These have mobile CPUs, not desktop chips like the E4400. This iMac has a T7300, which makes it the slowest aluminium iMac. You can upgrade these to a "Penryn" CPU like the T9300 and have it run MacOS 12 with opencore legacy. They also have the HDD temperature sensor externally, so you can upgrade these just fine with an SSD. As this is basically a PC and includes a BIOS compatibility mode which let's it install almost all Linux distros and Windows 10 via USB. They don't work too well, but they will install. That fixes ALL of your software incompatibility issues.
The newer OS might work with Open Core, but the software you want may not. I found that Monterey worked fine on a 2010 Mac Pro, but software that expected AVX crashed hard, That vintage Xeon doesn't have AVX.
A few things to note: - You can update the OS to macOS 10.11, but old PowerPC apps will not work with macOS 10.7 or later, due to the removal of Rosetta, the PowerPC-to-Intel compatibility layer. I recommend to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) for that. It's a great and fast OS (one of my favorite operating systems!). - This computer, just like most Intel iMacs with dedicated graphics, has a laptop GPU (so it's a Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT on an MXM card). - Maybe I'm wrong, but this model of iMac could have some leaky capacitors, especially on the power supply...
The old Mac rabbit-hole! I've been PC since time immemorial, so checking out old Macs and finding how they're different is a ton of fun. They're weird, have open source hacks, specific IFKYK command line fixes, and a lot of archived community posts. Sometimes they work smooth as glass, sometimes they gaslight you. Thanks for the video!
@@Techlevel1534. They're slow. You can upgrade everything but whatever CPU you give it, it'll be slow. But if you have a little patience, they're a good way to mess with Apple stuff for pennies. Mine runs the latest OS off an SSD and with a 4GB RAM upgrade. It got a great deal of use before I upgraded my main PC.
There are two options you can do for an older mac like this, either use a open source modern coded browser or use open core to update to an unsupported operating systems with hacked drivers
For something like this it might be worth downgrading to OS 10.6 so that you can then get PowerPC apps working on it, such as old retro games this thing was designed to run. I doubt it would be very fast trying to run 10.15 (the last supported OS for any modern software) very well at all even if using Opencore Legacy Patcher.
@@TheSpotify95 The gaming experience on these is hot garbage. Not worth it at all. Call of Duty 2 ran at like 10 fps on my early 2006 rig. 2008 iMac is better enough to warrant something more, those can run OS X Sonoma no problem. Speaking from experience. SSD upgrade and 4GB RAM, runs it quite well aside from the CPU being a wee bit slow.
i'm running linux mint on a 2009 imac with c2d. works fine for watching movies, either via streaming or by downloaded mp4 files or DVD. it can handle basic web browsing and email tasks, although mine is maxed out with 16gb ram and an SSD which improves the usability GREATLY.
I ran an Early 2008 24" iMac for 14 years as my DD right up until late 2022 when it finally died (the PSU failed). It worked beautifully. TBF I did replace/upgrade the parts multiple times over the years just to keep it going. Specs: 3.06GHz, 6GB RAM, 256GB SSD, ATI HD 2600 Pro 256MB, Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan. The only problem was most browsers weren't updated except for Opera (at the time) therfore limiting me to said browser. Almost all apps I downloaded from the Mac App Store weren't up-to-date either due to the outdated OS. Other than that, it just worked. It was still a modern PC. I still have it sitting on the floor waiting for the day I get a replacement PSU. I miss using a Mac now that I'm on PC. That's a whole other story for another time.
And with OpenCore Legacy Patcher you can probably even get something like Monterey running on it. I have Monterey running on a 2010 Mac Pro Server and it works wonderfully.
@@cleanycloth I investigated that shortly before my Mac died but decided against it because the process looked complicated and I didn't want to stuff it up given it was the only computer I had. Now that I have a PC I might tinker with the old Mac. How's performance of Monterey on a C2D?
@@mcrazza Not so well, I had Big Sur on my Early 2008 17" MacBook Pro (the last non-Unibody) and it ran but not very good (despite SSD and 4 Gigs of RAM, the maximum), I then returned to 10.9 Mavericks (last with Skeumorphism) and now to 10.15 Catalina, it still runs decent. Also the temperatures (I use Macs Fan Control) are better with Catalina, while it was almost constantly running rather hot with Big Sur. They say you should at least have a quadcore CPU for newer than Catalina, so late 2009 iMac with i5/i7 (or upgrade the i3).
