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Fusion SSD Upgrade?

I

Imola Ghost

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 21, 2009
1,153
12
I have a iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 (Model Indentifer: 17,1)

I just bought the bottom of the barrel with the regular 1TB hard drive. The computer is pretty damn slow and I'm wanting to upgrade it.

If you watch this video @ 12:58 into the video it shows what he's replacing. Even though I did not order my iMac with the Fusion SSD Drive, can I add it? Does my motherboard have the PCIe port to just add the Fusion Drive?

Here is the video (skip to 12:58sec):




If I do have that port and I can just buy the Fusion SSD Drive, is the operation system loaded on to that Fusion Drive and the other drive is used for storage, correct?

Is there a way to verify that PCIe port is there without opening up my computer?
 
I was wanting to buy the OEM Apple Fusion drive and I was going to pay a company to do the work...I believe. I'm very handy and have built all of my computers before I started buying Apple products, so I'm not sure just yet on this.
 
Just to make this clear: Apple's fusion drive is two separate devices -- One SSD, and one hard drive, formatted to create a "fused" volume, using both devices in software. If you add an SSD to a hard drive system, you have to reformat both to create a fusion drive. 'Tis all done in the software.
 
If you're already in there you might as well go the whole nine yards and install an SSD. Apple isn't selling the SSD portion of their Fusion Drive separately, which means that even if you happen to find one of those proprietary blade SSDs they will be friggin' expensive.

My suggestion would be a 1 TB SATA SSD for $240 plus thermal sensor for another $40. You will most likely end up paying a similar amount for just the 128GB blade SSD.
 
Do you really need a PCIe SSD?

The one Apple uses is proprietary and quite expensive.

It would be a lot cheaper to replace the hard drive with a 2.5" SSD.
[doublepost=1531100907][/doublepost]
mj_ said:
My suggestion would be a 1 TB SATA SSD for $240 plus thermal sensor for another $40. You will most likely end up paying a similar amount for just the 128GB blade SSD.
Click to expand...

You can get a good 1TB SSD for less than $200.
 
hmmm... i’ve already completed the ssd upgrade by replace the 1tb hdd with a Samsung 512gb 2.5” ssd in place of the hard drive.


I dunno if I’d want to go through that extra hassle of replace the blade ssd with a Samsung m2 pcie ssd using the following adapter. I’ve got the parts ordered including the 970 pro ssd. Seems too complicated

http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1139.html
 
Hey i just upgraded the same imac you have with an ssd. I bought the Crucial MX500 1TB when it was on sale on Amazon for 180 or so a couple of days ago. I also bought the OWC kit they sell for the upgrade. Just a heads up. If you end up with a MX500 make sure you update the firmware BEFORE install since it seems that Crucial doesnt officially support Mac firmware updates (wish i knew this before). Another tip is that if you buy the OWC upgrade kit that comes with all the tools the amazon listing doesnt show the cutting wheel on the image but it DOES include it so dont buy an extra one (like i did...) Lastly, before you peel the sticky tape provided make sure everything turns on so you dont seal it only to find out you cant boot the machine. One more tip here, make sure you buy a 3.5 to 2.5 casing since the smaller drive wont be able to fit in the larger casing of the original HDD. If you have any questions let me know.
 
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