A list of successful iMac 27" (2012-2019) SSD upgrades

[zeratul75]

thanks. but I live in Italy.....I posted that shop just to link of that type of ssd and make my request clear.....

My doubt is to buy that kind of blade ssd (SSUBX from ebay) or nvme like samsung 970 (from amazon)+adapter.

The point is about sleep bug and about overall speed.....

 

[Jumme_Cph]

thanks. but I live in Italy.....I posted that shop just to link of that type of ssd and make my request clear.....

My doubt is to buy that kind of blade ssd (SSUBX from ebay) or nvme like samsung 970 (from amazon)+adapter.

The point is about sleep bug and about overall speed.....

I did the Samsung Evo PLUS install on imac 27” Late 2015 a few days ago and dont have any sleep issue at all, with the newest mid 2020 IMac boot rom.

Speedwise, this might interest you.

 

[zeratul75]

How did you install mid 2020 boot rom on a 2015 iMac? Simply came with latest Catalina or manually?

Pretty confused here.....

 

[Jumme_Cph]

How did you install mid 2020 boot rom on a 2015 iMac? Simply came with latest Catalina or manually?

Pretty confused here.....

“Mid 2020” Boot Rom = 428.0.0.0.0

This newest bootrom came with the latest security update.

Please run Silent Knight to ensure you have the latest bootrom.

 

[Applefan2015]

What’s the biggest SSD that has been put in a 2019 iMac? Apple iMac 2019 27in 5K i5 8GB 2TB Fusion AMD 580X Desktop

Thanks

 

[kretek]

Looks like 2020 models have their SSD's soldered on to the mainboard.



https://www.macrumors.com/review/2020-27-inch-intel-imac/

 

[mbosse]

Looks like 2020 models have their SSD's soldered on to the mainboard.



https://www.macrumors.com/review/2020-27-inch-intel-imac/

Where does it say that?

 

[kretek]

Apologies posted the wrong link.

2020 iMac Benchmarks Surface Online [Updated]

Benchmarks from the new 2020 iMac have today been shared online by Mac Otakara. The Geekbench benchmarks are from the newly-released 27-inch iMac...

www.macrumors.com

Article has, however, been updated to say that's not true.

 

[kretek]

New day, new report.

Now says all SSD configuration are soldered, except for the high capacity 4 and 8TB.

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/07/27-inch-imac-storage-affixed-to-logic-board/

 

[thetomng]

the new iMac has a custom i9 10910 CPU, do you guys think it'll be possible to boot with a normal 10900 or even a 10900k?

 

[zeratul75]

I did the Samsung Evo PLUS install on imac 27” Late 2015 a few days ago and dont have any sleep issue at all, with the newest mid 2020 IMac boot rom.

Speedwise, this might interest you.

I confirm, same boot room version on late 2015 27'' imac 17,1.
You just gave me a very good info....thanks a lot.
Which adapter did you use? Samsung evo plus you mean 970 right?

 

[medisaboy1]

Hi guys after replacing the HDD my microphone stopped working. I checked the connection and it is good. Any ideas ?

 

[TwoH]

Hi guys after replacing the HDD my microphone stopped working. I checked the connection and it is good. Any ideas ?

What year machine do you have? If it's 2017-2020, ensure that you have not covered the microphone by the lower support bracket with tape.

 

[ssdaytona]

would you guys get a new 2019 iMac i5 3.1GHz with internal SSD upgradability (model #MRR02LL) or just get a new 2020 base model 512GB fixed SSD?

I like being able to upgrade my own SSD.

 

[medisaboy1]

What year machine do you have? If it's 2017-2020, ensure that you have not covered the microphone by the lower support bracket with tape.

I have a 2019 I check that location and the microphone is clear I tried to reattached the cable no luck .

 

[zeratul75]

any other report for 970evo and imac 17,1 late 2015?

