Upgrading the $500 2013 iMac to the Max!
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- Опубліковано 1 вер 2019
- In today's video we're going to crank the cheap late 2013 27" iMac all the way up- installing the maximum specs this chassis can support! Big thanks to Adamanta for sending over RAM for this project, check them out here: adamantainc.com
Check out iFixit for detailed disassembly guides, such as this one for 27" iMacs: www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Int...
Parts used in this video:
SSD (Crucial P1 500gb): amzn.to/2NJcwEy
SSD (Samsung 970 Pro): amzn.to/2UmmTPP
SSD Adapter: amzn.to/2Ln9aVb
Adhesive Strips: amzn.to/2MJBCDD
Adamanta RAM: www.amazon.com/dp/B07DWDPJW2
Thermal paste: amzn.to/2ZErpuh
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Panasonic Lumix GH5: amzn.to/2SDQrYi
Blue Snowball Mic: amzn.to/2PwASD0
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#screamer #righttorepair - Наука та технологія
Thanks Luke for letting all of us know that ALL 2013 27" imacs have the pcie slot and that the 21" only has it IF you have the fusion drive. There are soooo many conflicting stories on the net on this, that its worth re-mentioning this for all us that are looking to upgrade our 2013 imacs.
You post saved me writing the exact same thing.
Seriously, how are you only at 71k subscribers? I'm not the biggest apple fan, but your videos are always very well made and good to watch
I've watched several videos from this channel lately. I really expected it to have at least have a million subs!
Agreed
Started watching Luke back in the 20k Subs days. The Quality already was better then most 1 Mio sub channels. This channel needs more subs and absolutely deserves at least a million
@@leon81061 Yea same. I really wish he has a good CPM
agreed..fresh as fvck... min 900k must be.....
Hi Luke, thanks a million for the video! I ended up max'ing out a 3.4 GHz late-2013 27" iMac with a 1 TB mechanical HDD: upgraded the CPU to the Core i7-4771 (miserable experience, nearly borked the machine), a Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB NVMe (2280) PCIe drive as the boot/application drive (not terribly difficult - get the right tools and follow the video directions closely - the OWC PCIe SSD drive replacement video is the best), a Crucial MX500 1 TB SSD drive for data (pretty easy, once the display has been removed), and upgraded the memory to 32 GB (Timetec, trivial to upgrade). If anyone is still considering something like this in 2020 or later, I'd suggest:
- get the right tools (from iFixIt), especially the "pizza tool" to cut the display adhesive - using old guitar picks and ancient credit cards you find laying around to open the display is dumb - the right tools will cost less than $20 - to replace a botched display will run about $600. Do the math...
- try to avoid the CPU upgrade - it can be done, but it's seriously no fun and you run the risk of borking your investment - try to find a refurbished or used unit with the Core i7 already installed
- if you're REALLY lucky, try to find a unit with the upgraded graphics - the GeForce GTX 780M with 4 GB VRAM
- definitely consider installing a PCIe SSD drive as your main drive - the slot is only a PCIe x2, but you'll still get better performance than the SATA3 drive connection
- as long as you have 8-16 GB RAM to start out, you should be good - upgrading RAM is a
How did you almost bork the board during the CPU replacement? I'm genuinely curious about that as it's a fairly straightforward process: remove heatsink, clean off old thermal paste and pads, swap cpu, replace thermal paste and pads, replace heatsink. Did you forget to tighten the sink down in a clockwise starfish pattern like changing a tire maybe?
Thanks for the shopping list. I was able to use the listed items to max out my Late 2013 27" iMac drive, CPU, and RAM.
I have this iMac now, so I’m looking at this with new eyes.
And, in terms of price, how much would worth an imac like that with all this upgrades where you live? Just curious...
I love watching your videos. This is a much needed video. Thanks for sharing and keep your great videos coming.
I bought this iMac with the same specs new in late 2013. This computer still works great today!
Great info. I sill work with my late '13 iMac and thought about updating or changing to something new. I "updated" to a external USB 3.0 SSD and got like 400/450 write/read speeds.
