Make your old Mac last longer for cheap! - SSD Upgrade & OpenCore Legacy Patcher on a 2012 iMac
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
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OCLP: dortania.githu...
Today, we're installing macOS Monterey on a 2012 iMac, unofficially, via OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP). We're also upgrading the 5,400RPM hard drive to an SSD.
What's the performance like? Should you do it? How to do it?
Really enjoy your video style. This was great, thank you
You’re very kind - glad you liked it!
Nice! The SSD is a great addition and it’s good to see it running well on Monterey. This would also make for a great machine to use older versions like Mountain Lion/Mavericks, but it’s still great even for a more modern OS. Great video!
You’re reading my mind!!
The other partition on the SSD is going to be for 10.9 Mavericks. :-)
Oooh nice! Can’t wait! I need to make more partitions or get more drives for different Mac OS installs, why have only 1 when you can have all of them?
@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303YESSSSSSSS haha. You'd need a large drive, that's for sure!
I have an old late 2012 iMac and this has really saved my machine! I have opted for an external ssd instead of internal but still thank you tons!
ps great video
@@letsplayitall6677 Thanks for watching, glad you liked it. :)
I run old Macs. A real good idea.
Glad to hear it!
I have a few old Macs from 2008 to 2014. They all run Sonoma with OCLP. My mac mini from 2014 is configured for triple boot: Sonoma, MX Linux and Win11
That sounds great!
Glad to hear they’re still in service.
Hey great content that more need to know!! I installed an external SSD drive in a case with 3.0 usb cable and that now is my boot drive speeds between 300/400mbs so no need to open glass if on a budget, the internal one I use as an extra data drive and that works great too. On those computers going up to Ventura and beyond is do able because of the metal graphics card in it. :)
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Yep, that GPU really helps. The 640m in this machine is around 70% faster than the HD4000 in my 2012 MacBook Air.
I am fixing to build a Ryzentosh!
That sounds exciting!
Best of luck.
Great video and axplantion, but how did you get the os on the new ssd ? Can you please tell me how to do that ?
Hi :)
For a new SSD, you need to download the macOS software and create a bootable USB stick.
The apple website has guides for this. :)
on my imac late 2013 after creating EFI boot Monterey is not recognised so it boots Catalina (current OS) who can help me?
I want to buy one of these and upgrade them as they are cheap, do you know if the 27inch late 2012 A1419 Model is upgradeable as well?
Yep, the 27" will be as up gradable as this 21.5" one. 🙂
If you find a good deal it might be worth it.
@@QuinsTechCorner ok nice thank you, you da man
Thanks for the video! I was curious how the 2012's were running on some of the newer macOS software. I have a 5K Retina iMac running Sequoia right now quickly and flawlessly but it has a few more hardware advantages. I was curious if it was worth trying to resurrect the 27" 2012 iMac collecting dust under the desk, looks like it could be fun messing around with especially being spec'd a little higher than the one shown running in this video.
There’s definitely use you can get out of a 2012 27”!
Not sure about Sequoia, but something at least.
Great video! Way did you not install a 128TB, 256TB or 512TB? 120GB seems so small. What is the maximum capacity?
Glad you liked it.
Mainly because I was on a budget!
Also this is just a hobby machine, I’m not using it for much beyond web browsing and occasional testing.
taking off their iMac screen to throw in a sata ssd is insane. I would have put in a nvme m.2 ssd behind the motherboard. Way faster than sata ssd. A external thunderbolt ssd is faster than internal sata ssd
Yeah it’s a pain in the arse 😎😂
2012s only had blade slots if ordered with it or Fusion Drive from factory. 2013s had them either way. Importantly, 2012 blade slots are SATA 3. Making it uneconomical to go that route vs standard 2.5” SATA SSDs. 2013s get marginal benefit ~700/700 using an NVMe adapter.
Thanks for the video. I am nervous about opening up my imac to install the SSDrive. Here are my current specs. Late 2012 27" iMac, 3.4 GHz Quad-core intel core i7, 32GB 1333 MHz DDr3, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 MX 2 GB. Do you think I could try Ventura or keep with Monterey? Any advice would be amazing. Thanks! :-)
my late 2012 imac with rye 675mx (1gb) and 4 gigs of ram runs perfectly on sequoia, the only things you would need to worry about is the screen cracking which you could solve by putting it on a soft surface like a bed or a couch
i upgraded my hard drive to a 2tb ssd
overall nothing to worry about!
(if your having trouble taking the flex cables out, you can kind of wiggle it out)
Hey, sorry for the late reply!
It's a bit nerve wracking, but if you make sure to take your time, and have somewhere safe (and soft) to rest the display glass, you should be OK.
On a machine like that I'd probably keep Monterey btw. Ventura tends to be a little more demanding - your main bottleneck will be your GPU I think.
I've used OCLP on my MBP2012 with big sur, it ran fine but i REALLY cant handle no 32 bit app support
Yep, that’s a killer if you need 32bit app support!
did you ever get around to installing Sonoma on it?
Unfortunately not!
Though I imagine the process would be simple enough, I would probably do a fresh install if I attempted it.
I got a late 2012 I MAC with intel core i7, processor speed 3.4 GHz. Will changing the drive to a SSD drive make a massive difference?
It absolutely will, yes.
My old 2012 Imac has 1TB HDD. Is it fine I cna replace with same 1tb SSD?
Yep, so long as you buy an appropriate SSD (SATA not M.2) that should work. :-)
@@QuinsTechCornersome imacs have nvme m.2 slot behind the motherboard. Mine does
Where did you buy the adhesive strips?
I bought them from Macfixit Australia.
You should be able to find them on ebay though!
Did you directly install OCLP without a bootable USB? if yes, is there a correct step-by-step order to do this? Thanks
Hey :-)
No, I used the OCLP app to copy the installer files to the USB.
It's very easy, and I definitely recommend doing it that way.
rad
Thanks!
Glad you like it.
Just replacing to SSD gave this poor old machine a 6 fold data read speed! Apple should have thought a bit more before releasing this post Steve Jobs product bcoz Steve would have hated this machine! 🤣
Yep, the SSD helps so much.
I think Steve liked machines that couldn’t be upgraded (see the early days of expansion slot arguments) but he’d at least have wanted a decent experience for people.
no thanks
It’s not for everyone :-)