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

[Terraaustralis]

Hi Chesco,
Most unfortunate experience regarding the screen. On the positive side, you would have had no use for the missing NVMe or for Fusion. I measure start-up time from the chime and would expect around 30-40 secs. Your iMac is the entry level model for 2015 and the 3.2 GHz Intel 6500 processor may explain the slower startup time.
With the bad stuff behind you still have a fast machine.
Good Luck.

 

[Chesco]

Thank you very much for your response.
The pink edges are not very accentuated, but they are annoying on a device that cost €3,000 on the day of its purchase.
I have thought about buying a new screen on Ebay UK for a price of €365 but perhaps investing more money in this equipment is a mistake given how old it is and given that the pink edges are not very pronounced and they are only visible on a white background.

On the other hand, and based on the incredible read and write speed of the new Nvme Samsung 990 EVO, I expected a much shorter startup time.
Maybe it can be reduced somehow...

 

[Terraaustralis]

Better not spend at that level on old equipment. However buying a Cinema display seems cheaper than replacing iMac monitor. Ali Express offer used parts at a better price than you quote. I have found their dealers honour the Ali Express refunds and returns policy.

 

[Chesco]

Ali Express offer used parts at a better price than you quote. I have found their dealers honour the Ali Express refunds and returns policy.

Can you please send me the link?
Greetings.

 

[Terraaustralis]

Chesco,
You need to check these for suitability to your 2014 iMac. You need a screen LM number for searches. I am not sure without researching, but the same screen appears to fit a several models.
Obviously you need to convert currency as well. Ali search terms are poor.

Good Luck

Original New A1419 A1862 5k Lcd Screen For Imac 27

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

27

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Original 27

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Best A1419 Display For iMac 27 inch 2K 5K Replacement Screen For LM270QQ1 SDA1 SDA2 SDB1 SDB2 SDC1 SDC2 LM270WQ1 SDF1 SDF2 - AliExpress 7

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[Chesco]

The price of the Display on Aliexpress is higher than this eBay seller:

iMac A1419 LM270QQ1 SD B1 IPS Retina 5K EMC 2834 LCD Screen Assembly Late 2015 | eBay

Las mejores ofertas para iMac A1419 LM270QQ1 SD B1 IPS Retina 5K EMC 2834 LCD Screen Assembly Late 2015 están en eBay â Compara precios y caracterÃsticas de productos nuevos y usados â Muchos artÃculos con envÃo gratis!

www.ebay.es

 

[PaulD-UK]

@Chesco @Terraaustralis
The Screen Panel for a late 2015 iMac is LM270QQ1 SD(B1). The pink edge degradation is quite common with B1 panels.

A word of caution: When you buy a 2012-20 iMac 27" screen panel from the Far East you there's a chance you are being offered a broken glass 'repaired' panel:
Some UK/EU resellers are also selling these refurb panels.
It's probably best to check that the panel doesn't look like it has been interfered with (backlight cable unstuck, has original LG serial numbers sticker etc):

 

[Terraaustralis]

I am not seeking a monitor Chesco, you are. If a price is too high, don’t buy it. I have done more than enough research for you. Your problems are your responsibility, not mine.

PaulD-UK There are plenty of stories floating around to discredit the Chinese sellers as they undercut prices in every other western country. You can contact a specific retailer and seek answers to questions. Their English leaves something to be desired so questions must be specific and simple. Ali Express has a reasonable consumer code. I am sure there are dodgy sellers out there but it is the same everywhere for used equipment.

Monitors are not my problem. It is up to you folks what you do,

Good Luck.

 

[Chesco]

I don't think I'll buy any Display.
I have compared several times on Aliexpress and they offer very good prices.
Thank you very much for your response

 

[Espresso89]

OK Espresso. I believe that refers to hardware security which locks the iMac.

If I understand you correctly, the password problem occurs when you start up your boot drive.
I do not understand why it does not pop up on the iMac? A firmware lock prevents the iMac being accessed by anyone unless they have the correct password. A firmware lock is designed to prevent boot up from any unauthorised drive.

Try this on the iMac OSX.
• Close iMac then re-open into Recovery mode (hold down Command R and restart holding down the keys until the Recovery progress bar runs).
• Go to Utilities menu bar choose ‘Firmware Password Utility’
• If Firmware password is shown as On, Turn it Off. This should solve the problem.

If Firmware Password Utility is already On and you need a password to turn it off, your best option is to contact the seller again for the Firmware password or, if he has forgotten, ask him if he has the old Bill of Sale.

If that is not available ask him to write a statement giving your name as the legitimate purchaser of the iMac citing seller name, address and Apple ID associated with the sellers iMac (include serial number). He needs to sign the letter and have a friend or relative witness his signature giving their name and address as well. Same as signing any legal document.

