Chosen Solution
i have seen (on you tube) people “gut” their iMacs and replace almost everything inside in order to upgrade. can this really be done?
You really can’t ‘gut’ an iMac for upgrading. Apple’s parts are mostly exclusive to a given series. So while you can take the logic board out, your choice is another logic board within the series. So as an example, if you had the 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo board you could put in the 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo board. You could also replace the drive to a higher capacity or even a SSD. And lastly, upgrade the RAM but you are limited to what the system will support. I think you need to expand your question on what you want to do here.
First of all, provide some information on what you are trying to upgrade. We can help you remove only what you have to, if possible. Second of all, yes this is possible if it is absolutely necessary.. I have replaced the stand on my 21.5” iMac from 2010 and I needed to “gut” almost everything to get to the stand (I assume no difference in difficulty). I reassembled everything and it still works to this day. In fact, I use that machine to burn installation discs for my robotics team. Moral of the story is don’t remove what you don’t have to, and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
