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

[Terraaustralis]

Further thoughts:
1. On my 2019 iMac with a 3.7 Intel 6 core i5, the Apple 256 NVMe is a fast reader at around 1200MB/ps but a slow writer at around 700MB/ps, if I remember my test figures correctly. So it is better used as a Fusion drive which is why it was specified that way. A 256GB Fusion NVMe should increase a Sata 500MB/ps to a better performance. I have not tested that Sata/NVMe combination to quote figures as I prefer using NVMe/Sata seperately to maximise native sm770 NVMe drive speed at around 3000MB/ps.

2. For faster internal NVMe, you may find a better priced PCIe 3.0 from older Samsung (careful with choice of model), WD Black or Crucial etc. as more people take up PCIe 4.0. Last time I looked, PCIe 3.0 was not discounted enough to attract me, but time passes and you may find better prices in Xmas/New Year sales.

If considering a used SSD, essential to ask seller for a screenshot of SMART checklist to establish % of remaining life and condition before buying. This may be obtained via Terminal. See note below for Terminal instructions at top left of screen shot with "how to read" diagram below.

3. for speed and economy, I suggest you spend on an 1TB or 2 TB internal NVMe instead of spending on the internal Sata drive. Then buy a 4TB Barracuda 7200 HDD and create a Fusion drive. The Sata only maxes at 500MB/ps while Fusion should lift it to around 2000Mb/ps You will get better average speeds. Maybe less on a 2014 iMac?

That way you have fast NVMe drive space for many of you files and a faster 4TB HDD for your archive files or TM. However, you need to spend a minimum for the 4TB HDD if possible, to to get best economy in my opinion.

Alternatively, if you decide to keep each drive separate, a 7200 HDD will be slow at around 100Mb/ps while the NVMe will be 2500 - 3000 MB/ps depending upon Brand/model. This arrangement favours splitting off and allocating archive files and text files to slow HDD leaving images, hungry apps, video and games on the fast NVMe. It all depends upon your files and usage.

Finally check user experience in this blog to see brand and model NVMe for PCIe 3.0 that suits 2014 iMac on pages 1 to 3. Then you know what to purchase in NVMe 3.0. for your computer.

You know your file types, applications and speed objectives. Research prices and you best choice will become clear.

Cheers.

 

[Turboman1971]

Thanks. Speed would be nice, but at the moment I'm only using a normal platter hard drive so even standard SSD speeds will be a massive improvement. I don't need it to be blisteringly quick, but faster than the current disk would be great. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Terraaustralis]

Correction!

In my reference to SMART monitoring, I failed to explain I had downloaded and installed Homebrew into Terminal. Therefore instruction (Smartctl -a disk0) (add number according to diskutil) relies on Homebrew and will not work without it.

For a fast, free method of checking SMART status, download Disk Drill which offers indefinite free use for limited basic function. Install it and open up, click SMART status at Extra Tools (extreme left), highlight drive and smart status report opens for you.

 

[nycbx1]

Results: Samsung 980 Pro vs WD Black SN770 on OSX Ventura 2019 iMac.

I have been comparing performance of 2TB Samsung 980Pro versus 2TB WD Black SN770 on 2019 iMac running Ventura 13.5. which is limited to PCIE 3. These days the PCIE 4 NVME drives are cheaper than preceding PCIE 3 models.

Performance: Samsung; Read 3052 Mbps, Write 2960 - WD Black; Read 3038 Mbps, Write,2896 Mbps.
Boot Times of 200GB system heap: Samsung; 16-23 secs. WD Black; 15 secs.
(The variability of Samsung boot up time reflecting the initial incompatibility behaviour which seemed to settle down to 16 secs with use).

Which you prefer will depend upon Platform and o/s.
Both Samsung and WD Black use TLC, but Samsung has AES encryption, uses DRAM and is warranteed for longer life. Samsung offers considerably better sustained write performance. Samsung claim automatic Trim function through Elpis controller for Windows. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-980-pro-m-2-nvme-ssd-review

On Ventura 13.5 Samsung ran smoothly with one exception. At boot-up, the progress bar showed a marked hesitation 40% through completion. This suggested to me an initialisation conflict. Nevertheless once loaded the drive worked smoothly as the above Black Magic numbers indicate.

