The $30 iMac Restoration

Check out Dashlane! Head over to www.dashlane.com/miani for 10% off premium and to get Dashlane for free on your first device!
In today's video I picked up a 2013 iMac for free, it was going to be recycled and I decided to give it a new life. With $30 worth of parts and upgrades we are able to breathe new life into this still powerful budget iMac!
Parts used in this video:
Adhesive strips: amzn.to/2LRxUr4
240gb SSD (similar): amzn.to/2K5pfPN
500gb SSD: amzn.to/2K7es7S
1tb SSD: amzn.to/2yptFKP
16gb RAM Kit: amzn.to/2YznKBl
Follow me on Twitter: / lukemiani
Join my Subreddit! www.reddit.com/r/lukemianiyoutube
Gear:
Panasonic Lumix GH5: amzn.to/2SDQrYi
Blue Snowball Mic: amzn.to/2PwASD0
Rode VideoMic: amzn.to/2QhgfrC
Zecti Camera Slider: amzn.to/2CWmeOI
Album with the backgrounds I use (updated regularly): imgur.com/a/W8wvO7I

[@atharvsaxena7545]

I found an iMac in my grandma’s house and I repaired it following his steps

[@molnarcoockie1235]

OMG NICE

[@fabrianuswillie8539]

@Gaming York my grandma has samsung s10 and macbook air 2017 lol 😂😂

[@atharvsaxena7545]

@Gaming York bruh maybe it was my uncles could be anything

[@okcomputer0101]

Your grandma is gonna want that back bruh!

[@Elijah_Andy07]

Love your videos so helpful :)

[@psonick]

I always thought it would be hard to upgrade my iMac’s hard drive. It was unbearably slow. I watched your video and you made it look like wouldn’t be a huge mountain to climb. I followed your video and replaced my old HDD with an SSD and it’s like night and day. Just wanted to say thanks for making the videos you make.

[@psivewri]

And people don't believe me when I found a 2011 iMac being thrown out 😅 Great find Luke 👌

[@killertruth186]

At least yours is easier to replace the drives and give it a clean, even upgrade the ram.

[@willm5032]

@@killertruth186 I have a 2011 iMac and it was so easy to swap in an SSD. Think its got 32gb of ram too

[@killertruth186]

@@willm5032 Yeah, all it is, was just simply take the glass panel off and swap the HDD.

[@willm5032]

@@killertruth186 Yep and the screen is held in with magnets instead of gross adhesive. Apple USED to be a decent tech company...

[@killertruth186]

@@willm5032 If I had an iMac like that, then I wouldn't mind about the access to the motherboard and other parts. Of course there was a program that I had from school, where you would get points for your parents to shop. The points rewards was actually giving away those all in one iMacs. This was years ago.

[@TheRinzler2]

At my job, we have 6 employees that each use a 2012 iMac. Running 40+ hours a week, 25 weeks a year, and we have never once and a problem with any of them.

[@wei9070]

😊

[@stephenhall3515]

Luke, it would be a good idea to warn people working on some i-Macs that the power unit is left uncovered with a high risk of shock from capacitors. This typically happens when cutting the adhesive on the bottom of the screen.

[@lukemiani]

If you want to skip the introduction and explanation, go to 3:45 to get straight into the tutorial! I've also seen a good amount of comments asking about hard drive thermal sensors so I'll answer that here: In 27" iMacs (which use 3.5" drives) You need a special thermal sensor cable or the fan will run at full speed; you can also use Macs fan control to manually override this if you don't want to spend $40 on the cable. The 21.5" iMacs use 2.5" laptop drives and do not need that cable, you can just plug n' play

[@joeyg2488]

Luke Miani 25 mins omg my Mac takes about 25 seconds to start up 😳

[@cemyildirim9830]

What happened to the mid 2011 iMac project?

[@luketheluke403]

Solder a 1K ohm resistor to the thermal sensor ports is a cheaper alternative to purchasing a new thermal sensor. Just solder it and put a heat shrinking tube over and the fans will be at lowest possible speed when the Mac's in idle. It works great for me!

[@99Technetium]

I took the liberty of a quick Google search and I believe I found that brush on Amazon. Search for “OXO Good Grips Electronics Cleaning Brush”. It’s $5 US.

[@sabertoothdog20]

Luke Miani I bought a mid 2010 27”iMac it has the i3 3.2ghz processor 12 gigs of ram, I need to put new glass on it, I’m running High Sierra and everything works fine however I was wondering how hard is it to put in a SSD hard drive in it before I put the glass back on thank you for your help

[@FintanMoloney]

Thanks Luke for all your Mac content. As a Mac guy myself I love your blend of old Mac and new Mac stuff. Well done on your channel.

