iMac 27" SSD Upgrade - Important Tip!

[wirelessness]

I got a SSD 2,5 OCY Vertex 120gb i wonder if this adapter http://images.webhallen.com/product/66429 should fit in iMac 27"?

You need a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter. Also, one side of the Apple HDD mount uses two pins that are threaded on one side and slide into mounting points within the chassis that are not removable. The mounting points have rubber grommets that the pins slip into. Then there is a single sided bracket that attaches to the HDD and then attaches with two screws to the chassis mount points with more rubber grommets as well.

Most HDD brackets do not have threads as the screws thread into the drive and hold the bracket in place. So, the pins will not easily attach to a typical bracket. And because you are using a 2.5" drive the screws that hold the bracket in place do not actually attach to the drive itself.

I did not know any of this going into the modification but I wanted to add 2 SSD's in the single HDD bay and saw THIS BRACKET posted somewhere. It holds two 2.5" SSD drives and is made of plastic. One thing I found out the hard way though is, if you do add two SSD drives the top drive sticks up too high to allow the LCD panel to lay flat when remounting the panel. Since the bracket is plastic it can easily be modified by drilling new holes. So I moved the mounting holes down on both sides to lower the overall height as much as possible. This also allows the threaded mounting pins to screw into the plastic bracket very nicely.

Now I have two Corsair Force 120's mounted in the 3.5" HDD bay. The dual SSD RAID0 Xbench numbers are pretty amazing. I had to revert to using a single drive for booting though because I need to run Bootcamp and could not get that to work with OSX Software RAID0 boot drive.

The RAID0 boot drive was so nice I am now tempted to replace the optical drive with an SSD dedicated for my Bootcamp/Windows drive so I can go back to having RAID0 for the OSX boot drive. No, I don't need any of this stuff it's just for fun.

 

[Cockroach]

How did you connect two drives if there's only one SATA connector?

 

[bobm]

How I did my upgrade

I just got done with my SSD upgrade to my 27" (2009) iMac. I'm using a 120G drive I got from NewEgg. The steps were:

a: First I created a bootable drive by using Superduper and selecting what I felt was the minimal directories (I didn't backup my music, photos, etc since I want the max SSD space for my virtual machines). After the backup I had about 60G free.

b: I booted and ran from the firewire port (using the option key on startup), this verified that the new drive could boot and run. I had to get a wired keyboard since you can't get to the boot screen with a bluetooth keyboard. Note that this required a firewire enclosure that I already had.

c: Replace the internal drive. This required the following: a paper clip, some tape, a couple tie wraps, a suction cup and a couple Torx drivers. The suction cup came from my shower and worked well enough. The disassembly process then required removing 8 screws from the sides of the LCD and carefully lifting up the screen a couple inches to remove a flat ribbon cable on the left side.

d: I then used a hint from another poster and stuck some books on the sides to prop up the screen while I removed the two screws holding the hard drive in.

e: I made a jumper with the paper clip and inserted it into the temperature cable and then removed the mounting bracket from the hard drive. The mounting screws didn't work with the new drive so I first stuck the SSD on the existing bracket with double sided tap and then used some tie wraps to make it secure. It's a hack but I don't foresee any issues.

f: Note that at least on the 27" there isn't a need for an adapter cable or anything. The re-assembly was pretty straight forward and that's it.

The boot time is < 10 seconds (vs 27 seconds with the 1T drive that came with the iMac), even more impressive is how fast apps open.

I'm going to use a 2T firewire drive for all the pictures, etc and will be interested to see how that works out.

Many thanks for all the hints from this thread (and forum) and it's really much easier than I expected.

bob

 

[cy88]

Thanks to this thread, I've successfully replaced my stock 1TB drive with a OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD. It's a night and day difference! I also bought a FW800 HD Enclosure to run my 1TB off it (Will upgrade to 2TB in the future).

FYI, I used the wire within a twist tie to make the jumper. No abnormal fan or what so ever.

This is the best ~$200 I've spent!

 

[sanjuvarma]

Thanks to this thread, I've successfully replaced my stock 1TB drive with a OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD. It's a night and day difference! I also bought a FW800 HD Enclosure to run my 1TB off it (Will upgrade to 2TB in the future).

FYI, I used the wire within a twist tie to make the jumper. No abnormal fan or what so ever.

This is the best ~$200 I've spent!

The kind of work you did to upgrade your iMac, I wonder if 60GB is sufficient enough. I have a 160GB and sometimes I wish I had upgraded to a 256 or a 512 if i had the dough. Check out OCZ Onyx 2, its coming out soon and the 120GB is going to be $190 and the 240GB about $400 and its Sandforce controlled with read/write speeds as good as Vertex 2. They're also coming out with OCZ IBIS which is the fastest SSD ever but that's a different story.

