Successful cross-manufacturer HDD upgrade

[The General]

I'm not saying you should do this, but I figured out how to upgrade the hard drive in the new iMacs to one of a different manufacturer.

My i7 came with a 1TB Seagate. I now have a 2TB Hitachi in there. All I had to do to get the thermal sensor to work is cut off the part of the connector on the thermal sensor cable that didn't have wires attached to the pin outs, then fit it on to the new one.

At first, the fan ran at full speed. It would start at about 2500 and slowly creep up to 5500. I just flipped the cable over and the fan runs at 1200 rpm now.

The Hitachi so way quieter than the Seagate. I thought people were exaggerating when they complained about hard drive noise, it really is loud and it sounded like my iMac was really hungry and its stomach was growling.

 

[Insilin1i]

My seagate has been really quiet but whatever works.

 

[SaSaSushi]

My seagate has been really quiet but whatever works.

Mine as well.

I'm glad that worked for you but for me not only would I be wary of cutting off bits of parts in my i7 if I were to open it up, I'd be very concerned as to how it might affect my warranty.

 

[i7QuadCoreMania]

yes, good job!

I suspected there is no rocket science with the thermal sensor, it should just be one positive lead and one ground, the voltage returned determines the temp.

Since there was no temp header on my Intel X25-M I just put a cross jumper on it and electrical taped it away, but this only applies to SSDs, regular hard drives should have the sensor re-attached. Someone also mentioned they used a sensor off the previous model iMac and taped it on the new hard drive.