[@techforever1970]

I miss the magnetic screens on old iMacs...

[@swf1194]

Amen! Those adhesive strips terrify me

[@techforever1970]

Bobby Brady You must be fun at parties.

[@matt2m]

@Bobby Brady I wish I could run into someone like you I want to upgrade to the 7700k in mine.

[@Alexander_l322]

@@matt2m bro if I can do it you can too.

[@matt2m]

Alex jones I’ve been in others to flip older ones mostly newest was a 2013 like Luke’s. I just get funny when its actually my personal machine and the logic board costs as much as an older iMac does whole lol. I’ll build up the courage eventually.

[@shiningwizard327]

This dude is the reason I bought a late 2013 27" iMac in 2020, and I use it more than my 4K TV. It still runs so well, I haven't even upgraded it yet. But it's nice to know it's not too hard to do so, if I want to.

[@GaryDrumm]

Nicely done. I have a late 2012 21.5 inch with 8GB of RAM that I decided to retire because I wanted something newer and much faster. But this information is great because I can actually do a couple of upgrades to it and give it to my teenager, who needs a new computer as well and wants a Mac. Thanks for an informative video!

[@cidsx]

this... THIS is why I subscribed

[@jameswallace6249]

Also this.

[@losangeles9320]

Roger dat 👍

[@797depo]

Apple sued you. Apple hates you. Apple asks you to stop please. Apple offers you child labor for your loyalty. Lol

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Me two!

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

He’ll yeah

[@Xxagger]

I got a late 2013 27 inch with 32GB ram and 3 TB storage. I love it!

[@lxr4781]

Btw, you can also upgrade it by using an external SSD so that you don’t have to open it up. What I did was just tape the external to the back of the stand. Then go into boot switcher mode and select the external

[@akscricket8]

That is pretty smart not gonna lie but if you don't want tape just simply put it in the table at the back which would be almost the same

[@Iwantthehandlesillydemon]

though that would work if you really don't want to open it up, you are still limited by usb speeds.

[@jackspring7709]

I taped mine right to the screen so I don't have to keep reaching around the back. It works a treat.

[@ultratechgaming199]

@@Iwantthehandlesillydemon With the right adapter you could use TB 2, which is much faster.

[@CarlHudson]

Upgrade the ram and hard drive

[@stockyirish]

I work in computer recycling and pull drives from these machines often. This model went from my most worrisome to the easiest. I use the corner of a flat razor to cut the adhesive as the pizza cutter thing gets weak after only a few uses. But I'd really like to warn against leaning out the screen before cutting the bottom adhesive as I've seen them crack using this method. I lay it on it's back and pick up the screen a small amount, using the pizza cutter to cut the adhesive from the front as I firmly but gently pull up and away. Breaking the front glass is bitch since it's adhered to the lcd panel like a phone.

[@myhubbyislouisvuitton4218]

Thank you

[@egchristiansen]

I love your restoration videos! I've passed these onto educators I know who want to get more life out of their devices. I always get good comments back, so kudos for all your hard work!

[@throwdown47]

Glad I found your channel man! I am going to upgrade a couple of my older machines so I can wait a couple of years for the new ARM macs!

[@matt2m]

Dude your killing it with the budget finds.

[@matt2m]

M4RV 1 your not wrong picked up a 5k 2017 with 24gb grade A with all the peripherals for 800. Craigslist is not dead.

[@hdgndymydndtmfumfum]

You’re*

[@arliepeyton]

Brilliant! This is a freelance writer's Mac. That's all you need without all the heavy processing tasks. Very resourceful!

[@brianlyngen7515]

It is great that you are helping people to save money, while keeping the earth clean. There are so many people tossing out stuff that still has life left. This is in many facets of life.

[@marcosantonioosoriovillalo313]

This machine can run bootcamp and play a bunch of games from the 2000 - 2010 era and the play fine. Also is a very good machine for developing and moderate photo editing. I use it for edit video but I use an external ssd. If you're light on FX the machine behaves nice :) Thanks for the video, Luke!

[@luvstellauk]

We've got a late 2013 21.5" iMac with exactly the same specs and had the same hard drive issue, it just got slower and slower up to the point where it was unusable, I took a slightly different approach to fixing it, I used an SSD in an enclosure connected by USB and set that as my drive disk, it works perfectly now, the reason I didn't take the screen off is because mine has a small crack on one corner, it doesn't affect the viewing area but my worry was making it bigger, a new screen is in the region of £300.

