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

[jgrzadka]

This is a great thread full of personal knowledge and experience!

After doing an update to a 2TB blade and keeping the 3TB old fusion drive is there a point of keeping the fusion configuration. I mean, the idea of a fusion drive was to have a higher capacity drive (at a cheap cost) with a small capacity blade (for speed improvements). I didn't find any good advice on google, but I am thinking it would be pointless to have my new configuration fusionned. I mean, if I want the speed I can run osx and transfer the files from the slow drive to my 2TB blade manually while having the benefit of the extra space 2TB + 3TB = 5TB to store old archives.

Can anyone confirm their experience on using the Fusion configuration vs two logical drives configuration?

 

[Analias]

Yes it's pointless. In addition, if you do fusion them and the HDD fails, you'll lose the data on both.

 

[jgrzadka]

Yes it's pointless. In addition, if you do fusion them and the HDD fails, you'll lose the data on both.

Thank you for the confirmation. I lived through a fusion drive crash once and it took weeks to recover. Not fun. I am glad I can stay away from fusion.

 

[searge]

Hello community, I just started my upgrade on my iMac 27 2015. I changed ssd blade with ST-NGFF2013-C and Kingston A2000 1TB NVMe and SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB. The blade also was mounted with a small heat sink. After first boot blade ssd seems not to be recognized as disc utility only shoes SanDisk. All items are completely new. Does NVMe SSD needs to be preformatted? Faulty adapter, maybe? I am going to check seating as my iMac is still not closed. Any ideas? What could be wrong?

 

[Yiveymacnod]

Hello community, I just started my upgrade on my iMac 27 2015. I changed ssd blade with ST-NGFF2013-C and Kingston A2000 1TB NVMe and SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB. The blade also was mounted with a small heat sink. After first boot blade ssd seems not to be recognized as disc utility only shoes SanDisk. All items are completely new. Does NVMe SSD needs to be preformatted? Faulty adapter, maybe? I am going to check seating as my iMac is still not closed. Any ideas? What could be wrong?

Yes, the blade needs formatting. You need to go into Disk Utility and do that. If that doesn’t help check the seating of both the blade in the adapter and the adapter in the M.2 slot.

Edit: Re-read your post and you say it’s not recognized by Disk Utility. You don’t see anything but the SanDisk in there? Have you toggled “Show all devices”?

 

[Surfman]

Would putting a SSD in a late 2015 27" iMac make much difference v the existing 2TB fusion? It has a 128gb SSD and i have used only about 500gb all up.
The machine works fine as is but?

 

[Caviar_X]

I need to move so data from a late 2009 iMac to a late 2015 MBP. Is this compatible?

LaCie 500GB Mobile SSD High‑Performance External SSD USB-C USB 3.0

LaCie 500GB Mobile SSD High‑Performance External SSD USB C USB 3.0 - Apple

Apple Store Search Results

store.apple.com

It's essential that I get SSD.

 

[Yiveymacnod]

Would putting a SSD in a late 2015 27" iMac make much difference v the existing 2TB fusion? It has a 128gb SSD and i have used only about 500gb all up.
The machine works fine as is but?

Keeping the 128GB blade SSD and changing to a SATA SSD would give you two separate volumes and faster performance. As far as I understand your original blade SSD from the fusion drive isn’t as fast as current NVMe blades but I’m not sure.
If 128GB would be enough for your system needs and you could keep the rest on the SATA SSD then upgrading the blade wouldn’t be my biggest priority. I would at least try it out that way first before closing the iMac up again.

I need to move so data from a late 2009 iMac to a late 2015 MBP. Is this compatible?

LaCie 500GB Mobile SSD High‑Performance External SSD USB-C USB 3.0

LaCie 500GB Mobile SSD High‑Performance External SSD USB C USB 3.0 - Apple

Apple Store Search Results

store.apple.com

It's essential that I get SSD.

Yes it’s compatible, though very expensive for what you get. None of your machines have USB-C so that’s unnecessary, unless you need it somewhere else. This is far better value for you money.
Any USB drive that has the USB type A plug is compatible, you just might have to format it first.

You will only have USB 2.0 on the 2009 iMac so that will be as slow as a normal external HDD, but you’ll have USB 3.0 on the MBP 2015 so then you’ll hopefully use the SSDs full potential or very close. At least if the MBP has a internal SSD, if it’s a HDD that’ll be the bottleneck.