@@mcrazza Monterey was a little slow on my Core 2 Duo 2010 Mac Mini, but it was definitely usable. It was probably more down to my BX500 SSD that I've heard sometimes can be a bit weird with macOS. OCLP works with Big Sur onwards, below that you have DosDude1's patchers (and Catalina ran great on my 2010 Mini)
OCLP's gotten really good in the last year. They can easily be daily drivers on the latest macOS for the next 5 or so years so long as the hardware doesn't die.
Mac always had a tendency to do indexing when they power on older systems. That’s why they generally feel slower in the beginning and speed up as you continue using them.
Chuck in an SSD and install more ram, then use OpenCore Legacy Patcher and you can run the current and latest version of Mac OS on it! (Albeit a bit slow)
Apple says maximum support of 4GB but users have tested it with 6Gb of ram, which thinking of it, 3Gb ddr2 modules sound so odd. But even then, 4GB can run Mac OS, I ran Sonoma on a first gen 2008 MacBook Air with 2GB of ram for giggles, it was hilariously slow, but still faster than using an old mechanical hard drive
@@TheSpotify95 the maximum amount of RAM this iMac can take is 6gb using one 4gb and one 2gb RAM module. This is a firmeware limitation. It can run Open Core Legacy patcher, and I have found actually that a modern OS with modern software runs faster than an older outdated OS in my experience albeit with a late 2013 iMac that has 4 RAM slots and the native built in SSD option it even supports 4K without dropping frames and plays Minecraft on low settings at a reasonable 40fps. That said I spent about $500 all up, which is a lot more than 30 quid. But, on the other hand, bringing it up to the latest OS version it can run stably would prolong its life.
I was kind of hoping you would throw an SSD in there and clone the old disk drive onto it. I'd love to see a supplemental video and see what it runs like that way....same software just a better drive. I would also like to see what it is like running Windows, and Lenox....
Found a 2019 iMac for around €90. Still opted for a Linux OS. Dealing with unsupported systems is just not worth the effort for average use. The day the latest possible version will not be compatible with a recent program update is always closing in fast. Especially on Macs sadly.
@@berkant_k No, definitely not that old. :) It has DDR4. But maybe it was 2017 though come to think of it. It didn't say the year on the "about" thing for some reason. It's 3.4quad, RP5604G 4K so I could probably find the year in one of those model spec charts. But yes, apart from some annoyance with sound support and sleep mode being weird Linux plays very nice with it. But that Cirrus sound thing is the only real meddling needed. The reason I got it that cheap was it seemed to have fallen out of a car or something. While moving. So there was quite some work to get the glass off the screen. As compared to no effort really on those older models of the video. It also make an even louder squeaky sound from the hinge. So that is probably also due to the traffic incident. ;D
I got a similar one of these for free back in college from a previous job I worked. I just had to replace the cracked screen cover. It worked fine as a League of Legends machine and it would play the then current version of War Thunder on low settings around 45-60 FPS. I was also able to get an extra 500Mhz by swapping in a used mobile Core 2 Extreme chip which helped minimum frame rates a bit. Luckily it was one that had a Radeon HD 2600 Pro instead of the Intel GMA graphics like some of them had around that time.
I've got a 2008 24inch running el capitan and that is a sweet spot with plenty of modern apps and browsers and you can dual boot leopard for power pc support. Love these things
As an ex-CeX worker, it always amuses me seeing how other shops would handle computers like this. We had a strict no Apple keyboard/mouse = no buy policy with iMacs but the account being left on there is a common mistake in so many poorly run branches. The staff usually couldn't give half a shit and I had my fair share of email communications with other stores trying to clean up their messes such as store accounts! Even at their worst grade it amazes me that they bought this in, hardly worth the buy in for the store. There's an operations manual that all branches have to abide by but you know yourself, the average CeX worker probably doesn't know it exists lol
This reminds me a bit of my brother's old 2011 Mac mini. It ran like absolute dogsh** with a mechanical HDD with High Sierra, but was snappy and fine with Lion. With an SSD It could handle High Sierra well enough, but in the end even that got too "old" for modern enough software and after he upgraded his sound interface to something that didn't need Firewire he got rid of it. There seems to be a weird trend that macOS/OSX and Windows share - Windows 7/8 (and even early versions of 10) and old OS X versions could run really well on HDDs, but then something got updated and using HDDs as the system drive became unbearably slow somewhat suddenly.
