How I fitted 2x SSD's and a 3tb drive into my 2011 iMac

[harcosparky]

Am I the only one not seeing the three images at the bottom of the first post?

 

[JesseW6889]

Hey, GREAT read on the process. I was thinking about doing that with my 21.5" but I figured if I put that much work into it, I might as well wait till I had a 27".

Can you be any more specific about what cables were needed, or how they were modified to work? I got a little confused about what went where, etc.

Also, does a 6gbps drive make a difference over 3? I am pretty tech savvy but I just haven't kept up with specs so much since switching to mac!

 

[Climber_FX]

I know this thread is old, but still got me usefull.

I have an old iMac 2011 still in hard work this days.
Manage to buy one of those dvd adapters for ssd, removed the old optical, and already had the second disk, another ssd installed glued behind the optical bay.
I used the original apple cable to the optical, because the bay do the connector convertion to ssd, and in the other side, i cut the mixed power data cable from it in half, and exchanged sata 0 e sata 1 connections (so to have my original HD with thermal sensor still working on it on the slowest sata 3 port, the 3000mb/s one). So, know i have 2 EVO 860 500 gb each, one running OSX High Sierra and the other one running Windows 10.(First installed on another mac (a mac pro 5,1)). The original disk, a 2 tb one, i use for time machine the OSX system. Both disk's perform around 500 mb/s read and right. Windows bench take a little slower, but if i bech both from osx, i see is the same. So, this machine still handle my Motion/3D work and VR hobby creator on an old DK1 headset.

Hope to soon have on hardware upgrade, but going to use this one for a long time yet.

 

[Climber_FX]

So, I managed to buy the new iMac 27 2020, so, know I have both machines side by side.

The above one turn into a support machine, and the new one, own lord. It's amazing.
I bought on Apple Store Brasil, because it's a custom model.
iMac 27". i7 8 cores 10700k 16 threads
8gb RAM (put 64gb already, outside apple, 2x32gb)
2 TB M.2 storage from Apple. (3500MB/s)
AMD Radeon PRO 5700 XT 16GB
Full size keyboard and mouse.

 

[The_Croupier]

but I left the optical fan connected anyway. I probably could have safety removed this an reduced the iMac to 2 fans but I left it active and now cold air blows out of the optical drive slot on the side of the case.

Infact with the optical drive removed and the hard drive sensor running at only 1000rpm the whole system is general a few degrees cooler than it was at stock! Figure that out (less power draw from my new hard drive, optical drive removal allows for better air flow and SSD's draw little to now power and make no heat)

I wonder how long your GPU will last?

You would have to be absolutely crazy to even think about removing the OOD fan, it is the cooling system for your GPU. and by completely removing the ODD drive you have essentially reduced airflow over the GPU heatsink, you will eventually cook your card.

Good luck with that.

 

[dannys1]

I wonder how long your GPU will last?

You would have to be absolutely crazy to even think about removing the OOD fan, it is the cooling system for your GPU. and by completely removing the ODD drive you have essentially reduced airflow over the GPU heatsink, you will eventually cook your card.

Good luck with that.

This post is over 10 years old?! As if i'd still be running that system now. For the record the ancient equipment ran run. Ironically those graphics cards did have a problem and Apple replaced it under extended warranty 6 years after I completed all the work due to the known fault. Someone else long has it now - works fine but I wouldn't be bothering which such an old system now.