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

[Arashnik]

Hey guys,

About 6 months ago I have changed my drive(imac late 2015 17.1) to samsung 970 evo plus 2tb with sintech adapter(and added ssd drive as backup also ) and I was getting about 3000mb read and write! But now after 6 month and that samsung drive is more than half full I get only 1500 write and still about 3000 read but seems computer is slow..start up too! By the way I have updated the os every time to latest Monterey version! My question is do you think droping write speed is to do with drive getting full or drive/adapter getting problem!

What is your experience with speed test after a year with same setup?

Thanks

 

[bielousov.com]

Here's my upgrade story, feel free to add to the post:

ATTEMPT #1: FAIL

Device: 2017 iMac 18.3 27" Retina 5K
CPU upgrade: 3.5Ghz i5-7600 -> 4.2GHz i7-7700
Blade upgrade: Samsung 970 EVO Plus Series - 2Tb
HDD upgrade: 1TB SATA HDD -> Seagate 16TB HDD Exos X16
Temperature sensor: none
Heatsink: 10mm Aluminum m2 Heatsinks
Speed test: 1500 MB/s read, 1500 MB/s write
Adapter: NONAME (shortie) 2050C5
Issues after fresh OS install: It worked for a few days, then started crashing with minutes after boot and not finding the start disk on start. The heatsink was too tall ad pushed the drive into the back panel. The short adapter obviously did not provide PCI3.0x4.


ATTEMPT #2: SUCCESS

Device: 2017 iMac 18.3 27" Retina 5K
CPU upgrade: 3.5Ghz i5-7600 -> 4.2GHz i7-7700
Blade upgrade: WD_BLACK 2TB SN770 - Gen4
HDD upgrade: 1TB SATA HDD -> Seagate 16TB HDD Exos X16
Temperature sensor: none
Heatsink: Heat Sink Copper for 2280 M2 SSD
Speed test: 3000 MB/s read, 2700 MB/s write
Adapter: ELIATER 2135C5
Issues after fresh OS install: NONE, NVMe Temp remains in 30–38 °C range at all times.


When I took my iMac apart, I figured that the drive has been upgraded by the previous owner, for it had WD_BLACK SN750 500GB and a short adapter. But I had plans to upgrade i5 with i7 anyways (really love those 8 logical cores), as well as 1 TB HDD with quite fast 16 TB HDD (250MB/s read/write which is half an SSD speed), and 500 GB NVMe with 2 TB and PCIe3.0x4 speed.

CPU upgrade was actually the simplest thing of all, just plug and play (and boy i7 is hot ~41 °C nominal temp, but I can live with it). I had multiple issues with the NVMe upgrade, though:
1. The 10 mm tall heat sink I used was a) too tall, so it was pushing int the back panel and b) it had a bottom panel that made the drive too thick and damaged my 1st adapter when I tried to screw it (torn the connector).
2. The adapter didn't have a longer screw, so I had to use the original one, which was barely long enough.
3. And of course this ***** Evo 970 PLUS: somebody claimed it worked for them, so it did for me (only with the short adapter though) but after a few days the system just started crashing every 5–10 min (sleep was disabled) and failing to start without powering off. The drive was falling off even in Recovery mode as I was cloning it to WD.

But finally everything works and works at full speed. I created a second APFS partition that has 500 GB of NVMe as master and 16 TB HDD as secondary, following this guide, so essentially it works as a Fusion drive for data storage (at ~2700 MB/s as well!). The remaining 1.5 TB NVMe used as system and cache disk. Of course, since data is on the fusion drive, I had to also add an external Time Machine.

FinalCut and Lightroom are quite happy, but I no longer have coffee time while they render.

