Thanks Luke for letting all of us know that ALL 2013 27" imacs have the pcie slot and that the 21" only has it IF you have the fusion drive. There are soooo many conflicting stories on the net on this, that its worth re-mentioning this for all us that are looking to upgrade our 2013 imacs.

I have this iMac now, so I’m looking at this with new eyes.

Seriously, how are you only at 71k subscribers? I'm not the biggest apple fan, but your videos are always very well made and good to watch

Hi Luke, thanks a million for the video! I ended up max'ing out a 3.4 GHz late-2013 27" iMac with a 1 TB mechanical HDD: upgraded the CPU to the Core i7-4771 (miserable experience, nearly borked the machine), a Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB NVMe (2280) PCIe drive as the boot/application drive (not terribly difficult - get the right tools and follow the video directions closely - the OWC PCIe SSD drive replacement video is the best), a Crucial MX500 1 TB SSD drive for data (pretty easy, once the display has been removed), and upgraded the memory to 32 GB (Timetec, trivial to upgrade). If anyone is still considering something like this in 2020 or later, I'd suggest: - get the right tools (from iFixIt), especially the "pizza tool" to cut the display adhesive - using old guitar picks and ancient credit cards you find laying around to open the display is dumb - the right tools will cost less than $20 - to replace a botched display will run about $600. Do the math... - try to avoid the CPU upgrade - it can be done, but it's seriously no fun and you run the risk of borking your investment - try to find a refurbished or used unit with the Core i7 already installed - if you're REALLY lucky, try to find a unit with the upgraded graphics - the GeForce GTX 780M with 4 GB VRAM - definitely consider installing a PCIe SSD drive as your main drive - the slot is only a PCIe x2, but you'll still get better performance than the SATA3 drive connection - as long as you have 8-16 GB RAM to start out, you should be good - upgrading RAM is a

The best Mac value by far is a used iMac where you've replaced an HDD with a 1TB SSD. This gives you 90% of the speed improvenent that this massive upgrade delivered, and the whole machine runs considerably cooler and quieter, and will last longer. I removed my HDD to an external enclosure for that reason alone - this will also make replacement much easier when it inevitably croaks. (I use it as a Time Machine backup drive, for which USB is perfectly adequate.) Macs Fan Control is a freebie utility that takes care of the fan issue.

Hey Luke. I had the courage to put the i7 4770k on my 27 inch Imac from 2013, result: The machine is a plane!!! Beat up a lot of 2020 out there. Detail, it's running Ventura 13.4.1 through opencore... Runs smooth. Turns on in 9 seconds, opens apps in 3.5 seconds, and native apps in less than 1 second. Here are my machine settings: Processor: i7 4770k Quad core SSD M.2 Samsung 970 EVO 1TB SSD SATA Samsung 870 EVO 1TB Video Card GTX 775 2GB 32GB Kingston RAM memory macOS Ventura 13.4.1 I advise anyone in doubt to put the 4770k which is much better than the 4771.

I love watching your videos. This is a much needed video. Thanks for sharing and keep your great videos coming.

Thanks for the shopping list. I was able to use the listed items to max out my Late 2013 27" iMac drive, CPU, and RAM.

I found this model iMac local. paid $600. On your recommendation I'm very happy! I'll do the SSD Upgrade and Ram. Thanks Luke! Great Info here!

I bought this iMac with the same specs new in late 2013. This computer still works great today!

Thanks for this! I already have the 2013 27” and I was considering a new computer. I agree that it wouldn’t make sense to buy an older version just to then spend the money to upgrade, when you could buy the older upgraded version, but it does seem worth it to upgrade what you already own. Out of pocket expenses of $400-500 VS thousands for a new machine.

Glad this popped up. Planning on upgrading my parents iMacs.

I just got a iMac i7 late 2013, for $400. It has 32gigs of ram with a SSD on the mother board. I think I will be making some upgrades for more space, but this iMac is already a screamer. As always a great video super production and you made it very explainable.

almost two years ago I bought a 2013 IMac because of your videos, I have had to parts laying around forever to upgrade the HDD and to also add NVME. I finely took the time to do it, totally worth it should give it a few more years of life.

The one other thing I would recommend if you decide to do this, is to replace the CMOS battery (the flat disc battery on logic board) while it is apart. With a machine that old, it certainly will need replacement sooner rather than later and so much easier to do it when everything is apart. Also, it probably would make sense to replace the hard drive as well. Hard drives can fail at any time and one this old may fail relatively soon. Yes, $40 for the adapter is a cost, but you can easily bump it up to 2 or 4 TB for not much $$. For value, this can make sense if you already own a 2013 27in iMac....like I do!

first i cleaned the heck out of everything. then added 512gb nvme ssd inside and installed 512gb 2.5 sata ssd, and switched from 8g to 16gb ram. big improvements. thinking of going back in to up both the ssd's to 1tb each. i love working on these imacs

Well worth it Luke. I am being tempted to buy one of these myself now thanks to you. Cheers.