[@1mikhaelone]

Luke, this is your family member. I have saw your video and now that i know i don't have to buy a new computer, i want it back! :D

[@tomranc]

Just replaced the hard drive in my wife's (late 2015) 21.5 inch iMac with a Samsung 860 EVO 500G SSD because it was, as you say, abysmally slow! Wow! Is all I can say! It is as fast as may 27 inch iMac now. Thank you Luke!

[@haveaniceday7950]

I thought those weren't upgradable?

[@tomranc]

@Leo Fitch I used the adhesive strip kit from Ifixit. Had all the tools, and went together mostly perfectly. One piece caught on something and I just tore it off. But, the display is still firmly in place, and computer still roaring along. I'd do it again. I'm sure it would be easier the second time.

[@farongreenfield]

God bless you Luke. Just did this today with a 1TB SSD and my formerly slow, spinning beachball imac that I was *this* close to recycling for a new one is SMOKING FAST now. Everything is faster. Initial start up. App launches. Switching between apps. Web browsing. SATA to USB cable for the pre-cloning made things super easy.

[@djross95]

Shame on Apple for making a machine this hostile to replacing a simple hard drive.

[@Gmon750]

It's not "hostile". I've upgraded a few iMacs of several years and models. Like many electronics, it takes some skill. That's all. I can strip this same iMac down completely, and re-install everything in about an hour. It's not like you'll be replacing the hard drive every year. Chances are you'll never need to open it up again once you change it.

[@samismydog]

@david Ross have you seen the newer MacBooks? Unrepairable.

[@spuriustadius5034]

@@Gmon750 The problem is that gaining "some skill" takes practice. Most people don't do this stuff routinely and thus never gain the experience. Using a spudger, applying force, and separating an adhesive strip are not something that should have to be done on an expensive piece of equipment. Apple does this only partly for aesthetic reasons, the main reason is to stimulate churn. That said, it provides opportunities for repair folks and for people who want to dive into skilled repairs like yourself. I would not say it's "user hostile" but it is an obstacle for users. At a minimum, It should be easy to replace wearable items such as memory and storage, reseat heatsinks, clean out dust, and do simple upgrades.

[@idkjuststop]

SSDs arent that expensive and its easy to open the display

[@collinberke4004]

You should do a video on pre installing macOS on the new ssd

[@txm100]

Just install it on there. Plug it in on the mac of your choice with an adapter and install it.

[@bramvandenbroeck5060]

Install it on a hard drive that you put inside a mac, install macos that way, take the drive out, clone the drive to a machine with enough storage, and use a usb to sata adapter, everytime you get a new machine you want to upgrade, plug the new ssd into the usb to sata dongle, clone the image back to the new ssd and you are good to go, and you can restore the same image millions of times! Thats how i do it

[@artysanmobile]

Collin Berke That is a very simple procedure if you have a SATA drive dock. There are many dozens of them available, they are fairly inexpensive, and you will find so many uses for one you should really own one. It allows you to physically attach and mount, typically via USB, a bare drive such as a new SSD to your computer. This empty drive now appears on your desktop and a macOS installer can be downloaded to your computer and installed onto that bare drive. Just launch the macOS installer and select the new empty drive instead of your computer’s internal drive as the install location. The Apple installer will guide you and you will find it very straightforward. Then, once installed, you can restart your computer using the new drive, still mounted in the external dock, and migrate your settings and data from the internal drive. Your new SSD will be ready to put into your computer and will require almost nothing to run. Your Mac will tell you how to ‘migrate’ your old drive’s data using an app already installed by the OS. If you have any questions, just do an Apple help searches for “install macOS on external drive” and “system migration”. All the info for this exists right in your Mac’s help system.

[@jarredgrimmett6071]

Just clone the drive using a usb to sata adapter

[@MirandaTheWitch]

Put the SSD in the iMac, go grab a free copy of Carbon copy cloner. Turn the iMac on holding down the letter T key, this makes your iMac a slave drive. Use whatever Mac you wish to clone from, hook-up your firewire cable between both machines, run carbon copy cloner, set your preferences, select the drives, click copy, now go grab something to eat. If both drives are SSD it’ll be pretty quick depending on their storage size. When you’re done if you have similar machines, eg iMac to iMac etc then it’ll boot with mostly no issues. However, say you use a 2011 MBP to 2012 iMac in that scenario upon completion, power down everything, then on the iMac run Recovery and do another install of the OS from that, DO NOT WIPE THE HDD, just re-install the supporting OS and when that’s done you should be good to go.

