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Has anyone tried to ADD SSD to 2011 imac for HDD+SSD?

I just finished the 240GB OWC upgrade on my 2010 27" imac. Should have bought the angled SATA cable. I bought a "180" degree cable that left a little bulge in the middle when everything went back into place. I got the screen back on, but the top is not quite flush... it sticks out about 1-2mm where the facetime camera is. The sides are flush. I'm debating whether it's worth it to go back in there and replace with an angled cable or leave well enough alone... part of me doesn't like that there's a little bulge in the logic board even though I can't see it...

Otherwise I'm transferring files as we speak... Doing a clean install instead of just importing everything, so it's gonna take some time...
 
rprice54 said:
I just finished the 240GB OWC upgrade on my 2010 27" imac. Should have bought the angled SATA cable. I bought a "180" degree cable that left a little bulge in the middle when everything went back into place. I got the screen back on, but the top is not quite flush... it sticks out about 1-2mm where the facetime camera is. The sides are flush. I'm debating whether it's worth it to go back in there and replace with an angled cable or leave well enough alone... part of me doesn't like that there's a little bulge in the logic board even though I can't see it...

Otherwise I'm transferring files as we speak... Doing a clean install instead of just importing everything, so it's gonna take some time...
Click to expand...

I believe you should go back in and do it right.

Today I finished installing snow leopard and windows 7 plus all my software. Windows are very fast but OSX is just instant!
 
yea I know. just ordered the cable from Amazon. Not thrilled about having to go back in tho.

Super fast machine tho. Crazy fast.
 
It was never a slouch. 2010 iMac, 2.9 quad i7, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 1GB video RAM. I maxed it out when I bought it back then. Very much a processing beast (for me at least) but the HDD was clearly the bottleneck. I was getting read times 70-80MB/sec. After buying a Macbook air with much less horsepower on tap, but with the SSD, the iMac felt slow in comparison. Apps would take a little while to load, but then were responsive. iMovie exports on the iMac were always WAY WAY faster than the Air, but day to day use the Air felt faster.

Now it smokes my Air... logging on, after it boots up to the list of users, is practically instant.

Most dramatic upgrade I've done on a computer (and I've upgraded CPUs, memory, drives in the past- not on a mac).

I will warn to potential upgraders, OWC breezes through the fact that getting to the SATA ports on the back of the board is tricky/difficult/frustrating, as is re-seating the logic board. I had to unplug some other wires back there to get to the SATA ports- and I really needed the Left hand angled plug, which is on it's way from Amazon. If I had to do it again, I would probably connect the SSD before I put it in as well. It's a tight spot back there.
 
Hello guys,
I just finished reading all the 3d..

I'm still dubious about which way to go, I own a mid 2011 21.5" iMac and I'll soon have a 256 GB samsung 830 or Crucial M4, I understand that to maximize the performance I should attach it on the 3rd SATA connector that is a SATA III, on the other side this process include the removal or partial removal of the MB that is a small pain.

Thus I was asking myself if to install it instead of the ODD simply unplugging the first and plugging in the SSD on the original cables. All the process should be much easier with less probability of damaging something but on the downside the SSD will be connected only on a SATA II link.

How much this would translate in real-world performance? And about bench-testing? Which figures should I expect in both configurations?
 
It would definitely be an easier install. getting to the back of the MB without taking it out is a tight squeeze, but in the long term I still use my DVD drive occasionaly to backup pics, and I can burn my 1080p movies to disc to play in my blu ray player, so I wouldn't want to give it up.

I think my machine is SATA II (2010) but I'm not sure. I get ~250MB/sec with my 3G OWC drive and apps load nearly instantly.
 
My opinion is than when you decide to get inside the machine, it is easy to do the installation. The hard thing is the decision to open it, regarding the implication it is going to have on the warranty.

The actual install is easy if you follow the video.
 