I took computer repair class back in 04 in high school and I've been watching a bunch of repair and upgrade videos lately and noticed no one wears those ground wrist bands is that still a thing or newer electronics don't mess up by the electricity in out body anymore just remember my teacher always saying make sure your grounded

Great info. I sill work with my late '13 iMac and thought about updating or changing to something new. I "updated" to a external USB 3.0 SSD and got like 400/450 write/read speeds.

Great couple of videos on this machine. Thanks!

Great job Luke I did the same for my late 2013 27" iMac got mine for $200.00 because it had a bad power supply put a new one init did the upgrades very solid mac

Your videos are getting better and better. Keep in up Luke!

Seriously... that video made my day! Just upgraded my iMac 27 5k late 2015 with an Evo 860 and questioned myself if the same upgrade is possibly with my older iMac 27 late 2013. Now I know it is possibly cause it's an 27-inch iMac! Big thanks for that note man! Cause i'm having just the normal 1TB HDD and not a fusion drive installed and was worried to open the iMac. Now i will speed it up with a fresh pci SSD. WHOOP WHOOP!

Hey, though this comment is quite late in this August 2022, but I've just started taking interest in iMacs and thought a research would be the most initial thing to go farther. And as somebody said earlier you're great in every video I've watched so far. Your projects are really astonishing, heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking when it comes to an end with the words "you're better buy one already with what I have done today". Hehe hehe. Joking aren't you?

I had fun watching this vid. Thank you!

Thanks for honesty i am looking on an imac and do not know what to get so i decided to watch videos like yours but your explanation is the one i enjoyed the most....

"disassembly was the trickiest part of this" good thing you showed us how

Thanks for the 2013 spec recommendations if you are looking to buy.

Please open a Repair shop! We need this passion in the repair shops where usually people don’t give a crap. You show that you truly loves it.

A great video, even 3 years later. I don’t need to take your advice to avoid the upgrade work because I was just given a 21-1/2 inch iMac late 2013. S, here I go! The trickiest part is getting into it--I watched another KZfaqr upgrade one of these things and right off the bat, as he ran the plastic blade around the edge of the glass to get inside he (you guessed it!) cracked the glass! Bummer. Not his fault The glass obviously tolerates VERY LITTLE stress. A valuable object lesson for the rest of us. Thanks for the step-by-step, Luke.

Thanks for this great video. I upgraded the motherboard late 2012 late 2013 for a gain in graphics card from 512MB to 2GB I also have better wifi and an MNVE Crusial 500GB (P2) SSD the P2 works without problem even if it is not listed as compatible on the crusial site. 100% functional. Sorry for the google translation

can i buy this imac off of you?

Funny thing, about 2 months ago I bought pretty much an identical machine locally on Craigslist for $420 It's a Late 2013 iMac 27' 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4 GB And it was already upgraded to 500GB SSD Such a great machine, I edit in FCPX on it and it's so fast and smooth...

Yes it's worth it. Very informative. Especially the end when u recommended don't go to the trouble.

I bought a 27" iMac late 2013 $550.00 plus tax, with a 4771 and GTX 780M 4GB 32 GB SSD 2.5 inch SSD 512GB with Catalina installed on SSD, use the logic board from it and put it in my machine Clean, new heat past and put old logic board and use as a Xmas gift. 7 Nov 2021. Thank You for all info. I will get it done by Xmas.

As a mac and vintage gadgets enthusiast i find watching your "restoration" vids a delight. Keep it up!

Great video man!

Hi Luke. i love your content and this was indeed a fun built to watch. Keep up the great work you are doing/

I like these vids. Good work man

The cat needs to be in more videos

This is the video I'd been looking for it for a long time.

Was worth it ´cause i learned a lot here! Nice work.

I NEED a new processor to run my DAWs. I'm using a 2010 iMac and I just cant run any of my apps on it. i appreciate u for this video. pointing me in the right direction

Just picked up a late 2013 iMac with an i5. Wish I would have run across your video before I bought it. Hugely informative and well done! Thank you. Video well done too. I would have like to watch you remove the logic board but.. Be well

hey, Luke. It's always a joy to see your videos! I have this same model and I'm afraid of all these screws hahaha. This information about insert a SSD M.2 is completely new for me! Thanks about that! Did you recommend change just the HDD for SSD? I thinks could be easiest to make it myself!

