Carlos Ferrari

So I've got a M.2 Samsung EVO SSD with OSX installed and all my other files are on a 4tb WD Red HDD 5400rpm - music...

I've done some research and it seems more people have the same issue. This video ain't mine (so far my issue ain't that...

Well as the tittle says if you have plans to upgrade your iMac slim edge or just like to tinker with it and want to have...

So… I’ve got this 2015 iMac after years with my 2011 and the screen is beautiful but this feels like a much more limited...

So I recently got myself a iBook indigo 366mhz firewire and apart from the battery being dead it was working flawless. But...

It was working fine then the display got glitchy. So I booted into single mode and typed the nvram gpu-power-prefs code...

Mine is the one with i7 processor 512mb Intel graphics and 1gb dedicated AMD GPU. So here’s what I got so far: -tried that...

Hi there, about to buy a late 2012 with a Apple original 750gb blade SSD but it's just too much for me, I'll rather have a...

I bought a A1106 1.5ghz PowerBook for very cheap and decided to follow this guide Ultimate Mac Overclocking and tried from...

I’ve got this PowerBook G4 restoration/upgrade project going but good parts are hard to come by here in New Zealand so I...

This little coin sandwiched between thermal pads helps transfer the heat from the back of board to the aluminium bottom plate turning it into a heat spreader and improving the laptop’s cooling. I use it right where the CPU and GPU are (2 coins) on 15” models. Also I got inspired by those old 5,2s models and decided to use electrical tape on both sides of both fans to try and improve air flow in the heatsinks (in the picture the left fan has it, right one doesn’t - just to see the difference): And I also have MacFansControl installed using CPU PECI sensor and set it up as 65ºmin/85ºmax (Centigrade as it's universal metric)

If you already went through the very stressful process of opening and disassembling the unit the CPU replacement shouldn't be a problem. I did it myself though I've used the 6700K - can't see why the 6700 wouldn't work after al my unit had the 6600 (not the unlocked K). One thing though: the spring that holds the heatsink in place can be a very difficult thing to put back and maybe even damage your CPU - ANY CPU if you're not careful enough. I recommend ‘flatten’ it a bit using a plier or whatever you can. It should still work as to hold the heatsink in place but if it is too strong that you have to push down very hard (and I am quite a strong person…) you should definitely ‘flatten’ it or you WILL damage you CPU. Check the CPU replacement guide and read the comments on step 62 - you'll see I'm not the only one who had a problem with that: iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display CPU Replacement

Oh I almost forgot about this… Well turns out OSX has something on its code that prevents this to work but if you manage to install OS9 it'll run at the overclocked speeds. I sold to someone who managed such thing and he's really happy :) http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php...

It's not a question for help but I don't know other ways to share it so…

Well it does work! First I had to fire up the multimeter and do a continuity test to figure it out which was what: Then it was just a matter of sourcing a microscope and do some soldering (more of a pain than one might realise): And it worked! :D Now I have to find out where to get the receiver to work inside the case… The small Apple in the front - the one previously used for this - is blocked by the power plug so I'm thinking either the big Apple on the back (which can be a pain plus not get good reception) or the vents in the bottom of the case (will be my first option). UPDATE: Got the IR sensor at the bottom, near the vents. Tricky parts were: 1) get the cable out of the way of the speaker (one of the pictures is blurry but is inside the case and it's the best I could do) 2) get the bloody thing facing down (this took AGES!) And it works! You might need to sort of ‘aim’ the remote a bit but it works! :D

So I warmed it up the board to remove the silicone around the GPU and applied some flux. Then I covered the surrounding components with tinfoil but honestly don’t know if it helps or not. I did it just in the sense that it can’t do any harm so why not... Then I used the hot air gun at 300C for 5min timed. And waited till it cooled down to clean up with isopropyl alcohol. A ultrasonic bath would be ideal but I don’t have that so iso it is. Then I assembled it back and... here it goes: It worked! :D Even after hours on a stress test still wouldn't go above 70C I did do a few ‘improvements’ to ensure lower temps though: not only I used high performance thermal paste but I also used some copper shims sandwiched between thermal pads on the back of the board transferring some of the heat to the aluminium bottom plate and essentially turning it into a heatspreader. Word of caution though: this GPU comes covered with some sort of tape or whatever and it can be very difficult to remove. I knocked off a resistor and...

I have a donor board but it doesn't have the proper capacitor no more - already used elsewhere. Donor board still have some other capacitors couldn't find on Google so I'll ask here… Would those be ok…?

