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

[Alvin777]

lol! if i want to i can drive to china, but gonna take a long long time! through thailand yes.

i looked for "nvme apple adapter" or something similar and look at those pictures which are really close to sintech version, and also description of the product. eg. below



i also chat with the seller to make sure they are compatible with my iMac. it took me just few days to confirm with the purchase.

i went without any adhesive! just went with kapton tape (see attachment), do not want the hassle to cut the adhesive in the future. (dont mind the esthetic of it! lol!). talking about that, it's quite cheap to get from shopee or lazada, some from locals, some from china, some 3rd party, some original, prices are around 30-50 myr (7.08-11.80 usd), and usually with free shipping.

i dont recommend sending parcels from malaysia to other countries, it'll be very expensive, but from china to the world would be much cheaper. i think u guys need to find forwarder to help out, especially those can help with china shipment. that's y i like shopee and lazada, i dont need to hassle with customs, tax, shipping, just buy and wait at home and eventually arrive to my door step.

hope my explanation help u guys or for future reference, i know i got lots of information from here and glad that i read through all information before proceeding with the upgrade due to my hdd failure soon (restarts here and there from time to time), and are confident for the upgrade. tq

That looks great with yellow tape (I have a Kapton tape) :-D That's living on the edge but at least the next upgrade won't be tough. By the way do NVMEs have a built-in temperature sensor in them. How does the Mac know the NVME's SSD, so it can adjust the fan accordingly (putting the fan at constant full power or close, will wear out the bearings prematurely)? I wonder if my planned NVME upgrade needs a heatsink. It's max write is 3400MB/s and would a heatsink still fit?

I can't wait to open my iMac (I'll transfer the 2TB hard drive to the other old iMac since it has built-in temperature sensor and then the 1TB from the old iMac, I'll use that for awhile as Time Machine backup. I might try using magnetic tape + silicon to glue it but most likely my magnetic tape is too weak to support 2kgs of 5K panel and too thick. I'm not so sure what I'll do with the 128GB Apple NVME SSD (I think Apple calls it Blade) with it's propriety connector- I wonder how fast is that Apple NVME?

 

[Alvin777]

Hello Late iMac 2015 Upgrader friends.

Does the slot of the iMac for the NVME SSD have cooling and heatsink? When you upgraded the NVME SSD with regular M.2 SSD + the adapters, did you need to intalll an NVME SSD heatsink on both the top and bottom? If you had to install heatsink/s what brand of NVME SSD do you recommend that's performs well but it's just the right price?

Also, if your NVME throttles, supposing you didn't put heatsinks on either the top of top and bottom coz' it doesn't fit anymore, how much is throttling percentage? How does the iMac measure the temperature of the NVME SSD? Do you need to stick an exteranal sensor for the fans to know when to increase its RPM?

Thank you in advance.
God bless, Rev. 21:4

 

[Alvin777]

Hi. By the way, how come, the Sintech ST-NGFF2013-C (or any the other two models in its family) isn't compatible with NVME SSDs like the Samsung 950PRO, Samsung PM981 and SK Hynix Gold P31?

Thank you.
God bless, Revelation 21:4

 

[Alvin777]

Hi. By the way, preparing for my NVME upgrade and post upgrade. I plan to reuse the Apple Blade 128GB (their equivalent NVME SSD- I wonder why Apple had to create their own proprietor connector for NVME SSD? I wish Apple, if it's a proprietor connecter or Apple technology isn't significantly better would just use the best industry standard like M.2) perhaps as an external storage or in a custom NAS or someone's PC (via a PCIe card adapter if the PC's motherboard doesn't have an M.2 connector).

Could anyone recommend an Apple Blade to M.2 adapter (reverse of the Sintech adapters)?