 

[StellarVixen]

Here's my upgrade story, feel free to add to the post:

ATTEMPT #1: FAIL

Device: 2017 iMac 18.3 27" 5K - (3.5Ghz i5-7600, upgraded to 4.2GHz i7-7700 at the same time)
Blade upgrade: Samsung 970 EVO Plus Series - 2Tb
Heatsink: 10mm Aluminum m2 Heatsinks
Speed test: 1500 MB/s read, 1500 MB/s write
Adapter: NONAME (shortie) 2050C5
Issues after fresh OS install: It worked for a few days, then started crashing with minutes after boot and not finding the start disk on start. The heatsink was too tall ad pushed the drive into the back panel. The short adapter obviously did not provide PCI3.0x4.


ATTEMPT #2: SUCCESS

Device: 2017 iMac 18.3 27" 5K - (3.5Ghz i5-7600, upgraded to 4.2GHz i7-7700 at the same time)
Blade upgrade: WD_BLACK 2TB SN770 - Gen4
Heatsink: Heat Sink Copper for 2280 M2 SSD
Speed test: 3000 MB/s read, 2700 MB/s write
Adapter: ELIATER 2135C5
Issues after fresh OS install: NONE, NVMe Temp remains in 32–38 °C range at all times.


When I took my iMac apart, I figured that the drive has been upgraded by the previous owner, for it had WD_BLACK SN750 500GB and a short adapter. But I had plans to upgrade i5 with i7 anyways (really love those 8 logical cores), 1 TB HDD with 16 TB HDD that is also quite fast (250MB/s read/write which is half an SSD speed, eh), and 500 GB NVMe with 2 TB and PCIe3.0x4 speed.

CPU upgrade was actually the simplest thing of all, just plug and play (and boy i7 is hot ~41 °C nominal temp, but I can live with it). I had multiple issues with the NVMe upgrade, though:
1. The 10 mm tall heat sink I used was a) too tall, so it was pushing int the back panel and b) it had a bottom panel that made the drive too thick and damaged my 1st adapter when I tried to screw it (torn the connector).
2. The adapter didn't have a longer screw, so I had to use the original one, which was barely long enough.
3. And of course this ***** Evo 970 PLUS: somebody claimed it worked for them, so it did for me (only with the short adapter though) but after a few days the system just started crashing every 5–10 min (sleep was off) and failing to start without powering off.

But finally everything works and works at full speed. I created a second APFS partition that has 500 GB of NVMe as master and 16 TB HDD as secondary, following this guide, so essentially it works as a Fusion drive for data storage (at ~2700 MB/s as well!). The remaining 1.5 TB NVMe used as system and cache disk. Of course, since data is on the fusion drive, I had to also add an external Time Machine.

FinalCut and Lightroom are quite happy, I no longer have coffee time while they render.

Hmm, changed from Samsung drive to WD one and it works...yep, it's the Monterey issue. It just doesn't play nice with Samsung drives.

Glad you got it working perfectly now.

 

[Vado]

I suffered a fusion drive failure on my iMac 14,2 (Late 2013 3.5GHz i7) a few years ago. I decided at the time to take advantage of the failure and upgrade to a full SSD.

I originally had a 1TB Fusion Drive and went to a 1TB Crucial SSD (Crucial P1 CT1000P1SSD8)

This is the current Boot ROM and SMC versions.

Boot ROM 140.0.0.0.0
SMC 2.15f7

My local independent Mac repair shop carried out the replacement and everything has been ok. However I do get some issues with crashes on Catalina (Sleep/Wake Failure) and was wondering what I can do to try and fix it.

 

[bielousov.com]

Hmm, changed from Samsung drive to WD one and it works...yep, it's the Monterey issue. It just doesn't play nice with Samsung drives.

Glad you got it working perfectly now.

After I started having issues, they were also reproducible in Recovery mode. Although I finally cloned the drive successfully in Internet Recovery. So you might be right, some woodoo magic in Monterey

 

[-paradox-]

Firecuda 530 4TB in iMac 2019 27“ ✅
Mojave ✅
Catalina ✅
Monterey ✅
Speed: 2900 MB/s write, 3000 MB/s read

 

[Arashnik]

Hey guys,

About 6 months ago I have changed my drive(imac late 2015 17.1) to samsung 970 evo plus 2tb with sintech adapter(and added ssd drive as backup also ) and I was getting about 3000mb read and write! But now after 6 month and that samsung drive is more than half full I get only 1500 write and still about 3000 read but seems computer is slow..start up too! By the way I have updated the os every time to latest Monterey version! My question is do you think droping write speed is to do with drive getting full or drive/adapter getting problem!

