eire3678 Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 eire, did you read this thread? Apologies, I had a bug up my tail-end yesterday. As far as this though, I'm of the opinion that it isn't worth buying an iMac with the intention of immediately buying a graphics card for it. If you already bought the 24" and decide you need more oomph this is fantastic though. I'm sorry if my questions annoyed anyone else... I realize that I could have googled and I did. Mostly what I came across were reviews by cnet and the like as well as some threads on other forums. Nobody that I could find (other than Apple techs of course) has had more experience than Caslon at tearing apart a 24". I was hoping to find out what Caslon might think of my idea: buying a 7300 equipped refurb 24" for 1799 and then possibly upgrading the card to a 7600 if it is available seperately for a reasonable price. I know apple's official stance is that the card is not upgradeable and not even accessibe but of course Caslon proved them wrong with his experiments with several different cards in his 24" (none of the cards the he tried worked but he did find that it was a relatively straightforward procedure to physically swap them out) Sorry for the quick and nasty reply. It wasn't a good day for me. Writing VBA code all day can do that to a person Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossie Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Coding all day kills everyone a little bit on the inside Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bildar Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 no worries eire I know it doesn't make much sense to do what I am talking about but there it is. The imac I really want is one with a 7600 and I am just trying to get one as cheaply as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxAg Posted April 26, 2007 Share Posted April 26, 2007 Your best bet for buying a 7600 for the 24" iMac is to get in real close with an Authorized Apple Service tech who can order replacement parts. Caslon, you said that there is no way for Apple to known if you have opened up your 24" iMac. On the 17" & 20", there are gobs of EMI shielding tape that rips if you look at it too hard and makes it neigh impossible to completely cover your tracks. Are you saying that this is not the case on the 24" iMac? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
four! Posted April 27, 2007 Share Posted April 27, 2007 I read this thread earlier today before I was at work. Im glad i got to have a look inside the iMac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessoni Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 Hello, great post...thank for all your advices and tips. I'm going to buy for my self a new imac 24" to replace my hp nw8240 notebook. I do many thing with my computer, but I use it mostly with Dassault Catia, dunno if some one know this software... By the way, I'd like to know if some one have tried to put inside an imac a WD Radpor, a 10000rpm hdd ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefoul Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Update !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, the 7900 card I tried was really a 6800. It did not work. I just tried a 7800 and it's a type III card and physically will not work with the iMac 24. My only conclusion is that it Mac cards or nothing. I'm done trying. That makes 4 different cards that don't work. Well....maybe with the release of the new MBP with GeForce 8600GT (MXM)....we might have a light of hope... :mellow: ...on the whole... the graphic cards slotted in the new laptops should have the Apple special form factor.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefoul Posted June 29, 2007 Share Posted June 29, 2007 Caslon....first of all: thank you for having posted your pics.... I got a question for you (since you seem to be an experienced technician): the iMac 24" has a ICH7-M Southbridge....All ICH7 family natively supports SATA II transfer rate (the evidence is inside my Hackintosh). In your opinion.....is the ICH7-M an Apple customization to restrict transfer rate to SATA I only or it's just a matter of Jumper caps positioning??? (Ok...that was a bad one ....I assume you know 100% better than me how to play with Jumper Caps!!) It's a pity that the iMacs and the previous MBPs cannot fully take advantage of SATA II transfer rates....that makes the difference in many scenarios!!! Can it be sorted out at Kext level somehow??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idigitaljock Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Well....maybe with the release of the new MBP with GeForce 8600GT (MXM)....we might have a light of hope... ...on the whole... the graphic cards slotted in the new laptops should have the Apple special form factor.... :pirate2: Macmall is now selling the 8600M GT for 178.99. I just received mine from FedEx today. I'm going to install it tomorrow and see if I can get it running under both OSX and Vista. I'll let you all know how it goes! :::fingers crossed::: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idigitaljock Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 Macmall is now selling the 8600M GT for 178.99. I just received mine from FedEx today. I'm going to install it tomorrow and see if I can get it running under both OSX and Vista. I'll let you all know how it goes! :::fingers crossed::: Nevermind... the idiots at MacMall are saying that they requested it for me from another warehouse and that warehouse sent me a desktop version of the 8600 GT. It's a no go for now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekton Posted July 9, 2007 Share Posted July 9, 2007 Hi Caslon, Thanks for the pics inside the 24" iMac. Can you tell me whether the Airport card is easy to access (I could not see it in the pics). It is the same unit as used in the intel Mac Pro and I want to move it to my Mac Pro if possible (duh--forgot to order Airport when placing BTO) Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekton Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 To eat my own dog food, the Airport Extreme card is under the right speaker and can be moved into the Mac Pro--same card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrSupachicken Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Can someone tell me how the irda board connects to the mobo? From memory I think it is on the same port as isight or bluetooth in imac and all on seperate in macbook. I'm looking at getting a replacement irda board and trying to install in my hackintosh for completely native infared. