iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) CPU and NVME SSD Upgrade Pitfalls and Tips

[JuliusKivi]

Hey everybody.

I just upgraded my 5K Imac 2017 processor from I5 to I7-7700K, at the same time I switched my original PCI-E SSD to a CORSAIRMP510.

About a year ago, I switched the original HDD to a OWC 1TB Mercury SSD, I cloned it and everything went well.

But now when I did this Upgrade, Mac doesn't find my mercury SSD. It finds my processor and Corsairmp510 but not the mercury, where I installed everything. I had to install ne Mojave to Corsair (which is nice ) but how can I get the mercury back??

I can find Mercury in system preferences but still there is no way, how to get in to it, does anyone know, what the problem is?

Sorry my English bad, Im from Finland

If anyone can help, please, let me know

Thanks, julius

 

[JuliusKivi]

Its greyed out like in the picture and seems to be unmounted, any idea anyone?

 

[JuliusKivi]

Okey, this turned into a monolog

I put back The original NVMe SSD and everything worked as normal, then I made time machine back up and another backUp

then took out The original NVMe SSD and put back The Corsair mp510 and used time machine backup to install my files and IOS to new corsairmp510.

after that i formatted The sata SSD and boom, its back mounted again ??

so for anyone who is doing this, if you have your files and IOS installed on sata SSD and you just switch The NVMe to new one, it cant read your files from sata SSD.

speeds with corsairmp510 is about 2,9w / 2.9r.

and I have s delidded i7-7700k so there are no temp problems.

everything was quite easy afterall, i have done this now for three times

important thing is to make shure that The processor is in socket, i had try to put The heatsink on about three times, before i was shure that it was really in place ->

 

[KenStol]

Hope folks still look at this thread!

I'm looking for a 'sanity check' on upgrading my 2017 5k 4.2GHz i7, 64GB iMac. Specifically replacing the NVMe with a 970 EVO 2TB, and 2 4TB SSDs in a 3.5 RAID enclosure. Haven't heard of anyone actually doing the 3.5 RAID and wondering if it would be a viable option. I previously have upgraded my rotational HD to a 10TB Fusion drive.
Info that I'd really appreciate would be whether this makes any sense in the first place, and also the choice of 4TB SSDs to put into the enclosure. the 2 drives I have looked at are both Samsung; the SSD 860 EVO and the 860 PRO, just wondering if the almost doubled price of the PRO is justified.

Thanks for all the previous posts, I'm a little late to the party, but looking forward to any advice or additional tips.

Ken

 

[rustyhalo93]

Hope folks still look at this thread!

I'm looking for a 'sanity check' on upgrading my 2017 5k 4.2GHz i7, 64GB iMac. Specifically replacing the NVMe with a 970 EVO 2TB, and 2 4TB SSDs in a 3.5 RAID enclosure. Haven't heard of anyone actually doing the 3.5 RAID and wondering if it would be a viable option. I previously have upgraded my rotational HD to a 10TB Fusion drive.
Info that I'd really appreciate would be whether this makes any sense in the first place, and also the choice of 4TB SSDs to put into the enclosure. the 2 drives I have looked at are both Samsung; the SSD 860 EVO and the 860 PRO, just wondering if the almost doubled price of the PRO is justified.

Thanks for all the previous posts, I'm a little late to the party, but looking forward to any advice or additional tips.

Ken

Hello Ken,

A little bit more information would be great, do you want to RAID 0 two 4TB SSDs? Are you planning on making a fusion drive with the RAIDed SSD and NVMe drive after the upgrade?

 

[KenStol]

Hi, I would like to RAID 0 the SSDs and make a Fusion drive of all 3. I’d really like to have a SSD version of what I have now; a 10TB mechanical drive with the original NVMe. Thanks

 

[rustyhalo93]

Hi, I would like to RAID 0 the SSDs and make a Fusion drive of all 3. I’d really like to have a SSD version of what I have now; a 10TB mechanical drive with the original NVMe. Thanks

Hello Ken,

I think this setup will be very risky as you are adding the RAID0 failure rate to the Fusion Drive partition failing rate together, and the gain of the speed (if there is any) doesn’t really worth the risk.

The sata SSD itself should be pretty close to the SATA3 port speed limit, the RAID0 of two SSDs will be bottlenecked severely by the SATA3 speed, plus the RAID0 is very risky as you will lose all your data when one of the drive fails.

On top of this, bundling NVMe Drive with the SATA0 setup means the entire storage bundle will be destroyed if one of the SATA SSD fails, and the speed of the fusion drive will not be faster than your NVMe drive speed, it will certainly be faster than your current spinning disk setup, but the speed gain you get here comes from HDD to SSD, a bit from RAID0 SSDs but not too much, and it will be much riskier than your current setup.

