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A list of successful iMac 27" (2012-2019) SSD upgrades
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Well Those who did it right they are happy and no problem! Specially for people who has slow fusion drive and wanna do photo/video work and 128g apple flash drive is not enough! I did last week and I am very happy with the result!
OK, many thanks!
It was my intention to split up the Fusion and use the original 2TB HDD as storage (doing video edits etc; 2TB slow internal storage is useful for edits which still has to be done).
System, apps and videofiles which are editing will be placed on the new blade.
I'll do the job in the first days of January.
The bracket that holds the heat sink on. I had a lot of issues with it. After the 3rd teardown and rebuilt, I took some of the bend out of it. Everything worked after that. You may have better results.
Which adapter/bracket and which ssd (lets say 1TB) would you recommend? At some point, I may go back and swap the blade. I will need to acquire more OEM adhesive strips first.
I personally would always go with a Samsung, e.g. 970 Evo, 970 Evo Plus (newest firmware update; but all the ones produced after 2020 have it) or the new 980 (I just installed this in a Late 2013 without any problems, and its quite cheap; see here: #750). All of them have higher read and more consistent write speeds, but most importantly a lot higher write endurance. If you intend to use the iMac intensively for a longer time, then endurance might be important for you.
I used this Sintech adapter: http://eshop.sintech.cn/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=130_132&products_id=1229
Good luck,
Magnus
Sure, but you mention adhesive in this context:
This is what I fail to understand.
Thanks,
Magnus
I wrote the following post, which attempts to summarize everything I've recently learned about adapters that allow third party SSDs to be used in Apple computers with proprietary connectors. I put it in the MacBook Pro section, because that's what I have, but I've attempted to be comprehensive about it, so it includes info on iMacs so I have included a reference to this thread. It covers everything from 2010 MacBook Airs to 2019 iMacs.
I am far from an expert, and I want it to be as correct as possible, so comments welcome. Thank you.
forums.macrumors.com
I am far from an expert, and I want it to be as correct as possible, so comments welcome. Thank you.
Mac SSD adapters - hopefully comprehensive view
CORRECTIONS WELCOMED, ALL ERRORS ARE MINE, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... etc. (links to Amazon, etc, are for information purposes only - none of them is an affiliate link) I started looking at this when considering a non-Apple SSD upgrade for my rMPB 11,1 and 11,4 - and went down the rabbit hole. I...
forums.macrumors.com
Do you by any chance have photos on the straightened heatsink bracket? That would be very interesting indeed! Thanks!
First of all, thank you all for posting up the success story. One of my friend given this link to me and it given me the courage and affirmation that upgrading iMac by myself is possible. I would like to share that I have successfully upgraded my iMac 27" Late 2013.
Device: Late 2013 3.2Ghz i5, 1TB HDD only version.
Blade upgrade: none -> 512GB ADATA SX6000 Lite
Sata upgrade: 1TB Mechanical -> 512GB Silicon Power SSD
Speed test: 750 MB/s read, write + -
OS: Catalina 10.15.7
Location: Malaysia
Adapter: OEM, no brand name found.
Issues after fresh OS install: No issue with the fan and no issue with the sleep. All good!
Note: Don't forget to check everything before sealing back the screen. My mistake was not checking the HD camera and ended up I have to re-open the screen again.
Device: Late 2013 3.2Ghz i5, 1TB HDD only version.
Blade upgrade: none -> 512GB ADATA SX6000 Lite
Sata upgrade: 1TB Mechanical -> 512GB Silicon Power SSD
Speed test: 750 MB/s read, write + -
OS: Catalina 10.15.7
Location: Malaysia
Adapter: OEM, no brand name found.
Issues after fresh OS install: No issue with the fan and no issue with the sleep. All good!
Note: Don't forget to check everything before sealing back the screen. My mistake was not checking the HD camera and ended up I have to re-open the screen again.
No. All I did was use a pair of pliers and a channel lock to take a little of the bend out of it. This in turn put a little less tension on the processor. This, and me hand straightening the processor corner after it got bent a little, allowed the machine to finally boot. I took it apart and put it back together at least 3 times. You are not straightening the whole bracket, you are just taking a little of the bend out of it which releases a little of the tension. It shouldn't be that noticeable. I would try it the normal way first.
The screws that mount the bracket to the heat sink went on a little bit easier. I am sure if someone who is a little more patient and had help would not have to resort to this, but at this point I was really stressed thinking I had broken both my original and new processor. I was tired of redoing the thermal paste. I was tired and stressed. My steps are not necessary, but it worked for me. I took the idea from a prior poster.
When I was referring to the adhesive, I made a mistake and removed the protective coating on the strips that cover the bottom of the display where the support bracket screws are. I ended up having to take all that off and re do it. after getting all of the strips down, I first checked for the first 2 LED lights. Then I connected the display and checked again. Once I got that ? screen, I disconnected the shorter of the 2 video cables after I turned it off, then started removing the covers for all the adhesive strips, reconnected that last cable, closed it and started the process of making sure everything was lined up...edges to edges.