Thank you.
God bless, Rev. 21:4

 

[oscarchd]

hello alvin777, u can use istat menus to check the temp of both sata ssd, and nvme ssd (see attachment).

i used a copper heatsink, with thermal pad on top, and the bottom one is sandwich between the adapter with the ssd.

not too sure 50+ degrees is a good temp for the nvme ssd, but i think it will be worse without?

i'm also looking around for the blade enclosure, but we might not have any luck on that... i'm still searching, but i might just sell it as a replacement for macbook air or macbook pro.

 

[Alvin777]

Cool, heatsinks fits. What brand of heatsink did you use? Or what phrases or words did you use to search for it?

Thank you. God bless.

 

[mbosse]

Hi. By the way, how come, the Sintech ST-NGFF2013-C (or any the other two models in its family) isn't compatible with NVME SSDs like the Samsung 950PRO, Samsung PM981 and SK Hynix Gold P31?

Thank you.
God bless, Revelation 21:4

It’s not the adapter, it’s likely the ssd’s firmware which senders those drives problematic for use in Macs.

 

[mbosse]

Hello Late iMac 2015 Upgrader friends.

Does the slot of the iMac for the NVME SSD have cooling and heatsink? When you upgraded the NVME SSD with regular M.2 SSD + the adapters, did you need to intalll an NVME SSD heatsink on both the top and bottom? If you had to install heatsink/s what brand of NVME SSD do you recommend that's performs well but it's just the right price?

Also, if your NVME throttles, supposing you didn't put heatsinks on either the top of top and bottom coz' it doesn't fit anymore, how much is throttling percentage? How does the iMac measure the temperature of the NVME SSD? Do you need to stick an exteranal sensor for the fans to know when to increase its RPM?

Thank you in advance.
God bless, Rev. 21:4

For a Samsung 970 Evo as well as Intel 760p, I only used a one side Heatsink. Never had throttling issues.

 

[mbosse]

hello alvin777, u can use istat menus to check the temp of both sata ssd, and nvme ssd (see attachment).

i used a copper heatsink, with thermal pad on top, and the bottom one is sandwich between the adapter with the ssd.

not too sure 50+ degrees is a good temp for the nvme ssd, but i think it will be worse without?

i'm also looking around for the blade enclosure, but we might not have any luck on that... i'm still searching, but i might just sell it as a replacement for macbook air or macbook pro.

50 degree is perfectly fine.

 

[Alvin777]

50 degree is perfectly fine.

Cool what brand's you heatsink (got a link?). I think I should buy one, fast before all the parts arrive.

 

[Alvin777]

hello alvin777, u can use istat menus to check the temp of both sata ssd, and nvme ssd (see attachment).

i used a copper heatsink, with thermal pad on top, and the bottom one is sandwich between the adapter with the ssd.

not too sure 50+ degrees is a good temp for the nvme ssd, but i think it will be worse without?

i'm also looking around for the blade enclosure, but we might not have any luck on that... i'm still searching, but i might just sell it as a replacement for macbook air or macbook pro.

What's the height of the copper NVME heatsink you used? I saw some 1.5mm to 4mm Does it have the waffle pattern/little squares or straight line pattern?

 

[mbosse]

[…] SSD Heatsink: GLOTRENDS M.2 2280

[mention]Alvin777 [/mention]I used an identical one to this. Make sure it’s 3mm thick max.

 

[Alvin777]

hello alvin777, u can use istat menus to check the temp of both sata ssd, and nvme ssd (see attachment).

i used a copper heatsink, with thermal pad on top, and the bottom one is sandwich between the adapter with the ssd.

not too sure 50+ degrees is a good temp for the nvme ssd, but i think it will be worse without?

i'm also looking around for the blade enclosure, but we might not have any luck on that... i'm still searching, but i might just sell it as a replacement for macbook air or macbook pro.

Hi Oscar. I may have found a source for the heatsink (I think they all include a backing tape and two rubber bands to secure it, as if they manufacturers don't trust the backing tape :-D). As mrboose suggested, I get the 3mm with the straight patterns for the top. If I have to add another heatsink coz' I know my NVME will run full speed at 80C, what's the height of your bottom heatsink in mm? Thank you.