The optimum disk reading strategy for a spinning platter is very different from that for an SSD. An SSD has no penalty for random reads, there is no head to move, nor any rotational latency.
I just fixed Ivy Bridge era Macbook Pro. Still somewhat useful today if you will turn the blind eye on on Intel HD 4000. Plays Full HD 60fps and together with 16GB does the job.
I picked up a mid 2011 iMac 21.5 with 1tb Hdd, 8gb ram i5 2.7 with Apple keyboard for £30 !! Upgraded to 1gb SSD, 32gb Ram and works a treat !! Nice video !! Henry is great 😂
I remember having a 2006 Imac with snow leopard installed and that thing was a beast, ran steam (until it was unsupported so I had to use Wine instead), Ran pretty much anything I put on it, it was fantastic. When it died (Either a cap burst or something because I remember it making a loud pop with some smoke bellowing out the top) and that was the biggest loss I've had to deal with.
These things a beasts. I have the larger model, installed Manjaro, replaced the thermal paste, substituted the drive with an SSD and gave it a ram upgrade. Probably good for another few years.
I’m watching this video on the same exact iMac lol. it’s been my daily driver since 2009. In fact, I think mine might be one year older than yours. I didn’t pay for the crazy expensive for gigabyte memory stick so I just have four gigs of memory in it, but I put linux mint after Catalina was no longer supported, and it still has given me no reason to replace it. In fact, I use it as a I use it as a computer. I Disney+ and all my movies and videos right on this. I have it next to my bed. It’s literally the best computer I’ve ever had. I’ve had a problem with it. The original hard drive about a year ago so I replaced it with SsD, but I took it out. The original hard drive started to work again so I might not have even needed to change the hard drive. discount computer still makes a great daily driver. It plays video flawlessly with no buffering.
I bought the 26 inch white model from the same year and the 20 inch aluminium version. Suffered with them until loading them full of emulators and dual booting them to Linux for internet and RU-vid. The screens were by far the best thing about them
I have a 27 inch 2010 iMac that I still use as a monitor. Screen is still gorgeous (yes I know it's not efficient, burns more power than a normal monitor).
I got a whole lot of these from a school. I recycled/sold most but I kept all the 24 inch c2d imacs with 8800m gts graphics. Ive got them dualbooting xp/vista. With the 8800 graphics they make for awesome mid 2000s xp/vista gaming machines. since its an all in one unit its super easy to whip them out on an afternoon and play some older games.
I recently bought one of these for $50(£40). Mine is the higher end one with the 2.66ghz cpu, and 2600 XT graphics. I have it running Mojave currently, though I plan to try Sonoma. Also your iPhine hotspot should connect if you enable "Maximize Compatibility" in the settings.
To get Halo to work you'll need a modern launcher, the launcher is broken on newer versions of MacOS. The new launcher I use is called HaloMD. I have used it on my 2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks, but it'll work on mountain lion.
Would be interesting to see how any modern version of macOS runs using the OpenCore patcher. According to Everymac, those Core2 iMacs go up to El Capitan officially(!) with a RAM upgrade. In my experience, a lot of the issues these older Macs have software-wise can be fixed by reinstalling or upgrading the OS. I'd love to see it struggling to run Sonoma or Ventura^^ I also love these more improvised videos, reminds me of old Druaga1
I still have a 2006 iMac 17" which i got for 20€ in 2017, with a failing harddrive. Replacing that turned it into a nice machine. Installed windows 7 on it and it could barely run GTA 4 with its Radeon X1600.
I inherited one of these - so it cost me nothing. I upgraded it from 1Gb to 4Gb RAM; replaced the hard drive with an SSD; and replaced the T7300 processor with a T9300. The processor upgrade means it’ll work with Catalina on Opencore. However, I just replaced MacOS with Ubuntu 24.04, and it works really well for basic computing use.
This is the kind of hardware I like seeing. The thing can still punch way above its weight, or could. I wish I could watch a part two in which you would test it with other OSs, Same hardware and all. just to see how useable it could get just from an OS swap.
