A list of successful iMac 27" (2012-2019) SSD upgrades

[Four Candles]

Device: Late 2015 - 17.1 - MK472LL/A (4Ghz i7, 3TB Fusion HDD+128GB blade)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB M.2-2280 NVMe PCIe SSD
Speed test: 2900 MB/s read, 2600 MB/s write
Adapter: Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter
Issues after fresh OS install: see below ....

My iMac originally had the 3TB fusion drive but I removed the HDD and replaced the Apple NVMe blade with an ADATA SX8200 Pro. Here’s all the details of the iMac:

Mac model = iMac17,1
Logic board ID = Mac-B809C3757DA9BB8D
EFI 428.0.0.0.0;
macOS Version 10.15.7 (Build 19H2)

The ADATA SX8200 Pro uses a Sintech adapter that has the protected contacts so there’s no issue with shorting contacts to the blade socket.

After the upgrade I had trouble getting the iMac to power up - I mean literally nothing happened when I pressed the power button. I checked the power button was working and even replaced the ribbon cable between the power board and the logic board, but it wouldn't power up. On the motherboard only the first diagnostic LED was on. I eventually got it to turn on after leaving it for about a day completely unplugged from the power as well as removing the RAM and all peripherals (USB, ethernet, DisplayPort, etc). After this time and putting just the power cable back it just powered up right away and I was able to install Catalina, restore from backup and was up and running. The speed of the NVMe blade is really fast and I had no issues at all in using the iMac … unless I powered it down.

A while later I restarted the iMac but didn’t immediately log on and left it overnight not thinking that the problem would happen again. The next morning it wouldn’t power on - exactly the same problem. So I left it completely unplugged from power and peripherals for 2 days (I was using my MacBook Pro) and lo and behold I was able to power it up again using the power button. Weird. So I tried to troubleshoot. I powered down the iMac, waited a few minutes and then tried to power it on - and got the same issue (couldn’t power it on). So I took it apart and removed the NVMe blade and reseated it. It powered up straight away using the power button. I reset the power options in system preferences back to defaults. Powered off, waited a few minutes and it wouldn’t power on. So I took it apart, removed and put back in the NVMe blade, put it back together and it powered on no problem. I kept it on and let it sleep but never switched it off and it has been fine for about a month. Then I let it restart, made a coffee and forgot about having to log in straight away, and it won’t power on again.

So instead of keeping on this cycle of taking the iMac apart all the time to take out/put back the NVMe blade I thought I’d see if anyone had come across this and can offer a more permanent solution.

It appears that there isn’t any firmware update available for the ADATA SX8200 Pro but I’m thinking that it may well be a firmware issue - that the ADATA SX8200 Pro has some odd power management issue that prevents the iMac from being powered on.

Thoughts?

 

[ciuchino74]

Hi all,

I have a problem on my imac27

Dispositivo: fine 2015 - 17.1 - (Fusion da 2 TB + blade da 128 GB)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> WD 750 Black - 500 Gb
Speed test: -------
Adapter: Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter


After upgrade my imac cannot find the nvme disk...i don't know what to do ?!?!?!

I'm Alfredo from Italy and besides greeting everyone, I thank anyone who will help me.

 

[antnythr]

Hi all,

I have a problem on my imac27

Dispositivo: fine 2015 - 17.1 - (Fusion da 2 TB + blade da 128 GB)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> WD 750 Black - 500 Gb
Speed test: -------
Adapter: Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter


After upgrade my imac cannot find the nvme disk...i don't know what to do ?!?!?!

I'm Alfredo from Italy and besides greeting everyone, I thank anyone who will help me.

I found when I put the NVME drive in with the Sintech adapter I needed to push it in more than I initially expected. It's possible that your drive or the adapter is not fully inserted.

 

[ciuchino74]

it's exactly like you said !!!!

trying to insert the original blade ssd I realized that the original did not even fit .... and I realized that I had to push it deeper ...

thank you...

Finally my speed test is: 2968 read and 2573 write !!!!

Device: Late 2015 - 17.1 - MK482LL/A (3.2Ghz i5-6500)
Blade upgrade: 128 GB Blade -> 500 GB Western Digital WD Black SN750
Speed test: 2968 MB/s read, 2573 MB/s write
OS: Catalina 10.15.7
Location: Rome - Italy, Europe
Adapter: Sintech ST-NGFF2013
Issues after fresh OS install: No issues (I hope)

 

[thanhtrdang]

Hi,

I have:

1. Macbook pro 13', early 2015: SSD 128Gb (current one).​

2. iMac 5k 27', late 2015: HDD only, 1Tb (a second hand, have just bought).​

I also have got a Aura Pro X2 480GB Solid-state Drive (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DAPT4MB05/) for the Macbook above.

