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

[dksp]

Thanks for the warning! I am still collecting knowledge about possible solutions 🤓

So the WD Black is a good option, if used with a 3 mm heatsink.
Which 2TB model is the most compatible 750, 750x or the newer 850, 850x?

If Kingston Fury, does it need a heatsink also?

Or maybe another Samsung model? I see 970 Evo Plus or 990 Pro are also available.

Thank you all for your precious input 👍

 

[steve123]

If Kingston Fury, does it need a heatsink also?

You can purchase the Kingston Fury Renegade with or without a heatsink. The graphene heatsink that comes with the "non heatsink" version has a small gap between the DRAM and the inner surface of the heatsink ... you can use your fingernail to create a small crease in the heatsink so it sits flat on the DRAM.

You can use a third party heatsink as well. I am not sure about the clearance in the iMac so cannot comment regarding the maximum height of the heatsink.

These links might be useful for you:
https://github.com/dortania/bugtracker/issues/192 (info in the first post is a bit out of date)

TechPowerUp

Solid-state-drive database with specifications for products launched in recent years. Includes specs, photos, and technical details.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[polleke69]

Just upgrade my 27inch 2017 iMac from:
- 32gb SSD
- 1tb Seagate HDD (together the so called Fusion Drive)

To:
- OLVINS M.2 NVME SSD Convert Adapter Card
- 2tb WD SN850X with heatsink
- 2tb Crucial BX500

Running fine until now (3 days), SN850X under load is about 36 degrees.

Only issue was with the screws that came with the olvin, it didn't fit the original location so I had to search through my own screw collection (+ the olvins is a little bit too long, so I had to scrape a bit off..)

Another issue I had/have is with the thunderbolt ports, I think they shifted a little bit when reassembling the mainboard. I have to jiggle the connectors a bit to get them connected...
As the screen is not yet glued, I think I just will take it apart again and fix that...

Speeds are great!

 

[steve123]

Another issue I had/have is with the thunderbolt ports, I think they shifted a little bit when reassembling the mainboard. I have to jiggle the connectors a bit to get them connected...

There was a tip on the iFixIt web site I think that suggested inserting the connectors when the screws holding the pcb are loose so the board is aligned properly, and then tighten the screws.

 

[dksp]

Hi all.

I am about to order a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB for my iMac 2017 5K 27" with Fusion Drive.
There are two options, with or without heatsink. Which one is recommended?

Tried to find the answer here… but no luck.

Quick update. We ordered and an OWC Envoy enclosure and a WD Black 850 2TB and migrated all data to the new drive. Time Machine was a bit reluctant but it finally worked out. For now, this allows us to continue working on this Mac. And take time to figure out what to do with it later. Speed is more than sufficient, it's a huge improvement compared to the dying Fusion drive.

 

[polleke69]

Might be too late, but I would definitely use a heatsink....
It seems that the WD blacks can turn quite hot.

 

[MacNB2]

Here you can find and discuss all the collected knowledge regarding upgrading the HDD, blade SSD and CPU of a 27" iMac 2012-2019, as well as a list of performed upgrades.

Late 2013 - 14.2 - ME089LL/A (3.4Ghz i5-4670, HDD only / Fusion HDD+128GB blade / blade only)

-a small screw to hold the new blade drive on place (it is missing on HDD-only models)

What is size of this screw to hold down the blade ? (M2, M2.5, M3 and what length) ?

 

[Franjelisco]

Just replaced the NVME on my iMac 18,3 27" 2017 with an OWC Aura Pro X2 1TB which I bought for 135€ on Amazon (not the best deal, I know, but I didn't want to mess around with adapters etc). Also replaced the Seagate HDD to a Samsung 500GB 2.5" SSD. Installed the OS exclusively on the NVME, and will be using the Sata Drive for big files if needed. I'm more than happy with the configuration for the next 2-3 years or so, and then finally letting that fantastic piece of tech go (either sell it, or hand it down to a family member). The final upgrade may be to get another pair of X2 8GB slots of RAM and have a total of 32GBs, up from the current 24GB (2x4 apple, 2x8 corsair).

I'm really not entirely sure about this, but I think the boot times actually got a little slower!... Right now it's around 40 seconds. It's finished indexing and all this, and haven't even restored from the TM backup.... I haven't measured the previous boot time with Fusion Drive, but I really did remember it at least 15 seconds faster... Maybe it's in my head...