[@nicklaurie7640]

Excellent, clear demonstration - one of the best yet!

[@philkfoto]

So pleased for Google to show me this, now subscribed. I have a 2009 13" Macbook Pro I upgraded to El Capitan from Snow Leopard. Also added more RAM and a 320 HDD. Now use it with a 21" HD monitor. Have looked at 21.5" iMacs and sure there are quite a few up for sale. So I will now go with this idea, thanks.

[@rodrigo4379]

Amazing video! Do more please 🙏🏼. Btw you should take the fan out and clean it outside and see if the heatsink has dust too.

[@rodrigo4379]

@@bitteroldman3151 i cleaned mine, had amost 7 years of dust inside.

[@brucekennedy5274]

Fantastic! For $30 it’s totally worth the risk of screwing it up to get a Mac you can use for several more years. I did an ssd upgrade to my 2009 27” iMac a few years ago. It’s a secondary computer now but still going strong. It had magnets to hold the screen on which made it even easier.We need to give more tech a second life instead of throwing it in landfills. Good job 👍

[@WillThePlank]

I really wish my old 27'' 09 iMac didn't suffer the GPU death that it did otherwise I would use it as a Linux machine these days :(

[@brucekennedy5274]

WillThePlank that’s a bummer, haha yup the ssd upgrade was harrowing enough (at the time it was my main mac) I don’t think I’d have the chops to upgrade the graphics, probably hard/impossible to find the parts now anyway. Pity for you, when the screen and everything else is still good.

[@justincal6817]

@@brucekennedy5274 gph reflow will fix it . I put video cards in the oven

[@DarlitaDawn]

I have a 27 inch iMac from 2009 that I use almost every single day. Still going strong. Just gets a little hot after awhile.

[@ultratechgaming199]

@@WillThePlank You can replace the GPUs in those iMacs if you wanted to. I recommend a GTX 765M since you can keep the boot screen if you flash the right VBIOS.

[@Mitchell_Sch]

i live for these mac upgrade videos. so cool to see how usable old computers can still be.

[@LyneisFilm]

Great video. Amazing how straightforward it is to open the iMac.

[@ecu8r]

I upgraded the hard drive on my late 2013 iMac 27 to 1 TB SSD and it was a little trickier because the screen is larger and took me a couple of tries to set the screen perfectly, I was sweating bullets but gratifying at the end because my iMac was 10x faster specially booting up.

[@Alecexo]

I just caught a glimpse of your sub count and I never noticed you were only at 60k I thought you had like 200k by now damn. You deserve 200k.

[@tristanbalogun5639]

Hes there now lol

[@Alecexo]

@@tristanbalogun5639 well deserved

[@andresboza8285]

I recognize the brush as I own one of them: It's a LensPen NLP-1 Camera Cleaning Brush.

[@hunterchat]

or its on amazon oxo electronics cleaning brush

[@Drew_Eden]

Hi Luke, I'd watched a couple of these tutorials and had a spare 500gb SSD in an old laptop. Working from home meant I wanted to use my 2014 iMac as the screen size is better than my laptop. After watching yours I thought what the heck. The iMac was running like a dog so I ordered the kit from Amazon and completed the job this morning. Only took a couple of hours. Thanks again and stay safe :)

[@autisticsocialite1428]

You have one badass channel man, thanks for existing.

[@ninohergotic1]

I bought an base Imac 2017 with a hard drive and it was sooo slow I had to open it and swap it for a ssd. After that it was perfect. 300% boost in speed,the only problem I copied my old hard drive with carbon copy cloner(software) and after that for some reason I couldn’t update Mac OS through settings because my drive wasn’t formatted in apfs. After a tone of researching I had to install Mac OS to a external drive then format the internal ssd to apfs and the clone again Mac OS from external hdd to internal ssd for some reason. And now finally I got a notification update for Mac OS 10.14.6

[@combatmedic3347]

A Dad would be proud to have a son such as you.

[@warrenmcclure7819]

You make some real nice videos, thank you for all your efforts and for producing a great video :)

[@morrisreekmans2461]

I really love the videos that you make, from the music to al the extra information that you give

[@iDreamStudiosTube]

Nice tutorial Luke! Just discovered this today! I have the earlier 21" iMac where the front is connected magnetically.....have you ever done a hard drive awap on that older model? Would love to attempt a DIY.....any advice on doing so or a tutorial? Thanks in advance man and keep bringing the awesomeness!

