Worth upgrading my old iMac?

iMac
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Greetings everyone, I would want to replace the CPU in my mid-2010 iMac. Which of these two would you suggest? I’m not sure which should come first because the I5 has faster speeds and the I7 has more cores and threads. I’m also interested in suggestions for any additional CPUs that, if superior to these two, should be supported. Thank you.

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  1. Quad core is a lot better than dual core.
  2. It might not be worth the effort on a 2010 model though.
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Dara said:

  1. Quad core is a lot better than dual core.
  1. It might not be worth the effort on a 2010 model though.

Thanks for the reply. I know it’s an old one, but with some upgrades, it still runs really well. I’ve got a 27” model with all the extras, and it’s great for everyday stuff. I enjoy doing these kinds of projects in my spare time anyway. I got this iMac for only £10, so it was a steal.

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Vail said:

Dara said:

  1. Quad core is a lot better than dual core.
  1. It might not be worth the effort on a 2010 model though.

Thanks for the reply. I know it’s an old one, but with some upgrades, it still runs really well. I’ve got a 27” model with all the extras, and it’s great for everyday stuff. I enjoy doing these kinds of projects in my spare time anyway. I got this iMac for only £10, so it was a steal.

For what it’s worth, I think the i7 can handle 32GB. My old 2009 i7 could, so your 2010 might too.

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Just let that old thing rest man.

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Hey! That’s a solid machine! I have a mid-2011 27” iMac with an i5 quad-core, and it’s running 32GB of RAM smoothly. The real game changer was swapping the hard drive for an SSD though.

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Jordan said:
Hey! That’s a solid machine! I have a mid-2011 27” iMac with an i5 quad-core, and it’s running 32GB of RAM smoothly. The real game changer was swapping the hard drive for an SSD though.

Totally agree! You don’t need to buy a new machine when these older ones can still run great with some upgrades.

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I bought a 2010 i7 years ago for about $100 and upgraded it to 32GB of RAM. You should be able to find a full i7 system for $25-$50 now. If I were to sell mine today, I’d probably only ask $5.