Also, sidenote, the OWC website mentions that this drive won't work with Bootcamp, but I tried to install it nevertheless and it works just fine! I even sent them an email to check it themselves and update the compatibility list.

Speeds I'm getting: 2500 W, 3000 R, general temps around 30-35C.

 

[Ibiza_87]

Hello everyone, thanks to your forum I was able to do things that were impossible for me just to think about. However, I would like to share my experience with you and ask for some advice.



Blade + HDD upgrade by ibiza_87



Device: IMAC Late 2015 - Retina 5K 27-inch - MK472LL/A (3.2Ghz i5 quad-core) FusionDrive

HDD upgrade: 1TB Seagate HDD -> Samsung 870 QVO 2 TB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-77Q2T0), Black

Blade upgrade: Apple Inc 32GB Toshiba -> Samsung 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD (MZ-V8P500BW), 500 GB, PCIe 4.0, 6,900MB/s Read, 5,000MB/s Write, Internal Solid State Drive

Ram: 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

Speed test: ~2100.8 MB/s read, ~2753.1 MB/s write

OS: Monterey 12.6.5

Location: Napoli (IT)

Adapter: M.2 SSD Adapter to NGFF M.2 gigabase per MacBook High Speed Adapter NVME AHCI compatibile con MacBook 2013-2017 A1465 A1466 A1398 A1502 SSD 12 + 16 Pin Plug and Play



Issues after fresh OS install: Switching on the IMAC in almost 7/8 minutes.



After replacing the original SSD and the original HD I proceeded to configure the 2.5 TB FUSIONDRIVE again (Did I do it right?). Then I proceeded to install the operating system via Pendrive and finally I did the Backup via Time Machine with an External HD.



The speed of the computer has improved significantly, however the main problem is with the power on. Before I was complaining about 2/3 minutes but now we've reached almost 10 minutes. I tried resetting PRAM/NVRAM and SMC and turning on TRIM support but the situation is still worse than before.



What advice could you give me?



Greetings and many thanks for the

 

[stradify]

I can't understand why you want to have your new drives running in a Fusion setup.
Try defusing the drives: https://www.lifewire.com/split-fusion-drive-apart-2260166

 

[steve123]

Samsung 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD

I have a Samsung 980 Pro that I was using in my Mac Pro 6,1 as the internal disk. I experienced long boot times on the order of 10 min, similar to what you describe. I also noticed significant lag in the GUI after booting and the TRIM times were enormous.

Subsequent investigation turned up information about Samsung 980 Pro NVMe issues with macOS. Consider exchanging the Samsung for another blade. Other people have reported WD Black SN850X work well. I use a Kingston Fury Renegade in my Mac Pro 6,1, which has a better endurance specification and I have not experienced any difficulties with it.

 

[Ibiza_87]

I have a Samsung 980 Pro that I was using in my Mac Pro 6,1 as the internal disk. I experienced long boot times on the order of 10 min, similar to what you describe. I also noticed significant lag in the GUI after booting and the TRIM times were enormous.

Subsequent investigation turned up information about Samsung 980 Pro NVMe issues with macOS. Consider exchanging the Samsung for another blade. Other people have reported WD Black SN850X work well. I use a Kingston Fury Renegade in my Mac Pro 6,1, which has a better endurance specification and I have not experienced any difficulties with it.

Hi Steve123, in this forum with SSD 980 I had read about problems related to hibernation not to power-up time.

 

[steve123]

Hi Steve123, in this forum with SSD 980 I had read about problems related to hibernation not to power-up time.

Part of the problem is many of the data points posted here are old. I was getting boot times under a minute with Big Sur so I did not see it as a problem. The Kingston boot time is under 30 sec but I did not know that at the time. Things got much worse when using the Samsung 980 Pro with Monterey, especially 12.6.1, and Ventura.

 

[Ibiza_87]

Parte del problema è che molti dei punti dati pubblicati qui sono vecchi. Stavo ottenendo tempi di avvio inferiori a un minuto con Big Sur, quindi non l'ho visto come un problema. Il tempo di avvio di Kingston è inferiore a 30 secondi, ma all'epoca non lo sapevo. Le cose sono andate molto peggio quando si utilizza il Samsung 980 Pro con Monterey, in particolare 12.6.1, e Ventura.