WD Black SN770 performance matched Samsung but lacks AES security and as a DRAM-less drive uses 64MB of host system RAM for the Controller. It is a very weak performer for sustained writes. In all other respects the drive was smooth and fast which recommends it for OSX.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-black-sn770-ssd-review/2

The absolute decider is Trim
Thank you trs96 for supplying exhaustive and valuable Trim information which I have included in my conclusions.
Given the reluctance of either Apple or Samsung to inform users on the handling of Trim It is reasonable to assume that despite its good performance over a short term test, the Samsung 980 Pro may well accumulate Trim related problems over time. However, according to Spaceman logs, both Samsung and WD Black trims where occurring regularly which appears to absolve doubts about Samsung, at least over the short term.

Apple only support Trim for their own drives. I understand Trim is on for Apple SSD but should be off for non-Apple SSD as many NVME controllers now instigate trim automatically. Which begs the question whether the Samsung Elpis controller is capable of garbage collection for several o/s. So far, Samsung remain silent repeating only the suitability of their drive for Windows 7 upward. This is utterly counterproductive and throws into relief the importance of independent tests and user feedback on sites such as this.

I enabled Ventura o/s trim which slowed the Samsung performance markedly. I also found that as an external boot drive the Samsung was slow with writes 1245 Mbps, Reads 2320Mbps.

For Mac user the WD Black SN 770 is the best choice. Apparently no trim issues. fast operation in external case also; but why, oh why does Western Digital omit AES security in all their drives, at this time when security is so critical?

Do I need an adapter to install the WD Black SN 770 into PCIE slot of my 2014 iMac 27”? Thanks for your response in advance

 

[Terraaustralis]

Do I need an adapter to install the WD Black SN 770 into PCIE slot of my 2014 iMac 27”? Thanks for your response in advance

Yes, you need an M.2 NVMe adapter NGFF to M key. Usually advertised as suitable for Macbook.

If you are intending to Use a WD Black sn770 do NOT buy Sintech NGFF as Sintech advises incompatibility with WD Black sn770. Sintech adapter will work but induces kernal panic issues after 6 months in my experience. Since changing to cheap adapter I have had no more kernal panics over 18 months.

I use Ali Express short adapter (pictured below left), as the tight fit creates a rigid combination of SSD and adapter which can be screwed into motherboard to replace of the Apple ssd. Also lack of full length (2280) adapter offers less resistance to airflow for SSD cooling even though the sn770 is a one sided SSD and thus radiation is on the ’outside‘ of the SSD.

If you prefer the full length adapter, this 2280 looks safe with correct specs, (pictured below right). Suggest you contact seller and confirm it is not Sintech as brand name on reverse side is not shown. NFHK brand is good.

Good Luck

 

[rin67630]

3. for speed and economy, I suggest you spend on an 1TB or 2 TB internal NVMe instead of spending on the internal Sata drive. Then buy a 4TB Barracuda 7200 HDD and create a Fusion drive. The Sata only maxes at 500MB/ps while Fusion should lift it to around 2000Mb/ps You will get better average speeds. Maybe less on a 2014 iMac?

Definitively disagreeing.
Fusion drives are a horrible thing.
It is ways better to have the system on the 1TB or 2 TB internal NVMe and to format the 4TB Barracuda 7200 HDD to HFS+ where you leave the large files and the Time Machine stuff.

 

[Terraaustralis]

You are welcome to your opinion rin67630,

My suggestion was made because a 4TB 7200 HDD will be very slow (100MBps) and speed can be increased vastly with a Fusion set up using the 1TB or 2TB NVMe.
Why would you not want to increase overall operational HDD speed with Fusion?

In my experience Fusion is a very reliable feature. Fusion was originally created in 2012, designed precisely to speed up internal HDD drives with small NVMe SSD at a time when SSD’s were very expensive. A low cost 128mb SSD improved HDD speed considerably.