So I have got some questions:

1. Can I use this Aura Pro X2 for my iMac? Is there any conflict for Aura Pro X2 / Original Macbook SSD that will be used in iMac?​

2. In OWC website, they noted that iMac Late 2015 is not compatible with Auro Pro X2. Someone asked "why" but seems their support team don't have any satisfied answers, just "not compatible". So is there anyone tried to install it in iMac Late 2015, and did it work? If hibernate/sleep issues, then "sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25 standby 0", and is it fine?​

3. In unlucky case, the combo (iMac Late 2015 + Aura Pro X2) does't work, should I use combo (iMac Late 2015 + original Macbook Pro SSD) instead of?​

​

I also haven't got experiences on teardown iMac, so disassembly it and install SSD is big deal for me.
If you can advice me something and I must not be trial / error then fix, I'm really appreciate it (y).

​

Cheers.

 

[ccontreras]

Device: Late 2015 - 17.1 - MK482LL/A (3.2Ghz i5-6500)
Blade upgrade: 500 GB Blade -> 500 GB Western Digital WD Black SN750
Speed NVMe: 2395 MB/s read, 2624 MB/s write
HDD Upgrade: SSD 2,5” WD BLUE 1TB
Speed SSD: 476 MB/s read, 529 MB/s write
OS: Mojave 10.14.6
RAM: 32GB OWC 1867mhz
Location: Santiago - Chile
Adapter: AIRNVME N-02 versión 006S
Issues after fresh OS install: None.

 

[oKUtItyp]

Is this a good fit? WD Black SN750 with Heatsink https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MQ468S8

Thanks,

 

[johnwmillr]

Device: Late 2013 - 14.2 - (3.2Ghz i5, HDD only)
HDD upgrade: 1 TB SATA HDD -> 1TB OWC Mercury Electra 6G
Blade upgrade: None -> Crucial P2 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2
Blade adapter: Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card
Speed test (SATA SSD): ~500MB/s read, ~ 500MB/s write
Speed test (NVMe SSD): ~720 MB/s read, ~740 MB/s write
OS: Catalina 10.15.7
Location: USA
Temperature sensor: Yes, OWC
Issues after fresh OS install: None
Upgrade kit: OWC iMAC SSD upgrade kit

Everything appears to be working properly. I also replaced the broken screen hinge during this installation.

I'm not sure why the read speed for the SATA SSD is so much lower though—is this a known problem?

EDIT: After a reboot, the SATA SSD drive is reading and writing both at ~500 MB/s. I previously reported the SATA read speed as ~100 MB/s.

 

[jorges4lu2]

Hi,

Has anyone tried the Intel 665p?. Right now it's at a good price an I'd like to upgrade my 2013 iMac 27".
If no one has tried it; at least would it be compatible (with the adapter obviously)?

Thanks in advance

 

[IslandStylin]

Device: Late 2015 - 17.1 - (3.2Ghz i5, HDD only)
CPU upgrade : i5 5600 ->i7 6700K
HDD upgrade: 1 TB SATA HDD -> 1TB Hynix SSD
Blade upgrade: None -> 1tb Samsung Evo NVMe PCIe M.2
Blade adapter: Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card
Speed test (SATA SSD): NA
Speed test (NVMe SSD): NA
OS: NA
Location: USA
Temperature sensor: Yes, OWC
Issues after fresh OS install:
Upgrade kit: OWC iMAC SSD upgrade kit

 

[kuccu]

Device: Mid 2017 - 18.3 - MNE92LL/A (3.4Ghz i5-7500, Fusion HDD+32GB blade)
Blade upgrade: 32GB Blade -> WD black sn750 1Tb
HDD upgrade: none
Speed test: blade ~ 2800 MB/s write, 3000 MB/s read
OS: Catalina 10.15.7
Adapter: Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card
Issues after fresh OS install: NONE


I have a problem when testing on an external screen HDMI because I don't want to reassemble screen LCD when not successful testing -> Speed only 1000M/s + max speed fan. It's taken me 2 days to research.

