One or Two SSD on 27‑inch iMac with Retina 5K display (mid 2017)?

[Marx55]

One or Two SSD on 27‑inch iMac with Retina 5K display (mid 2017)?

I understand that such iMac has two different ports for two different disks inside (eg., one SSD or une Fusion drive from Apple). Questions:

1. Is it possible to install this disk inside to boot such iMac?
Samsung 960 PRO Series - 2TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6P2T0BW)
Sequential R/W (read/write) speeds up to 3,500/2,100 MB/s and random R/W speeds up to 440/360K IOPS, respectively.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960pro.html
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-960-PRO-Internal-MZ-V6P512BW/dp/B01LY3Y9PH

2. Is is possible to have two SSD at the same time inside such iMac?
For instance, the one SSD from Apple (or the one above, if possible) and other like this (now 2TB, soon 4TB)?
Samsung 850 PRO - 2TB - 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7KE2T0BW)
Sequential Read/Write Performance: Up to 550MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively. Random Read/Write IOPS Performance: Up to 100K and 90K, respectively.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/850pro.html
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-PRO-2-5-Inch-MZ-7KE2T0BW/dp/B010QD6RX4

Thanks!

 

[Chancha]

1: no, Apple uses proprietary connector for the SSD, even though it is a very similar form factor to the M.2 blade

2: yes, the SATA port exists for all models' motherboard, but any model without the 3.5" HDD will have a (proprietary) SATA cable missing, which is easy to buy from ebay because Apple has used the same one for years.

 

[Marx55]

Thanks. Concerning 1, is it possible using an adapter for the Apple proprietary connector?

 

[Chancha]

Thanks. Concerning 1, is it possible using an adapter for the Apple proprietary connector?

I don't think so, those pins aren't just re-shuffled, even then you may get stability / sensor issues. Apple actually doesn't price its own SSD with ridiculous markup like their RAM does, if compared to the Samsung 960 their BTO price is quite reasonable, so for now it makes sense to just give Apple the money. The problem is down the road when larger capacity blade SSD becomes more affordable, and/or when the original drive fails which needs replacement, at that point probably likes of OWC will offer some solution but at a worse performance (they did that for MBA/retina MBPs)

 

[Taz Mangus]

One or Two SSD on 27‑inch iMac with Retina 5K display (mid 2017)?

I understand that such iMac has two different ports for two different disks inside (eg., one SSD or une Fusion drive from Apple). Questions:

1. Is it possible to install this disk inside to boot such iMac?
Samsung 960 PRO Series - 2TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6P2T0BW)
Sequential R/W (read/write) speeds up to 3,500/2,100 MB/s and random R/W speeds up to 440/360K IOPS, respectively.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960pro.html
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-960-PRO-Internal-MZ-V6P512BW/dp/B01LY3Y9PH

2. Is is possible to have two SSD at the same time inside such iMac?
For instance, the one SSD from Apple (or the one above, if possible) and other like this (now 2TB, soon 4TB)?
Samsung 850 PRO - 2TB - 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7KE2T0BW)
Sequential Read/Write Performance: Up to 550MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively. Random Read/Write IOPS Performance: Up to 100K and 90K, respectively.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/850pro.html
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-PRO-2-5-Inch-MZ-7KE2T0BW/dp/B010QD6RX4

Thanks!

If you install the SATA SSD in your iMac when it is still under warranty and you need to take it for repair, Apple, in some cases, have removed the non-Apple approved hardware and replace it with Apple approved hardware. And in your case, the SATA SSD may end up being replaced by an Apple approved spinner.