 

[max_xt]

Device: Early 2019 - 19.1 - MRR12LL/A (3.0Ghz i5-8500, Fusion HDD+32GB blade, 570X)
Blade upgrade: 32GB Blade -> 512Gb Samsung SSD 970 PRO with heatsink (required some modification to fit in case)
Speed test: 3000MB/s read, 2170MB/s write
HDD upgrade: 1TB SATA HDD -> 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO
Speed test: 520MB/s read, 480MB/s write
CPU upgrade: i5-8500 -> delidded i9-9900K
RAM upgrade: 8Gb -> 48 Gb (8+8 Patriot + 16+16 Corsair)
OS: Mojave 10.14.6
Location: Russia
Adapter: some short adapter with kapton tape
Issues after fresh OS install: Seems all ok - restored from Time Machine backup

Even delidded i9 run 45-65 in idle and easy go up to 100 on heavy load. In average load - 70-80 with silent fan.
Don't forget cut out notch for microphone.
Be careful with CPU when you flip logic board to tight heatsink screws. I didn't notice how CPU little shift from its bed and almost bend it. That was scary moment.
Benchmark results little lower than original i9 iMac, not sure why.
Finally can run Youtube's Peru 4k@60fps at 2x speed without freezes, i5 can't did this.

 

[DigitalJockey]

Hello all,

I couldn't help noticing that a couple people here did the exact thing I wanted to do and I was told it wouldn't work.

I have an Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017 and I was thinking about upgrading the HDD and replace it with a regular SSD and also replace the SSD at the back, so I could have two independent fast drives, one for MacOS and the other for Windows.

Currently, I boot Windows from an external drive which allows me to keep both systems independent from each other, in case I have to format the Windows drive for some reason.

I'm not very fond of using Boot Camp because I always had this feeling that one system interferes with the other and if I have to format Windows, everything becomes a mess.

So, I like to keep things clean and separate as possible with MacOS on Fusion and Windows on an external drive, but I don't like to use an external drive attached to my Mac. It would be much nicer to run things without anything hanging from anywhere.

But how would I install Windows and format it with the drive inside the machine? How would I boot from it? How would I format it without screwing up MacOS?

Because, depending on the answer, I'll upgrade both drives, instead of just the blade.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[dougeefresh]

What would be the best way to transfer files from the old (Fusion) to the new (NMVE) setup?

I have a 27" iMac Retina 5K i9 (2019) with 1TB (32GB SSD+1TB HD). I want to do a swap with 1TB Samsung EVO Plus. I don't want to reinstall the OS and apps because there are software on the computer that I don't have installation files for.

Can I use Time Machine Backup to backup the existing system and restore after doing the SSD swap?
Or, would imaging software work the best?

 

[iliyakoch]

Device: Late 2012 - 13.2 - (3.4Ghz i7-3770, 3TB Fusion HDD+128GB blade, 680MX)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> 768Gb Blade (APPLE SSD SM768E)
Speed test: 440MB/s read, 450MB/s write
HDD upgrade: 3TB SATA HDD -> 4TB WD ULTRASTAR (HGST HUS726T4TALA6L4)
Speed test: 190MB/s read, 190MB/s write
RAM upgrade: 16Gb -> 32 Gb (8+8 Elpida + 8+8 Corsair)
AirPort Card Upgrade: Broadcomm BCM94331CD -> Broadcomm BCM94360CD (Unlocking Mac with Apple Watch works well)
OS: Mojave 10.14.6
Location: Russia
Issues after fresh OS install: When system starts after about 40 sec fan start working at 1800-1900rpm and reaching minimum speed (1200 rpm) only when sleep. May this happen due to ultrastar hdd is running a bit hotter than Seagate's barracuda?

 

[jdoth]

I have an iMac 2019 base model and have tried to upgrade the ssd blade to SN750 1TB with the Sintech adapter but the computer does not detect or recognize it. Does anyone have any advice? I have no formatted it yet or anything and was hoping to use disk utility to erase it but disk utility does not show the drive. Please help!

edit: nevermind, i did not push the adapter into the port hard enough. For those who are doing the same thing, make sure you push the adapter in until you hear a click!

