Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

One of the reason I'm going ahead with the upgrade is I have all the Adobe CS6 programs. I do a newsletter once a month and like Indesign. I will have to pay an additional $20 a month for the new version and I only need it once a month for about 2 days. I probably won't use it as much as I wanted for my Photoshop because the 2011 won't run photoshop CC above 2019 version. I like a lot of the latest features on the 2020 PS.
My CS6 Indesign will not run properly with Mojave. I'm in a catch 22.🥴

tjw47 Loc: Michigan

1TB SSD drives are a little more than $100..

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

I am into my Cheesegraters. Really into.
All of what you said is basic good sense.
The original HDD is notoriously slow. The 1gb SSD will be notoriously fast.
8gb of ram is- adequate. Maybe that program doesn't "run", it kinda "saunters".More is better.
Doing PShop- you're used to disk paging. You won't be missing all that waiting.
Besides, how many people here really only run one program at a time? Google tabs will get you.
A typing course refresher will help speed things up, as well as faster Internet speed. ;+}
I don't know your year/model, but a Thunderbolt > GPU upgrade is also good.
Ya know, some of those plastic cover pieces are easier to sand and Krylon when they're off.
Some will say "Ya know, just throw $6000+ at a new one and be done with it!" Plplplpl.
What you have works. This will work better. Save money for lenses, Xmas. and a 2025 ARM Mac.
Patches? Capt Pike had my 2006 > 2007 run El Capitan. Dosdude had my 3,1 run High Sierra.
BTW, ALL my Macs dual boot- Windows and OSX. Including my Lenovo laptop Hackintosh.
https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-upgrade-mac-3656129/

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

he is talking about a 2011 - he can't add an external GPU. He also can't add an external SSD because there are NO Thunderbolt 1 drives anywhere (I know, I've been looking for over 18 months). Putting money into the 2011 at this point is pointless. Pick up a new iMac (don’t buy more the 8GB Ram as you can put in more much cheaper than Apple charges. Pick the biggest SSD drive you need for your applications then buy an external USB 3 or better yet thunderbolt 3 SSD or HD (HD cheaper for bigger size). Store your docs on the external - run your apps off the internal SSD, backup using CCC and to the cloud with BackBlaze

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

8 GB is minimal these days. The RAM upgrade will make a huge difference. Both OS X and Adobe love memory.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

All done. Upgraded the Mid 2011 iMac with 32 GB of ram and installed a new 1T SSD drive. Took a little over an hour but that was being extra cautious with the wires and their reinstall placement. I saw in the video the wire connectors were small but once inside you will see they are REALY small, hard to handle with fat fingers. Putting it back together the final 8 screws for the monitor were a bit challenging, the magnets holding the outside screen wanted to grab the screws. Had to use tweezers and mine weren't the best for the job, right angle tweezers would work much better. My kit came from OWC and I would recommend them.

For the results, start up time from pushing the button to seeing the normal screen was 1min 32 sec. Even though I see the screen it would then take another 2 min + to open a program I would want to run. After upgrades the start up time is 31.5 sec and loading Photoshop an additional 16 sec. Once open it runs as fast as my 2019 MacBook Pro with 32 GB of ram.
If you do this I recommend putting a hammer to the old drive. It is so slow I will never use it.

Now on a down side. This 2011 iMac is only capable of running Mojave OS 13.6 not higher. I can only run 2019 Photoshop CC not the latest one. The latest one needs a newer OS. The only way to get the Photoshop is monthly prescription $9.99 a month. If you stop paying PS will stop opening. Bummer. Now for me I run the newer version PS CC 2020 on the Laptop so if I have to have all the bells and whistles I have it there. Or I can connect my laptop with the iMac and use it as a larger screen and do it that way.

The upside is well worth it for me. I have the full version of Adobe CS6 that runs much better on the iMac with the older Mojave OS. I use Indesign for a monthly newsletter and some other advertising pieces and don't want to upgrade that cost an additional $20 a month on top of my Photoshop subscription.

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Destroyed old drive

(Download)