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baterax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 3, 2012
3
0
Hi!

So, I want to get a new iMac, but with an SSD.
Except, the price of it straight from Apple is too high.
So, I wanna buy one from newegg and replace the internal hard drive in the iMac.
How hard is it? Is it safe? Do I void the warranty?
I mean, I know it's easy enough to add RAM to it, but I'm not sure about the HD.
Maybe I'll buy the HD and bring the iMac to an Apple store and have them do it?

Thanks!
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
It's not really possible anymore, mainly due to a proprietary cable that Apple uses for hooking up the hard drive. Other than that, these new iMacs seems to be a little more tricky than previous models since the glass/plastic screen is glued to the monitor. Finally, it does void your warranty.

I'm an experienced DIY'er and even I am planning on doing the following: get the SSD or a Fusion Drive from Apple and deal with the price.
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
Hi!

So, I want to get a new iMac, but with an SSD.
Except, the price of it straight from Apple is too high.
So, I wanna buy one from newegg and replace the internal hard drive in the iMac.
How hard is it? Is it safe? Do I void the warranty?
I mean, I know it's easy enough to add RAM to it, but I'm not sure about the HD.
Maybe I'll buy the HD and bring the iMac to an Apple store and have them do it?

Thanks!

Good luck with that.:p

Depends if you are handy, if so it should not be that hard to get inside.
Void the Warranty, probably.

To GimmeSlack12 Is that so(proprietary cable)?
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
To GimmeSlack12 Is that so(proprietary cable)?

I will confirm, but I was just chatting about this same topic for the 2011 iMac and people were claiming this. I did a quick search and this was the case for those models. I don't expect anything to have changed.

I was just looking at iFixIt's teardown of the 21" iMac (the new one), and the glued monitor adhesive must be "reapplied" to put the thing back together! This alone scares me enough to just leave the iMac in one piece!

EDIT: I read closer on iFixit's teardown of the hard drive and cannot see if there's that cable used anymore, the interesting thing here is that 2.5" hard drives are being used. So I suppose the cable isn't proprietary anymore, but again I would not bother attempting to open this thing up. Replacing that adhesive to put the screen back on seems like a nightmare.
 

baterax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 3, 2012
3
0
ARGH.

With the SSD straight from Apple, the price of this iMac goes up to $3,649.00.
This is absurd.
For that, I can just get a damn Mac Pro...
Except, they are super outdated right now, and there's no release date for the new ones, right?

Damn. Suggestions?

EDIT: The thunderbolt option, I don't know, because I kinda wanted the BOOT drive to be SSD.

----------

It also looks like there are no external SSD ones larger than 128? I might be wrong there. Newegg doesn't have anything larger than that as external. Hmmm.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
EDIT: The thunderbolt option, I don't know, because I kinda wanted the BOOT drive to be SSD.

Which is possible via Thunderbolt and USB 3.0, thus the recommendations.

Hell, I can boot my Macs from USB 2.0 and Firewire HDDs.



----------

It also looks like there are no external SSD ones larger than 128? I might be wrong there. Newegg doesn't have anything larger than that as external. Hmmm.

There are 256 GB, 480 GB and 512 GB SSD out there (under Internal SSDs), 256 GB can be had for as low as 150 € for a Crucial M4.
Just get an enclosure to your liking, USB 3.0 enclosures will be cheaper than Thunderbolt ones, and put it in there.
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
EDIT: I read closer on iFixit's teardown of the hard drive and cannot see if there's that cable used anymore, the interesting thing here is that 2.5" hard drives are being used. So I suppose the cable isn't proprietary anymore, but again I would not bother attempting to open this thing up. Replacing that adhesive to put the screen back on seems like a nightmare.

That's why I asked, I saw the picture on iFixit and it seemed to be a regular SATA connector.
 

zhandri

Suspended
Sep 4, 2012
489
352
ARGH.


EDIT: The thunderbolt option, I don't know, because I kinda wanted the BOOT drive to be SSD.

----------

It also looks like there are no external SSD ones larger than 128? I might be wrong there. Newegg doesn't have anything larger than that as external. Hmmm.

yeah it's possible to use them as the main boot disk! and there are some new ones coming out the next weeks. lacie already has a 500GB SSD drive but it's pretty expensive. i think buffalo is coming out with a 256GB version soon.

Edit:
this is the 256GB from lacie
http://www.amazon.com/9000352-Rugged-Thunderbolt-380MBps-Transfer/dp/B009HQKR0Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354549235&sr=8-2&keywords=thunderbolt+SSD

this is the buffalo one
http://www.buffalo-technology.com/en/hd-patu3s-ministation-thunderbolt-portable-ssd.html
 

mihai.ile

macrumors member
Oct 12, 2012
95
3
The buffalo one seems a really pretty unit. Now someone just needs to sell an aluminum adapter that can be mounted on the back of the iMac foot and a cable that shoud be no longer or shorter than just to connect the drive to the usb or thunderbold port on the iMac.
 

mihai.ile

macrumors member
Oct 12, 2012
95
3
I was thinking more of something that would be able to hold the drive in a more vertical position just behind the foot with some purpose made cable to the iMac but this shelf is not too bad either. Somehow this shelf it just not seems to be up to the iMac design.
 

OlMighty

macrumors member
May 18, 2012
72
0
I know the RAM is accessible on the 27 at least, but is the hard drive theoretically replaceable on either, (accepting the lack of a compatible adaptor etc)?
 
Last edited:

tuccillo

macrumors member
Feb 8, 2012
82
0
You can get Westmere processors on the MacPro. One generation behind but still very capable - they use 1333MHz memory - very good memory bandwidth and lots of core - a bit pricey perhaps.

ARGH.

With the SSD straight from Apple, the price of this iMac goes up to $3,649.00.
This is absurd.
For that, I can just get a damn Mac Pro...
Except, they are super outdated right now, and there's no release date for the new ones, right?

Damn. Suggestions?

EDIT: The thunderbolt option, I don't know, because I kinda wanted the BOOT drive to be SSD.

----------

It also looks like there are no external SSD ones larger than 128? I might be wrong there. Newegg doesn't have anything larger than that as external. Hmmm.
 

Zackmd1

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2010
815
487
Maryland US
Hi!

So, I want to get a new iMac, but with an SSD.
Except, the price of it straight from Apple is too high.
So, I wanna buy one from newegg and replace the internal hard drive in the iMac.
How hard is it? Is it safe? Do I void the warranty?
I mean, I know it's easy enough to add RAM to it, but I'm not sure about the HD.
Maybe I'll buy the HD and bring the iMac to an Apple store and have them do it?

Thanks!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1499082/

Go to page 3 and continue reading to page 4. Your answer is there. The hardest part will be opening up the imac and re-sealing.
 
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