Chosen Solution
My aged but serviceable iMac is running slow. I installed an ssd recently (clean install of Yosemite) hoping to improve things… (it worked so well on my old MBP). I recently installed Geekbench 3 and my scores are about half of other people’s iMacs of identical spec. The numbers are particularly bad in integer and floating point results. Wondering if there’s anything I can do? Could I buy a new i7-860 processor like this one: http://www.cpumedics.com/bx80605i7860.ht… would that solve the problem do you think? Could it be anything else? Ram? Whatever? Hopefully it’s not software - very recent clean install of Yosemite on an SSD should be OK, right? I would very much prefer to pay in the order of USD150 rather than shelling for a new mac!
Replace the processor. I made a guide. iMac 27" Late 2009 Intel Processor Replacement (EMC 2374)
I would start with the basics here: Have you checked your systems firmware? Here’s the Apple T/N to follow: About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers. How full is your SSD? You should leave about 1/4 to 1/3 of free space, more if you have a smaller SSD. How much RAM do you have? Yosemite needs at least 4GB of RAM, I like my systems with 8GB.