Oh, the classic iMac. Remove hhd and put ssd, then reinstall the os. Update ram if need to. Remove all dusts from the vents. Re-paste GPU and CPU. Update video frimware before it dies. Limit new software to 10 max. No video editing. It will be a decent computer for web surfing, watching movies, playing music, video calling, and documentation using Google docs.
@@TheSpotify95 Not really, at they didn't cost too much last time I ordered some from AE. New made sticks with most likely recycled chips from old server RAM but who care as long as they work.
Wouldn’t dare to touch anything near the graphics chip. Back in the day these things would often die just looking at it. That‘s sadly how mine (2010 i5, was such a sweetheart) died. Apple having it‘s MRI and a specialized graphics test just to show you that the chip died didn‘t made it better, as the only thing the customer could do was to replace the entire machine (had a lot of these customers around 2018). So please don’t touch the graphics chip, except if you absolutely have to.
SDD upgrade is crucial. Utterly unusable even with the official OS. Upgraded mine, installed the latest macOS (Sonoma I think?). Works perfectly except the CPU is a wee bit slow. As for reliability, I've not heard of any 2007 and 2008 iMacs having GPU issues. But to be safe I have the fans revving decently high to keep the temperatures at some sane level. Should be good for another 15 years.
I have a late 09 MacBook Pro. Opencore legacy and going to a more modern OS fixed a lot of compatibility issues. Running 12.7 on an Ssd. Its great for a garage computer. Much better than my dell of the era
I had a 2013 iMac and used it until 2021. It really was amazing, what Apple made of that hardware. Unfortunately the support for newer updates was dropped and then it ended up becoming a brick, which is a shame.
I just recently busted out my old a1176 mac mini. Whoever had it before me actually upgraded the thing to a t5600 c2d and the 3gbs of ram and even a bigger hard drive. I have linux installed and use it as a basic plex server for my movie collection. Probably only one person outside of my house will use it and so far its been great for in home use. I removed everything non essential, the wifi and bluetooth, the super drive, etc. I plan to attempt to install a bigger fan where the disk drive was to hopefully help with the cooling (also because the old fan bearings sound like they are about to go out anytime, but the fan still works.) Had to repaste the poor thing as when I took the heatsink off the cpu came with it.
i got one of these for about $100 back in early 2020, it was an early 2009 20” model with 2GB of RAM and GeForce 9400M it was quite slow on 10.11 due to the lack of RAM but i upgraded it to 8GB as it’s quite easy on those older iMacs and it was actually quite usable as most modern browsers and apps still supported it at the time. i remember being able to play some old version of Minecraft (likely 1.8.9) and getting an average of like 32 fps. at some point i even upgraded it to 10.13 with a patcher and it worked fine, i used it for a good while until i needed the RAM for some other project and now it lives in my trash heap with all of the other machines i’ve had to pull parts from. edit: my bad, forgot it was a 2009 model-
The iMac with the 9400M is the early 2009 model which has DDR3. The 2008 ones had DDR2 and can only take 4GB. It seems like they could take 6GB with a 4GB module and a 2GB one, but 4GB DDR2 modules are expensive...
around 2015 I upgraded the company I worked for from these imacs to the new i5 macbooks of the time. No one wanted these imacs but i just thought they were cool and convenient. They ran Adobe cs5 just fine. Its got a webcam, speakers, and monitor all in one package you can throw around. The screen was held on by magnets so easy to work on. I took them all home and they've been wonderful to randomly have. I have one running Ableton 8 I still mess around with beats and recording on. I have 1 running adobe cs5 which has been super convenient to just have. I have 1 connected to my ancient printer acting as a print server. I have a couple of them running arch linux and windows 7 for my kids to play old games, browse the web in their rooms, and parsec into the gaming PCs we have in the basement because they take up such little space and its all in one. Definitely don't sleep on these.
