[HOW TO] iMac 27" (mid 2011) two SSDs in RAID 0 config + HDD

[spyroskoun]

I am really satisfied with my 1 ssd I can't imagine with two ssd in raid0 happened.
Excelent job thanks for sharing

[motoxer913]

I've been going back and forth between installing SSD myself and sending to OWC for turnkey. But I read somewhere that Apple Certified Techs will add an SSD for you and then I remembered that I have a recall on my internal 1TB Seagate drive in my 27" iMac (2011). So then I started thinking if I could find a tech to do the recall and add the SSD at the same time that would be great.
OWC cannot do the warranty work, so that rules them out.
Apple Store will do the warranty work, but won't add the SSD.
So then I called my local Simply Mac store who are authorized to do the recall work AND are happy to install the SSD...AWESOME!!
I just ordered a 6G SSD from OWC and as soon as I get it will deliver the iMac and the SSD to Simply Mac to do both pieces of work at the same time. Can't wait!

[muski]

Originally Posted by motoxer913

I've been going back and forth between installing SSD myself and sending to OWC for turnkey. But I read somewhere that Apple Certified Techs will add an SSD for you and then I remembered that I have a recall on my internal 1TB Seagate drive in my 27" iMac (2011). So then I started thinking if I could find a tech to do the recall and add the SSD at the same time that would be great.
OWC cannot do the warranty work, so that rules them out.
Apple Store will do the warranty work, but won't add the SSD.
So then I called my local Simply Mac store who are authorized to do the recall work AND are happy to install the SSD...AWESOME!!
I just ordered a 6G SSD from OWC and as soon as I get it will deliver the iMac and the SSD to Simply Mac to do both pieces of work at the same time. Can't wait!

This a great solution for installing one SATA III SSD (which will be 2x faster than the Apple-supplied SATA II SSD). But I wonder if SimplyMac can install 2 SSDs (and leave in the HDD) for SSD RAID 0 and still keep the machine under warranty.

[Xenophyte]

Thanks for this post th0rr! The detailed instructions look good if a bit scary

I am planning to use the iMac 27" (mid 2011) 3.4ghz to replace my Mac Pro 2010 tower for playing live VJ shows. I play HD video content (1080p) in *many* simultaneous layers, which is extremely demanding on disk transfer speeds.

After much research on SSDs, I have decided on the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPs edition, as this looks to be about 50Mb/sec faster than OWC Mercury Extreme 6G on incompressible data. Since I will be doing mostly compressed video, nearly all the data transfer will be incompressible.

I checked with OWC and they weren't aware that RAID 0 SSDs on a 2011 iMac was possible... I pointed them to this thread

I will be replacing the hard drive with a 3TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000, which is not quite as good as the Ultrastar enterprise version of the drive, but perhaps the second-best 3TB drive on the market. I have Ultrastars in my RAID system.

One thing I'm concerned about is the thermal sensor on the hard drive: It looks like OWC is using sensors from Gravis.de to remedy the reporting problems in Apple Hardware Test and the fan-speed issues. I may have to install Fan Control or similar unless someone can point me to a hardware sensor. Ifixit.com did not return any results on "optical sensor" for the 2011 iMac

Well, I'll let you guys know how it goes - I'm a bit nervous on this upgrade but have built 5 PCs and tinkered with many Macs, so I should be okay following the instructions carefully. Wish me well!

[Xenophyte]

Originally Posted by Xenophyte

One thing I'm concerned about is the thermal sensor on the hard drive: It looks like OWC is using sensors from Gravis.de to remedy the reporting problems in Apple Hardware Test and the fan-speed issues. I may have to install Fan Control or similar unless someone can point me to a hardware sensor. Ifixit.com did not return any results on "optical sensor" for the 2011 iMac

I am told on an Apple support forum that the iMac 2011 27" does not use a thermal sensor via a special cable on the hard drive -- can anyone verify this?

Update:

Found @: http://www.hardmac.com/news/2011/05/...-the-2011-imac

"It is the solution provided by Apple on the models coming with an SSD: short-circuit pins 2 and 7 on the power supply cable.
...
[On the] 2011 model ... the [disk temperature?] information now goes through pin 11 of the power supply connector, which is normally used to light-up a LED during disk activity. In prodder to change the use of that pin, a specific firmware was needed, which explains the reason that only disks sold by Apple in the iMac don't have any problem."