 

[Beschtia]

Device: Late 2015 - 17,1 - (4GHz i7-6700K)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> 1TB ADATA SX8200PNP
Speed test: 3000 MB/s read,2300 MB/s write
HDD upgrade: 3TB HDD -> 2TB Seagate BarraCuda SSD
Speed test: 528 MB/s read, 496 MB/s write
OS: (Catalina 10.15.7) Big Sur 11.0.1
Adapter: Sintech ST-NGFF2013
Location: Switzerland
Issues after fresh OS install: Sleep crashes system so I just disabled sleep after upgrading to Big Sur no Problem's about sleep und no Problem with external Storage during sleep/wake up

 

[mbosse]

Another success story:

Device: 2019 - 19.1 - MRQY2LL/A (3.0Ghz i5-8500, Fusion 1TB HDD + 32GB blade)
Blade upgrade: 32GB Blade -> Silicon Power A80 2TB
HDD upgrade: none
Speed test: blade ~ 2800 MB/s write, 2900 MB/s read
OS: Catalina 10.15.6
Adapter: Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card + Kalolary Radiator Heatsink
Issues after fresh OS install: NONE

 

[mbosse]

A few notes for those of you who want to add a heatsink to your PCIe blade SSD:

As you certainly have experienced, the space between the back of the iMac enclosure and the SSD is tiny, and this impinges on the choice of the heatsink: essentially, it needs to be quite thin.

In the past I tried a 5mm thick heatsink from EK Waterblocks, on older iMacs such as the late 2013 ones. I never noticed a problem, but this might just be me not anticipating such.

That changed when I upgraded my current 2019 version: the logic board seemed like getting stuck on its way back into the enclosure after upgrade, and I identified the heatsink as the culprit.

I searched for a thinner one and found - on eBay - one called Kalolary Radiator Heatsink. The sink is only 3mm thick, compared to the 5mm think model from EK Waterblocks (left, Kalolary; right, EK Waterblocks):

Mounting the heatsink on the SSD is easier than with the EK Waterblocks model as only two rubber rings are needed compared to the metal clamps of the latter.

Below the Kalolary-equipped SSD placed in the PCIe slot of the 2019 iMac:

If you look at the logic board placed back into the iMac case the difference is crystal-clear (left, EK Waterblocks: right, Kalolary):

2mm that make all the difference in the world! The Kalolary seems to tame temperatures equally well as the EK Waterblocks, so this seems to me a recommendable heatsink.

Hope this is useful to some here.

Cheers,
Magnus

 

[curtis242]

has anyone had any issues doing a Time Machine restore of Big Sur after upgrading the blade to NVMe? also i've got all the upgrade parts ready and have installed Big Sur on the new NVMe externally am i right in thinking once i've installed the new drive that it should just boot in to Big Sur?

 

[mdgm]

has anyone had any issues doing a Time Machine restore of Big Sur after upgrading the blade to NVMe? also i've got all the upgrade parts ready and have installed Big Sur on the new NVMe externally am i right in thinking once i've installed the new drive that it should just boot in to Big Sur?

You should check the bootrom version in the Hardware Overview section in System Information to make sure you are on the latest before swapping out the blade drive. There are NVMe related fixes and bootrom updates are most likely to happen when an Apple OEM drive is installed.

 

[oKUtItyp]

Has anyone tried this one? not branded as sintech, but much much cheaper.

1.49US $ 70% OFF|M Key M.2 Ngff Pcie Ahci Ssd Adapter Card For Macbook Air 2013 2014 2015 2017 A1465 A1466 Pro A1398 A1502 A1419 2230-2280 Ssd M2 - Add On Cards & Controller Panels - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[Yiveymacnod]

A few notes for those of you who want to add a heatsink to your PCIe blade SSD:

As you certainly have experienced, the space between the back of the iMac enclosure and the SSD is tiny, and this impinges on the choice of the heatsink: essentially, it needs to be quite thin.

In the past I tried a 5mm thick heatsink from EK Waterblocks, on older iMacs such as the late 2013 ones. I never noticed a problem, but this might just be me not anticipating such.

That changed when I upgraded my current 2019 version: the logic board seemed like getting stuck on its way back into the enclosure after upgrade, and I identified the heatsink as the culprit.