I would put my macOS volume just on NVMe SSD, and keep the SATA drives in a separate volume as data drives, I would recommend you go with single SSD without RAID for that volume.

Best

 

[KenStol]

Excellent points, thank you very much.

 

[Cyberherby]

Hi folks,

I'm new here - please don't be annoyed if I come up with recurrent questions...
I landed here via Google when I was looking for informations about upgrading my 2017 iMac (i5-7600 and the 2 TB fusion drive).
After reading this thread my head is about to blow! I never opened an iMac before, but I am confident - usually I know where to put my screwdrivers on PCs, MacBooks, iPhones...
I want to upgrade the CPU to an i7-7700k and replace the NVMe SSD and the HDD with another 2 TB SSD.

It seems that the highly recommended Samsung 970 EVO is no longer available with 2 TB (at least not with a reasonable price tag).
Is there a list / a posting with compatible and easy-to-usw NVMe-SSDs for the upgrade in the 2017 iMac?

 

[Daniel Marchant]

Today i installed OSX High Sierra (That is my pipeline version) on a Samsung 970 PRO Nvme disk 512gb, on my 27" 2017 Imac, and apart from taking ridiculously little time to do so, seems to be working fine.

The disk is not plug and play for OSX, so you wont be able to see it on recovery mode. I had to boot windows (from an external drive installation) and then the system was able to see the disk and even format it, so probably you just need to stick it in to a windows machine and format it before you drill you way in the Imac.

Another little tip, my system was originally 256 gb blade only, and when i opened it up it has the 3,5 drive brackets included, BUT NOT the sata cable which i found on Aliexpress for about 10 aud, and still waiting to receive, probably will update when i get it.

 

[transattic]

Hey Guys,

Anyone know if PCI-E Gen 4 m.2 blade SSDs like the Firecuda 520, Sabrant Rocket 4, and Gigabyte AORUS are compatible with iMac 2019 models?

Has anyone had successful builds with Gen 4's getting max speeds or anything greater than the Samsung Evo 970?

 

[DunDrent]

Just for those interested, I have a working 2019 5K with CPU swapped from 3.0Ghz 6-core to 3.7Ghz 6-core(9th gen), 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD NVME Samsung Evo Plus. Had some issues with the 2/4 lanes us for a while but that's gone after swapping the adapter and checking the firmware of the Samsung(as explained earlier in this thread). SSD Write: 2770, Read: 3030.

 

[Kaida]

i noticed that for my non-sintech adapter, the nvme is shown in the "Option" key boot menu as the yellow/orange USB device. is this normal? Does Sintech adapter show it as disk drive or usb disk?

 

[uBetchya]

Hello everyone!

I'm considering on undergoing this upgrade on a 2017 27" iMac. I want to upgrade the NVME drive to a Samsung Evo Plus, but I don't want to upgrade the hard drive at all. In fact, I'm considering just leaving the hard drive out completely so that it runs completely off of the Evo Plus. The hard drive currently installed appears to be failing, and I don't want to purchase a second hard drive just to occupy that space, when it is not needed for my configuration.

My question here is, would this be a possible solution? Does the iMac (originally configured as a Fusion Drive) require that a SATA hard drive be connected to the system? Would this mess with the thermals in a way that causes the fan to constantly spin?

Lastly, if I do decide to keep the SATA hard drive installed, is it possible to still use this drive as a slave to store additional files?

 

[rbart]

You can remove your hdd if you don’t need it.
Or use it for storage if it works

 

[medisaboy1]

Hi guys after replacing the HDD my microphone stopped working. I checked the connection and it is good. Any ideas ?

 

[CoolerT]

Hi sebastienc,

Thank you for your detailed recording of your own adventure, your post really really helped me on my Late 2015 iMac 27 NVME SSD and CPU upgrade, the last two days was an ordeal for me, and I am so happy to be able to pull it off and write to you on my upgraded iMac!

So you are very accurate on the diagnostic LED behavior, I also experienced two type of diagnostic LED behavior: 1. only LED 1 is on when plugged in, no response when power button is pressed, diagnostic port on motherboard didn't read 12V input from terminal 1 (GND) and terminal 11 (power on signal).
2. LED 1 and 2 went on when plugged in even without power button press, then LED 2 went off for a brief second, went on again and the fan starts to spinning like crazy.

These, like you said, are all related to CPU not properly seated, and that metal bracket really is making everything 10x more difficult. The tension is too high and we risk bending CPU PCB. Also, when applying screws on the metal brakes, the cooler may be lifted up a bit, taking CPU with it cause of the thermal paste, and then if we keep applying the pressure, we will risk bending the pin on the motherboard.

Thank you again for your post.

Hello, Do you have any problems with sleep mode? My computer shuts down, once it stays idle for 10 minutes.
I have an iMac 5K Late 15, installed i7 6700k and 2T Samsung 970 Evo Plus. I use this computer for work and it is no go to have it shutting down every time!

