Rip Those Macs Open

[Potzynoodle]

I'm interested too

P.S.: Where can I find the complete illustrated manual you posted?

Apologies for hijacking your thread but I would also like a copy of the iMac2012 service manual Zuri/Nehalem1984 - please?

I have sent friend requests in anticipation that either of you can help me

 

[jpmorais]

Hello guys

I have upgraded my 27 imac with a new i7-3770 and a Samsung 830 512GB.
SSD is working like a charm but I have a problem with processor.

iMac does not start up after replacement, I have only beepy sound when I turn it on and the internal LEDs are signalizing no video card installed which is weird.
Processor is OK. I put it in another machine and its working well.

I have tried it to put in and out three times but its still the same.

When I put original processor inside (i5-3470 3,2GHz) machine starts up and all tests passed. (AHT, ASD, EFI, MRI all of them...)

Any guess what might be problem???

PS: I am going to open it again next wednesday, would you like a video of full tear down inc. processor exchabge?

i did a processor upgrade for a friend and i couldnt get it to boot up with the 3770 but after the pram reset it woked like a charm! maybe you got a faulty one?

 

[ohmyggg]

I have just used 2,5' to 3,5' metal case from older OCZ SSD (picture).
Make bigger holes from sides to fit it in iMac casing and magic was done.

SATA cable in new iMac is long enough so you can plug it if you move your SSD a little up or down.

Image

Good to know in case my cheap bracket doesn't work!

I think I'm going to be doing a 'surgery' tonight.

Bought a base model iMac from the Apple store last week but really wanted the i7 + 680, so I ordered that online and used the base model during the week. My i7/680 arrived today but, disappointingly, it has some yellow tinting and some ugly uneven backlighting. Might have to take both apart and put the screen from the base model (i5) on my i7 since I've been pretty happy with this screen. I have the official Apple tape, so I'll need to use that set on the i5 before I return it to the Apple store (with the bad screen).

Will hop on Ebay tonight and order another set of tape for my i7 'surgery.' I'll be swapping the 1TB HDD for a Samsung 840 Pro and adding a 256GB blade to run a RAID 0.

Having a hard time procuring a blade SSD though! Anybody know where else I can get one (other than Ebay and Craigslist)? I don't have enough posts here to shop the Marketplace so I'm kind of stuck.

 

[Nehalem1984]

you want to see full video or just the part with display ?
I can send you manual by message.

Any video would be awesome but the display one would be sufficient. And please send me the manual by PN. Thank you.

 

[Hakiroto]

I don't think this has already been posted in this thread but here's a video I found of someone opening up a late 2012 27" iMac.

 

[zuri]

Apologies for hijacking your thread but I would also like a copy of the iMac2012 service manual Zuri/Nehalem1984 - please?

I have sent friend requests in anticipation that either of you can help me

I have added you to friend list but...
Potzynoodle has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

Any video would be awesome but the display one would be sufficient. And please send me the manual by PN. Thank you.

sent

 

[Potzynoodle]

I have added you to friend list but...
Potzynoodle has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.



sent

Hi Zuri, I have enabled Messages from Members in my User Control Panel - didn't realise it was off by default

Hopefully you'll be able to send it to me now - thank you.

 

[eda]

How easy would it be to swap the internal hard drive in the 21.5" iMac? Majority of these posts are for the 27".

I watched a teardown video and looked fairly straightforward as the little hard drive was right there. Anyone done it or considering it?

 

[ohmyggg]

For those of you who are installing SSD blades, are you doing anything special to "trim" / erase / clean the drive before installing anything onto it?

I'm concerned about the reduced i/o performance from used SSD drives that aren't properly trimmed.

 

[HunterMaximus]

How easy would it be to swap the internal hard drive in the 21.5" iMac? Majority of these posts are for the 27".

I watched a teardown video and looked fairly straightforward as the little hard drive was right there. Anyone done it or considering it?

I haven't opened a 21", just my 27", but based on that experience, and this iFixit teardown of the 21", the hardest part is dealing with the screen adhesive. It sounds worse than it is really — I took my time with it, and it went pretty easily. Assuming you're using an appropriate tool (i.e. a guitar pick or similar plastic prying device), it would be pretty hard to damage anything.

As you noted, and can clearly see in the iFixit teardown, the hard drive in the 21" is very accessible — more so than in the 27" even, so once the screen is off, it should be pretty clear sailing.