I searched for a thinner one and found - on eBay - one called Kalolary Radiator Heatsink. The sink is only 3mm thick, compared to the 5mm think model from EK Waterblocks (left, Kalolary; right, EK Waterblocks):

View attachment 1675567View attachment 1675566

Mounting the heatsink on the SSD is easier than with the EK Waterblocks model as only two rubber rings are needed compared to the metal clamps of the latter.

Below the Kalolary-equipped SSD placed in the PCIe slot of the 2019 iMac:

View attachment 1675568

If you look at the logic board placed back into the iMac case the difference is crystal-clear (left, EK Waterblocks: right, Kalolary):

View attachment 1675569

2mm that make all the difference in the world! The Kalolary seems to tame temperatures equally well as the EK Waterblocks, so this seems to me a recommendable heatsink.

Hope this is useful to some here.

Cheers,
Magnus

Hi! New user, long time reader.
I’m on a base model, late 2015 27” and got a 1TB WD SN750 M.2 NVMe and a 1TB WD Blue SATA SSD that I’m going to put in. Got the long Sintech adapter.

Just read through the whole thread and beginning to think it might have been a mistake to not buy a heatsink for the blade. Would you say it’s a big difference? I don’t remember seeing any comparisons in temp?

I’m also considering to upgrade the CPU to the i7 6700K, but that depends on if I can find a good price for a used one. Don’t really run any demanding apps daily but it might be nice to max out if possible.

Hmm... 🤔 Now I’ve rambled on and perhaps I should just install everything I got home at the moment and if I find a good priced i7 later I open it up again and put in a heatsink as well?! 😎

 

[JHY Photo]

Adapter help/advice required please...

Device: Late 2012 - 13,2 - (3.4GHz i7-A1419)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> Crucial P5 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS SSD: https://uk.crucial.com/ssd/p5/ct2000p5ssd8
Speed test: N/A
HDD upgrade: 3TB HDD -> Crucial P2 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS SSD
Speed test: Not yet checked
OS: (Catalina 10.15.7) Big Sur 11.0.1
Adapter: Advice required
Location: Scotland

Problem:
I've recently received one of the Sintech adapters from Amazon, but have the wrong model
(my own fault, assumed there would be compatibility, D'Oh)

Purchased adapter:
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for upgrade 2013-2015 MacBook

Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card For Upgrade 2013-2015 MacBook

NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...

www.amazon.co.uk

The input to the adapter is correct.
I have a Crucial P5 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS SSD
Link: https://uk.crucial.com/ssd/p5/ct2000p5ssd8

I'm looking to connect this to:
Apple iMac late 2012 27" i7 (A1419)

From my research, I believe I'm looking for a 7+17pin adapter output!?
Realistically, I should have bought this drive (link below) which appears to be compatible without an adapter:

OWC DIY Kit: 2.0TB Aura 6G Solid-State Drive... at MacSales.com

SSDIM12DT02 DIY Kit: 2.0TB OWC Aura 6G Solid-State Drive Upgrade for iMac (2012-2013). Performance async flash storage with 7% over provisioned redundancy. Includes thermal safe adhesive mounting set and OWC guitar pick.

eshop.macsales.com

 

[mbosse]

Adapter help/advice required please...

Device: Late 2012 - 13,2 - (3.4GHz i7-A1419)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> Crucial P5 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS SSD: https://uk.crucial.com/ssd/p5/ct2000p5ssd8
Speed test: N/A
HDD upgrade: 3TB HDD -> Crucial P2 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS SSD
Speed test: Not yet checked
OS: (Catalina 10.15.7) Big Sur 11.0.1
Adapter: Advice required
Location: Scotland

Problem:
I've recently received one of the Sintech adapters from Amazon, but have the wrong model
(my own fault, assumed there would be compatibility, D'Oh)

Purchased adapter:
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for upgrade 2013-2015 MacBook

Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card For Upgrade 2013-2015 MacBook

NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...

www.amazon.co.uk

The input to the adapter is correct.
I have a Crucial P5 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS SSD
Link: https://uk.crucial.com/ssd/p5/ct2000p5ssd8

I'm looking to connect this to:
Apple iMac late 2012 27" i7 (A1419)

From my research, I believe I'm looking for a 7+17pin adapter output!?
Realistically, I should have bought this drive (link below) which appears to be compatible without an adapter:

OWC DIY Kit: 2.0TB Aura 6G Solid-State Drive... at MacSales.com

SSDIM12DT02 DIY Kit: 2.0TB OWC Aura 6G Solid-State Drive Upgrade for iMac (2012-2013). Performance async flash storage with 7% over provisioned redundancy. Includes thermal safe adhesive mounting set and OWC guitar pick.