The best Mac value by far is a used iMac where you've replaced an HDD with a 1TB SSD. This gives you 90% of the speed improvenent that this massive upgrade delivered, and the whole machine runs considerably cooler and quieter, and will last longer. I removed my HDD to an external enclosure for that reason alone - this will also make replacement much easier when it inevitably croaks. (I use it as a Time Machine backup drive, for which USB is perfectly adequate.)
Macs Fan Control is a freebie utility that takes care of the fan issue.
My imac is a 2013 with a 2gb gtx 775m card... Can you upgrade this card to the 4gb gtx 780?
@@grupogolden2312 no. The GPUs are soldered in.
almost two years ago I bought a 2013 IMac because of your videos, I have had to parts laying around forever to upgrade the HDD and to also add NVME. I finely took the time to do it, totally worth it should give it a few more years of life.
I found this model iMac local. paid $600. On your recommendation I'm very happy! I'll do the SSD Upgrade and Ram. Thanks Luke! Great Info here!
is it possible to upgrade the gpu?
Thanks for honesty i am looking on an imac and do not know what to get so i decided to watch videos like yours but your explanation is the one i enjoyed the most....
Thanks for this! I already have the 2013 27” and I was considering a new computer. I agree that it wouldn’t make sense to buy an older version just to then spend the money to upgrade, when you could buy the older upgraded version, but it does seem worth it to upgrade what you already own. Out of pocket expenses of $400-500 VS thousands for a new machine.
Absolutely right totally nonsense to spend more money for older machine 😮 the tech still outdated anyway 🤣😂😁😬🤔
Glad this popped up. Planning on upgrading my parents iMacs.
Hey Luke. I had the courage to put the i7 4770k on my 27 inch Imac from 2013, result: The machine is a plane!!! Beat up a lot of 2020 out there. Detail, it's running Ventura 13.4.1 through opencore... Runs smooth. Turns on in 9 seconds, opens apps in 3.5 seconds, and native apps in less than 1 second. Here are my machine settings:
Processor: i7 4770k Quad core
SSD M.2 Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
SSD SATA Samsung 870 EVO 1TB
Video Card GTX 775 2GB
32GB Kingston RAM memory
macOS Ventura 13.4.1
I advise anyone in doubt to put the 4770k which is much better than the 4771.
As a mac and vintage gadgets enthusiast i find watching your "restoration" vids a delight. Keep it up!
first i cleaned the heck out of everything. then added 512gb nvme ssd inside and installed 512gb 2.5 sata ssd, and switched from 8g to 16gb ram. big improvements. thinking of going back in to up both the ssd's to 1tb each. i love working on these imacs
I just got a iMac i7 late 2013, for $400. It has 32gigs of ram with a SSD on the mother board. I think I will be making some upgrades for more space, but this iMac is already a screamer. As always a great video super production and you made it very explainable.
Nice find!
I bought a 2017 with 16GB for €400, I already replaced the HDD for an SSD for €15 (already hasld the EVO870)
Great job Luke I did the same for my late 2013 27" iMac got mine for $200.00 because it had a bad power supply put a new one init did the upgrades very solid mac
Well worth it Luke. I am being tempted to buy one of these myself now thanks to you. Cheers.
The one other thing I would recommend if you decide to do this, is to replace the CMOS battery (the flat disc battery on logic board) while it is apart. With a machine that old, it certainly will need replacement sooner rather than later and so much easier to do it when everything is apart. Also, it probably would make sense to replace the hard drive as well. Hard drives can fail at any time and one this old may fail relatively soon. Yes, $40 for the adapter is a cost, but you can easily bump it up to 2 or 4 TB for not much $$. For value, this can make sense if you already own a 2013 27in iMac....like I do!
So the stand hinge pins that hold the springs that keep the display in the angle of choice, finally bit the dust. :( So if I want to fix that (right now I have a block between the stand and the back of the iMac to keep it upright) then this upgrade seems like it could be a good idea. I already have 24gb of RAM, so wouldn't do that, but would probably go ahead and add the SSD to the logic board and replace the HD with either a higher capacity HD, or SSD. I have my original HD right now and failure after almost 10 years is more likely to happen than not.
