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I have imac 27" i3 (mid 2010) Is it possible replace cpu to i5 or i7? I have some information that i5 model replace to i7 cpu. http://www.hardmac.com/articles/335/page… I think i5 model is possible. Is it possible i3 model? Please helping me i3 core is very slow~

It follows the same procedure as both are LGA 1156 (i3, 15 and half of i7 is, the other half of the i7 family is LGA 1366)

after 1 year i3 to i7 870 working very nice

Did you try to change it? Did it work?

Did you just do a straight up swap or was there anything extra involved(i.e. firmware or graphics)?

I will be updating my iMac mc510ll/a, intel i3-550, ati hd5670 to i7-870, will let all of you know, ok! would appreciate any input from Jooyoung Park or anybody Update So finally yesterday, I got my i7-870 processor and I was able to just swap the i3-550 in my iMac 27’’ mid 2010, 11,3 to i7 was just like Renato said plug and play, thank you guys, I have successful upgrade on my iMac and I’m very please to report that the performance on my iMac has been unleashed, I’m talking about mostly about my video decoding tasks, this processor is a beast. Heres is the system in detailed after upgrade, also I used arctic silver as the heat transfer compound as advised. Hardware Overview: Model Name: iMac Model Identifier: iMac11,3 Processor Name: Intel Core i7 Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz Number of Processors: 1 Total Number of Cores: 4 L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB L3 Cache: 8 MB Memory: 12 GB Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B00 SMC Version (system): 1.59f2

You won’t be able to go to Sandy Bridge. The i3 550/i5 650 /i7 860/870 are all socket 1156, Sandy Bridge chips (i5 2310/2400/21500, i7 2600) are all socket 1155 - that’d be a different logic board. In theory, you could start with a new 2011 version with the i5 quad core and upgrade it to the i7 sandy bridge, but that’s quite the expensive upgrade to do on a machine if you don’t have a reason to. The 2010 iMac’s are 1156 - Pre-SandyBridge only. If someone proves that wrong, please let me know!

I did the i3 550 to i7 870. The logic board reads out the process just fine, however my fans are running at full speed and the hardware tests is returning a 4sns….

thanks everyone for the quick reply. just making sure.. upgrade from iMac 11,2 (21,5") Core i3 550 to Core i7 with TDP 95w, right? i heard that would have some problem due the higher TDP, so i was afraid to get stuck with the i5 680 as higher upgrade possible. if anyone could suggest a good store with a nice price to buy, i would appreciate. thank you guys!

Hi, Im wondering the same as Thomas Goss: Change my i3-540 with an i7-xx Anyone tried?

Renato, Pelo que vi no site da Apple, a EFI é igual: iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010) iMac11,3 IM112.0057.B01 (EFI 1.8) iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) iMac11,2 IM112.0057.B01 (EFI 1.8) http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237

Então no caso o que impossibilita é que o i3 ou i5 (dualCore) tem tdp de 73 w e o i7 tdp de 95 w

I would suggest putting in N particles in each core rather than dividing up N amongst 8. I am actually going to take the liberty of lifting your code and running it on my cluster Travel Teluk Kiluan

I don’t think an i7 will work personally. There’s quite a power difference (Max TDP 73 W for the i3-540 and Max TDP 95 W for i7-780 respectively). Secondly it’s believed that the Mac somehow utilizes the i-series Clarkdale Integrated Graphics Processor. The i7 mentioned above doesn’t have that function.