What is your experience with speed test after a year with same setup?

Thanks

Hey guys,

I have updated my Monterey os and performance is back to normal without changing anything! 3k read and write!
So if you have Monterey os update it and your nvme drive would work better!

 

[Backslashnl1]

Has anyone in the UK found a good place to buy reliable adhesive strips
I've seen lots of sellers on ebay saying they have genuine apple strips ... but I'm not sure they are genuine

I'm from the Netherlands, I've good experience with adhesive strips from the iFixit EU store. There is also an UK location which sells the adhesive strips.

[..]

I went to the forum yesterday and found out that the 970 Evo Plus is not a good fit for iMac due to TRIM issues. I have also come across several reports that the WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD is a good alternative.

And now I have a dilemma. I can buy WD Black SN750 for 150 USD (2 Tb - 360 USD)
Or I can buy a used 1Tb mz-kkw1t00/0a6 for 360 USD

On the one hand, I think it's better to buy a native Apple drive. But the speeds on it will be about 1500/1500. It is more expensive. He's slower. He's older.

Or I can buy a new WD Black SN750. Speed 2500/2500. He's new. But I don't know for 100% if it will be a problem on iMac 27 2017.

What do you think I should do?

Correction. The native Apple blade SSD is not about 1500/1500 (perhaps the original 2015 model had these speeds).
I have 2 iMac 5K, they reach about 3000/2200.

You can get better deals on it. I bought a 512GB model in near new condition for €100 (which is enough for me). A 1TB model is available currently from this eBay seller for €199 which is a great deal in my opinion.

But the WD Black is also a fine drive from what I have read on this forum.

 

[Vado]

Anyone have any suggestions to try and resolve my occasional sleep/wake crashes on Catalina - Post #1004

 

[jjcruella]

after several weeks with the samsung 980 pro, I had to change it, the startup slower and slower, from 18 seconds to about 2 minutes, in the end I put a WD sn750 and for money in a week super fast startups and always Same greetings

 

[Biggus_Baratheon]

Any recommendations on which adhesive strips to buy in Canada? Ill be attempting a CPU, RAM, and SSD upgrade to my 2019 iMac once I have all the parts I need.

 

[icemantx]

Any recommendations on which adhesive strips to buy in Canada? Ill be attempting a CPU, RAM, and SSD upgrade to my 2019 iMac once I have all the parts I need.

I used iFixit after using another generic company that was a PITA to get off when I had to remove the screen again. iFixit adhesive gets great reviews and I would recommend us it again if needed.

 

[theorist9]

I currently wouldn't use Samsung 970 Evo Plus (newest version) or a Samsung 980 in a Mac that runs Monterey - while very fast in the beginning, there are more and more people who report on increasing startup times over time due to extending TRIM operations at startup - see, e.g., here: #905

Older 970 Evo Plus or 970 Pro seem to be working fine.

Best,
Magnus

Is it in the nature of this issue that it would only apply to boot drives? I.e., is there any reason to suspect, based on this, that the 970 Evo Plus or the 980 would have issues when used as an externally-attached SSD for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner (non-bootable) backups?

 

[MultiFinder17]

I have a 2013 27" iMac that I use for announcements and my seating chart in my classroom. Originally shipped with a 1TB HDD, and I ran it off an external SSD for a good while before deciding that I'd rather have an internal drive. I had a 128GB Apple blade SSD around from when I upgraded my 2015 13" MBP, so I decided to get the iMac apart and install that. Install went flawlessly - cleaned and repasted everything inside as well while I had her open. Stuck the new SSD in the empty slot that was in there, and it was detected right off, no issues. Got the screen back on with iFixit strips and it's been holding beautifully since

 

[aroneox]

Looking to upgrade my late-2015 iMac (17,1) to a NVMe m.2 or 2.5" SATA.

