Of course they will. But do you want to lose an arm, a leg and then another leg? Tekserve charges $150 for the full installation.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iMac 27" SSD Upgrade - Important Tip!
- Thread starter NATO
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Of course they will. But do you want to lose an arm, a leg and then another leg? Tekserve charges $150 for the full installation.
How good is this ssd drive?
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-OCZ-CORE-SE...aultDomain_0?hash=item414e33e763#ht_992wt_941
I think its price is really really good, right? Maybe its a bit slower, but would it fix on the imac with an adapter as any other 2.5 ssd?
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-OCZ-CORE-SE...aultDomain_0?hash=item414e33e763#ht_992wt_941
I think its price is really really good, right? Maybe its a bit slower, but would it fix on the imac with an adapter as any other 2.5 ssd?
Quite bad, for the price.
80mo/s max for write performance is lame for a SSD.
I would suggest you a samsung SSD, they are sold cheap with Dell computers, so you can find a lot of them on ebay for a bargain (around 450$).
for exemple : http://cgi.ebay.com/Samsung-2-5-SAT...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2559bc4d92
not only they have higher max speed, but they perform very well in real-world usage. I was going to buy one of this, but had good bargain in France, a used G.skill Falcon 256Go for 300... could get it faster so I took this one. It's quite good too but usually well overpriced (about double the price I paid), Falcon II have lame write performances and cost as much as the samsung...
Be careful of the write speed when you buy a SSD, you wouldn't want to buy a SSD that write slow.
Thanks for the help. I saw it was slow, but thought it was good cause its 250gb. I personally prefer more space than more speed, but I will keep looking.
All SSDs work perfectly on the imac, right? No matter brand, size or speed?
If I buy an adapter, whats the difference between male and female? Im completely lost on this one. Which one should I buy?
How about this one?
http://cgi.ebay.com/200GB-7200-Dell...ltDomain_0?hash=item4cee07a337#ht_2989wt_1419
Its only for 47 dollars and its 200GB. It says its only for dell laptops, but maybe it could work on the imac? Someone knows? It is a really good price.
Thanks!
All SSDs work perfectly on the imac, right? No matter brand, size or speed?
If I buy an adapter, whats the difference between male and female? Im completely lost on this one. Which one should I buy?
How about this one?
http://cgi.ebay.com/200GB-7200-Dell...ltDomain_0?hash=item4cee07a337#ht_2989wt_1419
Its only for 47 dollars and its 200GB. It says its only for dell laptops, but maybe it could work on the imac? Someone knows? It is a really good price.
Thanks!
thats a normal hard drive not an ssd. He added SSD to the description to get more hits.
You're right. Thanks for pointing it out.
Have another question. Does TRIM really matter? I mean, if I buy a SSD without TRIM does that mean the hd will die in a couple of months? With TRIM will it die too?
I just know that TRIM allows the drive to perform at its best longer, but I dont know it that means the ssd will die anyway or nor.
Thanks.
Have another question. Does TRIM really matter? I mean, if I buy a SSD without TRIM does that mean the hd will die in a couple of months? With TRIM will it die too?
I just know that TRIM allows the drive to perform at its best longer, but I dont know it that means the ssd will die anyway or nor.
Thanks.
I'm booting my i7 with an 80GB X25M in an OWC AL Pro mini enclosure via FW800, and it works great. You don't get the blazingly fast boot times, but application launches are still instantaneous, and everything runs very smooth. The main thing you lose is the extreme sustained transfer rates you'd get via an internal drive but, in my experience, that doesn't make a huge difference in an OS drive, since you are rarely pumping that much data in a sustained fashion.
I used to boot a 1st-generation Mac Pro with the same drive, but mounted internally, and tried putting the drive in an external enclosure to see if it would be a viable way to live with an iMac without opening it up. I didn't notice much of a difference in daily use, so I figured the iMac would be fine, and it has been.
I do have a 50GB partition on the internal 1TB drive that I clone the SSD onto on a daily basis with SuperDuper, just to be safe, but I use the rest of the internal drive for my most-used data (photos and my user folder), with everything else on a couple of RAID0 FW800 enclosures. I also keep the iTunes Music and ~/Movies folders on the externals, with symbolic links back to my user folder to keep the OS happy, and it all runs very smoothly. For anybody who wants an SSD OS drive without opening an iMac, I can highly recommend it.
Thats a very good option. I was considering it, but I think I will put the SSD inside the imac just because I want an almost completely quiet computer. The SSD doesnt make any noise, and thats the main reason Im buying one for the imac. If I used it externally the internal hd of the imac will still be working and making noise? Cause if not, then I may use the SSD externally.
By the way, is it very hard or complicated to update the firmware on a SSD?
By the way, is it very hard or complicated to update the firmware on a SSD?
I thought about getting the 2TB drive, but it was too pricey, given that you're going from a good 1TB (WD Caviar Black) to an OK 2TB (Hitachi), so I stuck with the stock HD. I've honestly never heard the internal hard drive in my iMac - the fans on my external enclosures and Drobo are much louder than any noise the iMac ever makes.
