Upgrade to i7 without reinstall

[shibirian]

Hi,
I wonder if I can upgrade from an Intel Q9550 system to an i72600k by simply exchanging the hardware but keeping the old Lion/Software.

I tied this once with Win7, by uninstalling the old drivers.
As Apple uses one kind of hardware it might be even simpler.
I just need to install the new DSDT on the old system and restart with the new Hardware.
Old and new board are from Gigabyte and my graphiccard stays the same.
Would spare a lot of time.
Possible?

Cheers

Yes, it should work out fine just as you described it by yourself.

Just make sure to backup your system partition first, and then install the new dsdt before you dismantle your machine. Also use ONYX from my sig to thoroughly clean your install and reboot twice before you install the dsdt.

Good luck!

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi,
I wonder if I can upgrade from an Intel Q9550 system to an i72600k by simply exchanging the hardware but keeping the old Lion/Software.

I tied this once with Win7, by uninstalling the old drivers.
As Apple uses one kind of hardware it might be even simpler.
I just need to install the new DSDT on the old system and restart with the new Hardware.
Old and new board are from Gigabyte and my graphic card stays the same.
Would spare a lot of time.
Possible?

Cheers

Sure possible. On my old build I used a Gigabyte EP45-UD3L motherboard together with a Core 2 Quad Q9550. I simply swapped out the motherboard and CPU and installed a Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 with a Core i5-2405s CPU, then started up the system. Both Snow Leopard and Lion work fine.

I did not install a DSDT previously and I did not need to remove any kexts since the Nvidia 9800GT graphics card is supported under both Snow Leopard and Lion. I only need to reinstall the audio driver from MultiBeast.

 

[jcmeyer5]

Wondering the same thing. My Sandy Bridge hardware is en route.

EDIT: Same board as 007 up there, and also did very little to get things working (I think network and sound card). So... I am going to try to swap without much prep (other than backing up the vital bits).

 

[shibirian]

How to upgrade:

1) Get Carbon Copy Cloner
2) Make a copy of your OSX to a separate partiton/drive somewhere
3) Clean your OSX install with Onyx
4) Place the DSDT for your new board onto Desktop and run MultiBeast with System Utilities
5) Shut down computer after you ran Mutlibeast and DON'T reboot back into OSX
6) Reswap hardware
7) Power on computer and boot into OSX
8) Check if everything is working.
9) Optional: Wonder why you even made a backup, but better be safe than sorry.