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iMac 27 5K, need advice, fast...

c0ppo

c0ppo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 11, 2013
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Greetings,

I have a chance to purchase new iMac 27 (Kaby Lake), with i5-7600, 575, 8GB of RAM. And that config will suit my needs perfectly (Unity, corona, Xcode, Android Studio, Windows in parallels for .NET development).

But only thing that I really hate is - Fusion Drive. And just one 1tb model (so 32gb of ssd if I'm not mistaken?). And as far as I get it, upgrading the iMac with more SSD isn't possible? Or is it?

I could buy a thunderbolt 3 enclosure, put SSD in that, and create MacOS and boot up like that. I don't really care about additional cables, but is it worth it? How fast would my SSD really be? 300-400 mb/s?

Problem is, in my own country, Apple products are really expensive. This config listed here is about 3000 euros. I could get this 4 days old iMac for 1900 euros, from a friend.

Only problem is... Is it worth it? Could I expect an custom SSD from OWC any time in the future? I have no problem opening up iMac and upgrading it myself, I'm fairly confident in myself doing that since I have opened up a lot of them at my work (models from 2009 - 2015).
 
You can upgrade iMac and put SSD. You can change SATA one it is easy and it takes about 5-10 minutes. But you will loose warranty

 
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czacha said:
You can upgrade iMac and put SSD. You can even change both drives - SATA one is easy and it takes about 5-10 minutes. To swap PCI-E one you need to take out mother board. In both cases you will loose warranty anyway.
Click to expand...

I know I can take out SSD, but I thought it was propraitery, and that as of yet, no one makes those for 2017?
For the warranty part, I'm willing to take the gamble.
 
EDITED: Looks like I'm wrong in this post ;)

In my opinion (but I didn't check) PCI-E is PCI-E. If you can s wap 3.5'' drive with any other drive so why not PCI-E one? There is no glue ...;) You can even swap CPU if you want ;)
 
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czacha said:
In my opinion (but I didn't check) PCI-E is PCI-E. If you can s wap 3.5'' drive with any other drive so why not PCI-E one? There is no glue ...;) You can even swap CPU if you want ;)
Click to expand...



Be careful with what you say, it's not the first time Apple uses a propriety connector, it has in most of their laptops, it might have a different connector here too.
 
justperry said:
Be careful with what you say, it's not the first time Apple uses a propriety connector, it has in most of their laptops, it might have a different connector here too.
Click to expand...
Really? Those PCI-E drives on Macbooks aren't standard SSD drives? You can't switch to Samsung PCI-E? Oh ..
 
czacha said:
Really? Those PCI-E drives on Macbooks aren't standard SSD drives? You can't switch to Samsung PCI-E? Oh ..
Click to expand...

Nope, you can't just swap apple pci-e ssd for a samsung one. I wish I could... :(

Nahh, I already contacted my friend, and I said I'm not buying the iMac. I'm gonna purchase one for sure, but will wait for an offer with built in SSD. I know I can swap HDD for SSD, but that is SATA, and I wouldn't see speed gains like I would if iMac had built in pci-e SSD.

It's a shame apple is so cheap and greedy. If I do BTO, I would wait 1-2 months for the iMac, and pay a hefty price compared to most EU countries, not to mention USA. I will just buy iMac from ebay when a right offer is on the market.

But thanks for your help guys.
 
c0ppo said:
Nope, you can't just swap apple pci-e ssd for a samsung one. I wish I could... :(

Nahh, I already contacted my friend, and I said I'm not buying the iMac. I'm gonna purchase one for sure, but will wait for an offer with built in SSD. I know I can swap HDD for SSD, but that is SATA, and I wouldn't see speed gains like I would if iMac had built in pci-e SSD.

It's a shame apple is so cheap and greedy. If I do BTO, I would wait 1-2 months for the iMac, and pay a hefty price compared to most EU countries, not to mention USA. I will just buy iMac from ebay when a right offer is on the market.

But thanks for your help guys.
Click to expand...

You won't notice a lot of difference in between SATA or PCIE in normal use except when you have to copy large files like in video editing.
 
justperry said:
You won't notice a lot of difference in between SATA or PCIE in normal use except when you have to copy large files like in video editing.
Click to expand...

Well, I get to use almost all of Apple lineup at my job. But the difference isn't just in copying large files, it's also when starting apps, etc. But I do agree, not difference like hdd vs sata ssd, but then again, I really want the best. I would just hate myself if I've purchased this iMac, and in a month or two a great deal shows up on ebay :)

P.S.
For removing HDD and installing sata SSD, I also need to order and purchase heat sensor. Too much hassle and losing warranty vs spending some more and getting it all :)
 
c0ppo said:
Well, I get to use almost all of Apple lineup at my job. But the difference isn't just in copying large files, it's also when starting apps, etc. But I do agree, not difference like hdd vs sata ssd, but then again, I really want the best. I would just hate myself if I've purchased this iMac, and in a month or two a great deal shows up on ebay :)

P.S.
For removing HDD and installing sata SSD, I also need to order and purchase heat sensor. Too much hassle and losing warranty vs spending some more and getting it all :)
Click to expand...


FFS, they really still have that Temperature sensor on the HDD, wasn't aware of that.

I agree, if you want the best then the only solution is a PCIE SSD.
 
I would buy the SanDisk Extreme 900 external SSD which uses USB3.1 Gen2 interface (USB-C). It's a bit more expensive than SATA SSD but u got double of the speed. Have a look.
 
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