 

[zuri]

How easy would it be to swap the internal hard drive in the 21.5" iMac? Majority of these posts are for the 27".

I watched a teardown video and looked fairly straightforward as the little hard drive was right there. Anyone done it or considering it?

You have to dissasemble the screen from housing.
When you open it, you have HDD right before you to change. Few screws and you are done... and you dont need any of 2,5 to 3,5 enclousers which meens your new SSD will fit perfectly into

For those of you who are installing SSD blades, are you doing anything special to "trim" / erase / clean the drive before installing anything onto it?

I'm concerned about the reduced i/o performance from used SSD drives that aren't properly trimmed.

I did not tried on blade SSD but I enable trim on every SSD in every machine I install.

http://www.storagereview.com/how_to_enable_trim_with_nonapple_ssd

 

[ohmyggg]

I did not tried on blade SSD but I enable trim on every SSD in every machine I install.

http://www.storagereview.com/how_to_enable_trim_with_nonapple_ssd

Thanks so much for the link.

Does anyone know if you can force a manual trim? Planning to RAID 0 an SSD blade with a 2.5" SSD and install OS X on the RAID array.

Before doing RAID, maybe I can first hook up the blade SSD and enable it as a secondary drive, force trim, and then erase/format both drives, create RAID array and install OS X.

This brings me back to my original question of whether I can manually trim a drive before putting OS X on it.

 

[ohmyggg]

Thanks so much for the link.

Does anyone know if you can force a manual trim? Planning to RAID 0 an SSD blade with a 2.5" SSD and install OS X on the RAID array.

Before doing RAID, maybe I can first hook up the blade SSD and enable it as a secondary drive, force trim, and then erase/format both drives, create RAID array and install OS X.

This brings me back to my original question of whether I can manually trim a drive before putting OS X on it.

Well I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this, but apparently, a secure erase is the equivalent of a forced TRIM on your SSD.

What I'm unclear on is whether this is even an option when using an SSD (forum users have reported the secure erase option is greyed out if the system detects an SSD). Other than that, I'm not sure which secure erase option would be best. I'm assuming that the "Zero Out Data" option is sufficient, but Apple states that this writes zeros over "all data on the disk." Don't I need for it to write to every single block and not just the existing data?

 

[zuri]

Well I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this, but apparently, a secure erase is the equivalent of a forced TRIM on your SSD.

What I'm unclear on is whether this is even an option when using an SSD (forum users have reported the secure erase option is greyed out if the system detects an SSD). Other than that, I'm not sure which secure erase option would be best. I'm assuming that the "Zero Out Data" option is sufficient, but Apple states that this writes zeros over "all data on the disk." Don't I need for it to write to every single block and not just the existing data?

As far as I know, TRIM is only supported on new Intel chipsets and with RAID 0 setup. It also needs a little modding.
I have seen (tested) TRIM on RAID 0 on identical drives only.
I asume you are not going to acheive this if you plan to RAID 1 with 2 drives, one 2,5 SATA SSD and Blade SSD (different capacity) on Apple logic board on mountain lion

 

[zuri]

Ok guys

I have fixed the proccesor issue. Stupid SMC deep dive mode.
So right now I am on i7 3.4GHz instead of i5 3.2

About that video I promised, it took me 5 hours to cut and edit yesterday...
I have to make final edits, render it and upload for you later this day

Sorry for the delays.. hope you will like it

 

[FrancoisC]

Ok guys

I have fixed the proccesor issue. Stupid SMC deep dive mode.
So right now I am on i7 3.4GHz instead of i5 3.2

About that video I promised, it took me 5 hours to cut and edit yesterday...
I have to make final edits, render it and upload for you later this day

Sorry for the delays.. hope you will like it

I plan on upgrading my CPU too later on, so just in case I have the same problem as you had, how did you fix it?

Thanks!

 

[zuri]

I plan on upgrading my CPU too later on, so just in case I have the same problem as you had, how did you fix it?

Thanks!

I did reset of PRAM and SMC with good known HW setup.
Than shut down machine and replace proccesor.

Remove SMC battery from logic board for 5 minutes. Put it back, reassembly machine and bam you are runing on i7.

 

[FrancoisC]

Do you have pictures from the board wihout the heatsink? There are already a ton from the 21 inch iMac, but I did not see any from the 27 yet.

 

[zuri]

Do you have pictures from the board wihout the heatsink? There are already a ton from the 21 inch iMac, but I did not see any from the 27 yet.

