iM 4,1-14,4 USB 3.0 for iMac mid 2011

[USB3foriMac]

Finally succeeded in installing a USB 3 PCIe card in my iMac 2010 with preservation of the wifi/BT card function.

The 2010 is somewhat different, so maybe post your response in the 2010 thread, too.
Apart from that, congratulations! This was genuine exploration of the iMac capabilities.

A few comments on the solution:
* The x4 slot will not fit into the iMacs mini pcie slot.
* Overall, your solution is quite costly. On 2011 model, a TB to USB3 would be cheaper and neater.
* I use a USB2 WiFi dongle, works well in MacOS.
Aliexpress WiFi dongle for Mac.
Would this not make it simpler, since Bluetooth is anyway independent from WiFi (at least on 2011).

 

[USB3foriMac]

Finally succeeded in installing a USB 3 PCIe card in my iMac 2010 with preservation of the wifi/BT card function.

The 2010 is somewhat different, so maybe post your response in the 2010 thread, too.
Apart from that, congratulations! This was genuine exploration of the iMac capabilities.

A few comments on the solution:
* The x4 slot will not fit into the iMacs mini pcie slot.
* Overall, your solution is quite costly. On 2011 model, a TB to USB3 would be cheaper and neater.
* I use a USB2 WiFi dongle, works well in MacOS AliExpress WiFi dongle for Mac Would this not make it simpler, since Bluetooth is anyway independent from WiFi (at least on 2011

 

[passatgt]

That would be possible I guess, but maybe the included strips are too short. The longer flex strip is 24cm (shorter is 15cm). I have not measured the distance (all iMacs closed now and operating), but even if too short, it should be possible to get a longer strip.
The flat flexible cable (FFC) has 36 pins.The pitch is 0.5mm distance. "Reverse direction". Something like this (30cm), but longer: Aliexpress item (couldn't find a 36P 'reverse' longer version, only normal. So maybe use long 40pin and cut? Here is 10pcs 40pin 40cm)
I would just not find it so nice having a card hang out below or beside the iMac. Not sure what flexibility would be needed; what cards are you thinking of?

Maybe we could create a plastic enclosure that can be mounted to the back of the iMac, so its not dangling around, this is a minor detail to work on. What other cards i'm thinking of? For example 10 Gbps ethernet, thunderbolt 3, nvme ssd maybe?

 

[USB3foriMac]

10 Gbps ethernet, thunderbolt 3, nvme ssd maybe

The mini PCIE supports a max of 6gbps, so I believe you won't be able to exploit the features of such cards. It will not be really possible to make an up-to-date machine out of these old folks.
You could then better by one of those mini PCs (which I have 2 of them) and simply replace the entire logic board with that...

 

[KennyW]

The 2010 is somewhat different, so maybe post your response in the 2010 thread, too.
Apart from that, congratulations! This was genuine exploration of the iMac capabilities.

A few comments on the solution:
* The x4 slot will not fit into the iMacs mini pcie slot.
* Overall, your solution is quite costly. On 2011 model, a TB to USB3 would be cheaper and neater.
* I use a USB2 WiFi dongle, works well in MacOS AliExpress WiFi dongle for Mac Would this not make it simpler, since Bluetooth is anyway independent from WiFi (at least on 2011

Sure, will find the iMac 2010 thread and post some pictures.

The iMac 2011 has thunderbolt port. Hence, it is cheaper to get the USB 3 function.
Unfortunately, the older iMac 2010 doesn't, and thus some investment is needed to get USB 3.
I quote the price and picture from Amazon for easier reference by many European or US readers.
I got all components from AliExpress at almost half the price instead.

And i kept the wifi/BT module since it has been upgraded to 94360CD and BT4 some time ago.

There is mPCIe splitter to two PCIe 1x but a bit too long to find a comfortable space inside my crowded iMac internals, and there are more PCIe 4x cards for choices with a splitter to two PCIe 4x slots, which is actually smaller in size.

I seek to bring the USB ports out via the slit for inserting the DVD by enlarging 2 holes there for mounting the PCI card.

 

[USB3foriMac]

there are more PCIe 4x cards for choices with a splitter to two PCIe 4x slots, which is actually smaller in size.

I seek to bring the USB ports out via the slit for inserting the DVD by enlarging 2 holes there for mounting the PCI card.

Respect for your DIY project! Please provide us with some instructions or plenty of pictures!

Are you saying you have tried one of those 4x splitters and you have it working? I'd be quite curious about that. By right since the connector is wider, it should not fit, shouldn't it?

For 2009/2010 model upgrade to USB3, look at this thread here.