This is what I'm looking to do with the 27" iMac i7 I'm planning on picking up from a craigslist seller tomorrow (btw, if anyone cares, I'm getting it for $1760 and its still sealed and a week or so old from my serial number check on apple's getwarranty page-hopefully everything goes smooth, have to figure out what to check for.. anyways...).
Will be swapping out the 1TB HD for an SSD. Not sure which one or what size yet. Was planning on taking the 1TB HD to an enclosure to use externally.
Also wanted to get a blu-ray in there. What are the specifics for your blu-ray? what did you pay?
I wanted to confirm something. You left your 1TB hard drive in so it was the superdrive you took out to put the SSD in right?
Last question was regarding this suggestion to keep the users folder empty and keep the actual files external...
If you're a filevault user, how could you make this work? I use filevault on my MacBook Pro and my wife's macbook air. I'm not sure I would use it on a home machine but just in case I wanted to, I was curious if there was a way to "extend" filevault further than the internal to its mirror folders in the external
Hey guys,
Sorry if this has been asked and answered 100 times, I did genuinely try and find the answer, but I dont have hours to go through everything,
.
First I should say, I have been waiting for the Arrandale MBP FOREVER, and now it's got to the point where the time I needed a powerful mobile computer will be coming to an end, and will be traveling less, so am now more interested in the 27" i7.
But what Im really interested in is having my startup disk as an SSD, and still be able to have the 2TB HDD.
So, from what I gathered from my months in that "waiting for arrandale" thread about replacing the superdrive with an SSD using optibay, is that you can't boot off that drive, so most people opt to have the HDD in the old superdrive enclosure and the SSD in the original HDD enclosure (correct?).
Yes, yes, I know thats MBP and this is the iMac forum.
Basically my question is - Would I be looking at the same principle with the iMac? i.e Can the iMac boot off a drive in the optical drive bay, or would i need to put the SSD in the original enclosure? and if so, will a 2TB fit in the optical drive bay?
Thanks!
edit - After seeing some of the steps of taking the iMac apart I don't think I have the balls to do this procedure myself. Am I right in thinking i can take it to a licensed Apple service/repair place or something and get them to do it? and would it void the warranty? (yea I know sorry, typical noob questions, but as I said, I've been more into MBP forums, relatively new to iMac discussion)
Sorry if this has been asked and answered 100 times, I did genuinely try and find the answer, but I dont have hours to go through everything,
. First I should say, I have been waiting for the Arrandale MBP FOREVER, and now it's got to the point where the time I needed a powerful mobile computer will be coming to an end, and will be traveling less, so am now more interested in the 27" i7.
But what Im really interested in is having my startup disk as an SSD, and still be able to have the 2TB HDD.
So, from what I gathered from my months in that "waiting for arrandale" thread about replacing the superdrive with an SSD using optibay, is that you can't boot off that drive, so most people opt to have the HDD in the old superdrive enclosure and the SSD in the original HDD enclosure (correct?).
Yes, yes, I know thats MBP and this is the iMac forum.
Basically my question is - Would I be looking at the same principle with the iMac? i.e Can the iMac boot off a drive in the optical drive bay, or would i need to put the SSD in the original enclosure? and if so, will a 2TB fit in the optical drive bay?
Thanks!
edit - After seeing some of the steps of taking the iMac apart I don't think I have the balls to do this procedure myself. Am I right in thinking i can take it to a licensed Apple service/repair place or something and get them to do it? and would it void the warranty? (yea I know sorry, typical noob questions, but as I said, I've been more into MBP forums, relatively new to iMac discussion)
You can boot with a SSD in the optibay. The only issues I've heard is that some people had a problem installing BootCamp when the SSD is in the optibay, and had to pre-install windows. Most people seem to go the superdrive way, but personally I've put it in the original HD bay and use a 3tb fw800 external for storage.
In general:
- To replace the optibay with an SSD you need something like this
- To replace the internal drive, you just need a 2.5 to 3.5" drive bracket like this, and you need to short the HD temperature wire to avoid having your fans constantly running high by doing this
You could pay a premium to have someone licensed to do it for you. Or if you're comfortable doing it yourself and run into any non-related issues, just swap back in the original drive before sending to apple to be safe.
Cheers for the excellent response! After a little bit of research after posting I was worried about getting ripped a new one for asking such common questions!
Yea, as I have very little need for a Superdrive, I would rather have it as an external if needed. And after years of needing external hard drives constantly running, I'm looking forward to having enough space in the iMac and have a Firewire 800 drive only for backups.
This is great news!! However I was just flicking through this thread - (http://forums.macnn.com/58/imac-emac-and-mac-mini/407408/ssd-installation-in-24-inch-imac/) mentioning how the connection in the optical drive bay is PATA not SATA, but he says "not like in newer models". Does this mean the 27"'s are the newer models with SATA?
