Possible to upgrade iMac's processor?

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satchmosatchmo
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I know PowerLogix just introduced upgrades to for the PowerMacs and Cube..

How difficult or even likely would it be to upgrade an iMac?

A 1GHz iMac would be sweet.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    IIRC, you can't.

    The chip is not on a daughtercard like with the towers.



    Why?



    The iMac is only meant to have minimal upgrades.

    It's a consumer machine.
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  • Reply 2 of 12
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    What about the Cube? Is it's chip on a daughtercard?
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  • Reply 3 of 12
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Yes, the cube can be upgraded.



    You asked about the iMac, not the cube.
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  • Reply 4 of 12
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    I know.

    I didn't think the Cube's processor was on a daughtercard.

    So if it wasn't then perhaps there was a chance the iMac could also be upgraded.

    Probably wishful thinking on my part.

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  • Reply 5 of 12
    discocowdiscocow Posts: 603member
    Define "possible"
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  • Reply 6 of 12
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    I imagine that if you soldered on a new proc and ajusted the motherboard circuitry involved, you could upgrade a recent iMac.



    I have seen DP Cubes.
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  • Reply 7 of 12
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    There are G3 upgrades for 6100s, which also had the CPU soldered onto the mainboard. If there's enough demand for iMac processor upgrades, some clever engineers will figure out how to do it.



    I think the 7200 is the only (desktop) Mac that literally can not be CPU upgraded, because it has a baffling bus architecture. Everything else is fair game.
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  • Reply 8 of 12
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    [quote]Originally posted by Amorph:

    <strong>There are G3 upgrades for 6100s, which also had the CPU soldered onto the mainboard. If there's enough demand for iMac processor upgrades, some clever engineers will figure out how to do it.



    I think the 7200 is the only (desktop) Mac that literally can not be CPU upgraded, because it has a baffling bus architecture. Everything else is fair game.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Try again. There was once a Powerlogix 7200/G3 upgrade on the market. It plugged into the Motherboard L2 cache slot.
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  • Reply 9 of 12
    discocowdiscocow Posts: 603member
    [quote] Originally posted by Splinemodel:



    I have seen DP Cubes. <hr></blockquote>



    Pictures/Linkage?
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  • Reply 10 of 12
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    For the DP cube, check xlr8yourmac.com



    A guy took a DP daughtercard from a powermac (or ebay I guess) and plugged it into his Cube. Made a few simple case mods to go with it. Works fine.
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  • Reply 11 of 12
    discocowdiscocow Posts: 603member
    To quote Eric Cartman: "sweet"



    <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/cube/dual_g4_cube/dual_g4_cube.html"; target="_blank">DP Cube</a>



    [ 06-12-2002: Message edited by: DiscoCow ]</p>
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  • Reply 12 of 12
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    it is possible to upgrade the original (rev a-d) 66Mhz bus iMacs... its called the harmoni upgrade card (or something) and includes a f/w port... sonnet makes it, look it up on their site, im too lazy...



    I may get it one day if it is cheap enough... 233 RevA---&gt;500 w/fireWire... not bad, too bad it costs like $400...
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