 

[mbosse]

Hi Oscar. I may have found a source for the heatsink (I think they all include a backing tape and two rubber bands to secure it, as if they manufacturers don't trust the backing tape :-D). As mrboose suggested, I get the 3mm with the straight patterns for the top. If I have to add another heatsink coz' I know my NVME will run full speed at 80C, what's the height of your bottom heatsink in mm? Thank you.

The ‘backing tape’ is likely a heat conducive tape which does not serve sticking the heatsink to the SSD but to transmit the heat from SSD through sink.

 

[Alvin777]

For a Samsung 970 Evo as well as Intel 760p, I only used a one side Heatsink. Never had throttling issues.

Hi mbosse. Is your NVME heatsink aluminum or copper? Thanks for all the info and for the help (same with the cool amazing guys in this thread

 

[oscarchd]

i think someone shared before, click here.

for me i bought whatever is available in malaysia, chat with the seller, he recommend for me to get "graphite", click here for more info, it's some kind of coating on copper. i bought 2 just in case x graphite 20x70x4.0 & / graphite 20x70x3.0, both free thermal pads, 1mm (for bottom) and 1.5mm for top in between the heatsink and nvme ssd, and also rubber band to make sure nothing falls down! lol!

what i feel is any heatsink will do as long as we put it for heat dissipation

 

[Alvin777]

Very nice. It gets even more interesting, I see (like in Shenmue). I did see some graphene covered pure copper, the ratings givers say it achieved -15 celsius performance. I saw some 6mm thick heatsinks too, would a 6mm thick heatsink still fit or 5mm (top heatsink I mean, including the thermal pad) for the Late 2015 5K iMac?

How about for the bottom, what's the thickest heatsink in mm (including the thermal pad)? I also wonder if a waffle looking heatsink is better than straight lines design heatsink (would you know?). [mention]mbosse [/mention]

Thanks in advance again- it's a bit tedious but two more parts (the adhesive and heatsink/s) and I'll start disassembling the iMac, must prepare well (I wish the 27" iMac  Silicon would have the screen held by strong magnets again but I think I'll save up for the Mac Pro  Silicon- paid in installments .

 

[Alvin777]

Blade + HDD upgrade

Device: Retina 5K, Late 2015 - MK482LL/A - iMac17,1 - A1419 - 2834 (i5-6600 w 2TB Fusion)
Blade upgrade: 128GB -> 512GB Samsung 970 Evo
HDD upgrade: 2TB drive -> 1TB Crucial MX500 SSD
CPU upgrade: N/A
Speed test: 2800 MB/s read, 2500 MB/s write
OS: Big Sur 11.5.2
Location: Malaysia, Asia
Adapter: Utake, I also bought FUN (I think they are Sintech clone). Used Utake (works), FUN (for backup, did not try)
Issues after fresh OS install: surprisingly the sleep issue is not present, HDD does not need the thermal sensor.

Hi Oscar. Still waiting for the parts here. I'll buy that 4mm waffle looking graphite/graphene heatsink one and not put the adhesive yet when it arrives, test things out (will probably use your Kapton style for awhile), see if I need another heatsink and if things work- pray, fast and hope it does and the parts arrive all nice and on time.

I noticed you have an SSD with your Samsung EVO NVME? Is it still configured as a Fusion drive or two separate drives, maybe one for MacOS and one for Windows Boot Camp (dual booting using Apple's Boot manager, the one whereby you use the Option key to activate on startup?).

What do yo use by the way to check if your SSD is working 100% perfect (no damage in any NAND flashes)?

 

[mbosse]

[…] What do yo use by the way to check if your SSD is working 100% perfect (no damage in any NAND flashes)?

Simple solution: DriveDx. Free 15 day trial period.