This should satisfy Apple who can check their records for authenticity. When Apple is satisfied, they can bypass the lock with their magic tools. There will be no charge.

Personally, I would assume Firmware Password is Off. Which in turn makes me wonder how it can be required for your external SSD if it is not required for the iMac. Could it be an incompatible caddy or cable? Is the caddy advertised as Mac compatible? Something very weird going on here. I would be very interested to read comments by readers more experienced than me.

Cheers.

Hi Terra, thank you once again for the suggestions.

In trying to follow your steps and enter recovery mode without the SSD connected, it actually asks for the same firmware password on a black screen with a "lock" on it. Mom's account password does not work.

I guess i should have just tried entering recovery mode before buying the SSD. The seller is MIA, hasn't responded to emails or texts.

In any case, looks like mom is getting some Apple silicon

 

[Terraaustralis]

Lucky Mom.

You may try this:

How to Unlock your Mac If You've Forgotten the Firmware Password - DeviceMAG

Can’t get into your Mac because you forgot your firmware password? While this is supposed to ensure that unauthorized users don’t tinker with the system or

www.devicemag.com

Why not take the EFI replacement route? It is much cheaper than buying an ARM Mac?

Your only other recourse is contacting previous owner and if he/she cannot supply a password you can only approach Apple as I described.

 

[giancs]

Blade drive upgrade

Device: iMac 17,1 (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015, 4 GHz Quad-Core i7 Fusion Drive)
OS Version: macOS Monterey 12.7.6
Memory: 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB
Blade upgrade: 24GB Blade -> WD_BLACK SN770 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe + SSD heatsink
Speed test: 2800 MB/s read, 2800 MB/s write
Adapter: Sintech ST-NGFF2013
Issues after fresh OS install: None. Sleeps fine, no overheating, no excess fan noise. I did not try hibernation. No SSD bending due to the use of the adapter.
Notes:

• Upgraded the system to the latest available OS version before opening the iMac.
• Left the original 2TB Hard drive in place, and left the SATA cable attached to the heat-sink for temperature as recommended in the comments in the iFixit repair guide
• Formatted both SSD and HDD (I don't have fusion anymore), then used an external USB drive for OS installation as described in the official guide.

EDIT: corrected the link to the Sintech adapter.

 

[Terraaustralis]

Good work giancs.

According to Sintech, as I have warned in earlier posts, their adapter is not recommended for the WD Black SN770. Extract: ‘NOT Support: PM981,950 Pro ,WD Blue NvME SN570 /SN770’
I now use an unbranded Ali Express adapter which has been fine for over three years.

In my experience with the long (2280) Sintech adapter, all went well for a while then suddenly I got a kernal panic after six months or so. If you get similar behaviour in future, the Sintech adapter could be the cause.

Good Luck.

 

[giancs]

Good work giancs.

According to Sintech, as I have warned in earlier posts, their adapter is not recommended for the WD Black SN770. Extract: ‘NOT Support: PM981,950 Pro ,WD Blue NvME SN570 /SN770’
I now use an unbranded Ali Express adapter which has been fine for over three years.

In my experience with the long (2280) Sintech adapter, all went well for a while then suddenly I got a kernal panic after six months or so. If you get similar behaviour in future, the Sintech adapter could be the cause.

Good Luck.

I'm sorry but I made a mistake on the link to the adapter. Mine was actually the longer one (i.e., this and not this).

I suppose I'll keep the screen taped for some more time then... :S

Thanks for the heads up. I'll come back for an update if anything changes.

 

[Terraaustralis]

Yes, both the 2019 iMacs in our household still still have screen taped on after 3 years.

 

[Turboman1971]

Guys, got my 2014 27” imac in bits at the moment. All going well so far but I’ve stopped while I wait for a new BR2032 battery to replace the current one. Be daft not to while I can get to it as the current one is nearly 11 years old.

Regarding the SATA cable… I’m not fitting a 3 1/2” sata drive as I’m replacing the nvme with a 4tb one.
Do I need to leave the sata cable plugged into the motherboard if there is no disk plugged into it?
Thanks.

 

[mbosse]

Guys, got my 2014 27” imac in bits at the moment. All going well so far but I’ve stopped while I wait for a new BR2032 battery to replace the current one. Be daft not to while I can get to it as the current one is nearly 11 years old.

Regarding the SATA cable… I’m not fitting a 3 1/2” sata drive as I’m replacing the nvme with a 4tb one.
Do I need to leave the sata cable plugged into the motherboard if there is no disk plugged into it?
Thanks.

No need to, you may take it out

 

[Turboman1971]

No need to, you may take it out

Thanks.

