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le.bouch

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 3, 2010
163
73
First, apologies if this is covered elsewhere - if it is I can't find it!

I have a 2012 27" iMac with a 1.25TB Fusion Drive. I get along just fine with it but need more storage. I'm currently using an external USB3 1TB HDD but find it messy, both operationally and physically.

I believe (but can't confirm) that HDDs in >2012 iMacs have proprietary Apple firmware pre-installed to report temps?

I have cracked open my iMac before - it originally came with just a 1TB HDD and I added a genuine Apple 250GB Blade SSD to create a slightly larger than normal Fusion Drive.

I have seen lots of posts from people replacing their iMac's original HDD with an SDD. This always seems to work well with no system fan issues.

What I can't find is evidence of people replacing their HDD with another 3rd-party HDD. I don't know if this is because it's not a popular mod (SSD being much more prevelant) or because there are no fan issues with >2012 iMac HDD replacements (so nothing to write about!).

OWC seem to suggest you need to buy their SATA interface lead with temp sensor to avoid fan issues when you replace the HDD in a >2012 iMac.
I contacted a Mac repair place today - they told me that they have seen no fan issues when fitting 3rd-party HDDs into >2012 iMacs but plenty in <2012 iMacs.

I wonder if anyone can confirm they've replaced their >2012 iMac's HDD with another HDD with no issues? I'd love to hear a real world experience before I crack open the iMac again. If not I'll just wait until 2TB SSDs get cheaper
 
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