 

[tah18]

Hello community, I just started my upgrade on my iMac 27 2015. I changed ssd blade with ST-NGFF2013-C and Kingston A2000 1TB NVMe and SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB. The blade also was mounted with a small heat sink. After first boot blade ssd seems not to be recognized as disc utility only shoes SanDisk. All items are completely new. Does NVMe SSD needs to be preformatted? Faulty adapter, maybe? I am going to check seating as my iMac is still not closed. Any ideas? What could be wrong?

Try reseating the blade drive into its slot. I recently did this upgrade on my late 2015 27" iMac (will post full results soon) and after inserting the blade on the logic board, I found that I really needed to give it a firm push while wiggling slightly to engage it completely. You really shouldn't be able to see any of the metal on the "teeth" of the blade drive once it is properly inserted.

I did not preformat my blade drive (I used OWC Aura X2 Pro). After I completed the work, I restarted with a USB boot drive that I had created previously. I then used Disk Utility to format both drives and install Big Sur onto the blade drive. Good job not closing up Mac right away. Mine is still sealed only with blue painters tape all around the perimeter and thick towels under the front of the screen (just in case); once I am completely convinced everything is working (drives, iSight camera, speakers, all I/o ports, fan, etc...) then I will apply new adhesive and reseal up the iMac.

 

[searge]

Try reseating the blade drive into its slot. I recently did this upgrade on my late 2015 27" iMac (will post full results soon) and after inserting the blade on the logic board, I found that I really needed to give it a firm push while wiggling slightly to engage it completely. You really shouldn't be able to see any of the metal on the "teeth" of the blade drive once it is properly inserted.

View attachment 1781195

I did not preformat my blade drive (I used OWC Aura X2 Pro). After I completed the work, I restarted with a USB boot drive that I had created previously. I then used Disk Utility to format both drives and install Big Sur onto the blade drive. Good job not closing up Mac right away. Mine is still sealed only with blue painters tape all around the perimeter and thick towels under the front of the screen (just in case); once I am completely convinced everything is working (drives, iSight camera, speakers, all I/o ports, fan, etc...) then I will apply new adhesive and reseal up the iMac.

Thank you for your advise. I disassembled again. Seating seams to be good. I pushed adapter and blade gently into the ports. I also checked Kingston A2000 on a windows system and it looks good. It appears on BIOS/UEFI without an issue. But finally second attempt wasn't better than first.
I am going to install BS on S-ATA drive (Sandisk) just for test purposes. After that I am going check disk utility again. If SSD Blade won't be recognised any longer I guess adapter should be faulty. This would be really bad as it needs weeks to get exchange from Sintech/China...

 

[searge]

Thank you for your advise. I disassembled again. Seating seams to be good. I pushed adapter and blade gently into the ports. I also checked Kingston A2000 on a windows system and it looks good. It appears on BIOS/UEFI without an issue. But finally second attempt wasn't better than first.
I am going to install BS on S-ATA drive (Sandisk) just for test purposes. After that I am going check disk utility again. If SSD Blade won't be recognised any longer I guess adapter should be faulty. This would be really bad as it needs weeks to get exchange from Sintech/China...

Update: Big Sur 11.4 currently is installing on SSD blade. The problem was an incompatible bootable USB Stick. Stick was doing its work on my old iMac 2011 without issues, but the stick wasn't recognised on Model 2015. Disk Utility from internet recovery didn't see Kingston SSD blade. I made a new bootable usb stick, got the installer and Disk Utility BS sees all drives. I think internet recovery disk utility remains on status "El Capitain"and therefore have problems with modern drives. Thanks for all the advises.

 

[mbosse]

Update: Big Sur 11.4 currently is installing on SSD blade. The problem was an incompatible bootable USB Stick. Stick was doing its work on my old iMac 2011 without issues, but the stick wasn't recognised on Model 2015. Disk Utility from internet recovery didn't see Kingston SSD blade. I made a new bootable usb stick, got the installer and Disk Utility BS sees all drives. I think internet recovery disk utility remains on status "El Capitain"and therefore have problems with modern drives. Thanks for all the advises.

That could likely be the case - El Capitan could be too old. Use Option-Command-R to get the newest possible macOS in Internet Recovery.

 

[Caviar_X]

Keeping the 128GB blade SSD and changing to a SATA SSD would give you two separate volumes and faster performance. As far as I understand your original blade SSD from the fusion drive isn’t as fast as current NVMe blades but I’m not sure.
If 128GB would be enough for your system needs and you could keep the rest on the SATA SSD then upgrading the blade wouldn’t be my biggest priority. I would at least try it out that way first before closing the iMac up again.



