Replacing fusion drive iMac 2019

[Mariosknl]

probably this has been answered before but I can’t find it. I have an iMac 27’ 2019 with 1TB fusion drive. The last few months it has become pretty slow. I need to replace the drive with a SSD and I found Samsung 980 NVMe PCIe 4.0. Will I have a compatibility problem if I buy and install it?
Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[BATman.Berlin]

I had this on my 2019 iMac as a external TB3 drive. You can install MacOS on that then select it as boot drive. No need to open that beauty and potentially trash the screen. The procedure to swap the internal hdd is quite invasive. Perhaps a local mac repair shop offers that. But I found my external drive solution a good one with good speeds. Just chose a drive enclosure with good heat dissipation (Sabrent Al enclosure is what I had)
Also gives you the bonus of using the internal drive as data grave or media library

 

[Mariosknl]

Ok never thought of something like this. I will think about it. Thanks for that.

 

[Fishrrman]

I would not open up a (relatively recent) 2019 iMac.

Instead, go the external route as Batman suggests above.

You have the option of choosing either thunderbolt3, USB3.1 gen2, or USB3.

Thundebolt3 is fastest, of course, but the drives can run hot and "throttle back" the speed if they get too hot. Some enclosures offer better cooling than do others.

 

[Mariosknl]

I had this on my 2019 iMac as a external TB3 drive. You can install MacOS on that then select it as boot drive. No need to open that beauty and potentially trash the screen. The procedure to swap the internal hdd is quite invasive. Perhaps a local mac repair shop offers that. But I found my external drive solution a good one with good speeds. Just chose a drive enclosure with good heat dissipation (Sabrent Al enclosure is what I had)
Also gives you the bonus of using the internal drive as data grave or media library

Is it possible please to send me the exact enclosure you used for your setup? It will be super helpful. Thanks

 

[Mariosknl]

I would not open up a (relatively recent) 2019 iMac.

Instead, go the external route as Batman suggests above.

You have the option of choosing either thunderbolt3, USB3.1 gen2, or USB3.

Thundebolt3 is fastest, of course, but the drives can run hot and "throttle back" the speed if they get too hot. Some enclosures offer better cooling than do others.

Do you have any suggestion for the Samsung 980 drive? I will connect it via thunderbolt3 as you suggested

 

[Fishrrman]

"Do you have any suggestion for the Samsung 980 drive? I will connect it via thunderbolt3 as you suggested"

You'll have to search for an "nvme" thunderbolt enclosure.
There are some out there, not all that many that I can see.

I would try to locate more than one "candidate", and take time to read the user reviews for each one. Then pick what you like best.

There's a long-running thread here at macrumors about such enclosures:

Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

Since I am owning a great new MacBook Pro, I have been searching the web for a worthy external storage to go with it. So far, I only know of stationary Thunderbolt 3 drives (mainly in the form of full-size PCIe boxes with NVMe SSDs in them or large RAID systems that weigh upwards of 5 kg), but...

forums.macrumors.com

Again, be aware that some of these have "heat issues".

I have only one nvme drive (Crucial), that I use in an Orico USB3.1 gen2 enclosure. It's not as fast as tbolt3 but still fairly quick (reads in the 850MBps range). It, too, can get on the hot side under periods of extended write activity.

 

[BATman.Berlin]

Is it possible please to send me the exact enclosure you used for your setup? It will be super helpful. Thanks

With pleasure

Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 Certified M.2 NVMe SSD Tool-Free Solid Aluminum Enclosure (EC-T3NS) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FT59SB6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_H3Y01Y9BDBW94XEN61CT

Make sure you use the thermal tape included…