Does anyone know where to buy the SATA data/power cable to add an SSD to a 2011 27" iMac in the UK?
I can't find one similar to the one OWC provides with their upgrade kit.
I think the OWC cable is a custom made one and not generally available.
Thanks
 
You need a left angled sata data cable and a sata power splitter. Nothing fancy, I bought mine on amazon. Any computer cable store should have these.
 
4" power cable. Shorter the better, not much room in that part of the case. 12"-18" sata cable. The OWC video shows where you can tuck the excess but you'll want enough to snake around a bit in there.
 
Just finished my recent upgrade this evening.

Just a little backstory,
the machine is/was a base model 2011 27" iMac,
2.7GHz i5
4GB RAM
1TB Seagate HDD

1st upgrade was to up the RAM just a little; I added 4 more GB of Samsung DDR3.

2nd upgrade; the true bottleneck, toss in an SSD.
I installed a Corsair ForceGT 120GB drive to the machine and replaced the Seagate 1TB HDD with a WD 1TB Black drive.

3rd and final upgrade, I just dropped in 2x Samsung 830 128GB SSD in RAID0 with the 1TB Caviar Black drive.

I know these are not the newest blazing fast drives on the market but Fry's was having a decent sale and I picked up both drives for less than $150.

I have 1 SSD on the old HDD port which is SATA3 and the 2nd drive on the actual "SSD" labeled port which is also SATA3 and the HDD using the superdrive port which is SATA2.

So I am quite happy with the upgrade to say the least, it took just under an hour to tear apart the iMac, drop in the drives and reinstall OSX.
It gives me 600+MB/s writes and 800+MB/s reads on BlackMagics Disk Speed Test.
255.38GB on the RAID and 1TB for internal storage.
(Machine is backed up to a 3TB TimeCapsule with most information stored on a 4TB Thunderbolt External back up to another 6TB external)

This machine will be plenty, plenty quick for at least another year or two or more! Just hoping that a new Thunderbolt display is released with USB3 connections since Belkin has dropped the ball.
 

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just finished replacing the SATA cable (anyone need an extra?). Much easier fit with the left angled connector, everything fits nice and flush again. Got the screen back on without any dust (so far). Much easier the second go around.
 
Flipz said:
Congrats on the install. I have a question on the data cable. You said you used angled connector. Did you mean something like that:

http://upload.ecvv.com/upload/Product/20116/China_right_angle_sata_data_cable2011651606091.JPG

as opposed to the standard one like that:

http://www.msy.com.au/pimages/cable/sata.jpg
Click to expand...

I have another question as I bought a right angled cable just like that one in the picture but when I looked closely to the OWC DIY video I saw that the SATA 1 port is actually left angled and they use left angled cable:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/owcinternalssddiykitfor.png/

Next to it there is a SATA 2 port which is quite the reverse. Did you guys use that port to connect the SSD or I am mistaken with the cables and the ports?
 
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Port 0: SATA3 (Currently used for HDD if you got that from Apple)
Port 1: SATA3 (Currently used for SSD if you got that from Apple)
Port 2: SATA2 (Currently used for the DVD)
 
I didn't move any of the factory cables, I just plugged into the open socket with a left angle cable. That's where they would plug in the factory SSD if you ordered one. Don't overthink it.
 
Just finished my SSD+HDD setup. It was a hard job in my opinion. Took me over an hour to fit everything correctly but after that it was all worth it. The write speeds are 320, the read 470 megs per second and it is insanely fast. I love it!
 

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I want to buy this cable:
will it do the same job as the one everyone lists from amazon
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=79_82&item_id=97405R
 
No. You need the left hand 90 degree angle to go on the MB end. You also need a SATA power splitter. See the OWC video.
 
I wanted to follow this guide
http://www.btobey.com/learn/imac-ssd-install.php

and they said to buy this cable
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056OB8GK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=briatobephota-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0056OB8GK

I already bought the power splitter Y cable, but i thought if i used that cable then i would have fan issues
 
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