP did allow me to do much more even without the upgrade. And I might make a display out of the remaining 2009 as I really do not have use for more than 2 iMacs anymore, somebody else might need the parts to fix theirs. IMO display would be more useful for me.

I say: way to go iMac!

 

[zoran]

#ToniCH what apps have you been using with your iMacs?

 

[sdfox7]

The 27" iMac... so iconic, so legendary.
Only a few of us -users- really respected Apples try back then. Its try to design a great all in one computer! I say only a few of us, because after the gpu got toasted, many users chucked that iMac to the bin.
Some, yes a few, felt that it was no way to treat such an all in one machine. Yes its over heating flaw was most irritating and so incongruous for such a machine... but as most things in life... it just occurred. I guess in the end, the point is what -we -can -do.
RiP my good old mid 2010 27" iMac 😐

Picked one up $100 for my friend last year, stuffed it with 32GB RAM, SSD and Monterey. Runs like a dream.

 

[ToniCH]

#ToniCH what apps have you been using with your iMacs?

Adobe CS-packages, Gimp, Affinity software, iSkysoft video/media converters and PDF-editor, Wondershare PDFelement, Pages, Numbers, Office365, iTunes, Music, Photos, Spotify, iMovie, Garageband, Firefox, Thunderbird, Brave, Safari, Telegram, WhatsApp, VLC, Carbon Copy Cloner, DriveDx, Surfshark, Transmission, BOINC, various benchmarking sw and probably 100 others. OS's from Snow Leopard upto Sonoma but now using Monterey (OCLP).

I bought the 2 late 2009 models (C2D & i5) new and the 2 mid 2011 models (i5 & i7) second hand. Upgraded all to full RAM and SSDs.

 

[headlessmike]

I had a top of the line late 2009 i7 27" and loved that thing. The GPU (HD 4850) died in 2015, but I got lucky and found a seller on eBay with brand new HD 5750's from the 2010 model. With that GPU and a RAM upgrade to 16 GB of 1333 MHz sticks, I basically had a 2010 iMac in all but name. I sold it a few years ago when I needed a newer OS version for work reasons, and at that time there wasn't a viable workaround for getting that generation of GPU working with unsupported versions of macOS. In its place I got a mint 27" LED Cinema Display that is now connected to an M1 Mac mini. Gives me the same vibes as the iMac but with a lot less heat 🥵.

 

[ToniCH]

Tried if the old iMac supports a 3rd display. It does and the Radeon 6970M 2GB GPU didn't even catch fire yet! 😜

 

[Amethyst1]

Tried if the old iMac supports a 3rd display. It does and the Radeon 6970M 2GB GPU didn't even catch fire yet!

The GPU should run six displays. The question is: with two DisplayPort outputs going into one Thunderbolt controller, how many Thunderbolt controllers (not ports) does the iMac have? (Check System Profiler.)

 

[ToniCH]

The GPU should run six displays. The question is: with two DisplayPort outputs going into one Thunderbolt controller, how many Thunderbolt controllers (not ports) does the iMac have? (Check System Profiler.)

To me it looks like it has only one. There is one TB bus listed and the 2 connectors.

This is how mine is connected now:
- iMac TB-connector 1: Apple Cinema HD with DVI to Mini DisplayPort -adapter
- iMac TB-connector 2: TB cable to a TB2 dock
- TB2 dock HDMI out: the second 27" display

The dock also has a second TB-connector but only one display worked when both were connected to the dock at the same time.

 

[Amethyst1]

The dock also has a second TB-connector but only one display worked when both were connected to the dock at the same time.

This is expected with a TB1/2 dock since its controller can only extract one DisplayPort stream. You need two daisy-chained TB1/2 docks — or one TB3 dock — to extract both streams.

 

[ToniCH]

or one TB3 dock — to extract both streams.

Oh, I knew there would some use for the TB3 dock I found 2 days ago for 35€ incl. shipping and which is now waiting for me in the post office. But, I guess 3 displays is plenty for me. Don't have any more desk space anyway. I originally bought the TB2 dock to get faster USB connectivity than USB2 and its been great in that job. before today I never tried anything else.

Now I just need to figure out cable stuff so I can swap multiple computers to those 2 other displays with minimum hassle.