eshop.macsales.com

The Crucial P5 SSD is incompatible with your mac - it only supports SATA, but not PCIe or NVME SSDs. In your case I would simply replace the blade drive with an M.2 SATA SSD, like the Crucial P2 you used for the hard drive replacement:

M.2 SSD Adapter (M2 NGFF) für MAC 18+8 pin SSD. Kompatibel ohne mit 2012 Mac laptop mit 18+8pin SSD

M.2 SSD Adapter (M2 NGFF) für MAC 18+8 pin SSD. Kompatibel ohne mit 2012 Mac laptop mit 18+8pin SSD

www.amazon.de

Best,
Magnus

 

[venno]

Hey guys, first of all thanks for all your comments and really nice tips/help.
I'm planning to replace on my iMac17.1 Late 2015 the Blade(24GB)+HDD -> Blade(SAMSUNG 980 PRO 500GB PCIe NVMe Gen4) + SSD(Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD).
I have a couple of questions thou:
- do you see any possible issues with the new blade 980 Pro ? I haven't seen yet anyone that have installed this one
- i presume the adapters @dobrik mentioned above are still compatible with this blade ssd, right ?
tx

 

[mbosse]

Hi! New user, long time reader.
I’m on a base model, late 2015 27” and got a 1TB WD SN750 M.2 NVMe and a 1TB WD Blue SATA SSD that I’m going to put in. Got the long Sintech adapter.

Just read through the whole thread and beginning to think it might have been a mistake to not buy a heatsink for the blade. Would you say it’s a big difference? I don’t remember seeing any comparisons in temp?

I’m also considering to upgrade the CPU to the i7 6700K, but that depends on if I can find a good price for a used one. Don’t really run any demanding apps daily but it might be nice to max out if possible.

Hmm... 🤔 Now I’ve rambled on and perhaps I should just install everything I got home at the moment and if I find a good priced i7 later I open it up again and put in a heatsink as well?! 😎

That's what I would do if you really intend to update the processor later.

 

[Yiveymacnod]

Since I haven’t got an NVMe-USB enclosure I’m thinking if it’s possible to do the reinstall a bit unconventional...

Here’s my plan:
1. Since I already have a SATA-USB adapter, use that to format the new 2,5” SATA SSD.
1. Clone the existing HDD to the 2,5” SATA SSD.
2. Tear open the iMac.
3. Install the untouched NVMe stick and the 2,5” SATA SSD.
4. Boot from the 2,5” SATA SSD.
5. Format the NVMe stick in Disk Utility.
6. Clone the 2,5” SATA SSD to the NVMe stick.
7. Restart and boot from the NVMe stick.
8. If everything works, format the 2,5” SATA SSD and wipe it clean.
9. Install some kind of TRIM utility or run it in Terminal for the 2,5” SATA SSD.
10. Set NVMe as startup disk.

What do you think of this plan?

I know it’s possible to buy a NVMe to USB adapter for €35 but I’m a student now so I’m trying to save some. 😇

Of course I both have a Time Machine backup and won’t touch the original 3,5” HDD until everything is done.

 

[iqmac]

Thinking of getting a 2019 iMac 27" with a fusion drive for cheap and then upgrading it.

Does anyone have any experience with the 2TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME? It is the cheapest of the Sabrent Rocket models, the performance will do me fine, am just concerned about compatibility.

For $40 CAD more I can get the Sabrent Rocket, if that is better suited to the iMac.

Was thinking of getting the Adata XPG SX8200 pro as it is on for a great price, but from one post above, sounds like there could be issues with this NVME.

I upgraded my 2013 iMac earlier this year, looking forward to doing the 2019 too.

Thx...IanQ

 

[zeratul75]

just to update and inform all you guys that I installed Big Sur on a 970 evo nvme.
bootrom went updated as well with no issue, from 428.0.0.0.0 with Catalina to 429.60.3.0.0 with Big Sur

also: bootcamp in big sure is 100% working. in catalina din't work, I suspect it was because It found 2 hard disks (nvme and sata) and it is an "unknown" setup for that mac (late 2015 - 17,1). in big sur bootcamp doesn't care and doesn't crash like id did in catalina. Was still able to install windows 10, but It required manual partitioning and manual boot from a windows 10 usb install device.