As I did previously with my mid 2007 20” iMac, let’s weigh in if it’s worth it to upgrade a mid 2011 27” iMac to run macOS...

I am posting this question to see if the 2007 iMac is still usable in this day and age. Of course, if you want to proceed...

I’m wanting people to weigh in on installing macOS Sierra on 20" 2007 iMac. I installed a X7900 in it a few years back,...

There is a why to upgrade our iMacs to High Sierra. At the moment of this post APFS is not supported but will be in probably the next day or two. I will post more details soon. Maybe a video on my youtube channel

Here is a quick guide to enable Night Shift on unsupported Macs if you want to try it. How to edit CoreBrightness:: (1) First you will need to navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks (2) Once you are there, look for the framework named CoreBrightness.framework (3) Right click on CoreBrightness.framework and 'Open in New Tab' (4) Next, navigate to /Versions/A (5) Now that we are here we need to make a copy of your CoreBrightness just in case something goes wrong. So right click on CoreBrightness and choose 'Copy "CoreBrightness"' and then paste it to the Desktop or somewhere that you will be able to find it later incase you need it. (6) Now right click on coreBrightness again and this time choose 'Open With' and choose 'Other...' (1) That will open up a window that takes you to your Applications folder. You will choose 0xED Once it opens we will be ready to edit the file. Editing CoreBrightness: This can look intimidating, but if you follow along you will be fine You should now be looking at this (1)...

Hello!! I started a new thread here: replacing X7900 to T9300 for macOS Sierra install Is it worth it? Its more about the T9300 and macOS. I thought it was time to move since this one seemed to be getting cluttered and the topic has moved from the X7900 to the T9300. If you have questions or concerns I think we should direct them to that thread Nandor690

The process of upgrading the hardware in my 20" 2007 iMac is complete. I am running the latest beta of macOS 10.12.3 (16D30a). I have 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 so I have full support for Continuity. I.E. Handoff and Universal Clipboard. First I'll start out the the processor swap. I was running the X7900 Core 2 Extreme for a long time. Specs X7900:: (1) Base frequency: 2.80GHz (2) Cache: 4MB L2 (3) Bus speed: 800 MHz FSB (4) TDP: 44W (5) Voltage range: 1.100-1.375 (6) Number of (7) transistors: 291 million (8) Does NOT support sse4.1 instructions GeekBench:: This was a good processor. I first installed it while using OS X Lion. Other than running a little hot it seemed to run OS X great until I got to OS X Yosemite. There I started to get beachballs and very jittery movements in animations. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't deal with it but I just assumed my time with the 2007 iMac was coming to an end. With the lack of support for macOS it was really starting to seem real. I just assumed that with an...

Well its done! The T9300 is in and macOS Sierra is running smoothly on my 2007 iMac. It does benchmark a little less than the X7900 but the T9300 runs much cooler. I will like to give it more time before I say for sure but I am thinking that it runs macOS better than the X7900. Im not experiencing beachballs or lags like I was on El Capitan. If anyone wants any more info just let me know. Im gonna work on it a few days and see how the experience is all around. And then do a final impressions in about a month

It is most certainly possible. Iv even upgraded my 2007 20" iMac to 802.11ac and bluetooth 4.0. Don't buy the "kit" from osxwifi tho, way to expensive. You can find everything you need on eBay or amazon!! Good luck!!

So I don't think the E8135 will work because FSB is 1066 and 2007 20" iMac is 800. I thought it might just run it at 800 but it refuses to boot up all the way. Only $3 off eBay so no big lose. I ordered a T9300 to try next. Still a step up from the X7900 and the FSB is 800 and it supports sse4.1. Will let you guys know the results when it comes in

Just to update, its almost 4 years later that I posted here and the x7900 is working great for El Capitan. But I am moving on. I just ordered an E8135 cpu and am going to be installing it soon so I will then be able to install macOS Sierra on my 20" 2007 iMac. I am also going to be doing a wifi/bluetooth upgrade with a combo card out of a 2013 MacBook Pro. **********UPDATE************** The E8135 does not work. I think its because the FSB on the E8135 is 1066 and our 7,1 iMac FSB is only 800. I tried a few things but never got it to boot up completely, I am waiting on a T9300 now. which has the same FSB and supports sse4.1 for macOS Sierra. I will keep this thread updated when the parts come in on the 17th. Im also upgrading the wifi/bluetooth to a combo card from a 2013 MacBook Pro. So it should support handoff and continuity.

Great post!!! I have a 20" 2007 iMac that I am about to upgrade the x7900 core2extreme that I put in it a few years ago to a E8135 out of a 2008 iMac so I can install macOS Sierra. Im also going to follow this guild to upgrade the wifi/BT card. This is the only post I have found about doing this on a 2007 model. So thank you. Ill post pics of the cpu and wifi card swap if anybody wants to see them. Thanks again, Nandor690

Thanks for the reply. I was kinda worried about something burning up since it pulls about 12 more watts. The lady I bought it from upgraded to a 27" iMac and she had a lot of money. She told me she didn't really care what she got for it so I offered her $200 and she took it.