[@joshgeurink2131]

The fact the newest base models still use 5400rpm hard drives is just sad

[@7Trident3]

Apple keep jumping the shark, and we keep coming back.

[@Aggouric]

now it's updated

[@neonwilliams5300]

This was a really informative and well done video, thanks dude. I have a 2010 imac that really needs some upgrading, it is reliable, but slow also. I would like to upgrade ram and put in an SSD. It has magnetic fixing, so that's a bonus, but I am always a little nervous incase I get something wrong...but this vid has encouraged me!

[@AlexPizarro]

Yes yes!!!! Keep them coming this is the content we want

[@alexissantana4603]

That was the most natural ad that I have ever seen

[@rain3339]

Ikr

[@KaizerVilgelm]

Luke, you did made a great job as usual! Thanks! I’ve have did the same with my 2012 iMac, but also i put into it a 16 Gb of ram and the i7 3770s processor. After that it became the rocket! ))))

[@user-cw6ld9oj9i]

I don’t know that much about iMacs. So can you upgrade it to the latest iOS as you now have it configured??

[@kurtkublek6497]

Followed your steps Luke...everything went smooth as silk...machine is like new...thanks for the help (from Nova Scotia, Canada)

[@patshozo9158]

Wow, this video helped me out big time! I have the exact same iMac and had no idea I can remove the display - I figured they were done with.

[@williamskagen9901]

I managed to get a 500gb late 2013 iMac for free (with a cracked display). I installed an original 128gb apple flash drive on the motherboard (there is a slot there for it), and upgraded the ram to 16gb's while in there. Bought a new LCD including tape from Aliexpress and it ended up working perfectly! In total I spent less than 200$ in parts. By using the flash-drive slot on the motherboard I also ended up keeping the working 500gb HDD as mass storage :)

[@ReubenWslay]

I wish I could find deals like this 😭

[@peo8004]

2013 iMac (both sizes) i think is the best value Mac yet. even though it looks old (2013), but when using SSD, everything work like champ. Using a late 2013 iMac second hand for about $700 is one of my best thing to have yet... really happy with this machine. snappy and still running strong

[@topcheesesnipe5594]

Can confirm on my 2012 iMac with an upgraded SSD, runs much much snappier and faster. Feels like a new computer. Anyone on the fence about doing and has a slow iMac, definitely do it!

[@larshardwaretests9561]

In Germany the prices for this iMacs are crazy. They are listed for about 400€.

[@onkelklaujo]

Yes, the same goes for MacBooks. About 1000€ for a MacBook Pro 2015 13 inch is just insane...

[@aconite72]

laujo Not really. That’s very cheap. A lot of people are still looking for pre-2016 MBP to avoid the keyboards and the troubles. 2015 Pros are still very popular and can be easily sold off for $1100.

[@squeezegenny]

Matthew Lee i sold my late 2013 for 700 so believeable

[@solidsnake6803]

That was also my experience, but today I purchased a 2011 21,5“ iMac with the i5 2400s, 4gb of RAM and 500gb HDD for 250€ which is relatively good i think - another 100€ for 8gb RAM and an SSD and I have Laying around an i7 2600k from my old retired PC - seems like a pretty good mashine for 350 Bucks here in Germany

[@ikramrafi6481]

What... In Italy you have to pay at least 1.800€ for one of those

[@drawingpat]

..and the base model 21.5 inch iMac today still uses a 5400rpm drive.🤯😂

[@beingatliberty]

yes apple abusing its users spec wise imo the minimum should be a 256gb ssd model across the board

[@lucuslopez6866]

why would you need a ssd for checking your email?

[@jamesscott3290]

@@lucuslopez6866 wow u never used an SSD before for asking that question

[@lucuslopez6866]

@@jamesscott3290 You dont need a ssd to check your email.

[@MauriceNL1]

@@beingatliberty 500gb SSD is only 60 dollars right now in 2019. they should install 500gb ssd at minimum without extra cost and it still will be way to overpriced and shitty

[@Dedbeatz.]

An unbelievably helpful post! Good man! Thanks! 👍

[@OliverSchumacher]

Awesome Video! Good explanation and super high Video Quality 👌 Greetings from Germany✌️

[@kaluimoku2467]

4:58 cat's checking out what's up

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Hey, Luke. I know you’d have to open it again. Could you do a full set of upgrade videos to an iMac like these? nVme SSD, RAM, etc... That would be appreciated brother.