 

[Andrey84]

The 27" iMac... so iconic, so legendary.
Only a few of us -users- really respected Apples try back then. Its try to design a great all in one computer! I say only a few of us, because after the gpu got toasted, many users chucked that iMac to the bin.
Some, yes a few, felt that it was no way to treat such an all in one machine. Yes its over heating flaw was most irritating and so incongruous for such a machine... but as most things in life... it just occurred. I guess in the end, the point is what -we -can -do.
RiP my good old mid 2010 27" iMac 😐

I absolutely agree that the 2009/2010 27" iMac is a legendary machine.

My wife bought the top spec "Late 2009" 27" iMac new in Germany in 2010. We managed to upgrade the RAM to 32GB eventually. I manually installed 2 x 1TB SSDs, to replace the HDD and the DVD, around 10 years ago.

The iMac just never faltered, always worked perfectly!

The only drawback was that she needed a Retina display, as she is a Web/UX designer, so we were forced to upgrade in 2020. The old iMac managed to fetch £500 on eBay

After another upgrade, she now owns the last and the best instance of this iconic machine!

iMac 2020 27" / 10-core i9 / 128GB / 2TB / 5700XT 16GB / Nano display. I really hope it will last her for another 2-3 years and she won't be forced to move to Apple Silicon quickly.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I absolutely agree that the 2009/2010 27" iMac is a legendary machine.

My wife bought the top spec "Late 2009" 27" iMac new in Germany in 2010. We managed to upgrade the RAM to 32GB eventually. I manually installed 2 x 1TB SSDs, to replace the HDD and the DVD, around 10 years ago.

The iMac just never faltered, always worked perfectly!

The only drawback was that she needed a Retina display, as she is a Web/UX designer, so we were forced to upgrade in 2020. The old iMac managed to fetch £500 on eBay

After another upgrade, she now owns the last and the best instance of this iconic machine!

iMac 2020 27" / 10-core i9 / 128GB / 2TB / 5700XT 16GB / Nano display. I really hope it will last her for another 2-3 years and she won't be forced to move to Apple Silicon quickly.

If an iMac 2009 could last 11 years, I can't see any reason why a 2020 iMac couldn't last another 10 years.
my iMac 2009 is used by my kids, and I expect it to last another 3-4 years, at least until he finish high school.

 

[headlessmike]

If an iMac 2009 could last 11 years, I can't see any reason why a 2020 iMac couldn't last another 10 years.
my iMac 2009 is used by my kids, and I expect it to last another 3-4 years, at least until he finish high school.

Software will be the limiting factor. The 2009 iMac got its last supported macOS update in November 2020 and still works with newer versions thanks to efforts like OCLP. The 2020 iMac will probably not be getting software updates of any kind in 2030. Linux will most likely be the only option by then.

 

[Andrey84]

Software will be the limiting factor. The 2009 iMac got its last supported macOS update in November 2020 and still works with newer versions thanks to efforts like OCLP. The 2020 iMac will probably not be getting software updates of any kind in 2030. Linux will most likely be the only option by then.

Software absolutely could be a limiting factor and that's what's worrying me. I'm expecting the 2024 Mac OS release to support the 2020 iMac though, and it means security patches for 3 more years after that, to September 2027. There is a low chance Intel won't be dropped from the 2025 Mac OS release, but it's very low indeed.

Already she missing out on Apple Silicon exclusive features like Zoom reactions and being able to natively run a mobile app.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Not to rain on your parade, but I consider the 27" 2560×1440 display way more legendary than the iMac which premiered it because it meant getting nearly as much real estate as with a 30" 2560×1600 display at a fraction of the cost. Those iMacs also premiered Target Display Mode for a reason.

I have a 27" 2009 and feel ignorant for just knowing/confirming this Target Display Mode feature earlier today:

You can use TDM even if your run OCLP, and the source doesn't have to be another Mac! Sure, it's not the most cost or energy efficient monitor available, but it still looks good and the TDM feature adds real value, IMO.

 

[zoran]

They have already developed 2nd or 3rd version of the kit, with DP and HDMI port, plus a 4 pin jack to inject extra current to the backlight board. This may or may not help, I don't know. I'll buy one to try myself. (But I got the 2011 panel, so to speak)

Is this the 2nd or 3rd version?