Grat vid, and nice find for so cheap. There is a simple fix for most Apple products, 1. Have a Angry Aussie yell at it, 2. Beat it with a 1 Grit slab of concrete, 3. Throw it in the trash XD
I got a pair of these for 40 quid a while back, one was in *sore* shape (snapped off parts, held together with blu-tac), so I stripped its for spares (I might have a good hinge, if you want one, but be warned it's a NIGHTMARE to get to).But the other was decent enough to shape to do something with. The real hot sauce is these are, for an AIO, and a non-Pro Apple product, pretty easy to work on and upgrade. The whole thing can be accessed by getting a pair of decent suction cups and popping the glass off the front (carefully) - it's held in with strong neodymium magnets. Then undo 8 Torx screws and remove the screen (again carefully) and then you have access to all the internals. It's a doddle! The CPU is a laptop-style 'Socket P' ZIF, the GPU is on a removable MXM card and the Hard drive is a full-blooded 3.5" desktop drive. I have thrown a cheap 128GB SATA SSD, a faster 2.4GHz 'Penryn' C2D CPU and a GeForce 9600M 512MB MXM GPU card and it absolutely sings.
last time i picked up a cheap mac was at the start of the pandemic. had some fun playing with it and tearing it apart. upgraded it to an ssd and flipped it. made $20 profit and got to have fun. win win.
8:08 I still use Data over BT PAN for my phones. Consumes less power than a wifi hotspot. Basically sharing data to other phones via BT. For Windows its still supported as well.
The combination of Adobe CS5.5 and MacOs SnowLeopard is surprisingly usable. In all my years of experience, I think SnowLeopard has been the most stable OS I've used. Sonoma on an M2 Pro is far more volatile by comparison. My 8,1 2.8 C2D Extreme with 6GB RAM and 1TB HDD is just too good to throw away.
The thing you have to remember with cex, as long as it turns on and they can do basic things they don't care what state it's in. The one thing I won't buy are hard drives as I bought drives years ago and took them back because they were practically dead. Their excuse with them is as long as they can format it, partition it, copy a file to and from it then it works. When I took one back they tested it and put it back out to sell.
I put windows 10 on mine - and have a dual boot system.. I got mine for £30....is great! I also use it as a DVD player - awesome!! Can't believe what u get for the money and love the screen! £30 won't get u a screen like that for a pc option!
The main problem with old macs is their software. Unsupported before it gets old and suddenly half of programs you use want an update to run, but your OS need to update first, but you can't because your hardware is locked out of updates. You could go with installing different system, but I'm more likely to build a house than make those two macs I have to make boot on linux without any attention from user during boot up.
My 12,1 Mid 2011 27’ iMac thanks to OCLP, a GTX 880M 8GB GPU for Full Metal Support (custom Apple Firmware flashed), 32GB DDR3 RAM, Core i7 CPU upgrade and 2TB Samsung EVO 860 SSD (with OWC HDD Thermal Sensor to restore fan speed control). I can run the latest version of macOS when OCLP has patches available. Love it ❤
Getting serious SC3K vibes. I rescued a similar spec MacBook Pro off a skip, threw in a drive with XP on it and it ran with it. It’s one heck of a retro gaming rig apart from finding drivers for the sound.
I have a slightly newer iMac like this and it is stupid fast. It has High Sierra and I can run a normal version of Chromium from around 2023. Zero slowdowns, insanely fast boot times with the harddrive. It is crazy whatever dark magic these things perform to work this well
I recently helped my mom with an x86 iMac which Apple'd dropped support for. Put a user-friendly Linux distro on there, and now it's got supported browsers, Steam, etc. Runs faster, too.
Core 2 Duo era... What you mention also applies to PCs except it goes one step beyond: they are not merely ultracheap when they do go on sale but they are quite often just tossed away. With Apple machines in working condition I guess people think "well, at least it's a Mac", and they don't go that far as often.
iMacs are great for turning into XBMC boxes so you can watch TV and movies. The 27" ones best, obviously. The real handicap of these old iMacs is the stupidly slow laptop hard disk they suffer from. An SSD makes a big difference.
Opening and cleaning it would help, new thermal paste and an ssd., and a Linux distro such as Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 / LMDE 6 all of that would really improve it's performance.
I bought several of these for usually 20 Euros. 20" and even 24". They look great. Make every desk shine. Sure the OS limits them. I am yet to try Linux on one of them.
I am certainly not a Mac guy (had to use one for work for a while and have no desire to go back), but I found a machine similar to this while walking around my neighbourhood - where I live, if you have stuff you want to make disappear, you just leave it on the kerb - I once even found a working NES. I haven't figured out what I am ultimately going to do with it - the main reason I picked it up was to use as a teaching tool for computer repair. It is missing the bezel around the display but it boots and I was able to get into the OS after finding that one of the accounts had a blank password. It might make a decent Linux machine
Those optical drives can be a crap-shoot. I've had a couple of iMacs that arrived with borked drives. They're not too terribly difficult to change out. I mean, I've opened up these enough times that I can almost do it in my sleep. Congrats on the fun find!