[@DeaconShadow]

Good straightforward video, especially the tear down.

[@lifetimesofamultiplemediam1003]

Loving these videos. Used to be a repair engineer many years ago. gonna see what cheap iMacs I can find and restore… 🙏🏿

[@WJHandyDad]

does this work with some of the "newer" iMacs? I have a 2017 or 2018 iMac that is slow as molasses and drives me crazy. I'd love to make it faster with more RAM and a faster hard drive

[@Bernoeofficial]

yes, it does. just search about your iMac on iFixit.com, there is some high quality guides

[@SimonElias]

Can you make a video about the parts you just gloss over specifically about installing the OS on the new drive before putting it in the new computer. Like where do you get the OS, how do you get the OS, how do you install an OS on a drive you're about to transplant in another computer, the actual process. Thanks Luke.

[@yehan1]

You can download the OS by downloading 'install MacOS Mojave' and theres something you can type in terminal and it will start installing it to a Storage device plugged into the mac, then you just plug that device into your mac and it will install to a clean drive

[@sharonmayhew4553]

@@yehan1 So, what do ;you type in the terminal to make it start installing...Does apply recognize the new drive since it's not their own? I have a 27 inch Mac, so your saying to do the up grade install, i need the thermal cable, right? You need to show us how to install the MacOS Mojave. Thanks for your help.

[@SimonElias]

@@sharonmayhew4553 Exactly. Everyone just glosses over these parts like it's nothing tough. But a tutorial is for people that don't know, so this Yehan guy saying just do this, do that, use terminal, etc. isn't helpful. And Luke, can you do this one time in your amazing videos, don't skip this part because you think it's common knowledge for all Mac users, show everything please.

[@Bearsarecats]

I love the quality and content of your videos, great stuff

[@SalvoDan]

The dust in the bottom vent was like the Magicians Handkerchief Trick... it just kept on coming...

[@Joe-lb8qn]

From the POV of this video, MacOS appeared as if by magic on the SSD. That should have been covered here even if it was linking to another video. Also, you could perhaps (should?) have discussed putting a bigger SSD in, presumably a 500 instead of the 240 wouldnt have been much more?

[@louididdy]

Joe Cittern Right. I didn’t like that when he turned it on, although we heard the startup chime, nothing showed up on screen. Then he goes from that to a normal desktop, skipping possible troubleshooting in between, since I didn’t see an image, that’s what I’m guessing.

[@sass1ap]

Nice of you to cut out trying to plug in the sata cable that is probably a pain in the ass to plug back in lol

[@simongreaves210]

Nice one mate. I still use a late 2013 iMac, Its running great but I'm going to upgrade it. Thanks for the tips

[@albertbauersfeld1914]

Love your videos, funny enough I’m watching this while waiting for the OS X installation, after an ssd upgrade on my 2013.

[@therealrobinbullock]

I found a free 21.5-inch mid-2010 iMac at an estate sale in perfect condition, except for a dead HDD. 3.2GHz i3. Only had 4GB ram. Upped it to 12GB ram and installed a 240GB Kingston SSD. Does everything I need it to do. Only spent about $50.

[@mediocrefunkybeat]

I have a 2009 Core Duo 2. It's one of my (alarmingly-growing) collection but I did exactly the same. The magnetic connectors on the screen made life easier than expected to upgrade.

[@sy2see]

It would be nice to see a video of you installing macOS on the new solid-state drive. Especially for some of us who have never done it before.

[@jbbevan]

Your recommendation is spot on. I have one of these machines which started out to be a great iMac but within a very few months it bogged down to the point where it was taking 80% of my time either booting up or opening apps. The HDD was not full at all, so I still have no idea why it slowed to a horrible grind. I was frustrated and wanted to trash the entire machine (which was in, otherwise, perfect condition) but then got the idea to convert it from an HDD to an SSD. I wrestled with that for a while but was concerned about "how" to take it apart. So I took it to a local Mac reseller and they did it for me. I might have done it myself had I had this video...but the endgame was the same...the iMac came alive and now boots in less than a minute and all apps are operating normally. For the tasks I perform, I expect this machine to continue to work indefinitely...I even have Catalina loaded on it now with no degradation in performance. I've had many Macs and still to this day do not understand why this one became unusable so quickly (with the HDD only being about 1/3 full). But all is now well and I can't recommend this SSD swap highly enough.