 

[cy88]

The kind of work you did to upgrade your iMac, I wonder if 60GB is sufficient enough. I have a 160GB and sometimes I wish I had upgraded to a 256 or a 512 if i had the dough. Check out OCZ Onyx 2, its coming out soon and the 120GB is going to be $190 and the 240GB about $400 and its Sandforce controlled with read/write speeds as good as Vertex 2. They're also coming out with OCZ IBIS which is the fastest SSD ever but that's a different story.

I am a little concerned about that too. However, I just had all my applications installed, and there's still around 30GB left. I've set the safari download location and other applications location to my external drive. I am pretty sure this will last me for a good while until we can buy a 120-240GB SSD for a more reasonable price

 

[sentros]

I am a little concerned about that too. However, I just had all my applications installed, and there's still around 30GB left. I've set the safari download location and other applications location to my external drive. I am pretty sure this will last me for a good while until we can buy a 120-240GB SSD for a more reasonable price

I replaced my optical drive with an SSD 4 months ago and at this point there's 26,6GB used. Now admittedly I only have my applications and OS data on my SSD but that's the stuff I want to be fast anyway. I changed my home directory to my HDD and thus all my music, pictures etc are stored there.

I honestly can't see how 80GB or even 60GB wouldn't be enough storage for your OS+apps. Unless of course you are planning on installing a LOT of different kinds of bloatware (creative suite comes to mind among others).

 

[sentros]

Also another thing that comes to mind is that if you are getting an SSD I've got a link for a few tricks that will help with the speed degradation etc.

http://blogs.nullvision.com/?p=275

 

[C8XY]

Could someone recap on the best drives (TRIM/no TRIM) etc, also I cant find a 12.7 mm SATA Optical Bay enclosure for the SSD in the UK anywhere

 

[symbology]

Could someone recap on the best drives (TRIM/no TRIM) etc, also I cant find a 12.7 mm SATA Optical Bay enclosure for the SSD in the UK anywhere

OSX does not support Trim, so I would not worry about it.

I would try to stick with any drive with the Sandforce controller, or C300's. They both have garbage collection in the firmware.

If you don't do a lot of non-compressible (video/graphic) file writes and rewrites either should be fine.

 

[martap]

Hi All,

I'm also thinking of upgrading my 2009 27" iMac with a SSD in the optical drive bay and came across a nice little combo deal by OWC but targeted at the MBP. Now I'm wondering wether the Data Doubler will also work in the iMac and if so would you still need the SATA converter?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/DDAMBS0GB/

Here the DataDoubler and SSD combo deal.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/DDMBSSD120/

 

[mmomega]

just got done installing an SSD in my 27" i5.
I bought the intel x25m 80gig. BestBuy had it for 199 and I have 65bux in reward points so I decided what the hell. The Intel came with an adaptor plate in box, everything fit like it was supposed to be in there.

Oh yeah just FYI for anyone else trying this make sure you have your original grey discs handy that came with your imac.

-after getting everything together I sat staring at the apple logo with nothing going on.
-I was trying to reinstall from the retail SL DVD I had bought a while back which had always got the job done for me, not so much this time.
-Tried holding option to boot from disc
-tried C to boot
-tried resetting pram
-tried installing from USB
-nothing worked, scratching head alot....
-finally popped in my wife's 2010 imac dvd and it instant booted but wouldn't install
-found my original grey disc and everything went smooth


So maybe I was doing something wrong but the computer just would not take the retail disc at all, I did nothing different when putting in the grey disc the computer just read and went with it.

So now, have a 2TB WD external FW800, moving home folder to it and just keeping apps on the SSD. Hopefully everything goes perfect.

 

[C8XY]

just got done installing an SSD in my 27" i5.
I bought the intel x25m 80gig. BestBuy had it for 199 and I have 65bux in reward points so I decided what the hell. The Intel came with an adaptor plate in box, everything fit like it was supposed to be in there.

Oh yeah just FYI for anyone else trying this make sure you have your original grey discs handy that came with your imac.

-after getting everything together I sat staring at the apple logo with nothing going on.
-I was trying to reinstall from the retail SL DVD I had bought a while back which had always got the job done for me, not so much this time.
-Tried holding option to boot from disc
-tried C to boot
-tried resetting pram
-tried installing from USB
-nothing worked, scratching head alot....
-finally popped in my wife's 2010 imac dvd and it instant booted but wouldn't install
-found my original grey disc and everything went smooth


So maybe I was doing something wrong but the computer just would not take the retail disc at all, I did nothing different when putting in the grey disc the computer just read and went with it.

So now, have a 2TB WD external FW800, moving home folder to it and just keeping apps on the SSD. Hopefully everything goes perfect.

This happened to me, retail SL disc wouldn't boot with either 'option' or 'c'
Grey disc booted it and it's currently installing on my OCZ

 

[jacobsjensen]

Thanks for the TIPs to the OP, I finally got around to replacing my Hard drive with the SSD, and also swapped out my SuperDrive, got a good deal on the BluRay Combo drive off ebay.

I used a jumper header and jumper to short the header for the HDD temp sensor, no crazy fans.