Yes it’s compatible, though very expensive for what you get. None of your machines have USB-C so that’s unnecessary, unless you need it somewhere else. This is far better value for you money.
Any USB drive that has the USB type A plug is compatible, you just might have to format it first.

You will only have USB 2.0 on the 2009 iMac so that will be as slow as a normal external HDD, but you’ll have USB 3.0 on the MBP 2015 so then you’ll hopefully use the SSDs full potential or very close. At least if the MBP has a internal SSD, if it’s a HDD that’ll be the bottleneck.

Thanks so much for your expertise. I had an extra gift card with Apple so I wanted to use some of it there. I do plan on using this for extra storage for my PS5 eventually.

 

[soulplayrod]

Hi,

New to the forum. Update was successful BUT I am having kernel/sleep issues.
It was second time upgrading by HDD and my first upgrading the NVME.

Device: iMac 27” 5K - Late 2015 - 17.1 - (4.0Ghz i7)
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Blade upgrade: Apple 128 GB SSD -> 1TB Crucial P5 PCIe NVMe SSD
HDD to SSD upgrade: 4TB Seagate SATA HDD -> 1TB 2.5” Crucial MX500
CPU upgrade: no upgrade
Speed test NVMe SSD: ~2900 MB/s read, ~2800 MB/s write
Speed test SATA SSD: ~510 MB/s read, ~400 MB/s write
OS: Big Sur 11.4
Adapter: Sintech (the long one)
Heatsink for blade: Glotrends NVMe heatsink
Temperature sensor: not required
Boot-ROM after upgrade: 429.120.4.0.0
TRIM: Enabled by default for the NVME , but not for the SATA SSD

Details below but first this:

Update: Big Sur 11.4 currently is installing on SSD blade. The problem was an incompatible bootable USB Stick. Stick was doing its work on my old iMac 2011 without issues, but the stick wasn't recognised on Model 2015. Disk Utility from internet recovery didn't see Kingston SSD blade. I made a new bootable usb stick, got the installer and Disk Utility BS sees all drives. I think internet recovery disk utility remains on status "El Capitain"and therefore have problems with modern drives. Thanks for all the advises.

This saved me. I was having the same issue after upgrading so I was freaking out. However, properly doing internet recovery got the NVME to show up and I was successfully installed Big Sur 11.4.

After installation completed (new install with minimal data migration), I left the computer running overnight. In the morning I played with it a bit and there were no issues. However, after walking away from the Mac, I came back to it and the computer failed to wake up from sleep and reboot to a ? folder. This is very weird as I have the new firmware installed.

Any thoughts on how to address this or why this is being caused? For reference, here is the error message I get:

panic(cpu 4 caller 0xffffff8018cce860): nvme: "Fatal error occurred. CSTS=0xffffffff US[1]=0x0 US[0]=0x4 VID=0xffff DID=0xffff
. FW Revision=P4CR324\n"@/System/Volumes/Data/SWE/macOS/BuildRoots/e90674e518/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/IONVMeFamily/IONVMeFamily-557.120.1/Common/IONVMeController.cpp:5499
Backtrace (CPU 4), Frame : Return Address
0xffffffa0e48239c0 : 0xffffff801648e0dd
0xffffffa0e4823a10 : 0xffffff80165d4f33
0xffffffa0e4823a50 : 0xffffff80165c552a
0xffffffa0e4823aa0 : 0xffffff8016432a2f
0xffffffa0e4823ac0 : 0xffffff801648d8fd
0xffffffa0e4823be0 : 0xffffff801648dbf3
0xffffffa0e4823c50 : 0xffffff8016c9d81a
0xffffffa0e4823cc0 : 0xffffff8018cce860
0xffffffa0e4823ce0 : 0xffffff8018cb345b
0xffffffa0e4823e40 : 0xffffff8018cb3285
0xffffffa0e4823e80 : 0xffffff80164d46c5
0xffffffa0e4823ef0 : 0xffffff80164d5634
0xffffffa0e4823fa0 : 0xffffff801643213e
Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
com.apple.iokit.IONVMeFamily(2.1)[38BC0D0C-B305-30F6-8A8D-6804830F891A]@0xffffff8018cac000->0xffffff8018cd5fff
dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM(2.1)[423BF733-A622-3BC9-8F0F-920A2927CD35]@0xffffff80178fe000->0xffffff8017907fff
dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleMobileFileIntegrity(1.0.5)[366C7BD4-9502-3D1C-ABBE-DE9749913D0C]@0xffffff8017ac0000->0xffffff8017ad5fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[99A70889-A31C-3B25-8E88-ADD3F317E4E4]@0xffffff8018f6a000->0xffffff8018f92fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily(47)[367CCAE7-DAB4-3424-B191-44044619D5CB]@0xffffff8018fa1000->0xffffff8018fa3fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(2.1)[A0D72FE9-649B-316A-8B5C-934E295FF0B5]@0xffffff801906d000->0xffffff801907efff

