I have a ZenWatch 3, which I love in style and speed over my ZenWatch. However, I have found the vibration extremely...

This is an old thread, but just for an update, there are two i7 options for the mid 2010 iMac with the LGA1156 socket. The i7-860S and i7-870S both work!

I know this has been some time, but in an effort to update the threads people come across when searching this (such as me), there are other options for both the CPU and the GPU. First, the CPU. The Intel i5-680 3.6 GHz is the fastest 2 core processor you can use with the highest single core benchmark scores. However the i7-860S and i7-870S 4 core processors share the LGA1156 socket and work. These S variants are a 82 TDP and work in the 21.5" iMac. The i7-860S is a 2.53 GHz with a turbo boost of 3.46 GHz, but 4 cores. So while the single core benchmark scores average slightly lower than the i5, the multi-core scores are much better! The i7-860S is much easier to find and a lot more affordable than the i7-870S. The i7-870S is a 2.66 GHz with a turbo boost of 3.6 GHz. It can be hard to find and is over twice the cost of the 860S. Also, it is only very slightly faster. From looking at the Geekbench 4 tests, the score results are extremely close to just marginally faster… not really worth the much higher cost....

I’ve completed the conversion myself also. I had an ATI Radeon HD 5670, 512MB, GPU that I took out from a 2010 iMac I upgraded to a 2011 GPU. I realized after looking, that there was not too high of a cost to then convert my 2009 3.33 Core 2 Duo to a 2010 logic board. I also had a i5-680 CPU that could be used as I had upgraded the 2010 iMac to an i7-860S. For the conversion, I ran into some issues not quite listed above. Here’s all the parts I needed: 2010 Logic Board, I used part number 820-2784-A which is also 661-5534 2010 SD card reader cable PN: 593-1223 (also found under 922-9430) 2010 video card pressure wall PN: 922-9483 (this is a plastic piece that attaches to the logic board and helps ensure air cycles to the GPU cooler fins) 2010 Bluetooth, camera and sensor cable with the ambient temp sensor integrated is actually PN: 922-9366. The PN: 593-1218-A the previous contributor mentioned is for the 2011 model, which can be used as long as use the 2011 iSight camera PN: 922-9494 (the connector on the...