Millions of users found Fusion to be reliable and good value. There were incidents when an HDD failed or an NVMe failed. Fusion itself was not at fault. According to my understanding, it was the HDD drives and NVMe wear which was responsible. (Writing to NVMe first was a Fusion priority so in some cases large file transfers and general usage wore out a small NVMe within a few years). If a TM back-up was available, data losses were few and could be recovered when a new drive was installed. If no TM, disk recovery software was unable to recover everything. Recently written data was lost when Fusion tried to write to failed drive.

So the lesson was to monitor your Fusion SSD with DriveDL, Disk Drill or Homebrew to monitor SMART reports of SSD health.

I have never experienced an HDD failure in 50 years as a Mac user. I invariably purchased moderate entry level Macs with small drive and memory. I soon upgraded them with Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD drives and branded memory purchased from Ali Express. This avoided excessive Apple upgrade charges. I still have a 2007 dual core iMac running perfectly with those HDD/memory upgrades after 15 years of usage.

Now, with cheaper SSD prices, my 2019 iMac is upgraded with internal SATA 2TB Samsung 870 Evo SSD and
2TB SN770 NVMe running independently to get maximum NVMe SSD speed. Also a Zike z666 external case carries a 4TB Lexar NM790 with three volumes: one for TM and one for testing new Mac OS upgrades, the third as Photo/video project storage. I archive files to the SATA 2TB Samsung 870 Evo SSD. I am happy with performance and see no point in upgrading to Apple M series at this stage. My graphics work uses occasional video or sound recording data.
I appreciate fast image rendering with 6 core i5 which I find sufficient.

The external z666 with true USB4.0 runs at 3800/3900MBps, faster than the internal NVME at 2900/3100MBps. In real time operations, the difference is not noticeable.

I do not know how fast an iMac with a Fusion combination of 1TB sn770 and 7200 HDD will be and I would like to hear from anyone who has tried that type of combination.

Of one thing I am certain, there is nothing “horrible” about the Fusion drives or my suggestion.

It is a matter of understanding the role played by hardware/software, their interactions; and what you wish to achieve at what price.

Cheers,

 

[Terraaustralis]

The most SSD´s have no Problems.

There is a problem related to APFS formatted NVME Samsung with the Phison Controller and Trim.
This results in long Boot Times after some Time.

log show --predicate "processID == 0" | grep spaceman

If you use HFS this Problem is not present.

This is true for Mac Hardware and Hackintosh.

In addition many NVME Drives do not work with Apple´s implementation of the Drive´s Power States.
This leads to Heat and High Battery Drain.

The Crucial P5 which runs on Hackintosh has drained constant 9W even in an external Case.
For older Hardware the Crucial P2 was a good Choice and i have upgraded multiple 2014 MacMini or MBP with it.

As of Today i would try to use a WD SN570 because of the Lanes and PCIe Version it makes mostly no sense to use a WD 850 or x or even a WD SN 770 and for older Hardware i would try to find a Crucial P2 or sometimes if possible just use an SSD as the Crucial MX500 which is a Mac Darling and works forever.

The Crucial P3 has proven to be a bad choice for both Hackintosh and Mac.

There are several NVME running "somehow" in older Mac when formatted before but also most are not able to realise Firmware Updates so better do this before upgrading and save the Original.

First success does not implicate work on the long run.

I do not have old Hardware anymore but use WD SN 570 / 770 / 850 in an Hackintosh and 2 WD SN 770 in external enclosures @ my MBA M2.

I have upgradet many Mac´s with NVME and they are mostly running till Today.

Good information genexx.

Your point about using PCIe 3.0 NVMe lanes is perfectly valid. I referred to PCIe 4.0 models only because PCIe 3.0 prices remain disproportionately high in my opinion. And many PCIe 3.0 models such as the SN570 or Crucial P2 are hard to find. Retailers quickly dispose of old stock and fill the shelves with the next generation products. A buyer may just as well purchase PCIe 4.0 on the basis that is backwards compatible and in future the SSD can be re-used in an external case or fitted to a new machine.

