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i wanna fit a vertex 3 drive myself. will imacs ordered without ssd have an empty slot where one could fit one, or will I have to order a bto ssd machine and replace thenone apple ships with? really dont wanna eait 4-6 weeks
 
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daneoni said:
It no longer matters. The iMac has the z68 chipset, which is the bees' knees of the Sandy Bridge chipsets and hasn't actually been officially released yet. That means it does support SATA III, but perhaps it's hidden and something to do with Larsen Creek (also explains the long delays for the iMacs with SSDs)

Z68 also supprots SATA II no? Also supply issues are equally a valid reason for the SSD delay how are you so sure its Larsen Creek's fault?

Yes it does and I am not sure. I am speculating, posturing and hoping.
 
Hi I've just done the efi update and get these in system profiler

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0:

Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model: WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0
Revision: 06.01D02
Serial Number: WD-WCATR6234206
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s1
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Available: 967.35 GB (967,350,685,696 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

for the Hd and this below for the optical

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H:

Model: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H
Revision: 3AHF
Native Command Queuing: No
Detachable Drive: No
Power Off: Yes
Async Notification: No

I think this means the Hd is now SATA III

hope this helps.
 
Hi I've just done the efi update and get these in system profiler

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

I think this means the Hd is now SATA III

hope this helps.

Confirm this is on the new 2011 iMac? If so, then yes, this means the HDD bay SATA interface is now SATA III.
 
Hi I can confirm this is on The new 21.5" 2011 iMac 2.7 i5 ordered tuesday,delivered yesterday and updated a hour ago.

Thanks
 
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Hi I've just done the efi update and get these in system profiler

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0:

Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model: WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0
Revision: 06.01D02
Serial Number: WD-WCATR6234206
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s1
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Available: 967.35 GB (967,350,685,696 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

for the Hd and this below for the optical

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H:

Model: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H
Revision: 3AHF
Native Command Queuing: No
Detachable Drive: No
Power Off: Yes
Async Notification: No

I think this means the Hd is now SATA III

hope this helps.


Thanks a lot.

btw, you got a sata 2 WD caviar black 1TB drive, feel free to upgrade to a sata 3 drive :D
 
As I was hoping iMac EFI Update 1.6 has enabled SATA 6 Gbit/s in the 2011 iMacs. Now SSDs can go beyond 400MB/s (6Gbit/s = 768MB/s) allowing for the Z68 chipset's SSD caching at optimum performance.
smile.gif
 
As I was hoping iMac EFI Update 1.6 has enabled SATA 6 Gbit/s in the 2011 iMacs. Now SSDs can go beyond 400MB/s (6Gbit/s = 768MB/s) allowing for the Z68 chipset's SSD caching at optimum performance. Image

HURRAY! This is really great news, I couldn't quite get my head around the the thought of no SATA3 in these machines...

My order is in, 27" 3.4ghz 2tb & 2gb gpu. I will soon be plotting a vertex 3 install... God help me.
 
I've updated the EFI on a 27" iMac 2.7 bought 2 days ago and I can confirm as well the SATA 3 / 6Gbps has been activated. Time to go shopping for a Vertex 3.


Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0:

Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model: WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0
 
Is the optical port sata3??

I was just going to replace the optical drive with vertex3 ssd..

Frosty
 
Is the optical port sata3??

I was just going to replace the optical drive with vertex3 ssd..

It appears to be SATA 2 - 3GBps only.

Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

HL-DT-STDVDRW GA32N:

Model: HL-DT-STDVDRW GA32N
Revision: KE06
 
Can I just ask, and this is a serious question no rudeness or disrespect intended, why would you open up a 2011 iMac to fit an SSD? I'm considering an SSD upgrade in the future and I'd rather wait a couple of months, keep the warranty intact on the iMac, and buy a Thunderbolt external enclosure for the SSD drive. Obviously we'll have to see what performance is like but at least in terms of data transfer speed there shouldn't be much (if any) difference?
 
rather wait a couple of months

Probably the only reason I could think off. External enclosures would most likely have RAID 0 configuration and Thunderbolt will probably supersede SATA 3 speeds plus not sure if it's worth messing with the warranty though. It is just extremely tempting at this point.
 
Can I just ask, and this is a serious question no rudeness or disrespect intended, why would you open up a 2011 iMac to fit an SSD? I'm considering an SSD upgrade in the future and I'd rather wait a couple of months, keep the warranty intact on the iMac, and buy a Thunderbolt external enclosure for the SSD drive. Obviously we'll have to see what performance is like but at least in terms of data transfer speed there shouldn't be much (if any) difference?

I added an internal SSD to my (2010) imac as soon as I received it. I'm no expert in these things, I've just done the basic PC upgrading and tinkering in the past, which mostly amounts to the use of a screwdriver. This was my reasoning...

First of all, due to apple's only option at the time being a £600 256GB SSD, the reason for wanting to install my own is obvious. I bought a smaller sandforce based 60GB SSD for £100. It's plenty of space for my everyday access, it was six times cheaper and it has the added bonus of being a fair bit faster than apple's SSD (though I doubt I'd really notice much speed difference).

So why did I dare to open up my brand new imac? Because I couldn't think of a reason why not...

  • There is nothing magical about the screen cover. You can simply pull it off with your fingers. Nothing explodes. Baby Jesus doesn't cry. It just lifts off. I suppose it's slightly more difficult than removing a fridge magnet, but not by much.
  • I had already removed the screen cover from my old 24" imac to wipe off a frosted looking area due to humidity. The only tools I needed were a fingernail and a lint free cloth. No special suction cups or science lab equipment. (I know people have actually returned their imacs to apple to repair a blurry area on the screen due to condensation. It simply needs a wipe, and it takes less than a minute.) The 27" imac's screen is a lot easier to remove than the 24" due to having easier fingernail grip access to the edges.
  • My warranty is intact. Definitely. I have broken no warranty stickers and I have not damaged anything.
  • Getting behind the motherboard requires some patience. Other people's photos and guides were invaluable to locating the sata port with ease. This is the trickiest part. You could easily turn back at this point, but I doubt it's difficult enough that anyone ever has.

[edit]Even if I had the option of a thunderbolt boot drive, I would have still done it. For no reason other than it's just tidier to use the internal space which already exists to accommodate an SSD. Although, there are plenty more possible reasons, such as uncertainty whether thunderbolt booting will be an option in the near future, and also thunderbolt enclosures likely being overly expensive in the near future.
 
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