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekton Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 in the 24" intel iMac, the IR/ALS cable runs between the IR board, ALS board and motherboard, all located at the mid bottom of the main board betwen the two speaker housings. Just remove memory, memory access door, and front bezel and you will see it immediately. Remove the two screws (one each securing IR and ALS boards), lift them out and disconnect connectors. Trace the short cable back to the motherboard connector a few centimeters below the battery and disconnect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrSupachicken Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Hi Nekton, Does the irda board just connect onto a USB port on the motherboad/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekton Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 It's an 8-pin connector with 4 lines from the IR board and 4 from the ALS board. Whether it is a USB interface, I do not know. Would it show up in the USB controller devices in More Info About this Mac? I will check when I have access to a 24" later this afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekton Posted July 15, 2007 Share Posted July 15, 2007 I was shopping for big drives in Akihabara and called in at the SofMap Mac store where they have a 24" iMac on display. About This Mac More Info shows the presence of an IR device on the USB bus, so I guess the motherboard connector is a dual USB pinout (4 pins for IR board and 4 pins for ALS).The IR/ALS Cable is part 922-7803.Good luck.The IR board is part 922-7804 and the ALS board is 922-7805. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omainik Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Hi Caslon, Thanks for the pics of the dissasembled 24" iMac. Is there any empty space left for a second hard disk? Is there a second sata plug on the motherboard? A option would be to exchange the optical drive for a HDD like in optiBays MacBook upgrade. Is the optical drive SATA or PATA? I am not sure to buy a iMac instead of my Windows PC. One Issue is the possibility to have the performance of a RAID. Best Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caslon Posted August 21, 2007 Author Share Posted August 21, 2007 Just one SATA connector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulShkodrani Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 (edited) Carlson, you are a Star here now, and I believe it's hard to "reach" you without your lawyer present. Just e joke, but thanks for the help for all of us. In the last picture of the open iMac with the detailed part I miss something. Can you descript for me where is located Graphic Card and Processor. Thanks in advance Edited August 25, 2007 by PaulShkodrani Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caslon Posted September 28, 2007 Author Share Posted September 28, 2007 I just got the new 24 inch with the core 2 extreme. It runs circles around my previous 24. I'll be posting pics later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joep297 Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Caslon: Have you had any video freeze problems with your new 2.8GHz iMac? hmm. I wonder if the graphics cards can be exchanged between your new 24" iMac and your previous 24" iMac... PS - thanks very much for sharing your upgrade experiences with your previous 24" iMac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawnman Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Well Carlson, I think the next era of this post is to ask the inevitable question. Will the new silver macs take a quad-core and where are we with replacing the video card on the new silver 20" macs. Upgrading will be the call for the day on purchasing this new imac. Anyone brave enough to break open their 20" silver iMacs? Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automaton79x Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 I just purchased a 2.4GHz Core Duo, 24" iMac, bumped the memory to 2 gigs. This compy is to replace my aging PC, which does happen to have 2 perfectly good 150GB WD Raptor X Drives in it. This iMac came with a WD3200AAJS. Though I'd be sacrificing some internal space, I'm interested in the speed boost. The Raptor is far faster with the exception of peak transfer rate, which is a much less prevalent factor in typical ops then is generally thought. I plan on using a large FW/800 external drive to compensate for space and maintain a high level of speed. The current drive is quieter (26-28db vs 39-46db), but runs (strangely enough) hotter than the Raptor does. What do you guys think? I could also turn the raptor pair into an external raid array, but there is no eSATA port on the iMac, so it would have to be run converted to FW. Intel ICH8-M AHCI: (M indicates mobile on an Intel desc., suspicious considering some of the talk I've seen in this forum that this is more of a desktop based compy) Vendor: Intel Product: ICH8-M AHCI Speed: 3.0 Gigabit Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported WDC WD3200AAJS-40RYA0: Capacity: 298.09 GB Model: WDC WD3200AAJS-40RYA0 Revision: 12.01B03 Serial Number: WD-WCAPZ2807387 Native Command Queuing: Yes Queue Depth: 32 Removable Media: No Detachable Drive: No BSD Name: disk0 OS9 Drivers: No S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified Volumes: 1334: Capacity: 297.77 GB Available: 277.87 GB Writable: Yes File System: Journaled HFS+ BSD Name: disk0s2 Mount Point: / WD3200AAJS Specs: Rotational Speed 7,200 RPM (nominal) Buffer Size8 MB Average Latency 4.20 ms (nominal) Start/Stop Cycles 50,000 minimum Seek Times Read Seek Time 8.9 ms Write Seek Time 10.9 ms (average) Track-To-Track Seek Time 2.0 ms (average) Full Stroke Seek 21.0 ms (average) Transfer Rates Buffer To Host (Serial ATA) 3 Gb/s (Max) Transfer Rate (Buffer To Disk) 972 Mbits/s (Max) Raptor X Specs: Rotational Speed 10,000 RPM (nominal) Buffer Size 16 MB Average Latency 2.99 ms (nominal) Start/Stop Cycles 20,000 minimum Seek Times Read Seek Time 4.6 ms Write Seek Time 5.2 ms (average) Track-To-Track Seek Time 0.4 ms (average) Full Stroke Seek 10.2 ms (average) Transfer Rates Buffer To Host (Serial ATA) 1.5 Gb/s (Max) Transfer Rate (Buffer To Disk) 84 MB/s (Sustained) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automaton79x Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 Also, I noticed that the disassembly procedure must be different for this iteration, as it no longer has any external access screws with the exception of the single memory door cover screw. The memory bay is also in a side by side configuration, as opposed to stacked. Anyone cracked open one of these babies? While I had the memory cover off to install additional memory I didn't look to see if there were any screws underneath, but don't recall any offhand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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