Great video!

I just inherited a late 2012 21inch. This is day two trying to figure it out. I've always used Linux. So far I really like it.

You gotta start including how you actually do this step by step. It’s great content you’re leaving on the table and you’re subscribers would be interested. Great video regardless......also more cat ;)

For the fans to work with an SSD there's a great little program. It's called SSD Fan Control.

Great video. Thanks!!

Luke, thanks for the great video. Have you ever tested upgrading the graphics card? I have a 2015 Imac with a 2gb AMD Radeon R9 M395. Is there a way to upgrade that? OR maybe just add an EGC? thanks again!

Great video, i miss my imac 27" late 2013, gave it to my bro for half value.

Another fan workaround is Macs Fan Controller, I've used this with my 2 x 2012 27" iMac's when upgrading to SSD. You can control settings and parameters as you like, it works well.

The best part was your cat front the cam! XD, great video bro!...🙌🏻 👋🏻

Really really really like your videos.

I think it's totally worth it for me, because as you said - I'm planning on upgrading down the road and will only start with the ssd to get it going. Great video as always!

i searched upgrading an imac 27 with NVMe even if it isn't used at its full potential, if the cost is similar, why spend money on older tech?, i didn't find anything, then i thought about replacing thermal paste and i found you! PERFECT! this is soo cool! thanks, this is really what i wanted to know. i didn't know you could upgrade to i7, i am so happy, wow! thanks so much!

Still running a 2013 iMac 27" in my Business, same specs, doing graphics, layout and website programming. Its still a wonderful machine to work with, and i guess it will do fine a few years more. Only had to equip a SSD, mechanicsl harddrives are way too slow nowadays, as soon as you have used a ssd once.

strange video....... you cut out all the parts i wanted to see!!!

Well, all I can say is that you provide an excellent instructional video every time, you have demystified the Apple Mac for me Luke. I managed to upgrade the Apple MacBook to it’s max which was great. Thank you very much John Charlesworth

a month ago i bought an imac 27 inch with the top configuration like on this video with the modest price of 136.11 usd with shipping.. best deal of my life :)

Video was very entertaining keeping these video

Hy Luke, thanks so much for this video. I would like to know if you may precise which cable is needed if we want to replace the HDD, for the thermal sensor ? Best regards; Kind of blow

Thx for your good way of explaining how bro 🙌

Awesome! Purchased late 2013 iMac 27” for $520: 3.5ghz, 1tb hdd, 16gb ram, gtx 780m 4gb Upgraded for $100: 32gb ram & 512gb nvme ssd (holding 1tb hdd as 2ndary storage) Deep-cleaned internals and repasted heat sinks: not a gaming machine whatsoever, however, runs 4K video editing suites BUTTERY SMOOTH! 🧈 🧈 🧈 the 4gb vram really sets it apart! At $620, this is THE BEST amateur-budget-video-editing-Mac, even in 2020

Your presentations are ultra informative. Please do a video on: How to Shop for iMAC's on eBay.

I already have the 2013 Imac bought it for 100 bucks so this is seaming to be a value

my iMac has an intel I3 gen 8 3.6 Ghz. with 8 gigs of RAM. Also 1 TB HDD. I went ahead an installed a 500 GB SSD and oh my! such a huge difference. my iMac runs flawless now.

How did this final version turn out to work when it comes to editing 4k video? Can it do it, i mean with longer clips, more effects, layers and so on? Inspiring good content on your channel!

Can i do same thing (m.2 nvme) on a *2012 * iMac 21.5 with a fusion drive inside?

Silly hooman, Rosie *needs* to inspect your iMac upgrade (and get some head scritches) 😹

This guy knows what is he doing!!

Thanks for posting these videos, they are super informative, and helped me make my decision to get one of these maxed out imacs a while back. Wondering your thoughts on upgrading to unsupported versions of macos on these machines. Not sure if you already did videos on this or not but curious on your thoughts regardless

Good information to know.

Hey Luke, I used your example of this recently and had great success replacing the power supply and adding max RAM and an SSD. Unfortunately the iMac developed a display issue after testing, in the process of sealing back up. It developed two thick vertical black bars on the right side of screen about 2 inches in. Nothing I could do to fix that. Any ideas?

Nice one, you've upgraded to what I purchased from Apple back in 2013 except that I have a 3Tb Fusion drive (the spinning part of) which is now starting to fail according to DriveDX. I'm patiently waiting for Apple to bring out a new form factor iMac so that I can upgrade (video conversion on this iMac can be a bit laborious).