Here is my use case:

Late 2015 iMac 27" (17,1) 3.2ghz Intel I5
3.5" 1TB mechanical HDD (not fusion)
32gb ram
OS X 10.14 Mojave
EFI 447.40.12.0.0 (upgraded via SilverKnight)

I will be using Photoshop CS6 for image editing, some light iMovie, and browsing with an inordinate amount of tabs open. Sticking with Mojave because of 32-bit workflow (ie Photoshop CS6).

Even with the mechanical HD, 32 gb ram upgrade made a MASSIVE difference in usability compared to the original stock 8gb. Interested to see how much more responsive the iMac will be with a SSD.

I want to clarify some things before upgrading:

For my use case, will NVMe make a significant real-world difference compared to a SATA SSD?

For my iMac, I DO NOT need the OWC thermal sensor for either SATA SSD or NVMe upgrade, correct?

If upgrading to NVMe, I assume can leave the 3.5" mechanical HD installed without issue?

Reading through this thread, I noticed most (all?) upgrades on my model iMac need to use the hibernate mode workaround to get any solid-state drive upgrade to work. From my understanding this is a EFI firmware issue -- potentially that a lot of these iMacs are stuck at 17.0.0.0 EFI. Is that accurate? And if so, has anyone had success with an EFI firmware that will fix this issue?

 

[Yiveymacnod]

For my use case, will NVMe make a significant real-world difference compared to a SATA SSD?

Yes, there is a huge difference in sequential writes/reads. You will definitely notice. Those who say otherwise must be blind.

For my iMac, I DO NOT need the OWC thermal sensor for either SATA SSD or NVMe upgrade, correct?

No, you do not need the thermal sensor.

If upgrading to NVMe, I assume can leave the 3.5" mechanical HD installed without issue?

Yes, you can leave it. Only remember to format it so it doesn't have your old install on it. You can do that after you've setup the new NVMe, that way you have a backup. But I do recommend swapping it for a SATA SSD instead. The drive is now 7 years old and a 1 TB (or any size) SATA SSD is cheap.

Reading through this thread, I noticed most (all?) upgrades on my model iMac need to use the hibernate mode workaround to get any solid-state drive upgrade to work. From my understanding this is a EFI firmware issue -- potentially that a lot of these iMacs are stuck at 17.0.0.0 EFI. Is that accurate? And if so, has anyone had success with an EFI firmware that will fix this issue?

I can't guarantee that you won't have a problem, but since your iMac only had the HDD those models seem to have not been affected and your good. What EFI do you have now? I advice you to update your OS to the latest before cloning you HDD.

 

[Mdheft]

I need to upgrade storage capacity in my late 2013 iMac, hoping to install nvme and sata ssd. I was digging around to see what it has (I can't remember what I purchased) and it seems I only have sata ssd? Can I still install m2 nvme for os and larger sata ssd for storage?
Thanks

 

[Alvin777]

Hello, although I've bought the Team Group 1TB M.2 (good brand, good price), the screen stickers (OEM, Apple uses it, it's just doesn't have the  logo- I'm not sure how they source those OEM w/out logos- any info on that?), pizza cutter for dismantling the screen and the Sinntech 's M.2 to standard M.2 adapter and the M.2 heatsink, I've not done the upgrade for more than a year now (coz' I can't back up to Time Machine after updating to macOS Monterey as many w/ older external storage are encountering: macOS Monterey External Storage Not Mounting Issue) and I've decided to take a risk even without the Time Machine backup and I'd like to upgrade my Late 2015 5K iMac:

1. Does it need to be installed with macOS Mojave, can I use High Sierra? I believe High Sierra has APFS support just not with Time Machine. High Sierra was the most stable OS Apple has made.