 

[zeratul75]

Device: Late 2015 - 17,1 - MK462LL/A (3.2 GHz Core i5 (I5-6500), fusion drive 1tb)
Blade upgrade: 32gb (24gb)-> 1TB Samsung 970 Evo NVMe SSD
HDD upgrade: 1TB SATA HDD -> SSD Samsung 860 pro 512gb
Speed test: 2530 MB/s write, 2990 MB/s read
OS: Catalina 10.15.6
Firmware: 428.0.0.0.0
Adapter: Sintech ST-NGFF2013-C
Issues after fresh OS install: NONE (Installed from USB pen drive)

Everything is working ok, put iMac in stop, left there for a couple of hour and wake up without issues.


Now I have only a problem: installing windows 10 on a separate partition on the pci ssd.
Bootcamp assistant give me a generic "internal error" almost immediately (when searching disks) and can't go on partitioning drive. I googled a bit and found that it is normal, because it expects one drive only and not two.
The solution should be to temporary remove the sata disk, install windows, and reconnect the drive (I would like to install windows on the pci ssd). But I really don't want to open iMac just for this, so I tryed to manually create partition and install windows 10.
I am able to create a fat32 partition from macos (resizing the mac os one of course before making the fat32 one) and able to boot from a usb with windows 10 installer. I select the fat32 partition and format to ntfs. Windows installer starts (so it does see the pci ssd) but soon It gaves me error and stops.
So basically I need to know what else bootcamp normally does......
Any help?


Edit: found a solution for windows installation. Basically no way to use bootcamp with two drives. So windows need to be installed after manually partitioning the drive. The previous error I got went gone by putting offline the spare disk, where windows will not be installed. This is made during windows setup (screen where there are partitions to choose from), pressing shift+F10 keys to have console, and using windows diskpart utility.
Seems complicated, but really easier to do than to say.

Once installed windows, using drivers pack previously donwloaded from bootcamp, to finish devices setup.

In windows tried to put system in sleep (suspend called in windows) and resuming IS NOT WORKING.
System wakes up, windows desktop, but immediately the usual macos folder with question mark. Then system crashed and must be switched off manually with power button.

So basically, sleep (stop) appears to work under macos, but not under windows.
In macos I only tried to let imac in sleep for 1 hour or so.......so maybe longer time will crash as well?
Further investigation coming......

 

[jtpmacos]

Device: iMac 27" Late 2013 - 14,2 - MF125LL/A - (3.5Ghz (i7-4771), 3TB Fusion HDD+128GB blade, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M)
Blade upgrade: 128GB Blade -> 1TB Kingston a2000 SSD
Speed test: 750MB/s read, 720MB/s write (was previously getting 630MB/s read, 220MB/s write)
RAM upgrade: 8GB > 24GB
OS: Mac OS Catalina 10.15.6
Location: Australia
Adapter: Sintech SSD Adaptor
Issues after fresh OS install: No issues, fresh OS install, manually copied data back

Progress pics below:

 

[hmarold]

So can I confirm the late 2015 base model 27 iMacs will now work ok with the Samsung Evo blade, but not the WD SN750?

I made the attempt using the WD last October and has the crash on waking issue. I went back to a normal SATA ssd and have an expensive blade ssd sitting in a desk drawer...


If I buy a late 2019 MRQY2X/A (base fusion model), will it work with the WD SN750?

 

[jdoth]

So can I confirm the late 2015 base model 27 iMacs will now work ok with the Samsung Evo blade, but not the WD SN750?

I made the attempt using the WD last October and has the crash on waking issue. I went back to a normal SATA ssd and have an expensive blade ssd sitting in a desk drawer...


If I buy a late 2019 MRQY2X/A (base fusion model), will it work with the WD SN750?

I think someone here said that the sn750 does not cause issues with the late 2015 model after the bootrom upgrade. I actually sold my late 2015 and purchased a base 2019 model. I upgraded the ssd blade with sn750 and everything has been work perfectly. I also installed an Evo 860 SSD for windows.