Process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
20F71

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 20.5.0: Sat May 8 05:10:33 PDT 2021; root:xnu-7195.121.3~9/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 52A1E876-863E-38E3-AC80-09BBAB13B752
KernelCache slide: 0x0000000016200000
KernelCache base: 0xffffff8016400000
Kernel slide: 0x0000000016210000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8016410000
__HIB text base: 0xffffff8016300000
System model name: iMac17,1 (Mac-B809C3757DA9BB8D)
System shutdown begun: NO
Panic diags file available: YES (0x0)
Hibernation exit count: 0

System uptime in nanoseconds: 19632214668502
Last Sleep: absolute base_tsc base_nano
Uptime : 0x000011dafb2e777d
Sleep : 0x000011d8bdaf51b7 0x00000000850e5b7d 0x000011cb9cd35710
Wake : 0x000011d8c58b343e 0x000000009750d595 0x000011d8c4640bf5
last started kext at 19566630624277: >!UAudio 405.39 (addr 0xffffff7fb0fa6000, size 315392)
last stopped kext at 1028508633335: >!UAudio 405.39 (addr 0xffffff7fb0fa6000, size 315392)
loaded kexts:
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[soulplayrod]

Hi,

New to the forum. Update was successful BUT I am having kernel/sleep issues.
It was second time upgrading by HDD and my first upgrading the NVME.

Device: iMac 27” 5K - Late 2015 - 17.1 - (4.0Ghz i7)
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Blade upgrade: Apple 128 GB SSD -> 1TB Crucial P5 PCIe NVMe SSD
HDD to SSD upgrade: 4TB Seagate SATA HDD -> 1TB 2.5” Crucial MX500
CPU upgrade: no upgrade
Speed test NVMe SSD: ~2900 MB/s read, ~2800 MB/s write
Speed test SATA SSD: ~510 MB/s read, ~400 MB/s write
OS: Big Sur 11.4
Adapter: Sintech (the long one)
Heatsink for blade: Glotrends NVMe heatsink
Temperature sensor: not required
Boot-ROM after upgrade: 429.120.4.0.0
TRIM: Enabled by default for the NVME , but not for the SATA SSD

Details below but first this:



This saved me. I was having the same issue after upgrading so I was freaking out. However, properly doing internet recovery got the NVME to show up and I was successfully installed Big Sur 11.4.

After installation completed (new install with minimal data migration), I left the computer running overnight. In the morning I played with it a bit and there were no issues. However, after walking away from the Mac, I came back to it and the computer failed to wake up from sleep and reboot to a ? folder. This is very weird as I have the new firmware installed.

Any thoughts on how to address this or why this is being caused? For reference, here is the error message I get:

Any thoughts on the above? I have tried several versions of setting standby and hibernate off and I have still not seen an improvement. I am thinking to replace the Crucial P5 with a 970 EVO to see if the issue is solved. I would really appreciate some feedback.

 

[assafs]

Hey there, another successful upgrade from Israel:


Blade + CPU upgrade

Device: Late 2015 - 17.1 - MK462LL/A (3.2Ghz i5-6500, HDD only)
Blade upgrade: none -> 1TB ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro
CPU upgrade: i5-6500 -> i7-6700K
Speed test: 3100 MB/s read, 2300 MB/s write
OS: Big Sur
Location: Israel
Adapter: From Ali Express
Issues with sleep: none

My tip for future upgraders: press firmly on the adapter to insert it into the NVMe slot. I spent several hours trying to figure out why this this isn't working, I even considered upgrading to a regular SSD instead!
The metal prongs of the adapter should fit inside the slot without them showing.

Good luck!

 

[jasnw]

Device: iMac 27" Mid 2011 i5
SSD upgrade: 1T HDD -> OWC Electra 6G 240 Gb + Toshiba HDKPC08 3TB HDD
Speed test: N/A
OS: El Capitan 10.11.6
Temperature sensor: None (OWC installed a TCM fan control kit, S/N 18166067)
Issues after fresh OS install: None
Other Info: Upgrade done by OWC in 2015; two-week turn-around

I've had no problems with this since the upgrade other than needing to replace the graphics card two years ago.