I just got done fixing up a 2011 with a bad backlight. Upgraded to a 2600s and a 765m for Mojave compatibility. Fixed the backlight, but broke the LCD in the process, so that hurt the budget buying a new one. Don't take the display panel apart like I did to resolder the backlight connector. Just do like everyone else and solder wires through the hole on the back of the display.

you can control the fan using an application it solves the problem of overheating , just set the right fan speeds and you good to go with your ssd (a proud user of a 2011 imac)

A word of warning - he makes this look easier than it is. I'm fairly experienced with taking iMacs apart and my attempt at this was a total failure. Only 1 LED showing and a long list of things to troubleshoot! Hopefully not a dead iMac.

i have the late 2013 Imac I maxed to the top of rams and pretty good for me just keep it to el captain. I'm interested by your videos! I used to repair macs and love to disassemble them , you're doing a great job. I just have one point , the screen inch broke pretty quickly! it's obviously an apple failure so I put a wooden piece underneath to hold the heavy screen

I have the 2013 27" iMac with a GTX 775m and 3,4gHz i5 and replaced the HDD (bought it with a Fusion Drive), so now I have about 120GB on the original SSD + 500GB on the MX500 via SATA. As the time passed by I also added 16GB RAM (2x 8GB) for a total of 24 GB. I am perfectly fine and happy about my purchase 6 years ago. It will be used until it's death.

Overall, I’d say you’re right, although I’d still want to upgrade the SSD (and possibly the HDD) myself, given that they only have a certain amount of read/writes to them. I would rather start at square one with those.

I just bought a late 2013 21.5 iMac with the i7 processor and 1tb hard drive. You mentioned in your video that only the 21.5 with a fusion drive have the NVMe port, but when I upgraded the memory on my iMac I do have the NVMe port on my logic board just above the usb hubs. Does this mean I can install NVMe on a non fusion drive iMac logic board?

I have early 2009 and glad it is magnetic for easy to remove the screen and I never get one with adhesive like this 2013.

Thanks for the video, but for such a nice upgrade, here is what i think is missing in the video: You should record the opening time of the mac before and after the upgrade to show what kind of a difference the upgrade had on the mac. Definitely have the removal / installation of the cpu so that it would help others that would like to go thru the same process. and of course the removal and the assembly of the logic board.

I upgraded the memory in my 2013 27” but never thought about adding ssd, will have a go.

And ship to Mexico! Once you are done testing, Thank you

Thank you very much for the information that you have to give due to the fact that this is the computer that I own great job I really appreciate you you have a great rest of your day😎😎😎!

For the temp sensor... if you cannot put an NVME drive, locate where the pins for the sensor are and solder wires (maybe on the board) to a resistor. Use the value that your hard drive temp sensor gives when the hard drive is completely cold!

hi Luke! I have the same late 2013 iMac 27 inch! would you recommend doing this NVMe ssd upgrade or just a SATA ssd upgrade for this system? will there be any difference in the performance? and will the NVMe tax the cpu more?

I just picked up a late 2013 21.5”, i5, 8GB Ram iMac. What are my options for upgrading and is it worth doing. Wish I had watch your video first. Can the Ram be accessed from the back or only from the front, removing the logic board?

Great video ! Next time pse use small boxes to keep small stuff like screws together.

Very nice and informative. Could you possibly include where we could find these iMac's at those great prices????

Im doing this upgrade to mine , willl the i7 4770 work as well as the 4771 or it HAS to be the 4771? thank you for your help

Just to let people know, you don't have to remove the logic board to upgrade ram-there is an opening at the back

3:20 You "Forgot to Film" that part... yeah right... you had ONE JOB!!!! C'mon Man!!!

Hi Luke. Great videos. Do you have a video on linking two 2013 iMacs together to use one as a display? I have been trying to do this but have not been able to make them work. Also, would you have a suggestion or video on how to fix a display that has a black bar running through it? Thanks in advance.

Hi Luke. I have iMac 2013 27" and last week, when I tried to open the monitor panel to check the HDD, I inadvertently dropped down the screen panel onto the table and after that the resolution of the display is only max 1280x720. I tried to restart it many times but cannot revert it back to 2k resolution as before. I also checked all the cables but seem that nothing broken (or there might be small broken inside that I can't realize by eyes, I don't know honestly). Can you advise what steps to check if there is any broken or is there any any way to fix this problem?

Great video and thanks just wondering why would you leave a big HOT HDD in the machine when you can fix the HDD fan noise with software?

Hello Luke. Just upgraded the processor and PCIe ssd . Everything went smoothly but now my top 2 ram slots aren’t working. All I get is the 3 beeps when all 4 sticks are installed. I’ve tried multiple different ram sticks that function perfectly in the bottom 2 ram slots. Have you ever run into this problem? Thanks! Love the videos