Wifi Cards tend to be, even on Laptops, one of the few things that aren't soldered onto the Motherboard, and this might be one of the few iMacs worth upgrading and using. I'd like to see if you can upgrade the iMac and see how new you can get the operating system.
well, better than the first gen macbooks. those are basically worthless without ripping them apart to flash the efi chip with libreboot so that it will let you install linux on it. and even then, it's iffy, somewhat glitchy mess that will overheat if you don't do some more work to it. i've literally got an hp from '06 running w10 with no issues, but i can't do much of squat with a macbook 1,1. absolutely atrocious.
i've got a G5 model, and it lasted just long enough to clean install whatever the last version of osx was that will run on it plus whatever apps came preloaded before the panel crapped out, and it has been sitting in the shop ever since. last week, i was gifted a dead 17" laptop, so a panel transplant is in order (i'm assuming the display connector will be the standard deal, but i never went that deep in to it). for whatever brief period i had to play w/ it, i liked using it more than i thought i would. last i checked, someone was still managing a modern linux distro that would run on powerpc, so maybe i just go that route. hope it will recognize the iphone 8 plus i was also gifted last week and now using as my daily
I still have a G4 PowerMac which runs 10.4 and has both the full adobe suite and Macromedia. I've had it since 2000, only problem I ever had was the cmos battery died and I had to replace it.
CEX have started to flush older stock recently, the fact that they even shipped this item which is normally not done for these types of items says much in itself. Frankly hard to go wrong at that price - especially if vouchers are involved.
I´ve tried twice to buy used old Macs for daily use, and both times the experience with the software was much worse than this. So now I just stick to old Windows computers. Still got a nice Windows 7 machine for daily use, which has a virtual machine for windows 11 when I need it lol.
Running a £40 2010 3.06ghz I3 10gb ram and 129SATA SSD is my daily driver for general home use and its fine. Don't feel the ned to spend more, except maybe to get a 27" to replace the one that gied recently. I have more memory and a bigger SSD that could go in but to be honest its fine the way it is.
A couple of weeks ago I got a 24" 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with a 1TB HDD and 8GB RAM, boxed with Apple Keyboard and mouse, in practically mint condition for just £10 at a local church's bric-a-brac sale. Pretty sure that's the CHEAPEST iMac in the UK
Not entirely sure about the Lego Star Wars demo but the full game actually has an universal binary patcher made by tt games. I found it available through the wayback machine. Hope this helps at least someone
You can always get your games from GOG where you can download the offline installers and not have to deal with the annoying limits of clients like Steam etc. One of the reasons I stopped buying PC games from non GOG is the dropping of support for older OS and thus hardware. When Steam dropped support for XP it only annoyed me, but over the years I just lost all interest on it. If it can be fully fixed, then perhaps an upgrade of RAM and the drive to SSD would make this a far better solution. I wonder what version of Windows you could install on it. My guess is even Windows 10 would install. But I have never tried installing Windows on a mac so I don't know. Your story reminded me buying for 20 pounds a non working sunflower imac. That was back in ....2018 IIRC. There is a good chance the problem was/is either with the battery (the seller said it won't switch on) or something. I bought it boxed (original box etc) for 20 pounds, including shipping from the UK to Greece. I haven't opened the box yet. I kid you not.
The 32 bit UEFI is problematic for alternative OSes and the Core 2 Duo struggles with modern things - but as you’ve noticed the older OSX was very well optimized. If you have patience and can live with fighting the boot issues with UEFI, they also run Linux decently which can unlock some software you couldn’t find in OSX in that era. You can put a cheap SSD in it and they may just run forever.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but I would recommend redoing the thermal paste on the CPU and definitely the GPU - the 2007 - 2009 era of imac (a1225) do not have enough thermal paste on the GPUs, so they are a common point of failure. Additionally I would suggest upgrading the CPU to a penrhyn T9300 or T9500, so you can install a version of Mac OS above El Cap. Theoretically (GPU drivers not withstanding) you could run Ventura via opencore legacy.