So yea, I'm definitely sold on this idea now if I can boot from the SSD in the optibay, but I will definitely be having someone licensed do it, I would screw it up for sure, haha!
Thanks!
Yea, as I have very little need for a Superdrive, I would rather have it as an external if needed. And after years of needing external hard drives constantly running, I'm looking forward to having enough space in the iMac and have a Firewire 800 drive only for backups.
This is great news!! However I was just flicking through this thread - (http://forums.macnn.com/58/imac-emac-and-mac-mini/407408/ssd-installation-in-24-inch-imac/) mentioning how the connection in the optical drive bay is PATA not SATA, but he says "not like in newer models". Does this mean the 27"'s are the newer models with SATA?
So yea, I'm definitely sold on this idea now if I can boot from the SSD in the optibay, but I will definitely be having someone licensed do it, I would screw it up for sure, haha!
Thanks!
The optical drive in the 27" iMac is SATA, so if you get one of the necessary brackets, it will work fine.
He's right, it's SATA. Only difference is it's slimline, meaning the connector is not the same size as a normal SATA HDD/SSD, which is why you need the part i mentioned, as it converts it to what you need.
Awesome thanks guys! Pretty much everything I was hoping for, definitley going to go through with it, but it will be a few weeks before I can afford it
Hi,
How are you doing?
I'm considering upgrading the hdd on my i7 iMac to an intel x25-M g2, but the steps needed for the upgrade kind of scare me.
I mainly use my iMac for photography work, so my question is if in real world, would the sdd make a big difference?
I use a FW800 drive as a work drive (with the pictures and lightroom library) and a usb drive as a backup. I always work from the fw800 drive.
I know ssd are great for youtube videos and booting and opening 50 apps at the same time... But in my case, would have the system and software on a sdd and working in photoshop and lightroom on files stored in the fw800 drive make a huge difference in performance?
Cheers!
How are you doing?
I'm considering upgrading the hdd on my i7 iMac to an intel x25-M g2, but the steps needed for the upgrade kind of scare me.
I mainly use my iMac for photography work, so my question is if in real world, would the sdd make a big difference?
I use a FW800 drive as a work drive (with the pictures and lightroom library) and a usb drive as a backup. I always work from the fw800 drive.
I know ssd are great for youtube videos and booting and opening 50 apps at the same time... But in my case, would have the system and software on a sdd and working in photoshop and lightroom on files stored in the fw800 drive make a huge difference in performance?
Cheers!
I think I found the perfect ssd:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/kingston-ssd-now-trim-windows,9510.html
What do you guys think? It comes with all the stuff: the 2.5 to 2.5 bracket, the cables, etc.
Or how about this ones? http://www.ocztechnology.com/produc.../ocz-colossus-lt-series-sata-ii-3-5--ssd.html
The new OCZ Colossus. They have garbage collection
Has TRIM and all.
Anyone tried Smcfancontrol to power down the fans after installing the SSD? I bet it would work. I dont want to cut the temp cable. I dont fully understand the procedure of doing so... Why is there need to shortened it?
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/kingston-ssd-now-trim-windows,9510.html
What do you guys think? It comes with all the stuff: the 2.5 to 2.5 bracket, the cables, etc.
Or how about this ones? http://www.ocztechnology.com/produc.../ocz-colossus-lt-series-sata-ii-3-5--ssd.html
The new OCZ Colossus. They have garbage collection
Has TRIM and all.
Anyone tried Smcfancontrol to power down the fans after installing the SSD? I bet it would work. I dont want to cut the temp cable. I dont fully understand the procedure of doing so... Why is there need to shortened it?
The temp wire goes to what is essentially a heat dependant resistor. The more heat there is, the more it resists. The colder it is, the less resistance there is. By shorting the wire, you're making the resistance zero, which means 'cold'. By leaving them appart, that's like a very high resistance, which means 'very hot' - turn the fan on full.
You don't need to cut any cables.
You don't need to cut any cables.
I think Im starting to understand it. Its very confusing for someone new like me. Ill probably take the imac to an expert and explain him all this issue with the temp wire.
So, basically, all I need is a jumper and then I put it on the temp wire and that's it? Then were do I stick the temp wire?
So, basically, all I need is a jumper and then I put it on the temp wire and that's it? Then were do I stick the temp wire?
I just got a small bit of solid wire and pushed it in. A paperclip would probably work.
I haven't kept up with new SSDs but when I got mine, the Intel X25-M G2 with non-TRIM firmware was the best bet. What's important is that you get something that's performance doesn't degrade.
Apple used to use some 'crappy' Samsungs in their BTO MacBooks and they only perform at 3x that of a mechanical drive after a few weeks.
I haven't kept up with new SSDs but when I got mine, the Intel X25-M G2 with non-TRIM firmware was the best bet. What's important is that you get something that's performance doesn't degrade.
Apple used to use some 'crappy' Samsungs in their BTO MacBooks and they only perform at 3x that of a mechanical drive after a few weeks.