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Wireless Airport Card Replacement with New 802.11ac

Wireless Airport Card Replacement with New 802.11ac

iMAC Intel 27" EMC2390

Asked by: Guest | Views: 219
Total answers/comments: 5
bert [Entry]

"Clemens



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bert [Entry]

"It seems that the situation has changed during the last months. There exists meanwhile the possibility to install an original Apple BCM94360CD, BCM94360CSAX or BCM943602CS 802.11ac & Bluetooth combo card into an older Aluminum iMac. With that solution you will obtain at yours old iMac 802.11ac WiFi and full Bluetooth 4.x functionality.

You have just to look for the right Apple pseudo-NGFF to Mini PCIe adapter. There are several sellers on ebay that offer “BCM94360CD upgrade kits”. Because it’s an original Apple card it will work out of the box in Mac OS X, - at least in more recent versions like Mavericks and Yosemite. Under Yosemite you will also get the new Continuity & Handoff OS features.

Keep in mind that with only two antennas (in 2x2 mode) you will only reach approx. 867 Mbps and not full 1.3 Gbps performance. The third antenna will be used for the new Bluetooth 4.0 function of the BCM94360CD card; - the old Bluetooth module has to be removed. Of course you can add a fourth antenna to get the maximal (3x3) 1.3 Gbps 802.11ac performance. On an iMac computer it should be possible to install a further aerial but that may be not so easy.

The simplest 802.11ac (3x3 antenna config) upgrade can be realized with the BCM94360CSAX or BCM943602CS combo cards. They will internally shift between Bluetooth and 802.11ac. With the three available antennas of an iMac it should be possible to reach (near) 1.3 Gbps WiFi performance. More information can be found at my second answer to this 802.11ac upgrade question.

It is important to note that this “simple upgrade” possibility belongs primarily to the Apple iMac line computers. They seem to have “normal Mini PCIe slots” which incorporates also USB functionality. Well, this is true for the Aluminum iMac model range.

Note, several MacBooks and MacPro computes do not offer USB functionality on their Mini PCIe slots. To enable also the Bluetooth 4.0 function of the Apple 802.11ac & Bluetooth combo card you need in such cases a special Apple pseudo-NGFF to Mini PCIe adapter. With that you can apply through an external cable also USB functionality to the 802.11ac & Bluetooth combo. Coming from the adapter, this cable has to be connected to the old Bluetooth module connector on the PCB which is in fact an embedded USB port."
bert [Entry]

"Great post!!! I have a 20"" 2007 iMac that I am about to upgrade the x7900 core2extreme that I put in it a few years ago to a E8135 out of a 2008 iMac so I can install macOS Sierra.

Im also going to follow this guild to upgrade the wifi/BT card. This is the only post I have found about doing this on a 2007 model. So thank you.

Ill post pics of the cpu and wifi card swap if anybody wants to see them.

Thanks again,

Nandor690"
bert [Entry]

I upgraded my imac 2007 with a Penryn T9500 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo, a Samsung EVO 860 and the BMC943602CS airport card. Under El Capitan everything works great, the old imac seems really fast but under High Sierra and Mojave (dosdude1.com) bluetooth is “not available” and the sound incl. keyboard volume control is messed up. There is a strange echo and artificial click in the overall sound, which is synchronous to the rythm of the music and which sounds like the speakers are broken or their membranes touch something on every beat. This is only on speakers, headphone sound is fine. And yes, I installed all of dosdude’s patches for the 7,1 platform. Any thought, ideas?
bert [Entry]

"The audio board from the 2009 A1225 is not compatible, one the flat cable connector is wider than on the 2008 and 2007 models.

What worked for me was a downgrade of AppleHDA.kext to the El Capitan version (v. 274.12) instead of dosdude’s Legacy Audio Patch, sound is back to normal. Reg. bluetooth, that is fine too with 10.14.4 and dosdude’s patch tool 1.3."