iMac Intel 27" EMC 2390
EMC 2390 (Mid 2010, Core i3 3.2 GHz or Core i5 2.8/3.6 GHz or Core i7 2.93 GHz).
Upgrade iMac Intel Core i3 CPU to Core i7
User-Contributed Guide
An awesome member of our community made this guide. It is not managed by iFixit staff.
Upgraded my mid 2010 27 inch Apple iMac from a Core i3 3.2GHz (Dual core) upgraded to Core i7 2.93GHz (Quad core) processor.
- Author: EnglandGreen
- Time required: 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Difficulty: Moderate
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Upgrade mid 2010 27 inch Apple iMac from a Core i3 3.2GHz (Dual core) to Core i7 2.93GHz (Quad core) processor.
I used this guide for disassembly and reassembly.
http://www.btobey.com/learn/imac-ssd-ins...
Also added a 3TB SATA drive and 32Gb of RAM to max out this system under Lion 10.7
- Update : Removed the 3Tb SATA drive and replaced with 512Gb SSD and upgraded to Mountain Lion 10.8
- If you upgrade or change the HD, you will need to buy HDDFanControl software to control the HDD fan which will run at full speed otherwise.
- April 2013 - 1 year later : This system has been absolutely ROCK SOLID with no crashes, no kernel panics and no freezes!
- June 2013 Update : now running OS X 10.9 Mavericks DP1 successfully with zero issues. System continues to be very fast!
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Step 3
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Remove HD, Superdrive and motherboard. Follow the excellent iFixit guides to remove these items.
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To remove motherboard (a little tricky), I followed this excellent guide - http://www.btobey.com/learn/imac-ssd-ins...
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Step 6
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Goodbye Core i3 and hello Core i7.
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Note arrow on CPU (bottom left in picture). New CPU must be installed in the same orientation.
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Apply Arctic Silver thermal compound with finger covered in plastic. Spread evenly on CPU only. Guide is here - Applying Thermal Paste
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Reverse to reassemble. Enjoy the new speed demon!
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