 

[KennyW]

Respect for your DIY project! Please provide us with some instructions or plenty of pictures!

Are you saying you have tried one of those 4x splitters and you have it working? I'd be quite curious about that. By right since the connector is wider, it should not fit, shouldn't it?

For 2009/2010 model upgrade to USB3, look at this thread here.

The thread you link is for iMac 2009.

May be I should make a new thread for iMac 2010 so as not to confuse things

P.S. The link is here : USB 3 + Wifi ac + BT 4.2 for iMac 2010

Yes, I used the miniPCIe to 2 slots of PCIe 4x instead of 2 slots of PCIe 1x.

Will take some pictures for posting. Doing some more benchmarks and testing at the moment.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

The thread you link is for iMac 2009.

May be I should make a new thread for iMac 2010 so as not to confuse things

Yes, I used the miniPCIe to 2 slots of PCIe 4x instead of 2 slots of PCIe 1x.

Will take some pictures for posting. Doing some more benchmarks and testing at the moment.

Create your own thread and use the name "USB 3.0 for iMac mid 2010".

The Mid 2010 and Late 2009 (two different versions with core2duo and core i-series CPU) have really different firmware and it is likely that a solution working on the 2010 may fail on the 2009....

 

[mdgm]

Price certainly matters, as not many are willing to invest significant amounts into a 10 year old machine. So most (as I did before) simply live without USB3, until it becomes absolutely unbearable...

If you were to get a TB3 dock, a TB3 to TB1/2 adapter from apple and a TB to TB cable, if you were to get a new Mac with TB3 you could ditch the TB3 to TB1/2 adapter and TB1/2 to TB1/2 cable and reuse the dock with the new machine.

I'm not confident to install the PCIe card, so I think I'll get a dock and give that a try.

If you go down the TB3 dock route you should put the latest supported Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra on the machine as earlier Mac OS may not have the needed drivers.

Would like to boot off e.g. a TB3 or USB3 drive connected to the dock, but not sure whether that would work or not.

 

[USB3foriMac]

If you were to get a new Mac with TB3 you could ditch the TB3 to TB1/2 adapter and TB1/2 to TB1/2 cable and reuse the dock with the new machine.

Thing is, personally I'm away from Apple. I won't buy any Apple products any more. So the machines are used while I can repair them and serve their purpose. After that, it will be a screen and mini-PC. Have that already twice in conjunction with TVs. Works great, cost less, and serves my purposes.

 

[mdgm]

Some non-Apple PCs also have TB3 but if you are not going to get a machine with Thunderbolt in the future then that's understandable.

I manage multiple 2011 iMacs. Looking to:
1. See if they will boot into Windows from a USB3/TB3 drive connected to a TB3 dock; or
2. Put SSDs in them; or
3. Get new machines, probably some of the last iMacs/MBPs with Intel CPUs so can run both Windows and Mac.

 

[Firmez]

I bought a TB USB 3 Adapter, because didnt want to destroy the iMac. This work absolutely fine:

138.59€ |Festplatte Konverter Thunderbolt Port zu USB3.0 + eSATA Adapter Kabel TBT10Gbp PCIE 2,0 für Apple Laptop PC iMac|Computerkabel & Stecker| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

de.aliexpress.com

 

[mdgm]

TB to USB3 adapters are nice. Unfortunately they tend not to be bootable.

Currently working on trying to boot Windows off a TB3 drive connected to a dock. If I can get that working I can then move on to seeing how fast the USB3 ports on the dock are.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have a Caldigit TB2 dock with some USB3 ports on it that works on Macs with only USB2.

The USB3 write/read speeds are slightly lower (on both USB2 and USB3 capable Macs) than normal, but I assume that is because of overhead from the dock itself.

Still, it is an excellent way of getting USB3 on a Mac with TB1 and only USB2 ports.

The USB3 ports on the Dock are bootable as well.

 

[mdgm]

Nice. It could be that the OWC TB3 dock manual is wrong and that it can boot off the USB3 ports (I haven’t checked). The TB3 NVMe enclosure connected to it says in the specs that it is only bootable on Mac OS and yet now that I know what I’m doing I can boot it reliably to Windows.

 

[passatgt]

I just found locally a cheap StarTech.com adapter, i will report back what speed am i getting with it(if its still working): https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Thunderbolt-eSATA-Adapter-TB2USB3ES/dp/B00PY18ZXO

I think this is the same as the one linked above from AliExpress(which is not in stock anymore), just with a different casing.

 

[passatgt]

Also found this, which is still in stock: https://www.kanex.com/thunderbolt-esata

 

[johnrak]

That won't work. the internal connection in iMac 2011 does not have the required USB pins fed to the mini-PCIE connector. In addition, that connection would not be USB3, which this splitter requires. So this won't work.