Hi, could you maybe throw a picture of such a jumper header and jumper... not in the machine, just a snapshot to see which parts to purchase before i go into "tear two machines apart mode"

 

[mmomega]

I wish I would have taken pics during the install but the "temp header" is a tiny 3 pin female connector with 2 wires going to it.

You can take a bread tie, tear off the cover so it is just the bare wire, cut to length and create a "U" shape and place inside both pins.

Could also take a small piece of electrical tape to further secure the wire if you deem necessary, then put everything back together.

Looks like this one I posted.

 

[X1Lightning]

Hi All,

I'm also thinking of upgrading my 2009 27" iMac with a SSD in the optical drive bay and came across a nice little combo deal by OWC but targeted at the MBP. Now I'm wondering wether the Data Doubler will also work in the iMac and if so would you still need the SATA converter?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/DDAMBS0GB/

Here the DataDoubler and SSD combo deal.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/DDMBSSD120/

have you tried this yet?

 

[Paul B]

Let me get this straight: the HDD Temp wire is only required if removing the original 3.5" 1TB drive and replacing it with a 2.5" SSD, right?

Why are people doing it that way? Isn't it simpler to keep the original drive in and just put the SSD in the SuperDrive slot (via Optibay or alternative caddy)?

 

[bobm]

Let me get this straight: the HDD Temp wire is only required if removing the original 3.5" 1TB drive and replacing it with a 2.5" SSD, right?

Why are people doing it that way? Isn't it simpler to keep the original drive in and just put the SSD in the SuperDrive slot (via Optibay or alternative caddy)?

Perhaps some people (like me) use the DVD and can live with a smaller primary drive?

In my case I have 128G SSD and it's great. The install was painless and the improvement was very impressive.

I used the paper clip and some tape route to short out the temp sensor and have had no issues.

 

[Shanpdx]

i have two questions

1) can the 2009 21.5" iMac can be upgraded to SSD drive?

2) Original Intel Macbook Core Duo can be upgraded to SSD Drive? I heard some ACHI problem?

and one final question, what is the best SSD (not the fastest one) for Mac OS X?

( i am thinking of getting an Intel SSD once they are available, 80 GB for $100)

thanks in advance, my iMac going to be one year old thinking of getting either the iMac or the Macbook SSD drive upgrade and see how fast it is

 

[db4408]

I'm looking to replace the stock HDD in my new 27" iMac with 2 2.5" drives, one SSD (120 GB OWC) and one HDD (500 GB Seagate).

I'm planning on using this adapter:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=37922&vpn=SDP08&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology

What cables (SATA & Power) will I need and in what lengths?

 

[miata]

How much difference would there be between putting the SSD in the internal bay versus an external FW800 bus powered enclosure?

 

[i Smack]

Has anyone tried this on the 2010 iMac 27?

Now that Apple offer SSD as an upgrade option, Im thinking they obviously don't settle for shorting the sensor.

My question is, do they all have a thermistor sensor or do they change the sensor when upgrading to SSD? You would think it would make more sense to have a sensor compatible with both SSD and HHD.

 

[Picho]

Has anyone tried this on the 2010 iMac 27?

Now that Apple offer SSD as an upgrade option, Im thinking they obviously don't settle for shorting the sensor.

My question is, do they all have a thermistor sensor or do they change the sensor when upgrading to SSD? You would think it would make more sense to have a sensor compatible with both SSD and HHD.

Actually they do.

I just looked at the Mid-2010 iMac Service Manual and when they just install the 256GB SSD instead of a hard drive, they use Apple Part #922-9628 to "shorten" the sensor, they just call it a jumper and it's this one:

You can get it for around $19 and it's Apple approved and it will not void your warranty.

If you're replacing the hard drive, this is the only part you need.

If you're adding an SSD in addition to the primary hard drive, you will need these three items:

922-9485 - Pressure Wall, Optical/SSD/MXM
This is the caddy that Apple uses to install the SSD. It sits right between the HDD and the optical drive.

922-9538 - Cable, SSD HDD Data
This cable is at a 90º angle and is small and the exact length to go form the S-ATA connector to the Pressure Wall caddy where the SSD will go. No extra cable lying around.

922-9531 - Cable, AC/DC Power/Backlight/SATA, SSD
This will provide power to the SSD, the HDD, the SuperDrive and the Display. A single cable without the need to install a S-ATA splitter.

All three parts are $19 each, so you can do the official, non warranty-voiding upgrade for only $57 bucks and you can leave it if you ever need to take it for repair. You need to take out about 30% of the computer to install it and if you know what you're doing, you can be done in less than an hour. It's just basically removing part of the logic board, installing the pressure wall, hooking cables and putting everything back together, nothing out of this world.

 

[Polansky]

That's à very expensive jumper for something you can make yourself for less then 5 dollarcents.

 

[Shanpdx]

What is the preferred SSD

for Mac OS X? and keep the performance after use ?

Which SSD you guys got? thanks!.