Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iMac early 2009 - does it support SSD ??

F

fabthi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 29, 2010
29
0
Hi everybody
I have an iMac 20" early 2009 2.66GHz for which I'd like to replace the old internal disk with an SSD unit.
Only, I have had controversial responses from various assistance services; while some say SSD are perfectly supported by the machine, others denied this possibility.
Anybody who has already gone through this or could tell me what the reality is on this issue??
Thanks to all for the help

Fabio
 
All you need is the correct SSD. If your Mac is using SATA II HDD, then any SATA III SSD (e.g. 850 Evo) will work, but speed cap at SATA II speed (which is not an issue at all, the main benefit to use SSD is high IOPS but not high sequential speed).

However, the new PCIe / NVMe SSD won't work in your Mac.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samuelsan2001
If you dont want to take the risk of physically replaceing the old HD, you could always boot from an external SSD once the OS has been copied to it with "superduper". I did this yesterday via USB but will be faster when I get a firewire connecting dock (which is on its way).
 
I have one in an early 2006 MBP, and it works fine. Heck, people have added SSD's to iPods. Your iMac will run one just fine and it will be MUCH faster than a HDD.
 
mamini said:
If you dont want to take the risk of physically replaceing the old HD, you could always boot from an external SSD once the OS has been copied to it with "superduper". I did this yesterday via USB but will be faster when I get a firewire connecting dock (which is on its way).
Click to expand...
Make sure you get a FireWire 800 enclosure with external power.

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...rewire-800-ssd-as-my-imac-boot-drive.2442921/

I tried doing this on bus power and while it seemed to work, every so often I'd get the spinning beachball of death. I then plugged in a power adapter, and it all worked fine.

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...-as-my-imac-boot-drive.2442921/#post-37656092

The main issue after that was lack of TRIM support and a drive that is mostly full. With a drive that is nearly full, speed would slow down to a crawl at times.
 
nambuccaheadsau said:
Do not use a Samsung EVO SSD as the 6Gb/ps is not backwards compatible with older Macs. Go through this link from ifixit and read posts by Dan. Also consider replacing the SATA cable.

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/252412/Problems+with+Samsung+850+EVO+SSD
Click to expand...

Samsung Evo definitely can be used on SATA II ports. I did it for few years already.

And the performance as a OS / boot drive is virtually the same as connected via SATA III port. Again, I tested it by myself. My Mac Pro has both SATA II and SATA III port (via PCIe card). Both ports work with the Evo flawlessly, and both ports provide roughly the same boot time, same apps loading time, same system responsiveness. The only difference is when copying large files, or (un)zipping large files, etc, SATA III connection will be faster. That's it.
 
iMac 20" Early 2009 Hard Drive Replacement/SSD Upgrade
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2266+Hard+Drive+Replacement/919

Most SSD's are 2.5" Form Factor you will need to purchase an adapter cage as the default Form Factor on the Early 2009 20" iMac is 3.5"

Alternatively you could replace the Superdrive with SSD allowing you to retain the existing Hard Drive

iMac 20" Early 2009 Dual Hard Drive
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2266+Dual+Drive/8954

If you can live without the Superdrive then I recommend the Dual Hard Drive option. Having the storage on the Main Drive you could use a 64GB SSD for running macOS and any software then read/write the files from the Main Drive.

Alternatively you could go with a Seagate SSHD Solid State Hybrid Drive which offers performance and capacity up to 2TB which are available in 3.5" Form Factor and wouldn't mean losing your Superdrive
https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/solutions/solid-state-hybrid/
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back