Hi. @gatorcellman whats the voltage of the CMOS battery? 3V or 5V? DL/CR*****? i found a logicboard that doesn't have and i'm trying to revive it.
@@KelvinJohn It will be a 3V BR2032. The reason to use the BR version is that it has a higher temperature tolerance than a CR2032. But if you have a CR2032 lying around, it should work for testing. Good luck!
@@gatorcellman Thank you! let me find one.
I took computer repair class back in 04 in high school and I've been watching a bunch of repair and upgrade videos lately and noticed no one wears those ground wrist bands is that still a thing or newer electronics don't mess up by the electricity in out body anymore just remember my teacher always saying make sure your grounded
most people doing this use the anti static mats instead. Its a lot less hassle
Just give me a good winter I bet I could mess the motherboard up from electricity that I store in my body. I got lucky at times.
Really it’s a non-issue except in very old hardware.
"disassembly was the trickiest part of this" good thing you showed us how
That’s why you use a guide like iFixit and not a youtube video
@@noahno but then there’s no point in making this video
A great video, even 3 years later. I don’t need to take your advice to avoid the upgrade work because I was just given a 21-1/2 inch iMac late 2013. S, here I go! The trickiest part is getting into it--I watched another UA-camr upgrade one of these things and right off the bat, as he ran the plastic blade around the edge of the glass to get inside he (you guessed it!) cracked the glass! Bummer. Not his fault The glass obviously tolerates VERY LITTLE stress. A valuable object lesson for the rest of us. Thanks for the step-by-step, Luke.
Great couple of videos on this machine. Thanks!
Funny thing, about 2 months ago I bought pretty much an identical machine locally on Craigslist for $420
It's a Late 2013 iMac 27'
3.5 GHz Intel Core i7
32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4 GB
And it was already upgraded to 500GB SSD
Such a great machine, I edit in FCPX on it and it's so fast and smooth...
Hello.. Can you please tell me the model of the iMac bought? I would like to buy one with the same specs.
impossible deal even now, stop showing off
@@UP209D Not really just yesterday I got a mint 201327" i7, 3TB Fusion (128gb SSD - 3TB platter) 16Gb ram GTX 775 2gb with mint Magic Mouse and keyboard for 320 AUD (232 USD) on Facebook marketplace. Kinda felt bad for the old dude selling it 😳 You can tell this thing had hardly been used, cleaned the dust out of the SD card reader and everything is working 100% Good upgrade for my 2010 27" i7 which is still working perfectly 12 years later.
Seriously... that video made my day! Just upgraded my iMac 27 5k late 2015 with an Evo 860 and questioned myself if the same upgrade is possibly with my older iMac 27 late 2013. Now I know it is possibly cause it's an 27-inch iMac! Big thanks for that note man! Cause i'm having just the normal 1TB HDD and not a fusion drive installed and was worried to open the iMac. Now i will speed it up with a fresh pci SSD. WHOOP WHOOP!
Another fan workaround is Macs Fan Controller, I've used this with my 2 x 2012 27" iMac's when upgrading to SSD. You can control settings and parameters as you like, it works well.
Hi Luke. i love your content and this was indeed a fun built to watch. Keep up the great work you are doing/
Still running a 2013 iMac 27" in my Business, same specs, doing graphics, layout and website programming. Its still a wonderful machine to work with, and i guess it will do fine a few years more. Only had to equip a SSD, mechanicsl harddrives are way too slow nowadays, as soon as you have used a ssd once.
Hey, though this comment is quite late in this August 2022, but I've just started taking interest in iMacs and thought a research would be the most initial thing to go farther. And as somebody said earlier you're great in every video I've watched so far. Your projects are really astonishing, heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking when it comes to an end with the words "you're better buy one already with what I have done today". Hehe hehe. Joking aren't you?