Thank you. Stays safe, may you have a blessed week and rest of the year.

 

[Alvin777]

Alright, so also when you have Disk Utility set to show you 'all devices' you cannot format it? If so, I really think the drive is gone (also, that DriveDx shows no 'Important Health Indicators' or 'Temperature Information' points to this).

If my experience with a Late 2013 27" iMac is transferable, the fact that the defective drive is still recognised by the system might indeed cause your iMac to crash when trying to update to Monterey. My Late 2013 had a defective HDD (it would make strange noises but nothing else) and only the 128 GB SSD from its FusionDrive was working, and whenever I tried to upgrade from El Capitan to Catalina it would crash or hang exactly like yours.

Only after I opened it and physically disconnected that defective drive it would - then without any hiccup - upgrade its OS.

Hops this helps!

Best,
Magnus

Can you format it and then try to reinstall Monterey?

Thanks. I'm having second thoughts opening the Late 2015 5K iMac, are all the bugs ironed out with macOS Monterey or I should burn macOS Catalina (where can I download the version that worked for you?) Thank you.

So the replacement drive he's installed is a 2.5" Samsung 870 EVO 4tb ssd that replaces the hard drive. the nvme is still the same one that came with the computer. here are pictures I have the iMac up and running on Catalina. I tried to update to Monterey and no success the computer bricked again. the computer is a late 2015 iMac I just uploaded some photos.

sorry for the 980 eve typo I have a 980 on my mind 🤦‍♂️

870 EVO SATA 2.5" SSD 4TB Memory & Storage - MZ-77E4T0B/AM | Samsung US

Discover the latest features and innovations available in the 870 EVO SATA 2.5 inches SSD 4TB. Find the perfect Memory & Storage for you!

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View attachment 1971177
View attachment 1971178
View attachment 1971179

Thanks. I'm having second thoughts opening the Late 2015 5K iMac, are all the bugs ironed out with macOS Monterey or I should burn macOS Catalina (where can I download the version that worked for you?) or Big Sure should be in the USB installer?

I plan to update the Fusion w/ 1TB NVME (I have the Sintech and things to open the iMac) and the SATA w/ 1TB (would you need an adapter or it just plugs in?).

Thank you. Have a blessed week.

Insights would be welcome

 

[chris78gr]

Hello, I would appreciate any help.

I am planning to update the blade of my iMac 27" 2015 Late (with Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME long version) with WD SN 750 1TB. The thing is that I just realized that the WD SN 750 is the SE (Gen 4) and although I have read that the 'old' Gen 3 is much better my question is if anyone has already used WD SN 750 SE Gen 4 and worked fine.

Thank you

 

[Grubster]

So I did a test running my 2015 iMac using an External USB Enclosure with a Western Digital 512 SSD that I have on hand (Got it for free from a laptop I bought) I believe the Drive model is a WD SN720 NVME M.2.

Anyhow, my problem is now, I have it booted to this external and my machine is still running on the original 1TB fusion drive. My Photos Library is like 360GB and growing, plus apps and everything.. I'm REALLY Hesitant to trust this drive in the long run, so my thought was just leave the fusion drive ALONE, never touch it, or occasionally boot to it and update the machine. That way if this External Drive craps out, I can just reboot and use the fusion.

With that plan in mind, the 512 SSD is too small, so My thought there was to get a 1TB SSD or larger, then I can load everything up on there, essentially clone over the fusion drive, setup my Time Machine against this new External and the fusion is just there to make the machine work.

My question, what kind of Drive should I buy that is compatible, this WD seems fine, no sleep wake issues etc.. Should I go with another WD, or a Samsung or something else? Speed is not an issue as I'm bottlenecked by the USB enclosure speed, but the machine is running much faster and boots so fast compared to what I had. I was thinking to just get another NVME Stick and put it in this enclosure, but I could buy a External Drive as well if that is recommended instead, Thanks!

