iMac A1419 (27-inch Retina 5K) Upgrade CPU Core i5 to Core i7

[@howfixit]

*For more info check out the links in the description*

[@darlinggarcia8544]

imac 2019??? posible?

[@ja5467]

I would have replaced the pram battery while I had the motherboard out they are inexpensive and really hard to get at unless you’re replacing the cpu as you did in this video! Great video! I’m thinking about upgrading my iMac and your video showed that with care it can be done! 👍🏻

[@harlanct]

Great video, I would add wile removing the display you could use a little heat from heat gun and / or use some isopropyl alcohol to aid in not breaking the glass on the display. Otherwise great job 👏🏼 Reminding me of my first time dissembling the first intel core 2 duo iMac for upgrades!

[@pokololo50]

Unfortunately I’ve ruined my CPU socket while doing a CPU upgrade. So I definitely would NOT recommend to do that. The Problem are the screws and the bricks when you turn over the board (15:29). It is nearly impossible to insert and fix the 4 screws with one hand while you are holding with the other the CPU cooler. In this Video it is not shown how the guy inserted the second screw in the opposite side. They are suddenly and magically in. It is needed to use pressure on the screw that it can grip the hole. And minimum wiggle lets the CPU dance lambada on the other side without your noticing that. And when you however successfully grip and turn in the screws your pins on the socket are messed up. This was in my case so.

[@DaveEtchells]

Hmm - this concerns me: I have to renew the thermal paste on my 1419 because it’s apparently dried out (fans max out when just browsing web pages). No choice, but thanks to your note I’m gonna be extra- super-careful(!) Any tips for keeping everything aligned when putting back together? (Or maybe what *not* to do?)

[@pokololo50]

@@DaveEtchells Yeah, you can fix the CPU on the two corners with a mini drop of hot glue gun (don‘t know the exact english name for that) so that the CPU is fixed on the socket and can’t wiggle.(really a mini mini drop). As second yo can pre-bend the corners of that X typed Metal sheet a on the backside little bit, so that not max pressure is needed to fix the screws. I would also recommend to that with two persons one is holding everything stable the other is trying to put the screws in. Good Luck.

[@DaveEtchells]

@@pokololo50 Ah, great suggestion about the hot glue! I will have to be careful to use just tiny amounts of it though, so it won’t interfere with the pressure needed to hold the CPU against its contacts. Also a *great* idea to have two people: I could hold it in place and push down the tabs one by one, while my wife gets the screws started. Thanks so much for the suggestions! (Hmm, bending the tabs down to reduce the pressure would work too, but once it’s all together, you want a lot of pressure to squeeze the thermal paste as thin as possible. I wouldn’t want to bend them back and forth too much, but it might be possible to flatten them to get the screws in place, then one by one with the other 3 screws tightened down, bend each one back up to its original position and replace and re-tighten the screw.) It’s bad that the video doesn’t make a point of this. 🙁

[@pokololo50]

@@DaveEtchells In my case after I had replaced the Board I‘ve exactly done these two things (glue the CPU with socket and pre bend minimal this X Formed metal sheet on the Backside of the CPU). For me it worked well. But of course you can try without bending that plate but here is the recommendation, if you anyhow notice that screws won’t grip then do not to try with violence to put anyhow the screws in. Better is stop at that point check and then try again. Don’t be afraid. If you are very careful then it should be ok. I also agree. They could give a couple of more hints about these screws in this video. It looks very easy but it isn’t.

[@DaveEtchells]

@@pokololo50 Thanks for your advice: I think I was successful. - I say I think because I haven’t tried booting it yet. (It’s going to be a process, because I swapped out the SSD, so have to do a bare-metal MacOS install and it’s very late here tonight so I’m going to tackle it tomorrow.) The actual heat sink reattachment ended up not being too bad. (Documenting here so someone else can hopefully find it at some point) I did tack the CPU down with some tiny (really tiny) dabs of hot glue in the corners. Then I screwed down the GPU heat sink first, which helped secure the CPU side. Next I put a screw in one side of the spring bracket, turning it only enough to insure that it was fully engaging the heat sink threads. (I only inserted one screw then worked on getting a screw into the opposite corner of the bracket, but think it would actually have been perfectly fine to just-barely put a screw in the other hole on the same side too.) With the heat sink pretty well immobilized at that point, it wasn’t hard to push one arm of the other side of the spring with a finger while I put in a screw to hold it, again just turning it enough to make sure it was fully engaged with the HS threads. From that point it was easy to do the same with all the screws for the spring, pressing each arm of the spring down with a finger while I tightened its screw. I actually did this last night and today has been a looong day so my memory is slightly fuzzy as to whether I actually managed to get the fingers of my hand around to the other side so I was “pinching” the spring or if I was just careful not to press the heat sink assembly too hard against the bench, so just a note to others to be careful when pressing down the arms of the spring with your fingers not to damage anything on the other side by putting too much force against whatever it’s sitting on. In any case, the spring bracket ended up being much less trouble than I expected it to me - thanks in large part to your suggestion of using tiny (emphasis on “tiny” to others reading this) blobs of hot glue to keep the CPU from moving around. Thanks so much for your advice! (To others reading this, I didn’t apply the glue directly with my hot glue gun. I squeezed a blob out onto a piece of cardstock, then used a heated, small-bladed flat screwdriver to pick up bits of glue and transfer it to the corners of the chip/socket.) (Update: This worked great; the fans only spin up under high workload, and almost never get to full speed like they used to. It was a bit tricky but worked well AMs was very worth the effort 😁)