Just picked up a late 2013 iMac with an i5. Wish I would have run across your video before I bought it. Hugely informative and well done! Thank you. Video well done too. I would have like to watch you remove the logic board but.. Be well
Thanks for the 2013 spec recommendations if you are looking to buy.
Yes it's worth it. Very informative. Especially the end when u recommended don't go to the trouble.
Your videos are getting better and better. Keep in up Luke!
This is the video I'd been looking for it for a long time.
Thanks for this great video. I upgraded the motherboard late 2012 late 2013 for a gain in graphics card from 512MB to 2GB I also have better wifi and an MNVE Crusial 500GB (P2) SSD the P2 works without problem even if it is not listed as compatible on the crusial site. 100% functional.
Sorry for the google translation
I think it's totally worth it for me, because as you said - I'm planning on upgrading down the road and will only start with the ssd to get it going. Great video as always!
Get one with DRAM. They’re way better.
Please open a Repair shop! We need this passion in the repair shops where usually people don’t give a crap. You show that you truly loves it.
It's not that hard to work on those machines. All you need right tools and a lot of time.
@@TheDuckieNYC I know. I did replace the HDD for SSD on my iMac 🖥️ but it was a LOT of effort. Besides the screen is super heavy and delicate. I was scared to break it. One mistake and it’s all gone.
@@ricardomlourenco Done it. Had to replace one.
Unfortunately, it’ll be like any other job overtime - doing repairs day in day out would get mundane. Obviously, Luke has to be polite, calm, collective and upbeat in his videos but the big factor is; he doesn’t have to deal with the public.
Well, all I can say is that you provide an excellent instructional video every time, you have demystified the Apple Mac for me Luke. I managed to upgrade the Apple MacBook to it’s max which was great. Thank you very much John Charlesworth
Great video, i miss my imac 27" late 2013, gave it to my bro for half value.
I had fun watching this vid. Thank you!
For the fans to work with an SSD there's a great little program. It's called SSD Fan Control.
Guy Incognito different from SMC fan control?
I use Macs Fan Control for exactly this issue. Works like a charm.
I also use the fan control app. Don’t even bother with the mod, just set the HDD fan to the lowest setting in the app and you won’t even hear it.
just upgrading my 2013 imac to 860 evo (replaced my hard drive), strangely it works perfectly with no issues. Even without Macs Fan Control!
But different story for my 2010 imac, i replaced the hdd with a newer hdd and the fan is spinning on full speed.
I like his work around though. He just left the HDD in place and now he has a 1TB internal storage to put archived video projects or whatever in while the machine operates off the new SSD.
Your presentations are ultra informative. Please do a video on: How to Shop for iMAC's on eBay.
The best part was your cat front the cam! XD, great video bro!...🙌🏻 👋🏻
i searched upgrading an imac 27 with NVMe even if it isn't used at its full potential, if the cost is similar, why spend money on older tech?, i didn't find anything, then i thought about replacing thermal paste and i found you! PERFECT! this is soo cool! thanks, this is really what i wanted to know. i didn't know you could upgrade to i7, i am so happy, wow! thanks so much!
Was worth it ´cause i learned a lot here! Nice work.
I have early 2009 and glad it is magnetic for easy to remove the screen and I never get one with adhesive like this 2013.
you can control the fan using an application it solves the problem of overheating , just set the right fan speeds and you good to go with your ssd (a proud user of a 2011 imac)
Nice one, you've upgraded to what I purchased from Apple back in 2013 except that I have a 3Tb Fusion drive (the spinning part of) which is now starting to fail according to DriveDX. I'm patiently waiting for Apple to bring out a new form factor iMac so that I can upgrade (video conversion on this iMac can be a bit laborious).
Nice video. I have a iMac 27" 2012 with a Samsung 2.5" SSD and it does not seem to affect the fan speed.
I just got done fixing up a 2011 with a bad backlight. Upgraded to a 2600s and a 765m for Mojave compatibility. Fixed the backlight, but broke the LCD in the process, so that hurt the budget buying a new one. Don't take the display panel apart like I did to resolder the backlight connector. Just do like everyone else and solder wires through the hole on the back of the display.