I would like to know that myself… Got a 2011 and was thinking in getting the 2012 just to have Mojave as even the dosdude version ain’t supported on my video card but if I can also get the i7 4770 it would be MUCH better…

How about logic boards are they interchangeable between a 2011 MacBook Air 11” and a 2014 MacBook Air 11” ? I got a 2011 in good cosmetic condition but doesn’t work and I found a working 2014 for cheap with the casing and screen all banged up. So the idea would be swap logic boards and maybe keep the bottom plate from the 2014 (serial number and model number) can it be done or would it be completely different?

Well I’m not one to give up easily so once I got my hands on some speakers from a 21” iMac it kept bugging me in the back of my head until I did this: Yes I got a better sound out of it, yes it gave my iMac some ‘depth’ to its sound and yes I am pleased with the final result specially considering whenever you say you want to mod a Mac the knee jerk reaction people give you is always “but you can’t do such things on a Mac!” Well yes you can! :) But yeah it’s just for the heck of it because I gotta be honest it’s not worth it... First it can be expensive if things go wrong: I went through some 27” iMac speakers (now useless) I’ve bought at least 3 or maybe 4 other speakers sets (Logitech, JBL and others I can’t even remember) plus all the long hours you put into this even when you’re not exactly working on it - you’re just thinking about it trying to figure it out how to make it happen. But also it can get VERY expensive if things go VERY wrong - I got a VERY close call with my display flat cable that I...

Mine did not had the screw marked in black and it did had 2 extra 3mm screws holding some sort of bracket where we see the lower pipe on the heatsink in this picture. Also it only had one pipe instead of two and only one heatsink that covers the whole thing instead of two.

Oh and the nuts seem to be imperial not metric - 3.5mm is too small and 4mm is a bit too big (4mm does do the job though).

There are 4 tabs in the back. It'll come off easier if you use an spudger to release those.

1.3 flathead screwdriver works better than a pin.

Got the 17,1 iMac and both the 820-3298 and 820-3299 boardviews are like this picture (except GPU RAM) but my board is different.

Looking at this picture at the bottom of the board there's the J2550. At its right-hand side there's one of the U7000 and different from the picture (and from the boardview) mine has its resistors soldered above it not around. And it was such a huge pain to get it right I don't even know how I managed to get my board working again - can only hope it'll be good enough to last a few years…

Just finished this and here's my 2 cents:

1) If you use guitar picks to pry the bezel out you cant do it inside out. That means no need to mess with that rubber band that goes around it. Also means it wont look as bad (bowed) once you're done removing it;

2) It is aluminium so you can always un-bend the thing and straighten it up just be careful;

3) I realise it probably wasn't available at the time this guide was made but you can use the tape designed to hold thin edged iMac's displays. That's what I did anyway and it worked like a charm no need to bind anything (had one set of those tapes laying around for future project so that was easy to get :P).

Hope that helps :)

Is it actually necessary to remove the rubber? I mean to remove the glass from the glossy display this process is skipped so what if I inserted the spudger from inside out instead and worked my way through the same way I would otherwise…?

Mine won't erase RW-DVD/CD and I was thinking in replacing the internals with a MacBook drive…

I probably will have it figured out before anyone answer but do they have the same interface?

I second that note about installing a new CPU. It is VERY hard to put it back undamaged and I too got mine bent.

The way I managed to do it was working sort of upside down: left the board on the desk then sat on the floor to screw the GPU bracket in place first then one side of the CPU bracket one-handed whilst using the other and to make sure the heatsink wouldn’t move and F my CPU again. Only then I flipped the board to attach the other screws which was extra hard as that spring is very strong.

Didnt know about that issue replacing a i5 with a i7 though… saw several guides online where people did exactly that with no problems at all…

If like me you’re upgrading the CPU - or maybe just reapplying thermal paste - you’re in for a treat when you try to reinstall the heatsink…

That spring is very strong and you’ll have to flip the board to put it back. BUT that might shift the CPU out of place and when you do apply force to secure the spring you might bent or break the CPU depending on how much it shifted.

Mine got bent (took me hours to troubleshoot) and I was lucky to unbent with no damage.

What I recommend is to secure the GPU screws first - go all the way! - and then proceed with the CPU. Still be very careful and if it doesn’t feel right just stop take everything apart and do over. Better safe than throw hundreds of dollars worth of CPU in the trash…

My model (2015) had another screw holding the heatsink duct and a stand-off holding the whole thing attached to the back. Even gently moving the logic board almost got the duct damaged till I realised what was going on so I’d suggest to be careful and DO NOT pull the logic board if it looks like it’s still attached - most likely it is!