Speeding up iMac (early 2006
I have an early 2006 iMac, the first with Intel CPU and now I am looking for speeding it up a little. I maxed out the RAM (2G) and my only other option is to install an SSD drive there.
- First of all, I would like to know if this is a good idea to speed up my iMac?
- Shall I take my iMac to the service for this installation or I can try this on my own at home?
- Would it be possible to keep the current primary hdd as a secondary hdd in the machine or there is no space inside?
- SSD will make everything feel faster, but it's kind of pricey. Your internal HD is probably wearing out anyway, so it's not a bad idea to substitute it. If price is an issue you can buy one of the new 7200rpm with 32/64MB of cache, and do a clean install. Before moving your data into the new HD, install your Applications. This way they will reside in area of the disk which can be retrieved faster.
You can speed up your iMac with CPU&Memory and SSD upgrades.
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SSD upgrade is cheaper, easier and more efficient overall: You will need an SSD, some patience and skills with screwdriver and this link on how to take apart your iMac (search for 17" if yours is 17") and get to HDD. You may also use 2.5" to 3.5" bracket for an SSD but it's totally optional.
a. Now you may use your leftover drive by putting it into USB or FireWire 3.5" external enclosure. I would recommend FireWire 400 (or 800 if you plan to use it later) one if you want best experience, or USB2 if you need cheapest one.
b. Alternatively (or additionally) you may add any internal 2.5" SATA HDD in place of optical drive. Here is link on how to replace ODD. You will need a 12.7mm caddy with PATA to SATA converter. If you are going to install OS on it then switch automatic sleep off because it will hang. No problem with using it as a data drive though.
You may upgrade CPU to 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 Socket M. Here is ebay listing for them. After this you will be able to upgrade memory to 3GB with a help of this unofficial firmware and additional 2GB SO-DIMM DDR2-667 memory module. I believe you should search for it because there is no link guarantee because of legal constraints.
I hope you still find it useful.