[@justinmalone8518]

I would have done a ssd swap from that hard drive while you were in there

[@jaspko1229]

yes, I would also replace the HDD with an SSD and probably add some more RAM while you have it dismantled.

[@ReindeerBork]

@@jaspko1229 Not sure what capcity but it already has an NVMe style SSD in it if you watch closely, the HDD is either secondary or unused. Ram is accessible from the rear door on 27" models.

[@meinsgtv]

thanks for this very clean& clear video instruction. PS: why do you put the m.2 SSD at the right of your video?

[@lezq2195]

16:00 I lost 1 screw out of the 4 of the CPU Heatsink screws. Will it cause any performance issues? I really needed answer/help and really much appreciate it. Thank you.

[@photocanalla1]

Hey mate. Uneven pressure on CPU stone will most likely destroy it over time. You must purchase the missing screw and make sure the pressure is equal on each. I hope it helps.

[@sebastian6364]

Hi, what cpu temperatures did You get after this upgrade?

[@ayangjibrut]

my base imac is i5 7600 with an average temperature going 60 to 80 celcius, after I upgrade to i7 7700 the temp drop to 40 celcius on average, I don't go with the K version because I heard many people complain about the temperature hitting 100 celcius most of the time

[@mitridig]

this is not the right tool to cut the adhesive, this is very dangerous, you may break the glass

[@vesolcable]

Its not very thin it has aluminium. Behind it.

[@ReindeerBork]

@@vesolcable No, it actually only has a black "Sticker" backer on the bordering glass itself. If you mess up you'll notice this peel off, even a razor blade can crack the glass if you're not gentle.

[@Charlie_B.]

So you can do it better? If so post a video with a link. Otherwise stfu

[@MrGylsen]

Question, is it worth replacing the cpu core i5 to core i7 for the iMac, may I ask what does it do, sorry, not really a tec guy and the only thing I did with my 2017 iMac was to update the ram, thanks 🙏

[@pipingdogtooth]

Thermal paste -14:00

[@dirtthunder1638]

I have the same iMac with a i5 and want to upgrade it. Apple says the CPU has a 1150 socket. Will a 1151 like you use also fit?

[@davidjonssonsweden]

No

[@Mediaconsumer-g7m]

If you can disassemble a regular computer you can do this. Worth it.

[@AdamGeorge-pb3fm]

Sure, all regular computers have glued screens prone to crack.

[@extraglutenplz3758]

Absolutely untrue. The cpu retention method is extremely risky since the cpu is held down by the heatpipe and when you unscrew the cooler, the risk of a socket pin bending is real and very easy to accidentally do. I bricked my imac the other day and I've been building pc's since 1998.

[@Eric-qi9us]

since this is a really basic process, why do people on the internet say that you can't swap the cpu of a 2015 imac?

[@JuanjoNarive]

Because 21.5" models in that year came with soldered components, still doable but a much more difficult job, easier just sell that computer and buy another with the desired specs.

[@cani2804]

Not all versions of this iMac model have an NVME port, only those that come with 4 or 8TB.

[@AdamGeorge-pb3fm]

You mean HDD?

[@jani0077]

the fusion drive ones have the port, I just upgraded it on mine for a 2TB OWC and it's a beast now.

[@lidoazul]

hi, I have an imac 5k, 27-inch 2020 with an i-5 3.1 processor, I could swap it for an i-7 as well.

[@xiaoMi-c5u]

Oh really? can you upgrade its SSD?