[@pillettadoinswartsh4974]

I just finished restoring this exact model. All spent was time. I already have a buyer for $450. I reformatted the HD, installed Catalina, and it's running great. Alternately, you can skip opening the machine up, and just run the OS from an external SSD, plugged into the USB port.

[@ramiro.cubria]

You could also run mac os off an external ssd. Ive done it before with no issues

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Ramiro Cubria Oh really?

[@zenmaster24]

No issues, but was it as fast as the sata connection?

[@ramiro.cubria]

@@WarriorsPhoto yes mate!

[@ramiro.cubria]

@@zenmaster24 it totally depends on the drive you get. Currently, im getting about 500 MB/s read-write. Running MacOS off a Samsung t5. Im planning on upgrading to a thunderbolt blade drive to get about 2500 MB/s (Samsung X5 external ssd).

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Ramiro Cubria Holy Cow! Make a video about this bloke!

[@AshenTiger]

Older macs actually had the screen attached with magnets! Also, instead of custom cut adhesive strips, I've used just double sided scotch tape.

[@hecticherman]

Ash White and if you did not do it right, those magnet pins would break.

[@dmlockwood]

Very nice and professional presentation. Great Job!

[@ovscarr537]

I have a late 2013 iMac, 27 inch still in perfect condition. It has the max specs and I put an SSD into it. In 2020, this thing is still great for me for schoolwork and overall usage! When I first opened it up, it was so dusty so I spent 30 minutes taking the dust out and that overall made it feel brand new

[@filip3148]

i wonder if there is a third party solution that makes the imac screen re-removable without adhesive, more like a clip mechanism or something.

[@iMadrid11]

I can imagine you could mod it by glueing in magnets. Just like the previous gen. iMac 🖥 form factor. It had a glass cover over the lcd that’s attached by magnet that you remove via suction cups. Apple ditched the glass on newer gen. iMacs to save on production costs and also make it thinner by replacing it with adhesive strips.

[@jdpruente]

The problem with that is that this is the entire screen assembly. On the 2011 and earlier 27" it is only the front glass that is held on with magnets, so it is much lighter, less fragile, and you don't have to deal with the display cables.

[@user-hx9gu5nh9p]

It would create a gap or look ugly

[@beingatliberty]

its not a bad idea for a product but you would have to engineer it to get the tolerances right and the magnets strong not to allow the weight of the screen to fallout? magnetic sticker sufficient?

[@mightbesherwood1313]

Magnetic strips I've worked with are pretty weak. They can hold postcards and bubble wrap in place - nothing heavier than that.

[@cjmariani]

Even easier solution. Buy an external SSD or internal SSD and a case and connect via USB3. Install OS and apps and boot from there. Bingo.

[@Bill_Dipperly]

Don't do this people

[@computerhelpcc]

Doable, NOT as good as running from SSD installed to motherboard

[@railwaymedialondon]

No

[@cjmariani]

I have 2 IMacs at home, circa 2012 and did this on both. They both run so much faster, way more stable, and no crashing issues at all except the occasional rogue program or two. Maybe not as effective as putting it internal but for folks like me that don't have the tools, know-how, or time to do an internal swap it is a perfectly viable solution IMHO. The big "risk" if you want to call it that is the possibility that the USB cable can get knocked out. To avoid that I put them in a case and using velcro strapped them to the back of the IMAC frame.

[@jdillon8360]

Great video. Thanks for posting. We need to repair a lot of things like this instead of sending them to landfill!

[@agoushy74]

Haha nice. My local recycling center is an absolute GOLD MINE. Found a 2013 retina MacBook Pro, works great. Also found a 2014 21 inch iMac for free, wouldn’t boot so all I did was command+r boot up, wiped the drive, and redone loaded a copy of OS high sierra and it works GREAT!! Let’s see what else I can find in the future!

[@ReTex504]

It would be better if you replace the thermal paste of the processor

[@gringoryabellog]

Sebastian Fokken yes I agree if that is possible.

[@gregthompson7793]

@@gringoryabellogIt is very much possible and he should have done that while he had it open. Also repaste the GPU as well since they share the same heatsink.

[@kaluimoku2467]

it's soldered on....

[@gregthompson7793]

@@kaluimoku2467 The heat sink is not soldered onto the processor. Sorry but you have some bad info. The processor is only soldered to the logic board.

[@kaluimoku2467]

@@gregthompson7793 good counterpoint

[@johnnyvvlog]

And to think that this $30 upgrade costs $300 at Apple...

