I have two older iMac 27' for 2013 and 2014 time frame. I'm slowly being bricked out because of the limited IOS support available. Can I upgrade the RAMM, processor or main board on these to support later IOS versions?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 27″, macOS 10.15
RCS4864 wrote:
I have two older iMac 27' for 2013 and 2014 time frame. I'm slowly being bricked out because of the limited IOS support available. Can I upgrade the RAMM, processor or main board on these to support later IOS versions?
I think doing RAM hardware upgrades on Macs that are 10+ years old is a waste of time and money. The processor and motherboard cannot be upgraded, as others have explained. The hardware is no doubt wearing out as well anyway.
The 2014 model can run Big Sur and from my own experience with an old 2013 MacBook Air, one can still do lots of things with Big Sur. It has a recent version of Office 365 (but cannot be upgraded to the latest version; still, it works fine), can run recent (but not the latest) versions of Adobe apps, and most web sites work fine and for those that might not, using Chrome or Firefox still works fine. I would guess these older computers with Big Sur will start to become less useful as time goes by and within about two years, will have too many limitations to be useful.
As an example, the 2023 version of TurboTax required Monterey to even run, so Big Sur was just too old.
Your 2013 iMac might be stuck on Catalina and that one I would retire, it's just too old with too many limitations (my opinion based on my 2010 MacBook Air which runs High Sierra and 2013 MacBook Air which runs Big Sur).
The old Macs I still have (2015 iMac, 2013 Macbook Air, and 2010 MacBook Air) I keep mostly for fun like one keeps old things in a museum or maybe old cars that one tries to keep running, I use newer Macs on the latest version of Sonoma for anything that really matters.
You can get a brand new Mac for under $1000, although I would recommend adding some capability to those lowest cost models to make them more useful, so in practice a new one would likely cost a bit more. You can also get fairly recent models of refurbished Macs with warranties from Apple and from a few reliable companies like OWC/Macsales.
RCS4864 wrote:
I have two older iMac 27' for 2013 and 2014 time frame. I'm slowly being bricked out because of the limited IOS support available. Can I upgrade the RAMM, processor or main board on these to support later IOS versions?
I think doing RAM hardware upgrades on Macs that are 10+ years old is a waste of time and money. The processor and motherboard cannot be upgraded, as others have explained. The hardware is no doubt wearing out as well anyway.
The 2014 model can run Big Sur and from my own experience with an old 2013 MacBook Air, one can still do lots of things with Big Sur. It has a recent version of Office 365 (but cannot be upgraded to the latest version; still, it works fine), can run recent (but not the latest) versions of Adobe apps, and most web sites work fine and for those that might not, using Chrome or Firefox still works fine. I would guess these older computers with Big Sur will start to become less useful as time goes by and within about two years, will have too many limitations to be useful.
As an example, the 2023 version of TurboTax required Monterey to even run, so Big Sur was just too old.
Your 2013 iMac might be stuck on Catalina and that one I would retire, it's just too old with too many limitations (my opinion based on my 2010 MacBook Air which runs High Sierra and 2013 MacBook Air which runs Big Sur).
The old Macs I still have (2015 iMac, 2013 Macbook Air, and 2010 MacBook Air) I keep mostly for fun like one keeps old things in a museum or maybe old cars that one tries to keep running, I use newer Macs on the latest version of Sonoma for anything that really matters.
You can get a brand new Mac for under $1000, although I would recommend adding some capability to those lowest cost models to make them more useful, so in practice a new one would likely cost a bit more. You can also get fairly recent models of refurbished Macs with warranties from Apple and from a few reliable companies like OWC/Macsales.
Nope' upgrading an iMac's hardware, will not allow you to run a later macOS version.
Go to > Identify your iMac model - Apple Support to see the Newest compatible operating system: for all year models.
You can upgrade the RAM - but that won't let you run a later macOS version. The iMac motherboard and CPU are not upgradable.
Macs can be picky about RAM. If you need more, I'd suggest getting it from Crucial or Other World Computing.
No a later Mac's logic board will not fit in an older Mac.
No a newer Mac's processor will not work on an older logic board.
What you need is a newer Mac that can run the later macOS versions.
Or a new Mac that can run the current and forth coming macOS versions.
Ozzie1910 wrote:
Sorry for differ this from your post
I think doing RAM hardware upgrades on Macs that are 10+ years old is a waste of time and money. The processor and motherboard cannot be upgraded, as others have explained. The hardware is no doubt wearing out as well anyway.
Let me tell you , my iMac has a processor 2.7 from factory and I did an upgrade and now has 3.4 GHz with 16 and also I did install a NVME of 1tb where I have macOS installed and I did the Apple HDD replacing it for SSD where I have windows 10 and boths macOS and windows on bootcamp runs flawlessly without issues and I invest 150$usd only did a screen sharing with apple support Mac departament and the guy was surprised and with that I know rust no more people have enough knowledge about hardware on Mac
Your post is not really relevant to the original poster's query as they were asking if upgrading their hardware would enable a newer operating system to be installed. It's hard to follow exactly what you did, and you don't say how old your Mac is, but most likely the biggest improvement BY FAR of all the things you mention would come from replacing a HDD with an SSD. That can result in over an order of magnitude improvement (I have done that myself). The memory or processor upgrades will help some but by just a fraction of the benefit of moving from HDD to SSD.
You can’t get a newer motherboard for that iMac.
You can get a newer motherboard by buying a newer computer containing one, and using that computer.
Short answer: no, and no.
You could downgrade back to 10.12-10.14 and reinstall all your favorite 32-bit Mac apps for offline nostalgia.
You could load it with photos and make a power-inefficient digital photo frame.
You could install Linux for an open source home office computer.
There are many uses. It is just a question of what (if any) use justifies keeping it on your desk.
Sorry for differ this from your post
I think doing RAM hardware upgrades on Macs that are 10+ years old is a waste of time and money. The processor and motherboard cannot be upgraded, as others have explained. The hardware is no doubt wearing out as well anyway.
Let me tell you , my iMac has a processor 2.7 from factory and I did an upgrade and now has 3.4 GHz with 16 and also I did install a NVME of 1tb where I have macOS installed and I did the Apple HDD replacing it for SSD where I have windows 10 and boths macOS and windows on bootcamp runs flawlessly without issues and I invest 150$usd only did a screen sharing with apple support Mac departament and the guy was surprised and with that I know rust no more people have enough knowledge about hardware on Mac
Linux er en oplagt mulighed til din 2013 iMac.
Jeg har selv en Late 2013 iMac som osse kører Catalina,men, jeg har da overvejet at opgradere til Linux!
Har kørt Linux via pc de sidste otte år, mest som dual boot sammen med Windows.
Men nu kører jeg en "ren" Installation af Linux Mint 21.3 cinnamon på en Bærbar LENOVO.
Har ikke prøvet at installere Linux på en Imac,ved ikke om det kan lade sig gøre på samme måde som
på en pc dual boot eller ren installation?
(Skriver dette på dansk,da det er lettere)
I upgraded the RAM earlier but can you get a newer motherboard? Can you upgrade the processor on my old MB that might allow IOS upgrade?
Now that the IOS is no longer being supported and the apps are dying one by one is it just another "boat anchor" to litter and pollute the landscape or is there something it can be used for?
You can bring them to your local Apple Store and they will dispose of them properly for you.
P. S. - Thw Mac operating system is macOS, not iOS. IOS is the name of the operating system that runs on the iPhone, and has different version numbering.
Will upgrading my 2013 iMac's hardware allow me to update latest macOS version?