WD Nero SN850X - Kingston Fury Renegade Questi modelli hanno bisogno di adattatori?

 

[steve123]

WD Nero SN850X - Kingston Fury Renegade Questi modelli hanno bisogno di adattatori?

Yes, these SSD's are NVMe.

 

[Backslashnl1]

Hi Steve123, in this forum with SSD 980 I had read about problems related to hibernation not to power-up time.

Unfortunately, you missed some posts. Samsung SSDs and Apple is not a happy marriage.
I was stubborn and have installed a Samsung SSD in my iMac as well. After some usage of the SSD the garbage collector starts to increase, as so the boot times. When the Samsung was freshly installed I had good boot times. But after a couple months of use, it was increasing to multiple minutes. You can read about my experience here and here.

Please take a look at this forum post from TonyMacx86 for some more information, and a link to a Russian article which explaines the issue with Samsung on mac's in detail.

Long story short, I suggest you reopen your iMac again, toss out the Samsung and replace it with another brand 😕

 

[kk123]

Thanks to everyone's post I finally did it following the ifixit guide.

Model: iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015, 3.3Ghz i5, 2TB Fusion Drive) - MK482LL/A

Changes:
- Blade 128g -> NVME 2TB Crucial P3 + adapter (JESOT on Amazon)
- 2TB HDD -> removed
- macOS 12 Monterey -> macOS 13.3.1 Ventura (with OpenCore Legacy Patcher)

Speed: ~2000 MB/s for both R/W

Issues:
- No aforementioned sleep issue (is it fixed or I got lucky?)
- Unable to recover from time machine backup (it takes ~1 hour then won't boot into system)
- iMac gets hot in sleep mode (Power Nap disabled) and the fan will spin up crazy for seconds. This is pre-existing before the upgrade, I was hoping it gets better without HDD but it did not.

 

[mintosh72]

Hello Everyone im looking for some advice
I Have a imac 27 late 2013 Model A1419 EMC No 2639 with fusion drive
128 gb ssd and 1tb hdd
I am Looking to Upgrade the 128 gb drive with one of these
512gb ssubx offical apple blade ssd
256gb samsung sm951 achi ssd with adapter
256gb SSPOLARIS (mz-kpw2560/0a7) official samsung apple blade ssd
Which one of these 3 options would be best for me?
The 1tb spining Hdd Will be replaced with a 2tb samsung data centre ssd
So no problems there
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Mintosh72

 

[Richy85]

Hello Everyone im looking for some advice
I Have a imac 27 late 2013 Model A1419 EMC No 2639 with fusion drive
128 gb ssd and 1tb hdd
I am Looking to Upgrade the 128 gb drive with one of these
512gb ssubx offical apple blade ssd
256gb samsung sm951 achi ssd with adapter
256gb SSPOLARIS (mz-kpw2560/0a7) official samsung apple blade ssd
Which one of these 3 options would be best for me?
The 1tb spining Hdd Will be replaced with a 2tb samsung data centre ssd
So no problems there
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Mintosh72

Im thinking ssubx odicial

 

[Backslashnl1]

Hello Everyone im looking for some advice
I Have a imac 27 late 2013 Model A1419 EMC No 2639 with fusion drive
128 gb ssd and 1tb hdd
I am Looking to Upgrade the 128 gb drive with one of these
512gb ssubx offical apple blade ssd
256gb samsung sm951 achi ssd with adapter
256gb SSPOLARIS (mz-kpw2560/0a7) official samsung apple blade ssd
Which one of these 3 options would be best for me?
The 1tb spining Hdd Will be replaced with a 2tb samsung data centre ssd
So no problems there
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Mintosh72

As you could read a couple of posts above, stock Samsung SSDs should be avoided.
If 256GB is enough for you, the SSPOLARIS is the fastest option. Otherwise 512GB official Apple blade ssd can be interesting.

 

[ovbacon]

Just in case someone has a fusion drive iMac that is close to death and isn't able to remove the screen/monitor like me (has a crack in it that would probably create more problems when dealing with the screen) and swap the HDD for an SSD you could use an external ssd.

I purchased a cheap Qwiizlab M.2 NVMe and SATA External Enclosure, USB-C 10Gbps, with a Leven JPS600 2TB PCIe 3D NAND NVMe and a usb-c to usb-a cable.