I just inherited a late 2012 21inch. This is day two trying to figure it out. I've always used Linux. So far I really like it.
Great video man!
You gotta start including how you actually do this step by step. It’s great content you’re leaving on the table and you’re subscribers would be interested. Great video regardless......also more cat ;)
When you wish that cat would lay down inside the computer just to make luke get annoyed
hey, Luke. It's always a joy to see your videos! I have this same model and I'm afraid of all these screws hahaha. This information about insert a SSD M.2 is completely new for me! Thanks about that! Did you recommend change just the HDD for SSD? I thinks could be easiest to make it myself!
I don’t know why but it’s so satisfying watching you do the upgrades even though I won’t do it.
It's called eye candy
I like these vids. Good work man
I NEED a new processor to run my DAWs. I'm using a 2010 iMac and I just cant run any of my apps on it. i appreciate u for this video. pointing me in the right direction
i have the late 2013 Imac I maxed to the top of rams and pretty good for me just keep it to el captain. I'm interested by your videos! I used to repair macs and love to disassemble them , you're doing a great job. I just have one point , the screen inch broke pretty quickly! it's obviously an apple failure so I put a wooden piece underneath to hold the heavy screen
I have put sata sdd in 27" thin edge imac, it does not affect fan speed, only on older models that happens.
Really really really like your videos.
I upgraded the memory in my 2013 27” but never thought about adding ssd, will have a go.
Oh look a 50 year old housewife looking for some eye candy by watching luke miani because they think he is handsome
Thx for your good way of explaining how bro 🙌
Video was very entertaining keeping these video
The cat needs to be in more videos
How did this final version turn out to work when it comes to editing 4k video?
Can it do it, i mean with longer clips, more effects, layers and so on? Inspiring good content on your channel!
Awesome video and thanks for the uploads, we can’t get enough!! I would love to see how you set up the disk drive as a secondary, and the ssd as the primary. Keep creating!
Luke, thanks for the great video. Have you ever tested upgrading the graphics card? I have a 2015 Imac with a 2gb AMD Radeon R9 M395. Is there a way to upgrade that? OR maybe just add an EGC? thanks again!
my iMac has an intel I3 gen 8 3.6 Ghz. with 8 gigs of RAM. Also 1 TB HDD. I went ahead an installed a 500 GB SSD and oh my! such a huge difference. my iMac runs flawless now.
Great video!
a month ago i bought an imac 27 inch with the top configuration like on this video with the modest price of 136.11 usd with shipping.. best deal of my life :)
Hy Luke, thanks so much for this video. I would like to know if you may precise which cable is needed if we want to replace the HDD, for the thermal sensor ? Best regards; Kind of blow
For the temp sensor... if you cannot put an NVME drive, locate where the pins for the sensor are and solder wires (maybe on the board) to a resistor.
Use the value that your hard drive temp sensor gives when the hard drive is completely cold!
I bought a 27" iMac late 2013 $550.00 plus tax, with a 4771 and GTX 780M 4GB 32 GB SSD 2.5 inch SSD 512GB with Catalina installed on SSD, use the logic board from it and put it in my machine Clean, new heat past and put old logic board and use as a Xmas gift. 7 Nov 2021. Thank You for all info. I will get it done by Xmas.
Thanks for posting these videos, they are super informative, and helped me make my decision to get one of these maxed out imacs a while back. Wondering your thoughts on upgrading to unsupported versions of macos on these machines. Not sure if you already did videos on this or not but curious on your thoughts regardless
*Just get a dos dudes patcher and leave the eye candy alone*
My issue was i broke the power button cable... so i had to order one form ebay. so now waiting on that, installed an NVMe 1TB and 2TB SSD on my 2017 Imac!
Great video ! Next time pse use small boxes to keep small stuff like screws together.
When you tell a part number could you also print it somewhere in the screen?
English is not my mother language and it's not immediate to compose the part numbers in the head
I took apart my iMac (When I still had it, crapped out. GFX) and the hardest part was not putting it together, it was the wait for that screen to turn on and boot. It would always take longer then normal, like it knew I took it apart and was just messing with me.
