iMac CPU and RAM swap-out between two systems

I’m not sure its worth the effort to take a 2012 21.5” CPU and put it into a 2013 21.5” system as the 2012 CPUs are an older technology Ivy Bridge vs Haswell the systems BIOS micro-code may not allow it.

As far as RAM both systems use the same RAM but this series only has two SO-DIMM slots, your system will either have two 4GB (8GB) or two 8GB (16GB) SO-DIMM’s so unless you have the larger set to put into the other logic board it won’t gain you anything.

This is a lot off work with little to be gained even if you had a i7 CPU

Reference:

• 2012 21.5” iMac i5 2.7 GHz
• 2013 21.5” iMac i5 2.7 GHz