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

[ChargedPC]

Under DVD ROM (http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/XMBpXCwasYbKbIPw.huge). I do not think it's a problem. For me the main issue was the ability to connect SSD without removing the motherboard.

Note that this is only for the 21.5" model. The 27" will have no such mounting bracket underneath the optical drive.

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

I just thought I'd share my experiences.

I just bought an i7 2011 iMac. I also bought a Vertex 3 SSD and Seagate 2TB HDD.

I took everything down to a local AASP, and they said they would have no problem fitting it all, I mentioned the issues with the fan etc, and they said they'll see what they can do.

Got a phone call yesterday to say it's all been done - NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!

Picking it up in a bit, so I'll report how it is

 

[clyde2801]

I just thought I'd share my experiences.

I just bought an i7 2011 iMac. I also bought a Vertex 3 SSD and Seagate 2TB HDD.

I took everything down to a local AASP, and they said they would have no problem fitting it all, I mentioned the issues with the fan etc, and they said they'll see what they can do.

Got a phone call yesterday to say it's all been done - NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!

Picking it up in a bit, so I'll report how it is

Suh-weet! Which HD did you use? And how are you configuring the drives...what goes where? Are you having them install the os and apps, or are you doing it yourself?

 

[centenario]

Note that this is only for the 21.5" model. The 27" will have no such mounting bracket underneath the optical drive.

The main thing that is "physically"a place for ssd.
You can consolidate these http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=66666UuZjcFSLXTtnxfXoxTEEVuQEbHSHVs6EVs6E666666--&fn=111.jpg

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Suh-weet! Which HD did you use? And how are you configuring the drives...what goes where? Are you having them install the os and apps, or are you doing it yourself?

I am posting from it now.

AMAZING!!!!

Seagate 2TB 5900rpm SATA III - whisper quiet and fast.

Apps on SSD, Seagate is for storage.

No issues with fans or anything at all.

 

[satcomer]

I am posting from it now.

AMAZING!!!!

Seagate 2TB 5900rpm SATA III - whisper quiet and fast.

Apps on SSD, Seagate is for storage.

No issues with fans or anything at all.

Do you have a web site for these shop that did this for you?

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Do you have a web site for these shop that did this for you?

Unless you want to fly over to the UK, I won't bother posting

 

[NutsNGum]

Unless you want to fly over to the UK, I won't bother posting

I'd like to know, Dan. I do live in the uk!

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

I'd like to know, Dan. I do live in the uk!

It was just a local computer place, AT Computers.

 

[Sylonien]

It was just a local computer place, AT Computers.

Would you mind sharing how much it costs to get them fitted? I'm trying to figure out whether it's cheaper / better to get it done by authorised Apple retailer afterwards or just to go with the Apple SSD right from the start.

Also is there any reason why you went with the 5900rpm drive rather than a 7200rpm hard drive. Cost? Compatibilty? Noise?

Thanks.

 

[goldfinger1]

was the shop clever enough to take photos?

Would you mind sharing how much it costs to get them fitted? I'm trying to figure out whether it's cheaper / better to get it done by authorised Apple retailer afterwards or just to go with the Apple SSD right from the start.

Also is there any reason why you went with the 5900rpm drive rather than a 7200rpm hard drive. Cost? Compatibilty? Noise?

Thanks.

 

[goldfinger1]

what did your stock imac have?

I just thought I'd share my experiences.

I just bought an i7 2011 iMac. I also bought a Vertex 3 SSD and Seagate 2TB HDD.

I took everything down to a local AASP, and they said they would have no problem fitting it all, I mentioned the issues with the fan etc, and they said they'll see what they can do.

Got a phone call yesterday to say it's all been done - NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!

Picking it up in a bit, so I'll report how it is

 

[thorbenh]

I just received my Vertex3 240GB and still hesitating if I pull the trigger to disassemble my 27" iMac.

In fact I haven't heard from anybody where it completely failed (i.e. broken mainboard, broken screen, whatever).

I always upgraded my PCs on my own and of course upgraded RAM, HDDs on my MacBooks and my MacMini regularly but certainly I am amateur.

Any experience made recently besiddes those already mentioned?

 

[ecstacy2012]

yea i just did mine last night. 2011 imac 27" 3.4 2gb graphics card. only really tricky thing is taking out logic board and putting it back in I recommend taking off ram door at bottom using mirror or someone else to help tell you when it's lined up. Also the wire connections if you go to chargedpc.com it will show you where to order y spilter and extra sata data cable which you will need to put the out data from logic board into it then out data cables to each drive then use the data cable from sata port 1 to your ssd drive. Take your time make sure to take pictures of which wires go where from logic board it helps as it can be confusing and before screwing logic board down, check all your wires and count them to make sure during reinstall of logic board the wires aren't underneath it, I hope this helps just make alot of time and go slow and document! otherwise everything went great no fan problems etc.. I believe the y spilter over rides the fan control problem so using it there is no fan problem. I even put two 6g owc 120gb ssd's in there both working fine of course because of the issue with osx disk you can't raid them i contacted owc there working on it they didn't know about it as they cloned there drives when testing. which leads me to one other precaution if using owc drive then install whatever backup or install onto the internal hd first then when the sdd installs clone it over from internal hd as for the moment with the owc drives it's the only way as running osx disk doesnt find the drive. They believe its something with the osx disk and owc drive.

 

[thorbenh]

How long did it take you? How skilled are you in these things so that I can estimate the risks/efforts?

Where did you mount the tho discs?