 

[theorist9]

So I did a test running my 2015 iMac using an External USB Enclosure with a Western Digital 512 SSD that I have on hand (Got it for free from a laptop I bought) I believe the Drive model is a WD SN720 NVME M.2.

Anyhow, my problem is now, I have it booted to this external and my machine is still running on the original 1TB fusion drive. My Photos Library is like 360GB and growing, plus apps and everything.. I'm REALLY Hesitant to trust this drive in the long run, so my thought was just leave the fusion drive ALONE, never touch it, or occasionally boot to it and update the machine. That way if this External Drive craps out, I can just reboot and use the fusion.

With that plan in mind, the 512 SSD is too small, so My thought there was to get a 1TB SSD or larger, then I can load everything up on there, essentially clone over the fusion drive, setup my Time Machine against this new External and the fusion is just there to make the machine work.

My question, what kind of Drive should I buy that is compatible, this WD seems fine, no sleep wake issues etc.. Should I go with another WD, or a Samsung or something else? Speed is not an issue as I'm bottlenecked by the USB enclosure speed, but the machine is running much faster and boots so fast compared to what I had. I was thinking to just get another NVME Stick and put it in this enclosure, but I could buy a External Drive as well if that is recommended instead, Thanks!

You'd need to price these out, but I imagine you'd save some money buying an internal NVMe SSD and putting it in that enclosure instead of buying an external SSD. Plus I'd expect the random read/writes, which are important for a boot drive, would be higher with a decent internal NVMe, so you'd probably get better performance (those are typically well under USB speeds, so you'd still see an improvement with those).

The Samsungs have problems when used as boot drives for iMacs, so I'd stick with WD (or some other brand/model that's been shown to work well on these forums). I'd recommend searching this thread for installs involving 2015 iMacs and seeing what people have found works and what doesn't.

The convenient thing about your setup is that, because you're not installing it internally, you can buy a drive on Amazon, see if it works, and if it doesn't it's easy to just return it and get something else.

 

[Grubster]

You'd need to price these out, but I imagine you'd save some money buying an internal NVMe SSD and putting it in that enclosure instead of buying an external SSD. Plus I'd expect the random read/writes, which are important for a boot drive, would be higher with a decent internal NVMe, so you'd probably get better performance (those are typically well under USB speeds, so you'd still see an improvement with those).

The Samsungs have problems when used as boot drives for iMacs, so I'd stick with WD (or some other brand/model that's been shown to work well on these forums). I'd recommend searching this thread for installs involving 2015 iMacs and seeing what people have found works and what doesn't.

The convenient thing about your setup is that, because you're not installing it internally, you can buy a drive on Amazon, see if it works, and if it doesn't it's easy to just return it and get something else.

Ok, thanks for the tip, I'll poke around for a good price on a larger NVME SSD and maybe buy another enclosure so I can still use both drives. I think this enclosure was only 16 bucks on Amazon and is working well, it's an SSK. Doesn't get hot at all for what I do.

 

[theorist9]

Ok, thanks for the tip, I'll poke around for a good price on a larger NVME SSD and maybe buy another enclosure so I can still use both drives. I think this enclosure was only 16 bucks on Amazon and is working well, it's an SSK. Doesn't get hot at all for what I do.

If you're happy with how the new drive performs in an external enclosure, and you want better performance, you could open the machine up and install it internally. If you're not comfortable doing that yourself, you could do what I did and bring it to an authorized Apple repair center, and have them install it. My local University bookstore charged <$100 for this.

 

[Grubster]

If you're happy with how the new drive performs in an external enclosure, and you want better performance, you could open the machine up and install it internally. If you're not comfortable doing that yourself, you could do what I did and bring it to an authorized Apple repair center, and have them install it. My local University bookstore charged <$100 for this.

I normally am comfortable working on machines, but don’t want to spend more on this machine. I’d rather sell it and put it towards a machine that supports Ventura. Performance is fine for what I do now. Thanks for offer. The shop near me will do a SATA Ssd. It charge more for the nvme as younhave to pull the logic board etc..