I have only video I am going to upload today.
But I am at work right now and I have that video on my home iMac

Little sneak peak for the video is here

http://imgur.com/a/rb4N1

 

[FrancoisC]

I have only video I am going to upload today.
But I am at work right now and I have that video on my home iMac

Little sneak peak for the video is here

http://imgur.com/a/rb4N1

Thanks, can't wait to see the video.

You didn't have too much trouble re-applying thermal paste on the CPU? I see you did not remove the ram cover thingy... And what did you use for thermal on the gpu ram? Sorry for all the question, I want to be sure I'm 100% prepared when I do it

I'll wait a while, my plan is to upgrade the CPU and AirPort to Wireless AC when it become available.

Edit: i think I saw earlier that you have the service manual? Could you PM about it?

 

[zuri]

Thanks, can't wait to see the video.

You didn't have too much trouble re-applying thermal paste on the CPU? I see you did not remove the ram cover thingy... And what did you use for thermal on the gpu ram? Sorry for all the question, I want to be sure I'm 100% prepared when I do it

I'll wait a while, my plan is to upgrade the CPU and AirPort to Wireless AC when it become available.

Edit: i think I saw earlier that you have the service manual? Could you PM about it?

1. much harder is to clean the original tape than to put a new one, more on video
2. I did not remove it, it is not needed
3. I have used arctic mx-4 compound, iMac runs by 10-15 Celsius cooler

no problem with questions jusk ask
manual sent

 

[FrancoisC]

1. much harder is to clean the original tape than to put a new one, more on video
2. I did not remove it, it is not needed
3. I have used arctic mx-4 compound, iMac runs by 10-15 Celsius cooler

no problem with questions jusk ask
manual sent

Ok, so it was tape on the ram, and you replaced it with paste if I understand right? Anyway, I'll stop bothering you and wait for your video

 

[Muramasa]

I have only video I am going to upload today.
But I am at work right now and I have that video on my home iMac

Little sneak peak for the video is here

http://imgur.com/a/rb4N1

Out of curiosity, which model of 27" iMac did you purchase? I noticed that you have a blade connector attached to your logic board. Did you order the fusion model, or did you order a model with only a standard 3.5" hard drive?

According to this video when you order a standard drive configuration without fusion, the connector is not soldered onto the logic board. Any truth to this?

Great pics btw!

 

[zuri]

Out of curiosity, which model of 27" iMac did you purchase? I noticed that you have a blade connector attached to your logic board. Did you order the fusion model, or did you order a model with only a standard 3.5" hard drive?

According to this video when you order a standard drive configuration without fusion, the connector is not soldered onto the logic board. Any truth to this?

Great pics btw!

Any 27 inch iMac has blade SSD connector.
I have ordered higher model of 27inch but still standard configuration (i5 3,2GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD only, GTX 675).

I have found blade connector on basic 27 inch also (i5 2,9GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD only, GTX 660).
As long as you can order fusion drive option on every 27inch they make all 27 logic boards with the connector.

 

[ohmyggg]

Out of curiosity, which model of 27" iMac did you purchase? I noticed that you have a blade connector attached to your logic board. Did you order the fusion model, or did you order a model with only a standard 3.5" hard drive?

According to this video when you order a standard drive configuration without fusion, the connector is not soldered onto the logic board. Any truth to this?

Great pics btw!

Muramasa, I had the same concern, but I think that only applied to the very early models (and more specifically, maybe only to the 21" early models). More recent models seem to have the SSD blade connector on the logic board regardless of configuration. This was the case with R.OG's teardown of a base 27" model.

Quoting R.OG who was commenting on his teardown pics on Page 2 of this thread: "Looks like the base 27" has a socket for the blade SSDs."

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As far as I know, TRIM is only supported on new Intel chipsets and with RAID 0 setup. It also needs a little modding.
I have seen (tested) TRIM on RAID 0 on identical drives only.
I asume you are not going to acheive this if you plan to RAID 1 with 2 drives, one 2,5 SATA SSD and Blade SSD (different capacity) on Apple logic board on mountain lion

Zuri, members in this thread have confirmed that they have TRIM working on software RAID 0 arrays using the TRIM enabler hack/mod.

I plan to RAID 0 either a 256GB Samsung 830 + 256GB Apple blade SSD (Samsung 830) - OR - 512GB Samsung 840 (partitioned into 2 x 256GB partitions) + 256GB Apple blade SSD (Samsung 830), leaving the extra 256GB partition for either Windows, or just extra space.