I dont know what to do, seems like I have to open it again and put back 1Tb Fusion Drive and not to brake anything during this procedure.

I had hakintosh 5 years ago, it was a pain in the ass, i switched to iMac and was happy all this time, now I again have hakintosh like situation, and I invested to this upgrade nearly 700 euro, crazy.

To all, who thinks to upgrade your iMacs, think 10 times. I would buy just a new one instead of wasting half of the day, got a lot of stress and now have unstable machine!

 

[yanc283]

Hi,

I have a question, before upgrading i need split fusion disk?

Thanks

 

[oKUtItyp]

Anyone who upgraded to 7700k have real-world experience on the temperature? I read somewhere that it's too hot for iMac 27" 2017

 

[macuser04]

Huge thank you to OP and all who have contributed here. Just upgraded my 2017 iMac to 1TB 970 Evo Plus NVME, 2TB Sata SSD, and i7-7700 (non-K). No issues, everything works great. Couldn't have done it without this tremendously detailed info

 

[tommygunz747]

Hi,

what do you think upgrading a "2017 Imac 27' Fusion Drive 3TB" to Samsung MZ-76E2T0B/EU 860 EVO 2 TB SATA 2,5" Interne SSD Schwarz + Samsung MZ-V7S2T0BW 970 EVO Plus 2 TB NVMe M.2 Interne SSD Schwarz?

Next question is what would you recommend, how to set up the partitions from my Fusion Drive? My idea is only have the neccessary boot files for macos on the NVME and the rest of the data on the SSD. But how to achieve ? Would be thankful if you can give me a good advice.

 

[oKUtItyp]

I got the same question. Do you have answers yet?

 

[nileve]

just checked the 970 evo plus firmware and it comes with latest version now. successfuly installed fresh macos on to it.

 

[darkcircles]

Samsung has just released the 870 QVO SSD ... would anyone with any expertise see this being able to work in the iMac 2017 as a replacement to the spindle disk. I was thinking of adding it to the list of things to replace when putting in the 970 evo plus.

Many thanks for your time.

SAMSUNG 870 QVO SATA III 2.5" SSD 2TB (MZ-77Q2T0B)​

 

[Oil_ios]

NVME drive assembly installation:

1. Potential problems with NVME drive assembly installation.

An improperly installed NVME drive assembly can lead to a very tight fit within the Apple NVME socket. This can lead to delayed anterior migration of the drive assembly into the Apple connector, which can result in cutting of the Sintech adapter's insulating tape along the front sharp edge of the Apple connector metal shield. This in turn can lead to electrical shorting with the shield and suboptimal contact alignment of the electrical pins. Electrical shorting with the NVME drive can result in slower negotiated Link Width speed of x2 instead of x4, instability/random crashes, or inability for the system to recognize and use drive. There are even reports of this resulting in sleep problems with the 2013/2014 MacBook Pro laptops. I have attached images showing the Apple NVME connector metal shield as well as a long black adapter with pushed back and cut insulating tape, revealing the underlying electrical connectors.

Prior to my final successful installation, I encountered this problem with the computer no longer seeing the NVME drive, booting off of the backup SATA SSD drive instead. I removed the iMac NVME drive and installed it into the Sabrent NVME enclosure and hooked it up to my MacBook Pro laptop for testing. Fortunately, the drive was recognized and functioned normally. Incidentally, I needed to use a USB-C to USB-C thunderbolt cable, as the included cable of the Sabrent kit with the USB-C adapter did not work on my MacBook Pro.


2. NVME drive/heatsink assembly.

Be sure the back side of the heatsink bottom plate is "flush" with the back side of the NVME drive along the mounting screw side of the assembly. The top ribbed heatsink needs to be positioned forward so that the mounting screw does not contact the top heatsink plate. The top heatsink plate however still needs to be behind and not contacting the Apple NVME shield. There is plenty of clearance between the top heatsink plate and the NVME electrical terminals.


3. Adding additional Kapton tape to the insulating tape of the Long Black Sintech Adapter

Although the Sintech long black adapter has insulating tape along the front electrical contacts, this tape can easily be pulled back and torn, exposing electrical contacts. As mentioned in an earlier post, additional Kapton electrical tape is really necessary to protect against this problem of pulled back or cut insulating tape. I used 1/4" Polyimide High Temperature Resistant Tape. I first applied a single small strip over the side with the insulating tape, with the tape edge just behind the electrical contacts. I then wrapped this single strip of tape with additional loops of Kapton tape to secure the tape strip as seen in the photos. Another option would be to place a larger (cut to fit) square piece of Kapton tape tucked between the Apple NVME metal shield and Sintech adapter. This would adequately prevent any inadvertent contact between the Sintech "electrical connectors" and logic board metal shield.


