2011 iMac CPU,GPU,Ram upgrade Plans

I agree with etresoft. I bought a computer to get work done, not because I want to be a tech hobbiest. It's nothing to do with being skittish. Computer should work for me, not the other way around. All that should be expected of me is normal care maintenance. I can follow step by step how to upgrade, say, a GPU, and come out successfully, but then if something goes bad later that's related to my work I have lots of research and learning to diagnose and fix that, etc etc. It's a rabbit hole and a time-suck for those of us who don't want a career or hobby in computer hardware tinkering.

Disclaimer - For me the Apple Support Communities are an international user to user technical support forum. As a man from Mexico my first language is Spanish. I do not speak English, however I do write in English with the aid of the Mac OS X spelling and grammar checks. I also live in a culture very different from that found in most 1st world nations, such as that in the two dominant North American countries. Written language has no tone. When offering advice in the ASC, my comments are not meant to be anything more than helpful and certainly not to be taken as insults.

iMac CPUs and GPUs are usually soldered or glued to the motherboard. Good luck with that.

Additionally, as far as I know, unless the iMac could have originally been ordered as a custom unit with a different graphics card, they are not interchangeable - only replaceable with the same card.

In general, Macs are not user upgradeable (except for the RAM; even hard drive replacement should be done by an AASP). Additionally, if your Mac is still under warranty, it will be voided with the things you are proposing to do.

Good luck!

That is true, the user guides for the latest edition 21.5 and 27 inch iMacs are clear that the only user upgrades permitted are memory, the user is not permitted to open the back of the computer.

Curious where the order for the upgrade equipment was filed, and why they did not advise against that...must not have been a Mac specialist source.

Well, I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing the results of his efforts.... 🙂

He also just answered someone else's question recommending that he order the same graphics card - that is dangerous advice:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3813015?answerId=18918702022#18918702022

Since the hardware warranty is very specific, it is generally best not to recommend things that will void the warranty. At the very minimum, add that such work will void the warranty; otherwise you could cause the other user some major headaches.

I've seen the videos and don't intend to do anything to void my Applecare. If I want an upgradeable Mac, I can buy a Mac Pro or a different iMac.

Do you have a question that you need an answering too?

kennyap wrote:

Customizing/upgrading my computers as much as I can has always been second nature to me. My apologies to everyone if my posts are different than what you're used to hearing.

The Macintosh world is a distinctly different culture than that. You are free to do anything you want to your system, but if it doesn't work, you are on your own. Because there is no culture like that, there will be no one to help. If you were doing this with Linux on a self-built PC, there is a culture to support it. Not here.

Sorry. Been there. Done that. The time required to hack up the hardware and software to get all that running is just not worth it. I have better things to do.

In my opinion, the best way to upgrade an iMac is to buy a new one and sell the older one to offset the price. Since Macs hold their value better than PCs do, then it's likely not to cost you much (if any) more to upgrade that way than trying to do it as you propose.

Now, if you just want to muck around on the inside of your iMac without regard to cost or labor, then that's an okay hobby-project. But recommending it to others is not wise.