In this post @KennyW added USB on 2010 iMac preserving the wifi+bt card. Would that be possible with mid 2011 iMac?
I know that the mPCIe slot on my iMac doesn't have D+ and D- signals. I have a wifi+bt board on an adapter which is fed with D+, D-, 3.3V signals through cables from the old bluetooth board.
According to the 2010 thread we need a miniPCIe to PCIe 1x adapter, a PCIe 1x to two PCIe 4x slots riser, a PCIe x1 to miniPCIe adapter (to connect the old wifi+bt), a USB 3 PCIe 1x card and a couple splitters and extensions. Which of these boards need the USB pins? @KennyW shows that it works and in the photos there is an adapter on the wifi+bt board with 3 cables (probably D+,D- and 3.3V) like mine. Does it mean that a setup like his could work on my 2011 iMac?

 

[passatgt]

In this post @KennyW added USB on 2010 iMac preserving the wifi+bt card. Would that be possible with mid 2011 iMac?
I know that the mPCIe slot on my iMac doesn't have D+ and D- signals. I have a wifi+bt board on an adapter which is fed with D+, D-, 3.3V signals through cables from the old bluetooth board.
According to the 2010 thread we need a miniPCIe to PCIe 1x adapter, a PCIe 1x to two PCIe 4x slots riser, a PCIe x1 to miniPCIe adapter (to connect the old wifi+bt), a USB 3 PCIe 1x card and a couple splitters and extensions. Which of these boards need the USB pins? @KennyW shows that it works and in the photos there is an adapter on the wifi+bt board with 3 cables (probably D+,D- and 3.3V) like mine. Does it mean that a setup like his could work on my 2011 iMac?

I think its easier and also cheaper to go with a thunderbolt-usb3 adapter. Since you upgraded the GPU, only 1 thunderbolt works with an external display, so one will be unused anyway.

 

[johnrak]

My iMac is 21.5" and it has only one thunderbolt. I found a cheap adapter but it says it works with High Sierra but not Catalina. I have a patched Big Sur on my iMac so it probably won't work with my system and I'm afraid that I won't find any information about adapters that work on 2011 iMac with Big Sur.

Has anyone tried to install USB with the method described here? Could it work with Big Sur? I found a cheaper USB 3 card on aliexpress using ASMedia ASM1042A+GL35XX. The ASM1042A should work according to this thread.

 

[passatgt]

My iMac is 21.5" and it has only one thunderbolt. I found a cheap adapter but it says it works with High Sierra but not Catalina. I have a patched Big Sur on my iMac so it probably won't work with my system and I'm afraid that I won't find any information about adapters that work on 2011 iMac with Big Sur.

Has anyone tried to install USB with the method described here? Could it work with Big Sur? I found a cheaper USB 3 card on aliexpress using ASMedia ASM1042A+GL35XX. The ASM1042A should work according to this thread.

I'm using the same brand, just the eSata variant and works fine in Big Sur.

 

[KennyW]

In this post @KennyW added USB on 2010 iMac preserving the wifi+bt card. Would that be possible with mid 2011 iMac?
I know that the mPCIe slot on my iMac doesn't have D+ and D- signals. I have a wifi+bt board on an adapter which is fed with D+, D-, 3.3V signals through cables from the old bluetooth board.
According to the 2010 thread we need a miniPCIe to PCIe 1x adapter, a PCIe 1x to two PCIe 4x slots riser, a PCIe x1 to miniPCIe adapter (to connect the old wifi+bt), a USB 3 PCIe 1x card and a couple splitters and extensions. Which of these boards need the USB pins? @KennyW shows that it works and in the photos there is an adapter on the wifi+bt board with 3 cables (probably D+,D- and 3.3V) like mine. Does it mean that a setup like his could work on my 2011 iMac?

My USB 3 setup in my more spacious 27" iMac 2010 worked in Big Sur for all the components.

Yes, you need the feeding of the D+, D- and 3.3V signals through cables from the old BT board.

But I do agree that in your iMac 2011, using a thunderbolt to USB3 adapter should be the best option.

 

[USB3foriMac]

In this post @KennyW added USB on 2010 iMac preserving the wifi+bt card. Would that be possible with mid 2011 iMac?