 

[oscarchd]

Hi Oscar. Still waiting for the parts here. I'll buy that 4mm waffle looking graphite/graphene heatsink one and not put the adhesive yet when it arrives, test things out (will probably use your Kapton style for awhile), see if I need another heatsink and if things work- pray, fast and hope it does and the parts arrive all nice and on time.

I noticed you have an SSD with your Samsung EVO NVME? Is it still configured as a Fusion drive or two separate drives, maybe one for MacOS and one for Windows Boot Camp (dual booting using Apple's Boot manager, the one whereby you use the Option key to activate on startup?).

What do yo use by the way to check if your SSD is working 100% perfect (no damage in any NAND flashes)?

it's believed that u can't fusion with nvme and ssd, only old school hard drive, i dont even bother to do that, fusion is a pain in the a**, if any of ur drive fail, all data is lost. i'm running individually, both drive on it's own. dont bother with bootcamp, i have another pc for windows, this is purely mac stuff

i'm actually using istat menus, check it out, the attachment i showed with all the temperatures. i have not try drivedx b4, but istat menus is quite a good app, do try it out b4 buying

 

[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.

I'm afraid my SATA SSD (not the blade) has since disappeared after working successfully for about six months. I am still able to boot from my blade just fine, but the SATA SSD (which I was using for extra storage) has completely disappeared from the computer.

The drive doesn't show up in disk utility, safe boot, or recovery mode. Is it possible a connection came loose? Or the drive adapter went bad? I ran Apple diagnostics on boot-up and got the "There may be an issue with a storage device" Reference Code: VDH002 message. There were a few power outages here, but I'd be surprised if that killed the drive.

Short of opening the computer back up, does anybody have suggestions (via software), to try and "find" the drive? Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[mbosse]

[…] i'm actually using istat menus, check it out, the attachment i showed with all the temperatures. i have not try drivedx b4, but istat menus is quite a good app, do try it out b4 buying

Does iStat also provide drive health data?

 

[mbosse]

I'm afraid my SATA SSD (not the blade) has since disappeared after working successfully for about six months. I am still able to boot from my blade just fine, but the SATA SSD (which I was using for extra storage) has completely disappeared from the computer.

The drive doesn't show up in disk utility, safe boot, or recovery mode. Is it possible a connection came loose? Or the drive adapter went bad? I ran Apple diagnostics on boot-up and got the "There may be an issue with a storage device" Reference Code: VDH002 message. There were a few power outages here, but I'd be surprised if that killed the drive.

Short of opening the computer back up, does anybody have suggestions (via software), to try and "find" the drive? Any help would be much appreciated!

There is nothing in the system information, under ‘SATA’?

 

[johnwmillr]

There is nothing in the system information, under ‘SATA’?

Thanks for your reply, mbosse. No, the only listing under SATA is the Intel 8 Series Chipset. The NVMExpress drive shows up just fine.

 

[Alvin777]

Thanks Oscar. Now I'm thinking of buying the SATA SSD as well before all the parts for the NVME upgrade hack gets here, :-D but on the other hand SATA SSDs have almost the same price as NVME but about 10x slower. I wish Sintech, Fun or Utake would create a crazy dual NVME adapter whereby the other one extends to the space where the hardisk is so you can have RAID 0 with NVMEs or use the other one as Time Machine or Superduper! clone backup (what's better than Superduper! for cloning by the way? Also any good cloner for Boot Camp? [mention]mbosse[/mention] )

I wonder if you could solder wires to the Sintech adapter since it just a passthrough and then solder that to a regular NVME adapter (any link to a thread here or another Mac site specializing in mods or hacks like this)?

I'm still struggling a bit in planning which files to erase in the 2TB hardisk, so that it fits in upcoming NVME 1TB (I only really need 1TB) but the big ones are games and videos and photos that have ended their usefulness but someone still hard to let go coz' of the effort and time put in to. I plan to install games on a DIY NAS using a PC case or just swap storages using Wavlink external USB enclosure (multi connectors).