Great video. Thanks!!
Thanks for the video, but for such a nice upgrade, here is what i think is missing in the video:
You should record the opening time of the mac before and after the upgrade to show what kind of a difference the upgrade had on the mac.
Definitely have the removal / installation of the cpu so that it would help others that would like to go thru the same process.
and of course the removal and the assembly of the logic board.
This guy knows what is he doing!!
Hi Luke. Great videos. Do you have a video on linking two 2013 iMacs together to use one as a display? I have been trying to do this but have not been able to make them work. Also, would you have a suggestion or video on how to fix a display that has a black bar running through it? Thanks in advance.
Overall, I’d say you’re right, although I’d still want to upgrade the SSD (and possibly the HDD) myself, given that they only have a certain amount of read/writes to them. I would rather start at square one with those.
Can i do same thing (m.2 nvme) on a *2012 * iMac 21.5 with a fusion drive inside?
Very nice and informative. Could you possibly include where we could find these iMac's at those great prices????
It's called eBay and he is a lier the prices aren't going to be that good on every listing
Silly hooman, Rosie *needs* to inspect your iMac upgrade (and get some head scritches) 😹
Thank you very much for the information that you have to give due to the fact that this is the computer that I own great job I really appreciate you you have a great rest of your day😎😎😎!
I literally just finished putting as SSD, ram and CPU in an early 2008 20” iMac. I could have just done the ram and EL Capitan to make it a very usable computer. But where’s the fun in that!
A word of warning - he makes this look easier than it is. I'm fairly experienced with taking iMacs apart and my attempt at this was a total failure. Only 1 LED showing and a long list of things to troubleshoot! Hopefully not a dead iMac.
Love your vids. I almost tossed my 2012 27” iMac due to a faulty power supply but now I’m excited to beef this machine up! Question, if you don’t mind? Does it make more sense to upgrade/add the NVMe SSD, replace the HDD, or both? I know if money was no issue, why not do both? Looking for best bang for the buck. Greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
strange video....... you cut out all the parts i wanted to see!!!
Ikr
seriously
He put a link in the description that shows the tear down.
agreed, this video had potential to be EXCELLENT in depth but ended up being really top level.
I know this is really old etc. but one other thing you could have done, is left the stock ssd in, used a 1-2tb 2.5” ssd, and used Macs Fan Control, and set custom fan curves based on cpu core temp avg.
brilliant video. It's given me the confidence to do this. Is it possible to add a 1TB PCIe SSD d you know?
Could you format this setup to work as a Fusion Drive? You should try that out.
I have the 2013 27" iMac with a GTX 775m and 3,4gHz i5 and replaced the HDD (bought it with a Fusion Drive), so now I have about 120GB on the original SSD + 500GB on the MX500 via SATA. As the time passed by I also added 16GB RAM (2x 8GB) for a total of 24 GB. I am perfectly fine and happy about my purchase 6 years ago. It will be used until it's death.
hi there. I too have a maxed up late 2013 imac and after replacing the HD with a 1TB SSD it really works nicely...but I wonder how much faster the 2019 imacs (not the pro) but the i5 and the expensive i9 are compared to the 2013...I hate the "marginally" faster upgrades...if I buy a new one I want it to be a real big upgrade. I do mostly video editing with Adobe CC and I'm finally learning to edit with FCP X...have you seen any videos comparing a late 2013 i7 vs a 2019 i5 or i9? Thanks!
Don't know if I got lucky but my old 21.5 in iMac 2013 just had the stock HDD and it came with the connector for the SSD used here so I was able to make a fusion drive
Bobby Brady if I’d been planning on keeping it yeah sure but the whole thing just didn’t have the specs for what I was needing so it was an upgrade to just make it useable so I could pass it on to family
Great video and thanks just wondering why would you leave a big HOT HDD in the machine when you can fix the HDD fan noise with software?
Hi! what's the overall difference between this imac and the newest versions of imacs? cheers from Chile, nice content!