Hey Guys:
Got an mid 2010 iMac 2.93Ghz i7 Quad Core and decided that Apple's default SSD (Samsung) was not up to par with the competition hence I installed a 3.5" Vertex 2 180GB SSD from Newegg.ca. Anyhow, I took some pics of the procedure and thought you might be interested:
Here is the iMac disassembled:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4975456543/lightbox/
I had to detach 4 cables to get to this stage ... 1 more than the ifixit.com instructions for the first 27 inch iMac.
Another angle with the SATA and Thermistor cable (this needs to be shorted otherwise your HD fan will spin at max speed. A bent paperclip and electrical tape will suffice):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4975456789/lightbox/
Here is the pic of the WD 7200 HD vs the 3.5 inch Vertex 2 SSD:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4976070298/lightbox/
Finally, the SSD installed with the thermistor taped to the outside of the drive and properly shorted:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4975457217/in/photostream/lightbox/
About This Mac:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4976074614/in/photostream/lightbox/
The procedure, as a novice, took me 2.5 hours since i was being VERY CAREFUL.
As for performance: WOW WOW WOW
This things feels surreal ... booting is about 23 seconds and seems to be getting faster. App launches are instant: Stress test with 50 apps (CS5 Suite + Office 2008 + a whole bunch of other hoggish apps) launch in about 4-5 seconds in TOTAL. Absolutely NO STUTTERING no matter how hard I try to hammer this thing. Total bliss, although frankly it was kind of expensive at $500 taxes in CAD.
AM willing to compare performance with those that purchased Apple's home brew SSD. Let me know which benchmarks your interested. Can't see how anything can be faster than a properly configured SSD for perceivable performance gains
Got an mid 2010 iMac 2.93Ghz i7 Quad Core and decided that Apple's default SSD (Samsung) was not up to par with the competition hence I installed a 3.5" Vertex 2 180GB SSD from Newegg.ca. Anyhow, I took some pics of the procedure and thought you might be interested:
Here is the iMac disassembled:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4975456543/lightbox/
I had to detach 4 cables to get to this stage ... 1 more than the ifixit.com instructions for the first 27 inch iMac.
Another angle with the SATA and Thermistor cable (this needs to be shorted otherwise your HD fan will spin at max speed. A bent paperclip and electrical tape will suffice):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4975456789/lightbox/
Here is the pic of the WD 7200 HD vs the 3.5 inch Vertex 2 SSD:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4976070298/lightbox/
Finally, the SSD installed with the thermistor taped to the outside of the drive and properly shorted:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4975457217/in/photostream/lightbox/
About This Mac:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltz777/4976074614/in/photostream/lightbox/
The procedure, as a novice, took me 2.5 hours since i was being VERY CAREFUL.
As for performance: WOW WOW WOW
This things feels surreal ... booting is about 23 seconds and seems to be getting faster. App launches are instant: Stress test with 50 apps (CS5 Suite + Office 2008 + a whole bunch of other hoggish apps) launch in about 4-5 seconds in TOTAL. Absolutely NO STUTTERING no matter how hard I try to hammer this thing. Total bliss, although frankly it was kind of expensive at $500 taxes in CAD.
AM willing to compare performance with those that purchased Apple's home brew SSD. Let me know which benchmarks your interested. Can't see how anything can be faster than a properly configured SSD for perceivable performance gains