4. Securing the NVME drive/Heatsink/Sintech Adapter assembly with mounting screw

I replaced the stock Apple M2 5mm T8 screw with a M2 6mm T8 screw, taken from the Sabrent NVME drive enclosure kit. Be sure to apply minimal forward tension on the drive assembly by only partially screwing down this screw, which only contacts the NVME drive and not the heatsink.


5. Consider extending the Sintech long black adapter mounting slot with a small round file if the adapter fits too tight or bends with mounting screw. See post #38 below.


6. Some other users have put a little rubber pad under the adapter so that there isn't too high mechanical stress. I did not do this.


7. Other users with the same Sintech adaptor pins shorting with metal shield of the NVME connector.
- "This is an old thread, but I can post a fix to the same problem. When I did this upgrade, initially with a SinTech adapter, everything worked fine on re-install, then several days later the system became unstable, wouldn't boot consistently, etc. The problem turned out to be some of the SinTech adapter pins contacting with the metal on the "shield" of the SSD connector on the logic board. I insulated the pins (just to the rear of the SSD connection itself) with Kapton tape, and voila! Problem solved. I guess over time the adapter moved just slightly (100ths of a mm) as the laptop rattled around in my backpack and caused the short. At any rate, easy and cheap fix."
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/325815/nvme-samsung-960-evo-with-adapter-mba-mid-2013

- https://github.com/evanslify/macbook-nvme-ssd-upgrade

- https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/

- https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-24

- https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-35#post-25786258
A lot of people here got only 2x PCIe lanes because adapters were installed without proper insulation (kapton tape). Once proper insulation was applied on the back of the adapter, a 4x lanes link was available


8. Customer Questions and Answers by Sintech on Amazon website regarding the Sintech long black adapter (NGFFF2013-C):
https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/asin/B01CWWAENG/1/ref=ask_ql_psf_ql_hza?isAnswered=true

- Question:
What is the difference between your shorter adapter plug (b07fyy3h5f) and your longer adapter card (b01cwwaeng)? which is better for crucial 1tb sdd?
Answer:
they are same function. But long card is more stable after assembed with SSD.
best reards
sintech cn see less
By Sintech adapter

- Question:
Technically this should support all NON-nvme pcie/m.2 ssd's?
Answer:
Since the introduction of OS X High Sierra, NVMe has been supported. In fact, our customers use NVMe drives almost exclusively with this adapter today as AHCI based M.2 drives are outdated and harder to come by nowadays. Please note that if you're using this adapter with an NVMe drive, you MUST first install OS X High Sierra on the built-in AHCI drive. The High Sierra installation package will install firmware updates that enable NVMe support! see less
By Sylvesters Seller on April 8, 2018
yes, M.2 PCIe SSD only has 2 types: ACHI and nVME. it support M.2 PCIe ACHI SSD only.
best regards
www.pc-adapter.net
By Sintech adapter

- Question:
Does it support samsung 970 pro? (not evo, but pro)
Answer:
it can't. you'd better not to use Samsung SSD because there are many problem for their SSD,I suggest you to use intel,Adata SSD.
best regards
sintech cn see less
By Sintech adapter

- Question:
Will it support intel 760p pcie m.2 ssd?
Answer:
yes,it can support.
best regards
sintech cn
Sintech adapter

- Question:
I already bought st-ngff2013-c long version. my mbp 2015 13" has a new intel 760p 2tb ssd. but the back is bending. can i shorten the long version?
Answer:
yes,you can shorten a little at screw notch part for it. [I used a small round file to extend notch].
best regards
sintech cn see less
Sintech adapter

- Question:
Hi, has anyone install it with "samsung 970 evo 2tb - nvme pcie m.2 2280 ssd (mz-v7e2t0bw)"?
Answer:
Yes. It work fine. Just make sure you update to High Sierra or Mojave with your old SSD before installing the replacement [As mentioned above, this allows for the firmware to be updated allowing the system to recognize and use the NVME drive.]
LTN

Hello, thank you for the hugely detailed write-up. I have proceeded to install the following:

- SinTech Long Adapter (with Kapton tape)
- Samsung 970 Evo Plus
- EKWB NVMe Heatsink

I have layered the “sandwich” exactly as you have shown in the photos, and had to use a slightly longer screw. But the Heatsink contacts to the back of the case when I re-fit the logic board. I even used only 0.5mm thermal pad on top of the thickest chip.

I shifted the upper “finned” Heatsink along as far as possible, but it’s not enough. You can see I can’t get the logic board to even touch the mounting leg (about 2mm gap remains).

Did you face any kind of similar issue? I think the only way is to remove the Heatsink, or at least grind down the corner? But I’m surprised, because I selected identical Heatsink to your build.