Upgrading CPU from i3 3.06 Ghz to i5/i7-S version 82W

"David Zabran

@zeerocool


Rep: 169




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"You can use the L3426 Xeon in the 2010 iMac !It has a lower power consumption 45w and gives 50% increase in multi core performance.

Shows as i3 1.86ghz in system profiler but can boost 1 core to 3.2ghz or 2 cores to 3.06ghz when needed."

I have a mid 2010 iMac with a core i3 3.06 GHz CPU, and ATI Radion HD card with 256 MB a video room, and the 500 GB 7200 RPM HD. I am about to do an upgrade of the CPU, the GPU, and the Hd to SSD. It’s going to be a long tedious job, but doable. They are basically only two processor upgrade options that I am aware of and I chose to go with the Intel quad core i7 2.93 GHz That has the same socket type as the stock CPU. There is another core I five option, but I am upgrading this to the max. If you upgrade to the iOS 7, then you can use 32 GB of RAM instead of the 16 GB limit. Also, there are other graphics card options pulled from other imacs purchasable and eBay that you can swap for the stock built-in one. Changing from an HDD to an SSD is an enormous improvement in performance. And I’m not just talking about disc performance. But the entire system. I didn’t believe it until I tried it. As far as I know from everything I have read, there is no need to change the power supply when going with the CPU that I have bought. I’m actually about to commence the upgrade right now and really not looking forward to it. There are a ton of screws to remove in a lot of parts to take out. You literally have to disassemble the entire thing. As long as you follow the instructions and are very careful, it will be well worth it. You can take an 11 year old iMac and for $200, turn it into practically a brand new one as far as performance goes. The benefit is, you have peripheral ports that no longer exist so that hardware you might have that is fully functional you can still use, and you will not be forced to upgrade software because you can also run older versions of Mac OS X on other partitions. It’s also possible to remove the internal SuperDrive and replace it with another SATA SSD if you so choose. If you have the time, the patience, and the confidence, I say go for it