 

[Terraaustralis]

Hi Turboman 1971,
I think you should have posted prior to committing to your purchases to get wider comment.

Given you plan to put your 4TB SSD in a caddy, and maximise the 4TB SSD speed may I suggest you look at the external Zike Drive as it seems like the only drive with a chip capable to offer PCI 4.0 speeds in an external container. Plenty of reviews have confirmed it is faster and cheaper than any other external at time of writing. https://ziketech.com/products/zikedrive-usb4-40gbps-nvme-m-2-ssd-enclosure-z666

Read all the user feedback. It probably will not include your Fanxiang so contact Zike and get their tech support to confirm compatibility.
Regarding price of Zike drive, I find the company very flexible. I placed the drive in the trolley and left it there without paying. A few days later an email arrived offering me a 20 percent discount. I ignored it. a few days passed by and another email arrived offering a 30 percent discount. I accepted and paid $135 for a drive advertised at $189 at the time. Current price is advertised at $169. I reckon with patience you will get that price reduced.

You say you also intend to replace the internal Nvme ssd. What is the replacement you propose? I can say that it probably needs to be a WD Black for trouble free performance. The best value for money is the PCIe 4.0 WD Black 770, particularly as you have plenty of ram to support the Host Memory Buffer. I installed a 2TB SN770 a year ago in a 2019 iMac with PCIe 3.0. AJA gives me write 2921Mb/ps and read 3079Mb/ps. and the computer runs flawlessly. Should you need in future to transfer the 770 NVMe to an external you will benefit from increased PCIe 4.0 speed depending on the choice of caddy.

Otherwise your plan seems sound with one small detail. I took advice and used a strip of Kapton tape over the exposed contact pins of the NVMe in the PCIe slot as there have been cases of shorting between contacts and metal shield. It may not be necessary but it seems sensible to me to prevent a possible problem. Be sure to firmly insert NVMe SSD in the PCIE slot as failure to do so is a recurring theme in these posts.

Read page one of this blog to see which NVMe SSD options are proved to be compatible with your 2014 iMac. before installing your SSD. Which Brand and model do you have?

Cheers,

Another point Turboman 1971,

I am not familiar with the specific internals of 2014 iMac but it may be useful for me to mention that in the few iMacs I have dealt with, the Power to Motherboard AC connection is hard to unhook which risks inadvertent damage to your components. The MacFixit and OWC video’s make disconnection look easy but it is not.

On my 2011 iMac and 2019 iMac - and the same plug design may be common to all intel iMacs, (I may be corrected on that). However, beneath the power/motherboard is a rectangular power socket secured with a moulded plastic strip with a barbed hook at the end. You must release the hook in order to pull the socket apart. To release the hook you need to press down in the centre of the plastic strip to raise the barb and then pull the socket apart at the same time.

I did not have the physical strength in my fingers to do that. Often the barb does not lift clear and you cannot pull the the socket apart. The socket is very tight. Space is very restricted at this connection point and accidents can happen.

My solution
Do not be cavalier and use bare hands. Very important to wear surgical gloves for this exercise as your body static can easily blow the power board capacitors, even with no contact - static jumps. Surgical gloves also offer good grip.

I work with the iMac flat on its back. I loosen and remove all retaining screws, lift the entire power board to expose the connector plug so I can see what I am doing. The power cables are short so you will find lifting the power board involves careful manipulating of the board and cables to avoid damage. Once you can see the AC plug and understand the issue, lift the barb with a small plastic or metal spatula, (I have used the edge of a nail file), and try to pull apart the connector a wee bit. Then use the edge of your tool to lever the plug and socket apart while being careful not to damage the moulding with excessive force.

The MacFixit image shows the underside of the powerboard with projecting off the board at right of image. The other part of the socket under the motherboard is not shown. The description does not prepare you for the reality.

If you are lucky, once loosened the plug comes apart fairly easily. If it is tight, use gloved fingers to waggle the plug apart. This is perhaps the most difficult part of iMac disassembly. Be careful and be patient.

May the Force be with you young Skywalker.