 

[slimpaul]

I've just picked up my 27" 3.4Ghz i7 iMac . I've decided not to touch the logic board and just swap the HDD (without taking it out since I couldn't unscrew it) for Vertex III. It took me less than 30 min to install and was a pretty painless process Basically all the tools you need for performing this operation are a T10 Torx screwdriver and a pair of suction cups to remove the glass.

 

[ecstacy2012]

I wouldn't suggest doing what he did as just switching them as this can cause fan problems and gives you no drive temp information. My technical skill is I been building macs Along time but as far as a new user trying it aslong as you take your time go slow and be very careful it can be done without being extremely experience, its more about being comfortable to do it and make sure you set aside alot of time. I got the parts from charged pc where you switch out the piece it gives you the sdd mount from the 2010 imac. it's well worth it I'm getting 520/514 read write speed it's hella fast my boot up time is 12 seconds from logo and 7 seconds from spin wheel. Length of time if you go slow have everything you need etc.. probably 4-6 hours depending it can be as quick as 25 mins for an expert then again I have done disassembly and reassembly over 10 times trying different options, testing things out and attempting a raid and have got dual 120gb 6g sata III drives running in it.

 

[ecstacy2012]

PS ... few notes just to overview for clarity! if your going to try it make sure you label every screw to what it goes to and as I would do each location and take pictures and/or video with phone etc to document. when doing logic board make sure all the 12 wires you remove are documented as not just picture to where each goes but how the wire is different from the rest up close and how it goes into the connector. easy way to do this get tiny little sticker tabs or something like that write 1 on one of them and then another and put one on first wire then other on it's matching counterpart. yes this make take an extra 15 minutes or so when taking it apart but will be a life saver if you get mixed up which you probably will and being stuck not putting it back together or even worse crossing wires. Another thing when putting logic board back in remove ram door on bottom first and either get someone to help see when it's aligned or mirror that is the main tricky part to it as it might take 10 minutes just to slightly torq it into place, watch very careful exactly how you take it out this helps and when putting it back in make sure none of the wires get underneath it as you dont want to finally get it in and realize after half way, there is one hiding under it you didn't clear out of the way first and you have to redo that step. These are the main things I'd watch for otherwise your good to go!

I hope this helps if you have any questions about doing it let me know I'll be glad to help.

 

[thorbenh]

@slimpaul: I got the Vertex3 as well. You do not have any Fan issues? Did you remove the cables for the 3,5" and get new ones or how did you do it?

@ecstacy: Thank you for the tips! I am still shocked that it might take 4 hours when it takes 30 mins to only replace the discs. So additional 3 hours to remove mainboard? That is insanely frightening

 

[CRUDE SKINNY B]

have got dual 120gb 6g sata III drives running in it.

How did this go for you, did you benchmark it, did you see noticeable difference? raid 0 yeah?

cheers

 

[ecstacy2012]

how did i go for this? not sure what you mean but if i could get pass the owc osx disk problem with it not reading or had dual vertex 3's I would already have dual raided sata III drives running around 1GB read write. yes I used a few benchmarks including geekbench xbench and aja system test to name a few. I got around 19700 on geek bench of course when i get the 16 gig ram set install im sure i'll be over 20,000 i personally haven't seen anything close to that before and haven't seen any 3.4 ghz models with scores above 18 but it's early yet. this is a true powerhouse and a 27 inch led screen you cant beat it! also I have compiled and built the dolphin emulator on it and i've been running wii games all day testing them out without any problems or hickups around 60 frames per second so that 2gb graphics card is pretty good and worth an extra $100.


the time it takes is really subjective as it's all how fast you go what your experience is I'm guessitmating if you went extremely slow and didn't have any experience and yes I will say it is alot of work but if your going to risk a 2 grand system best to do it right and not risk temps going over or fan lock ups!

 

[thorbenh]

Hey. Just wanted to let you know that I made it!!

I installed the SSD in addition to the stock 3.5" in my 27" 2011 iMac.
Even though after 2 hours of sweating everything seems to work flawless I would NEVER recommend to somebody doing it.

During the works I felt like "OH **** WHYYYY????". I had some difficulties to get the Mainboard out. Getting it in was not the biggest issue but having the cables in order was quite tricky. In fact now my Data cable for the SSD is positioned quite ****** so that the screen almost did not close perfectly. It seems like I lost 1 tenth of a millimeter because the glass does not close 100%. Nobody would even notice but again it is maybe 1 tenth of a milimeter in the middle of the top of the screen. I just hope there is no "Force" pushing the screen too much from he inside to the outside (if you understand what I mean).

Besides that, XBENCH is telling me with my cloned SSD:

3.5" Overall Score: 254
SSD Overall Score: 4626

Disk Test on the SSD: 626 (HDD: 73)
Sequential: 368 (HDD: 178)
Random: 2106 (HDD: 46 !!!!)

I will do a geekbench later today and submit results. Unfortunately I just formatted the 3.5" ;((

System Profiles by the way tells me I am connected 6GB/s.

Furthermore: The HDD is now spinning down when not in use. That is quite nice because it makes the iMac then almost 100% quiet.

 

[thorbenh]

I attached both Xbench reports (SDD vs. HDD) from my 2011 27" 3.1Ghz i5 with 12GB RAM.

HDD: 3.5 1TB vs Vertex3 240GB

 

[thorbenh]

Ok, this time I do.
Does that look like I have a 6GB connection or is it "just" Sata2?

 

[AlienSexGod]

I wanted to know if anyone that has gotten the imac 27 inch 2011 model has gotten the sdd and hdd and then tried to replace both with ssd's such as sata III and another question, did they try to software raid them?

Yes but while we didn't get double the speed 750Mb/s read & write is no slouch...