[@mehrdadmeshkat2092]

Great video. thanks🤩

[@BOXERBOSS]

Hello, what's the way to find the correct thickness for the thermal pad? Best regards

[@DmitrySkvorcov]

No way. Wrong recomendations...

[@philharris9631]

Buy a mixed pack of thermal pads - I think mine has 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2mm - and use that to match up to the pads you remove. (I may have added the 2mm pads to the set separately.) It’s easy enough to see if a pad is compressed or not - if there’s an uncompressed edge then match the pad thickness to that, if the whole pad is compressed then go 0.5 or 1mm thicker than the compressed thickness.

[@extraglutenplz3758]

use thermal putty

[@ayangjibrut]

do not over tighten the screw, but you make it very tight..

[@ganash11]

Why after doing all that not update the nvme ssd? One other I would be really careful with that blade, it's easy to cut into one of the chips around the outer edge of the display and have a Solid black line on the display. All im all nice job.

[@vincentdenoiret5009]

What thickness of thermal pad do you use for the vram of the gpu ?

[@ayangjibrut]

1mm

[@burenkhaanzanabazar7734]

im sure, late 14th will change into late 22, right?

[@anonymous-r1s]

for CPU purposes its the same. but things like SSD and Harddrive change.

[@mathieuverslype9374]

Hello, impossible to fit the new i7 6700K CPU inside. My 27" A1419 doesn't want to boot.

[@masloder.]

What thickness of thermal pads do you use on the chips?

[@vincentdenoiret5009]

Good question. And not yet answered in the comments below. I would be very interested too 🙂

[@beboploo]

how about renewing the button battery must be tired an old by now an how about new ssd ...is it a fix for a friend

[@thebashunter]

Did you try using the i5 7600 or i7 7700 (Non K) on the Late 2015 5K ? And how’s the performance ?

[@LOGESHWARANMANI]

Hi, I am from India, I do have I mac 27 inch 2017 module with i5 7500. Can I upgrade for i7 or i9? Which is better? I comes to know that upgrading will create over heating issues and increase fan rpm too. Whats your recommendation?

[@bitshuffle]

The strongest cpu you can put into your computer would be the i7 7700k, since there is no core i9 for 7th gen intel processors. The 7700k though is well known for being a hot pocket, so maybe look for good thermal paste if you plan to upgrade to the i7. The i7 7700 non K is slightly worse and slightly less hot. Might be an idea too.

[@KitchenPlatform]

Don't waste your money. May be an SSD upgrade is a good idea.

[@pigknickers2975]

What I did was a 3.4Ghz i7 - much better thermals and turbos to 4Ghz anyway.

[@DaveEtchells]

@@bitshufflethanks for that note!

[@DaveEtchells]

@@pigknickers2975Ah, thanks for that tip! I might do it but the tip to go with the 3.4 GHz sounds good.

[@RonaldoAlvesdeAbreu]

Hi, does the power supply supports the 91 w from Core i7 7th gen?

[@TechToTunes]

6700k was a factory option. PSU most likely the same across all variants.

[@LeicaM11]

I would upgrade from HDD to SSD too

[@noureddinesaidi6470]

Hi is it possible on an imac pro 2017 upgrade too cpu 2,3ghz 18 core ? I have 3,2ghz 8 core

[@mewas8966]

ty

[@LerimerSantana]

I have a late 2014 iMac with a i5. I was planning on upgrading to an i7, but since I was told its a lga1151 I was wondering if a i9 will work on it, if not, what's the best CPU for this iMac?

[@MikeinAustin]

Did you try the i9?

[@philharris9631]

…no, it won’t work, just because the socket is the same across different generations it doesn’t mean that the CPUs across different generations are interchangeable..

[@agoodjuan]

What do the new thermal pads do exactly?

[@cashbonanza963]

5:58 is it safe to hold the PSU like that?

[@PatriceBoivin]

Can the Radeon GPU chip be upgraded as well?

[@pokololo50]

No. It is soldered on.

[@Tedroy]

Boot from an external SSD. Make life easy.

[@Charlie_B.]

What’s the point in upgrading the CPU if you’re just gonna leave that pancake drive in there. Should’ve upgraded to a SSD. 24:40 it looks like he is using packing tape to hold the screen on there. That is a big no go. Use painters tape and also when taking the display off, you want to put painters on each side of each the screen as well to make sure while you’re cutting the adhesive it doesn’t just fall off. And again when you’re putting it back on yes you want to test it before you close it up but again use painters tape not fricking packing tape.

[@glitteriesrblx]

does anyone know if there’s anywhere I can go to get this service done for me?