 

[Chesco]

Hello again.
I have replaced the Samsung EVO 990 with a WD_BLACK SN850X and the boot time has gone from almost 2 minutes to just 14 seconds.
This Nvme is extremely fast and efficient!!!
Very, very bad for Samsung 👎👎👎
Thanks for your help.

 

[Terraaustralis]

Hi Chesco,
Yes you have a very fast NVMe PCIe 4.0 WD Black SN850x, but your speeds will be limited by the PCIe bus speed.

I have the slower, cheaper SN770 and start-up time is 17 seconds. We notice boot time which is a variable depending upon the amount of boot data on our drive. Anything under 30 seconds keeps me happy.

A principle difference between the two drives is that the SN850x has onboard RAM making it about 35% faster than the SN770 which has Host Memory Buffer (HMB). The HMB saves the manufacturer and the consumer money. Not being a gamer and do little video these days I am happy with HMB.
You may find this article interesting: https://www.gamingpcbuilder.com/wd-black-sn770-vs-sn850x/

NVMe speed is limited to PCIe 3.0 on my 2019 iMac and I think, PCIe 2.0 for your 2014 iMac?

Should you in future decide to use an external caddy such as the Zike Z666 with full 40GBs USB 4.0, your SN850x will run much faster in the caddy than on your computer.

Download Black Magic Speed or AJA System test lite: https://www.aja.com/products/aja-system-test

This will confirm your actual disk speeds. Post your actual disk speeds for us to share.
Cheers.

 

[Chesco]

Hi.
My iMac is Late 2015 - X4
The price difference was small and once with the screen removed the best option was to put the best Nvme. I am very happy with this choice SN850X

 

[Terraaustralis]

Good!
A big lift to your original Fusion speed. You are running at maximum PCIe 3.0 speeds for iMac much the same as
my 2019 iMac. Interesting to see so little speed difference despite the difference in age of the iMac model.
Thanks for the Test results.
Cheers.

 

[Turboman1971]

So, looks like somehow I’ve managed to damage the system board upgrading my Mac. A bit of a tragedy as I love it, so I’m determined to resurrect it.
What seems to have happened is that when I swapped the cpu from the 3.5 to a 4.0ghz, I suspect they cpu hasn’t quite seated correctly as it’s bent all the pins on the socket. To be fair, it’s the type of cpu that just sits on with copper pads, so it must have moved slightly while I was putting it back together.

Anyway, this Mac was a late 2014 27” iMac. I’m planning on keeping the same body and everything else and just changing the system board.
The interiors of the 27” iMacs all look pretty much the same, so while I’m replacing the board, does anyone know what year of boards would be compatible with my chassis? Be nice to put a slightly newer board in than what I currently have.
Thanks.

 

[PaulD-UK]

@Turboman1971 There is one big difference between late-2014 and late 2015 27" iMacs, and that is that there is an extra mounting point bolt hole with stand-off at the bottom mid-left of the logic board, which was introduced after late-2015.

Apart from that, the other changes that I know about, are that the BT & WiFi aerials are slightly different, and that the screen panel is a later generation, and although everything looks the same, there might be an electronic difference in the way the screen controller handshakes with the logic board? Probably not, but I don't know...

The extra mounting hole might not be a problem, so you might find that a late-2015 logic board would work???
Obviously not the 2017 onwards because of the different port layout for TB3.

There seem to be a lot of posts in a Google searches asking the same question, but no one can answer it.

My experience is a bit different, as I have seen the interiors of iMacs of different years in the course of turning them into DIY 5K monitors....

I realise this is not what you asked, but my view on things is that you would be far better off finding a 2017 TB3 5K iMac, and using that.
If your 2014 5K screen has no image retention problems, then convert that into a 5K monitor.
It's only an 8 bit panel - 10 bit P3 colour came with the 2017 iMacs, although the 2015 screen panels can do an 10 bit image. An 8 bit conversion board can be had for not much more than $100.

 

[Turboman1971]

Thanks. I’ve been on eBay, and the best board I can find to replace my current one is another identical board with the same graphics chip and cpu. So I think to play it safe I’ll fit that. It’s only coming with 16gb of memory so I can swap my own memory in which is 32gb.
I did buy a 4ghz processor but attempting to swap for my original cpu (which was 3.5ghz) is what’s killed it unfortunately. I stil have the 4.0ghz cpu, but I think for the tiny speed difference I’ll just leave the replacement board as it is with the 3.5 it’s coming with. I’m not taking that chance again!
I’ll swap the ssd for the 4tb one I bought which was the original upgrade I planned, then hopefully for the £60 the replacement board is costing me I’ll be back to where I was but with a 4tb SSD.
I did think about converting it to a monitor as I actually have a 2019 MacBook pro that could use it, but to be honest it’s nice having two separate computers sometimes.
Thanks for coming back to me so quickly. 😊