 

[macvinc6]

I have a iMac 5k 2014 1tb fusiondrive Big Sur eventually my HDD is broken. ( but all checks seem ok) It takes very long until the Apple logo appears, when I turn on my iMac. Furthermore a kernel panic happens sometimes after waking up from sleep.( I opened a separate topic for this)

Is is possible too just throw out the HDD without replacement?



Or if I upgrade to a larger HDD are there no other complications not having the apple firmware on it?

 

[mcozea]

Another successful upgrade!

THANK YOU, dobrink and all of you who contributed to this post and other macrumors' posts over the last couple of years. I would have never attempted this upgrade without these resources.

I have a built-to-order late 2015 iMac 5k that was still very fast except for the HDD slowing down my fusion volume.
My original 128GB Apple SSD (part of fusion) was still at 79% health, and the fusion volume worked fine, but most read and writes were always hovering around 75-100mbps. That speed was not working very well when working with large files.

Now my iMac should last another 4-6 years, and I couldn't be happier. What a great way to save a 6-year-old mac from requiring replacement.

Device: 27" Late 2015 - 17,1 - BTO (4.0Ghz i7-6700k, 32GB Ram, 3TB Fusion)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Apple SSD (fusion) -> 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 (production date: 2021-03-18)
HDD Upgrade: none -> removed the factory 3TB seagate drive and factory SATA cable.
Speed test: 2920 MB/s read, 2980 MB/s write with just over half the drive currently full (1.1TB of 2.0TB).
OS: Big Sur 11.4
Location: Calgary, Canada
Adapter: Sintech (long) ST-NGFF2013-C with no Kapton tape. It appears to not be needed with this adaptor, it was ordered May 2021, no connections were even close to shorting out, so I didn't use it.
SSD Heatsink: GLOTRENDS M.2 2280 using the metal clips
Issues after fresh OS install: No issues; the latest Big Sur 429.120.4.0.0 firmware works perfectly with the SSD.

Good luck to anyone else who upgrades their iMac and take your time!
It took me around three hours with the help of my two friends, beer and cannabis.

 

[Nicole1980]

Yes it's pointless. In addition, if you do fusion them and the HDD fails, you'll lose the data on both.

The thing is, if you've already opened the iMac up, for gods sake just upgrade the hdd portion of the 'fusion' drive with a sata ssd. That's incredibly easy compared to upgrading the blade ssd, and will give you 90 percent of the percieved speed gain.

 

[soulplayrod]

Any thoughts on the above? I have tried several versions of setting standby and hibernate off and I have still not seen an improvement. I am thinking to replace the Crucial P5 with a 970 EVO to see if the issue is solved. I would really appreciate some feedback.

Hi,

I resorted to exchanging my Crucial P5 for a Samsung 970 EVO Plus and the issue has been fixed.

Thanks again for the very helpful thread!

 

[res6jya6]

So… just to be clear… the late 2013 27” iMac w 3.2ghz i5 and stock 1TB HDD does NOT require a thermal sensor or software to work with a SATA SSD? iFixIt didn’t send that thermal sensor adapter in my kit - plugged the SSD directly into the cable that was plugged into the HDD and it doesn’t seem to be having any issues but I wanted to be absolutely certain before using the adhesive strips to seal it back up. It’s currently held together with painters tape haha!

 

[davidw89]

What's the fastest 2TB NVME SSD for a 2017 mid iMAC? I am not keen to get the Samsung 970 evo plus as they use their own controller. There's no point getting PICe 4 either.

 

[mbosse]

So… just to be clear… the late 2013 27” iMac w 3.2ghz i5 and stock 1TB HDD does NOT require a thermal sensor or software to work with a SATA SSD? iFixIt didn’t send that thermal sensor adapter in my kit - plugged the SSD directly into the cable that was plugged into the HDD and it doesn’t seem to be having any issues but I wanted to be absolutely certain before using the adhesive strips to seal it back up. It’s currently held together with painters tape haha!

Should work just fine!

 

[mbosse]

What's the fastest 2TB NVME SSD for a 2017 mid iMAC? I am not keen to get the Samsung 970 evo plus as they use their own controller. There's no point getting PICe 4 either.

I am not sure I understand you question. Every SSD has its own controller on board. The Samsung with newest firmware is a very good choice.