[@FrancoPastorino]

I've a question 4Ghz i7-6700 is fine also for a Mid 2015 27"?

[@FrancoPastorino]

Noboby knows nothing about it?

[@ianedwards1477]

You need the 4Ghz i7-6700k@@FrancoPastorino

[@FrancoPastorino]

You sure? Also for a Mid 2015?

[@carldock5223]

Good

[@catalincazacu3319]

What's the socket for the processor? LGA 1157?

[@bitshuffle]

The socket in this machine should be LGA 1151 v1.

[@catalincazacu3319]

@@bitshuffle Thank you

[@JazzLilaMusic]

@@bitshuffle sabe dizer o chipset da placa lógica? Em caso de necessidade de atualização de EFI.

[@kretosik1902]

termopad for grapfic memory how?0.5mm 1mm?

[@ayangjibrut]

1mm

[@endtimewarriorsofjesus]

Can I upgrade iMac 27inch 2017 cpu to i9 9900?

[@anonymous-r1s]

YEAP, it takes both the i9 9900k and i9 9900kf

[@endtimewarriorsofjesus]

@@anonymous-r1s have you tried it before? Cuz some people say it won’t work since it’s more watts

[@bitshuffle]

You can’t. 2017 models use 7th gen intel CPU’s and the socket is incompatible to all existing i9 processors. the first (ever) i9 processor is in intels 9th gen which can only be put into 2019 models.

[@dowran_official]

@@bitshuffle hey there, I have a 2020 27" 5K iMac with intel core i5 10600 3.3 GHz processor, what is the biggest processor i can install on this one?

[@bitshuffle]

@@dowran_official That would be the intel Core i9 10910 or the i7 10700k.

[@catalincazacu3319]

@howfixit What thermal pad thickness had you used for this?

[@mannatuu]

An i9 into a 2017 iMac....possible ??

[@thebashunter]

No because the first i9 the 9900 was introduced in 2019. you can only slam the i7 6700/K the i5 7600 and the i7 7700 non K since this is LGA1151v1 but i9 is LGA1151v2

[@mannatuu]

@thebashunter thanks

[@thebashunter]

@@mannatuu You’re welcome

[@JgcBreeze]

You can do that?

[@alemacasc]

if you open the imac this way, you WILL broke it for sure! you need to be very, very carefull to remove de tape. it'll take at least 15 minutes just to cut the tape. the right side is worst because the tape is larger where it covers the wi-fi antenas.

[@pablocorral]

The method you use to remove the screen is very dangerous

[@hamasathecold7842]

What’s a better way? Genuinely wondering

[@Tincanman50]

Use a pizza cutter. Much safer @@hamasathecold7842

[@jani0077]

@@hamasathecold7842 use the ifixit mac screen removal tool - it uses a roller blade instead of a knife blade like the one used in the video - it has the correct depth, so you cannot cut any cables inside, plus these displays are prone to cracking if one uses too much pressure on the edges.

[@Maynardjones100]

This is so painful to watch. Why am I here?

[@rayhenderson9661]

🥱

[@extraglutenplz3758]

voice accent super annoying

[@dang6369]

Wait, how can you put an LGA1151 chip into this board? I thought it was LGA1155....

[@JazzLilaMusic]

é o modelo 2017: soquete lga1151. O que me surpreende é ele usar um i7 desbloqueado e overclock (variação sufixo "K"). i7 6700K = TDP 91 watts i5-6500 = TPD 65 watts Eu usaria um i7 7700 = 65 watts menor consumo e temperatura e igual rendimento.

[@thebashunter]

@@JazzLilaMusicthis is wrong. Late 2015 = i5 6600 or i7 6700, 2017 Are using LGA1151v2 so they start with the i5 8500 up to the i9 9900

[@JazzLilaMusic]

@@thebashunter i5 6500 = 65watt i7 6700K = 91watt

[@thebashunter]

@@JazzLilaMusic k carjo me importe

[@JazzLilaMusic]

@@thebashunter Quanto ao soquete do modelo de 2015 eu nao sei dizer.. Tenho um imac 2017 com soquete 1151. Mas o que me impressiona realmente é ele usar uma CPU com maior consumo de energia no lugar do original. A chance de isso não funcionar a longo prazo é alta. São apenas opiniões e tudo bem pensarmos diferente.

[@lic.luiscarranza1639]

Gracias por tu video. Tengo el mismo equipo con core i5 6ta Gen socket LGA 1151. Sera Posible poner un i7 9na Gen ya que tiene el mismo Socket? @howfixit