They are all within 0.2GHz, which is hardly noticeable or worth splitting hairs over. Bigger numbers often mean better (more cores, higher processor frequency, more memory, faster speeds, etc), but this isn't always the case. īut from here, I really don't know what any of it means. Here is a one-page comparison of all five. Intel® Core™ i7-3770K Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz) Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz) Intel® Core™ i7-2700K Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz) Intel® Core™ i7-2600K Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) One person might say that 'You can only use an i7 core Apple offers as a OEM upgrade or you'll have firmware problems.'Īnother person might say that 'they're using a 'regluar i7-2600' and having no problems.Īnd finally, another peron might say that the ' Core i7-2700k (3.5ghz)' will work fine in the 2011 iMac.īut which is it!? Will any old processor do?Ībout all I know with processors is they need to have the same socket (for this iMac, it is LGA 1155), and compatible RAM ((for this iMac, it is 1333MHz DDR3).įrom there, I've narrowed it down to five Intel Core i7 Processors (all five compared on same page after links): Hardware is not my schtick, and there are endless feeds talking about various processors, and whether or not they work. The processor is where I'm having trouble. Apple also has technical specs stating that the graphics are 'Configurable to AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2GB GDDR5'. I am confident the GPU upgrade will work. The 4TB HDD will be for deep storage, should I ever need it. currently 3.96TB available), so with the 120GB I can make a 60GB partition for the entire system (startup, apps, files), and another 60GB partition for another drive (storage, OS, whatever). I have just under 40GB of consumed storage on my system (i.e. It is way better, but it is also way more than I need. I'm not as impressed with the HDD as I thought I would be. | Graphics | Mid 2011 iMac 27' Radeon HD 6970M 2Gb Graphics Card | The System I want | SSD | 120GB 6G SSD Optical Bay Hard Drive Replacement |

| HDD | 4.0TB (5900 rpm) SSHD Solid State Hybrid Drive | The system I currently have (only changes listed): | Memory | 32GB 1333MHz DDR3 | | Graphics | 2.7GHz AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB | The system I started with: Mid 2011 iMac 27'

Mid 2011 imac hard drive replacement