I purchased my iMac in 2008, when the new Aluminum 24" model was release.
Since then the machine's performance has declined and recently the left speaker and hard drive gave out. So, I decided to perform an upgrade. I've read a lot about people upgrading to an SSD + HD this definitely interested me.
Doing so required the removal of the optical drive - which was easy to part with as I hardly use the thing. However, given that the optical drive is connected via ATAPI (PATA), utilizing such a connection would severely hobble the SSD speed (via optical drive caddy). As a result, I decided to purchase the commell MPX-3132 Sata II mini pcie card forgoing wifi as my machine is wired with Ethernet. Since you cannot boot off the commell card the SSD had to be wired to the logic boards sata port while the 1TB storage drive would be connected to the commell card.
In all, the upgrade was well worth the time and money spent the machine hums along very nicely with 10.7.3 installed. Further, the read/write speeds of upgrading from my external firewire 1TB to an internal Sata II are pleasing.
One Issue I ran into was getting power to both hard drives. This was resolved using a simple Sata Power splitter cable. As you can see in the pictures I had to reposition the 1TB HD to accommodate the new Power/Data sata cables although it technically shouldnt fit I figured out a way to make it work.
The upgrade include the flowing equipment:
Western Digital 1TB 7200 Black Caviar
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD
Commell MPX-3132 Card
4GB RAM module (total of 6GB)
One Sata Power Splitter
One Sata data extension cable
Thanks to all those who posted info on upgrading iMacs on the forum!
-Tom
Since then the machine's performance has declined and recently the left speaker and hard drive gave out. So, I decided to perform an upgrade. I've read a lot about people upgrading to an SSD + HD this definitely interested me.
Doing so required the removal of the optical drive - which was easy to part with as I hardly use the thing. However, given that the optical drive is connected via ATAPI (PATA), utilizing such a connection would severely hobble the SSD speed (via optical drive caddy). As a result, I decided to purchase the commell MPX-3132 Sata II mini pcie card forgoing wifi as my machine is wired with Ethernet. Since you cannot boot off the commell card the SSD had to be wired to the logic boards sata port while the 1TB storage drive would be connected to the commell card.
In all, the upgrade was well worth the time and money spent the machine hums along very nicely with 10.7.3 installed. Further, the read/write speeds of upgrading from my external firewire 1TB to an internal Sata II are pleasing.
One Issue I ran into was getting power to both hard drives. This was resolved using a simple Sata Power splitter cable. As you can see in the pictures I had to reposition the 1TB HD to accommodate the new Power/Data sata cables although it technically shouldnt fit I figured out a way to make it work.
The upgrade include the flowing equipment:
Western Digital 1TB 7200 Black Caviar
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD
Commell MPX-3132 Card
4GB RAM module (total of 6GB)
One Sata Power Splitter
One Sata data extension cable
Thanks to all those who posted info on upgrading iMacs on the forum!
-Tom