To continue having the internal wifi card plus the added USB3 card, you need to have the following solution:
1. Mini-PCIE to PCIE extender, as shown in the first post.
This is required as the location of the wifi card does not allow you to put anything larger. You need to bring the PCIE port to the area od the DVD drive as only there you have space to add more stuff.
2. PCIE splitter.
You need to make two ports out of one. I only found PCIE to 3x or 4x PCIE, which in my opinion is too large.
3x PCIE
3. PCIE to miniPCIE adapter for the Wifi card.
PCIE to miniPCIE, same as Kenny's but on Aliexpress

Possibly this all can be cramped into the machine, but:
- expensive
- a lot of adapters in-line
- two cards going into the same PCIE x1 channel; so if you have a SSD running on USB3 and use Wifi at the same time, these two will have to share the bandwidth. Normally, I'd say wifi is a few Megabit only, so it shouldn't affect the SSD much. But I haven't done any research on this so I can't tell whether this works flawlessly and at full speeds.

I bought a cheap wifi dongle, works well in MacOS, Linux and Windows.
Wireless-AC wifi dongle

 

[KennyW]

To continue having the internal wifi card plus the added USB3 card, you need to have the following solution:
1. Mini-PCIE to PCIE extender, as shown in the first post.
This is required as the location of the wifi card does not allow you to put anything larger. You need to bring the PCIE port to the area od the DVD drive as only there you have space to add more stuff.
2. PCIE splitter.
You need to make two ports out of one. I only found PCIE to 3x or 4x PCIE, which in my opinion is too large.
3x PCIE
3. PCIE to miniPCIE adapter for the Wifi card.
PCIE to miniPCIE, same as Kenny's but on Aliexpress

Possibly this all can be cramped into the machine, but:
- expensive
- a lot of adapters in-line
- two cards going into the same PCIE x1 channel; so if you have a SSD running on USB3 and use Wifi at the same time, these two will have to share the bandwidth. Normally, I'd say wifi is a few Megabit only, so it shouldn't affect the SSD much. But I haven't done any research on this so I can't tell whether this works flawlessly and at full speeds.

I bought a cheap wifi dongle, works well in MacOS, Linux and Windows.
Wireless-AC wifi dongle

For iMac 2010, that "expensive" solution is the cheapest and only solution to get USB3, unlike iMac 2011.

Dual PCIe riser boards can be found in AliExpress for ~US$10-12, e.g.

https://aliexpress.ru/item/4000245966102.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.425d477chKm3pd&algo_pvid=7797622c-cb31-4e46-84d8-63f0b93431be&algo_expid=7797622c-cb31-4e46-84d8-63f0b93431be-0&btsid=0b8b15f516129302801444400eb3d5&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_&sku_id=10000000995976658

https://aliexpress.ru/item/4001065278910.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.38b81976Y1RjPc&algo_pvid=8df66ab1-aa65-4845-b80b-4af79fab158c&algo_expid=8df66ab1-aa65-4845-b80b-4af79fab158c-44&btsid=0b8b15f516129164284468085eb365&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_&sku_id=10000014000464823

Despite it provides 4x slots, it is downward compatible with PCIe 1x, and much smaller in size.

But you need also the mPCIe adapter part from these packages selling for ~US$4-5, e.g.

https://aliexpress.ru/item/4000809793366.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5d9f6da6iGJVKA&algo_pvid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb&algo_expid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb-31&btsid=0b8b037016129308376475147e4427&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_&sku_id=10000008108933492

https://aliexpress.ru/item/4000825568797.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5d9f6da6iGJVKA&algo_pvid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb&algo_expid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb-17&btsid=0b8b037016129308376475147e4427&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_&sku_id=10000008650017862

Combine both and eliminate the bridging PCIe 1x slot, you will get the functioning mPCIe adapter directly to PCIe dual 4x slots to hold both the Wifi/BT module and USB PCI card.

 

[USB3foriMac]

For iMac 2010, that "expensive" solution is the cheapest and only solution to get USB3, unlike iMac 2011.

Well, this is for a 2011 and not 2010, so my comment is still applicable.

But you need also the mPCIe adapter part from these packages selling for ~US$4-5, e.g.
https://aliexpress.ru/item/4000809793366.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5d9f6da6iGJVKA&algo_pvid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb&algo_expid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb-31&btsid=0b8b037016129308376475147e4427&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_&sku_id=10000008108933492 https://aliexpress.ru/item/4000825568797.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5d9f6da6iGJVKA&algo_pvid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb&algo_expid=36382e09-7a0a-4897-8f6b-68be21593dfb-17&btsid=0b8b037016129308376475147e4427&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_&sku_id=10000008650017862
Combine both and eliminate the bridging PCIe 1x slot, you will get the functioning mPCIe adapter directly to PCIe dual 4x slots to hold both the Wifi/BT module and USB PCI card.

This one won't work in a 2011, as the available height is insufficient.