Two upgrades revive a 2013 iMac, with limits

TechRadar’s Max Langridge tried to extend the life of a 2013 27-inch iMac with more memory and a solid-state drive. The goal was modest: web browsing, light creative work and everyday tasks, rather than matching the performance of his M2 MacBook Air.

Langridge added two 8GB Timetec DDR3 modules, bringing the computer’s memory from 8GB to 24GB. He used a TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 1TB SSD in a Ugreen external enclosure as the startup drive, avoiding the need to remove the display, which is attached with adhesive. The iMac’s USB 3.0 connection limited the drive’s potential speed. He also installed macOS Sonoma, which the computer does not officially support, with help from ChatGPT.

The components cost about AU$300: around AU$70 for the memory and just under AU$230 for the SSD. Including the AU$17 enclosure and promotions, Langridge put the total at approximately AU$310.

After the upgrades, the iMac took 1 minute and 52 seconds to start up. Langridge said basic web browsing was better once the computer was running, but the article’s available account does not give further results. He did not record benchmark results before upgrading, so he could not quantify the speed improvement. The project made the old iMac usable for basic tasks, but did not turn its 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 into a modern Mac.