[@bobhofegartner1397]

Good luck on finding a 30.00 SSD. lol

[@firesurfer]

@@bobhofegartner1397 microcenter $25.99 240g www.microcenter.com/product/616766/gigabyte-240-gb-v-nand-sata-60gb-s-25-internal-ssd

[@sfjlajgeoiuet]

@@firesurfer lol

[@PurpleSwan]

Great video! Thanks a bunch for the instructions/ideas.

[@leventeszego8863]

I installed an SSD in my 8 GB 2013 iMac. It took me multiple tries to install the OS and download the iCloud backup, but once it was done the machine came alive and now works like a new one. I upgraded to Catalina, which I never hoped to be able to do. Booting up used to take so long I would usually go make a coffee in the meantime. Now it is so quick I hardly have time to adjust my seat. Applications open super fast. Great advice, thanks!

[@djdimisal]

Damn.. In Europe this exact model is listed on eBay for 450+ euros ($550).

[@Maykay1312]

Didi Productions ye same its shit in europe costs too much and there is no way of us finding one

[@gjnieuwenhuis2440]

Couple of tips: if you have access to an air compressor, use that instead of a brush to clean out the dust. Also, make sure you test the computer before you glue the screen back in.

[@Duck_31]

God damn. I love upgrade and cleaning videos of old pc/Mac and return them to life again!

[@rkneegordon6316]

Excellent video Luke. I was debating on whether to get my wife a little workstation of her own and it looks like this would do just nicely. Thank you.

[@vfxtutorials5400]

click Apple logo and choose About this Mac

[@patrickjackson9418]

How difficult was it to reattach the Sata cable to the SSD?

[@farongreenfield]

It doesn't have a lot of play but you can back the drive into the cable for the most part. There is some plastic housing guides that surround the hard drive that made that last millimeter difficult. But then I used a tool (a smudger?) to help me get a little more leverage on the SATA cable for a tight connection.

[@annab6948]

How do you instal OS on the SSD outside the computer?

[@rogerwprice]

What a fabulous video - THANKS!

[@JohnMerryman]

Great video! Just finished updating my MacBook Pro following another of your videos and saved allot not having to go to Apple! Next, will do my old iMac.

[@allansh828]

If I got such an iMac, I would simply install macOS on external SSD.

[@bryancohen]

And then you would be dealing with the slower throughput of the USB and/or FireWire connection.

[@Alecexo]

Did I just witness computer surgery?.....

[@MrSpectaman]

Very good video. You seem to know what your doing as far as working with iMacs. I wouldn’t try fixing my iMac unless it totally stopped working as I haven been too lucky with computer repairs. I did attempt a battery change on a fire tablet and the tablet went in but it wouldn’t close all the way when I was done.

[@DaveHerrington]

Thanks Luke! This is a great video and spoke exactly to my situation, althougth I ended up selling my 2013 iMac and buying a hot little 2012 Mac mini as advised in another of your recent videos...

[@yeyolara6259]

You skipped over the most important thing of this whole process how to install the iOS in the new drive lol lol lol

[@permonjackson9696]

Press command + r to do a system restore to get the macos copy that came with the iMac. Note that to get all the files on the new ssd make sure to do time machine backups on the old hard drive and restore them in the new ssd.

[@permonjackson9696]

Plus its MacOS not IOS. IOS is for iphone not computers.

[@permonjackson9696]

Only press command + r when computer is Shot downed first then turn it on and then immediately press command + r, hold it, and wait for the globe animation to appear, then release.

[@0Imtheslime0]

Too easy to install iOS. Once you are in diskrecovery, you download a new fres OS over wifi, select your target disk and that is it.

[@cherkas009]

How did you install Mac OS on the hard drive and how much did that cost

[@RAD284]

@kirwi kirwinson How do you do that?

[@charlescampuz5812]

@@RAD284 Apple links their macOS updates to the Mac App Store. They're free & you can make a bootable disk using Terminal.

[@PRIDECONDITIONING]

Big thanks man, I got a 21.5 imac, it's a late 2015, picked it up used last year for $600, it was getting super slow, replaced the drive for an SSD and hold shyt man it is ten times faster!!! Big thanks!

[@bfroutdoors]

@Leo Fitch My display works and looks great, zero issues. I ordered the adhesive off amazon, the one that Luke put in the description, worked great. That adhesive kit is good because the strips are numbered, so you just start on one side of the unit with strip number 1 and then just go 2 3 4 5 until the end so you are putting the right on in the right spot.

[@petermoree2298]

neat little video man