Aluminum iMac (late 2007) soup-up

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Aluminum iMac (late 2007) soup-up

My warranty on my Al iMac (2.4 C2Duo, 320Gb HDD, 4Gb RAM) is up in January. I was thinking about a couple of upgrades for it to really give it the "get up and go".

1) 1.5 Tb HDD - looking at the teardowns online, this shouldn't be much of a problem.
2) Replace the Core 2 Duo with a Core 2 Quad - The C2D and C2Q use the same pin array and are compatible chips, from what I can tell. Will there be a significant heat increase going from the Duo chip to the Quad? Will the power supply have a problem with the additional cores? I'm looking for basically a straight swap deal, and don't want to particularly perform any heavy duty modifications (especially on the cooling system).

Thanks in advance,
CM

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hey there, i will chime in ab

hey there, i will chime in about the cpu. the core 2's used in imacs are laptop cpu's and arent interchangable, even if you could, the wattage of a core2 duo is 65 or less VS the quad @ 95+. the heat would almost certainly be too much as would the power draw. i do not have experience with changing out a hard drive though, so ill leave that to some other well trained folks here Smile

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Ahh... everything I've read a

Ahh... everything I've read and seen has stated that they were ZIF socketed. I could most certainly be mistaken. The EveryMac profile for this machine also has it listed as a ZIF socketed processor.

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Re: hey there, i will chime in ab

hey there, i will chime in about the cpu. the core 2's used in imacs are laptop cpu's and arent interchangable, even if you could, the wattage of a core2 duo is 65 or less VS the quad @ 95+. the heat would almost certainly be too much as would the power draw. i do not have experience with changing out a hard drive though, so ill leave that to some other well trained folks here :-)

The CPU's in the iMacs are indeed "laptop" CPUs, but are in a PGA package -- they mount in a ZIF socket on the motherboard. Pulling a CPU out of an iMac and swapping it with something else is entirely possible.

I wouldn't be too worried about the power requirements of a quad-core chip, but heat may be a bit of a factor depending on your need for the iMac to be quiet. I have no doubt the internal cooling in an iMac could keep up with a Core 2 Quad, but running it full-tilt may cause the internal fan to run faster (and thus louder) than you'd prefer.

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To repeat...

The CPU's in the iMacs are indeed "laptop" CPUs, but are in a PGA package -- they mount in a ZIF socket on the motherboard. Pulling a CPU out of an iMac and swapping it with something else is entirely possible.

Just in case additional clarification is necessary, *yes* it is a ZIF socket, but *no*, it's not the *same* ZIF (socket 775) that you can easily find CPUs for. The current systems use "Socket P" mobile CPUs.

As noted, *not* easy to find for mortal humans, and getting your hands on a Quad-Core model might only be slightly easier then catching a unicorn. Intel only started shipping them "recently", and some casual Googling showed prices in the $950-$1200 range at places where it wasn't entirely clear whether they actually have them in stock.

Seems like a pretty expensive experiment, so be sure to document your results. You'll probably be the first to pony up the money to try it, so bask in the glory.

--Peace

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All of the Socket P processor

All of the Socket P processors I came across were 1066MHz bus. I have the 800MHz bus, so would this still be a Socket P processor?

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the quad listed in the link i

the quad listed in the link is also based on a 45nm manufacturing process and is most likely not compatible with your imac. im not 100% certain on this but im thinking the imac has the older 65nm process. If apple was using the new 45nm mobile cpus back in 07 then id be very surprised.

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Re: All of the Socket P processor

All of the Socket P processors I came across were 1066MHz bus. I have the 800MHz bus, so would this still be a Socket P processor?

Socket P is 800Mhz and 1066Mhz. (667Mhz and slower CPUs are "Socket M"... unless they're "Celerons" which are Socket P but crippled with half-speed busses.). Here's a company that lists 800Mhz FSB Socket P CPUs.

There is a good chance given how new the Quad-Core mobile CPUs are that Intel won't ever make an 800Mhz version. After all, "nobody" upgrades laptop CPUs, and of course a new laptop expensive enough to ship with a quad-core is going to have the fastest bus available.

You could *possibly* buy a 1066FSB model and have it run at only 75%-ish rated speed, but obviously that would suck.

--Peace

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Re: the quad listed in the link i

45nm manufacturing process

Why on earth would that matter?

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there are a number of the new

there are a number of the new 45nm process cpu's that arent 100% compatible with the older generation of motherboards designed to run 65nm chips. this may or may not be the case with apples but i wouldnt be willing to spend money on the newer cpu if i wasnt totally sure if it would function.

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