2017 iMac 5K 1TB HDD Delete

[jaydenjajay]

I have a 2017 iMac 5K base model that I've purchase used 1 year ago.
I wanted to use it without opening the screen, however, because it is equipped with an HDD it is super slow and drives me crazy.
It would be ideal if I could upgrade both NVME and HDD to SDD, but it seems like the price of SATA SSD and NVME is very close now.
So I wanted to ask MacRumors experts that if it's okay to just replace 28GB NVME with 2TB and just remove my HDD from the SATA port?

 

[Fishrrman]

Do you have the ability and confidence to pry open the iMac and replace components, and get it back together without breaking anything?

From reading above, it sounds like this could be a risky proposition.

A better way would be to buy one of the following, and then set it up to be an EXTERNAL boot drive:

1. thunderbolt 3 SSD (such as the Samsung x5). Fast, but also expensive. They can also run on the hot side. These give read speeds around 2,000MBps or even a little faster (same as you'd get from an internally installed blade SSD)

2. USB3.1 gen2 enclosure with an nvme blade drive. These won't run as fast as the thunderbolt 3, but are considerably cheaper and I predict you'll be pleased with the performance boost you get. You should see read speeds around 800-900MBps.

You can also buy #2 pre-assembed and ready-to-use (such as the Samsung t7).

But again, don't pry open the iMac unless you know what you're doing.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I have a 2017 iMac 5K base model that I've purchase used 1 year ago.
I wanted to use it without opening the screen, however, because it is equipped with an HDD it is super slow and drives me crazy.
It would be ideal if I could upgrade both NVME and HDD to SDD, but it seems like the price of SATA SSD and NVME is very close now.
So I wanted to ask MacRumors experts that if it's okay to just replace 28GB NVME with 2TB and just remove my HDD from the SATA port?

It's okay, but you shouldn't do that yourself, too risky.
Have a reputable shop to help you with it.
Or just boot the machine from an external USB 3.0 SSD enclosure (the cheapest solution)