I just did the same thing to a mid-2010 27' Mac (2390). I replaced the optical drive as I rarely use it, I bought a caddy which comes with an external USB enclosure for the DVD drive: http://www.amazon.co.uk/caddy-MacBook-replaces-SuperDrive-enclosure/dp/B00A2VNUK4 I'm not sure about which method is better, but now if I ever wanted to I could still add another (3rd) internal drive to the free SATA port on the back of the motherboard. For SSD I bought a 500GB Crucial BX100 which I "fusion drived" with the original 2TB Seagate. While I was at it I got a second hand i7-870 processor and replaced my original i3-550. Upgrade iMac Intel Core i3 CPU to Core i7 Updated all my apps (system and rest) to latest. Very pleased with all the upgrades, my mac feels so fast ;-) And with the excellent tutorials from fixit and others, it wasn't that hard. Only an hour work.
Reinstalled the i7-870 CPU, getting good at it ...only took me 20 minutes this time. I've replaced the 2 x 4gb memory in my working slots by 2 x 8gb, they show but don't seem to increase the memory test in Geekbench??
So now my setting is:
- i7-870 -2.93ghz CPU (instead of i3-3,2ghz)
- 16GB of memory (in left bank)
- Replaced the optical drive with a 512GB SSD (Crucial BX100), op. drive in USB enclosure.
- Created homemade fusion drive (SSD + original 2TB 7200rpm Seagate)
- Running El Capitan (10.11.1)
Everything is must faster. On Geekbench 3 I'm running over 2x faster than before ;-)
Just lost two memory slots in the process.
Thanks again for the tutorial, should make my comp. last a few more years.
Well I've reinstalled the old i3 CPU and same problem: only memory in BANK0 (left slots) is recognised. Only difference is that with the i7 in place I could still start up the iMac with memory in all the 4 slots, with i3 it won't start up if memory in BANK1 (right). I just get the 3 beeps.
I might have damaged a contact somewhere on the motherboard as I don't see anything related to the memory that could have been disconnected.
I'm running with 2x4GB on the left, will try to upgrade to 2x8GB not the best solution but will do...
Just upgraded my mid-2010 27" iMac (2390) from i3 to i7 (i7-870 2.93ghz). Everything is fine except that some of my memory disappeared. Memory in two of the slots show empty (BANK 1: DIMMO et DIMM1). I've tried reinstalling...same thing. Any idea? Anything I should check before reopening everything? Thanks for a great tutorial btw.
Little update (sorry about the monologue):
Reinstalled the i7-870 CPU, getting good at it ...only took me 20 minutes this time. I've replaced the 2 x 4gb memory in my working slots by 2 x 8gb, they show but don't seem to increase the memory test in Geekbench??
So now my setting is:
- i7-870 -2.93ghz CPU (instead of i3-3,2ghz)
- 16GB of memory (in left bank)
- Replaced the optical drive with a 512GB SSD (Crucial BX100), op. drive in USB enclosure.
- Created homemade fusion drive (SSD + original 2TB 7200rpm Seagate)
- Running El Capitan (10.11.1)
Everything is must faster. On Geekbench 3 I'm running over 2x faster than before ;-)
Just lost two memory slots in the process.
Thanks again for the tutorial, should make my comp. last a few more years.
Well I've reinstalled the old i3 CPU and same problem: only memory in BANK0 (left slots) is recognised. Only difference is that with the i7 in place I could still start up the iMac with memory in all the 4 slots, with i3 it won't start up if memory in BANK1 (right). I just get the 3 beeps.
I might have damaged a contact somewhere on the motherboard as I don't see anything related to the memory that could have been disconnected.
I'm running with 2x4GB on the left, will try to upgrade to 2x8GB not the best solution but will do...
Just upgraded my mid-2010 27" iMac (2390) from i3 to i7 (i7-870 2.93ghz). Everything is fine except that some of my memory disappeared. Memory in two of the slots show empty (BANK 1: DIMMO et DIMM1). I've tried reinstalling...same thing. Any idea? Anything I should check before reopening everything? Thanks for a great tutorial btw.