1: I Erased the external SSD "APFS, GUID partition format" in Disk Utility.
2: I restarted the iMac, Command (⌘)-R at start-up, in macOS Recovery system (I used a wireless bluetooth mac keyboard/mouse without any problems).
3: I went into the the OS Monterey installer that showed and installed it on the external ssd (this took a few hours).
4: I did a fresh install to be sure it worked and once I was able to run the OS from the ssd I used Migration Assistant from the internal HD to the External SSD.
5: I made sure the Startup Disk was set to my external ssd and started the mac multiple times to make sure it boots correctly every time. (start-up is slightly slower that the internal boot but nothing to bad)

Tests in Blackmagic at W/R: around 400-500 MB/s. Not fast but as this is not my main mac it is completely fine.

 

[X-Housed]

Finally found the right thread after a long search for the hibernation issue

Device: Late 2015 - 17.1 - MK462LL/A (3.2Ghz i5-6500, HDD & 32GB Apple Blade)
Blade upgrade: 32GB Apple Blade -> Crucial P3 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen3 NVMe
CPU upgrade: i5-6500 -> i7-6700K
Speed test: Read/Write ~2800MB/s
OS: Ventura 13.3.1
OCLP: 0.6.5
Firmware: 509.0.0.0.0
Bootloader: 577~129
SMC: 2.33f12
Location: Austria, Europe
Adapter: NoName from Amazon
Issues after fresh OS install: the iMac cannot wake from sleep, have to use hibernate 25 instead and disable standby.
Time Machine Restore don't work from Ventura M1 Macbook to Ventura iMac Intel, i guess it is not possible to restore from Silicon to Intel
Apple TV+ App Crashes, Netflix and Prime working

A Bummer that Wake up is not working, thought that my NVMe was the problem until i found that it is a common issue with iMacs and non Apple NVMe's
At least there is the workaround to set the hibernation and standby mode in the terminal thats fine for me.

 

[rc3105]

Finally I have something to contribute to the upgrade thread

Started with a 2019 iMac 27" 19,1 that had a 3.7ghz i5-9600K

Upgraded the cpu to an 8 core 3.6ghz i9-9900K from eBay (reports 16 with hyperthreading!)

used the $14 NVME adapter from amazon

Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade 2013-2015 Year Macs(Not Fit Early 2013 MacBook Pro)

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.com

and a PCI-E gen3 4TB Crucial NVME from Best Buy ($189!) (the gen 4 was $40 more)

Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe CT4000P3SSD8 - Best Buy

Shop Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

So far with Monterey it screams and there haven't been any issues.

 

[Sporktastic]

Finally I have something to contribute to the upgrade thread

Started with a 2019 iMac 27" 19,1 that had a 3.7ghz i5-9600K

Upgraded the cpu to an 8 core 3.6ghz i9-9900K from eBay (reports 16 with hyperthreading!)

used the $14 NVME adapter from amazon

Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade 2013-2015 Year Macs(Not Fit Early 2013 MacBook Pro)

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.com

and a PCI-E gen3 4TB Crucial NVME from Best Buy ($189!) (the gen 4 was $40 more)

Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe CT4000P3SSD8 - Best Buy

Shop Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

So far with Monterey it screams and there haven't been any issues.

Thank you for this. I have a 2019 27" iMac 19,1 with a 3.6Ghz i9-9900K in it but wanted to upgrade the NVMe SSD to a 4TB unit and the Crucial P3 was one I was looking at.

I hadn't seen many examples in this thread of it being used in the 2019 iMac so I was leaning toward getting a WD Black NVMe instead, but I had some concerns about heat issues.

Did you use a heatsink with the Crucial P3?

 

[rc3105]

Thank you for this. I have a 2019 27" iMac 19,1 with a 3.6Ghz i9-9900K in it but wanted to upgrade the NVMe SSD to a 4TB unit and the Crucial P3 was one I was looking at.

I hadn't seen many examples in this thread of it being used in the 2019 iMac so I was leaning toward getting a WD Black NVMe instead, but I had some concerns about heat issues.

Did you use a heatsink with the Crucial P3?

No heatsink yet. Ran Blackmagic for a bit and the temp climbed to 110F. Next time the machine is disassembled it'd probably be good to add one. (planning to add a sata SSD for boot camp)

It's been turned on 30 mins, normal use no heavy access, ambient air is 88F, CT4000P3SSD8 temp stable at 99F.