Essentially, I took off an adhesive strip cover (and really, laid that strip down) before it was time too. I had to go back and remove the whole thing and do it over again. trying to remove internal components without removing the thin bracket just doesn't work well. Putting the adhesive strips down covers those 9-10 small screws for that bracket.
If you are like me and get a little fatigued by repeating yourself, or get tired, get stressed, cut corners, try and be too fast, it is easy to screw it all up or break something. Fortunately, all of the advice helped.
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I chose a Samsung 970 EVo Plus and I regret it. I have a very slow boot time because of slow trim.
You can check here :
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...grade-pitfalls-and-tips.2177812/post-30716033
970 Evo Plus has 600 TBW for 1 TB drive.
Updated! Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD Review: More Layers Brings More Performance
Samsung's new 970 EVO Plus takes on the SSD market with new flash and speeds that reach up to 3.5 GB/s.
That's pretty standard for a TLC drive, but by no means spectacular. For instance, most of the drives based on the Phison 16 controller seem to have a 1600 or more TBW for a 1TB drive. E.g. Spatium M470.
Point is, if endurance is the measure, the 970 Evo Plus is respectable, but nothing special.
What an epic thread! After a lot of reading (and seeming contradictory or evolving info) I would much appreciate a check before upgrading my 2017, 27", 1TB Fusion, 4.2GHz.
Question: The listing for the Sintech adapter people are frequently mentioning says it is not compatible with w/ 970 Evo Plus. However, I also see a lot of posts where people are using this drive. Am I missing something? And for some reason the basic 970 Evo ($399) is quite a bit more expensive than the Plus ($229) model. Thoughts?
Second, I'm thinking of replacing the Fusion HDD with a larger one to use as Time Machine. I had my eye on a Seagate Exos 4 or 6TB to use with the 2TB blade. Has anyone done this? I imagine I can just swap it with the drive that's in there and reattach the thermometer?
Thank you.
Question: The listing for the Sintech adapter people are frequently mentioning says it is not compatible with w/ 970 Evo Plus. However, I also see a lot of posts where people are using this drive. Am I missing something? And for some reason the basic 970 Evo ($399) is quite a bit more expensive than the Plus ($229) model. Thoughts?
Second, I'm thinking of replacing the Fusion HDD with a larger one to use as Time Machine. I had my eye on a Seagate Exos 4 or 6TB to use with the 2TB blade. Has anyone done this? I imagine I can just swap it with the drive that's in there and reattach the thermometer?
Thank you.
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I think this is old info that came from the time when old 970 Evo Plus firmware caused problems with Macs.
This has long been solved with a firmware update by Samsung, however, recent threads here indicate that new macOS versions like Monterey now introduce (different) issues with this SSD.
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Thanks for this info, this is new to me. My previous upgrades with this drive have long being sold, and my most recent upgrade of a Late 2013 with a Samsung 980 is limited to Catalina, so I had no chance to check this.
Best currently, I guess, is to avoid the 970 Evo Plus.
Thanks @mbosse ... I saw @alloallo 's post ... I have been booting from a SanDisk SSD via Thunderbolt and it just recently seemed to be slowing down / not booting. When it's running it works great, but the very long boot time is worrisome.
Is there a drive you like more than 970 evo? Or maybe this is an issue w/ Monterey that the next OSX update will fix.
Hallo from Germany and having a good 2022.
I wann a change the origin NVme from my iMac 2019 3,7 with Fusion 2TB to a Samsung EVO 970 Plus 2TB.
Having both of them the one with Phönix and Elpis Controller the question is Is it worth taking the Phoenix or Elpis Controller?
What is u‘s favorit. Firmware is actually the newest.
Have someone installed Bootcamp on the NVMe without problems having a second (SSD wanna take it only for Timemachine )
At least sorry for my english it’s not the best at all.
Best regards
Sascha
I wann a change the origin NVme from my iMac 2019 3,7 with Fusion 2TB to a Samsung EVO 970 Plus 2TB.
Having both of them the one with Phönix and Elpis Controller the question is Is it worth taking the Phoenix or Elpis Controller?
What is u‘s favorit. Firmware is actually the newest.
Have someone installed Bootcamp on the NVMe without problems having a second (SSD wanna take it only for Timemachine )
At least sorry for my english it’s not the best at all.
Best regards
Sascha
Hi Sascha
as per this recent post here ( #790 ) for the time being I'd refrain from using a Samsung SSD to avoid extremely long boot times.
Best,
Magnus
Hy it seems to be an 32 Bit problem not only by the Samsung SSD. If there is a 32 bit App installed then Montery didn‘t support, only 64bit Applications.The comunicación between EFI, hardware and OSX is corrupted in the beginning of booting the system caused an error by the 32 bit Apps and is hanging the time of booting.
By an clean install thre is now slow booting because no 32 bit app is installed now. And when a Timemachine backup is installed with an old 32bit App u have become a slow booting System.
For what its worth, my SanDisk external boot drive is functioning at normal/expected speeds. Maybe a restart or three fixed it - not sure. Anyway, I wanted to post back and update this so anyone reading would know it was a glitch and thankfully doesn't appear to have been permanent.