[bozzygti]

i just took my 3.5 drive out and made custom bracket from apples factory one for the owc ssd 6g hard drive.. i had a problem with the fan ramping up so i look all around and i found that company call hdd fan control had the fix so i bought it.. it does the job.. i just wish i new how one day..now I'm going to make a new bracket to but two ssd in the 3.5 slot..
http://www.hddfancontrol.com/Users/c...p/IMG_4795.jpg

[Drag'nGT]

This is exactly the thread I was looking for. I just got a 128gb SSD as a gift and really thought the safest thing for me to do is sell it and get one 256gb SSD. But then I thought that I could buy another and put it in Raid 0. To those of you with two drives in Raid 0, how reliable is the software raid in Mac OS and have you had good luck with your drives?

Do people warn about Raid 0 no matter what drive (hdd/ssd) you use?
What steps do you take to protect against the drive failing?

Originally Posted by bozzygti

i just took my 3.5 drive out and made custom bracket from apples factory one for the owc ssd 6g hard drive.. i had a problem with the fan ramping up so i look all around and i found that company call hdd fan control had the fix so i bought it.. it does the job.. i just wish i new how one day..now I'm going to make a new bracket to but two ssd in the 3.5 slot..
http://www.hddfancontrol.com/Users/c...p/IMG_4795.jpg

Would you happen to have a guide on what you did to get two drives to use that mount? Or more pics of the final version? Also, did you just simply use the wires from the optical drive and not have to take the logic board out?

[Gebekophli]

Dear Threadstarter th0rr,

Your advice, how to CONNECT the two SSDs is really good. You get the both SSDs at the SATA III ports and change the HDD to the SATA II port of the former ODD.
You leave the HDD power Connector, which is a special construction, not a SATA POWER plug, untouched so you will not get any fan-speed problems. So far everything is okay.

But this is not okay, cause it will or it could be the source of damage the GPU.
"Once you have all the cables in place I recommend you to remove that fake SSD wall so you gain enough space for two SSDs".

But, this advice is not acceptable, cause you corrupt the GPU cooling system, when you remove the "fake SSD wall". The name of that wall is "pressure wall" and Apple needed 4 or 5 years to construct them, in order to prevent recirculating hot air in the iMacs. I showed this parts in this thread:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...1101370&page=7

(There is Hope for iMac 27" Display - Black Spots/Smudges/Dust in the display FIXED!)

It is not a thread about the installation of two SSDs, but about wrong airflow in iMacs. please look at the pictures in #156 and learn the essentials about high and low pressure side of the airflow in an iMac.

The first photo: If you remove the pressure wall No. 2, the airflow is no more directed right through the GPU heatsink of the heatpipe. If you don't mount the SSD on the three sockets you can see in the photo, you will corrupt the airflow underneath.

The fourth photo: The second SSD does definitely not belong into the GPU airway space too. It has its own place between the GPU heatsink and the HDD, where the original Apple SSDs is mounted. Please look at the INTEL 510 SSD. It is taped to the back wall, no original SSD pressure wall, but the SSD is in the "bay" of the "fake SSD wall" which you should not remove.
The HDD is not mounted in this picture, but it fits into its original place as before.

All the other posts it the thread are dealing with the airflow in an iMac, which is not to neglect.

My advice is: First SSD needs a bracket to mount it on the sockets.
Second SSD has its place there, where Apple mounts the SSD originally.

[nathanjbrown]

Originally Posted by bozzygti

i just took my 3.5 drive out and made custom bracket from apples factory one for the owc ssd 6g hard drive.. i had a problem with the fan ramping up so i look all around and i found that company call hdd fan control had the fix so i bought it.. it does the job.. i just wish i new how one day..now I'm going to make a new bracket to but two ssd in the 3.5 slot..
http://www.hddfancontrol.com/Users/c...p/IMG_4795.jpg

Hi bozzygti,

Did you manage to fit two SSDs into your iMac using a custom bracket? I plan on installing at least one SSD using a similar customized bracket as you pictured. I'd be interested to know if two fit within that bracket. I'm not a fan of installing a second SSD with double-sided tape.

Thanks!

Nathan

[patned]

I have bought 2 x Kingston HyperX (blue one with latest firmware) and build them in my iMac 27 mid 2011, but I was wondering what blocksize you used and why? I found this URL: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/sto...d-raid0_2.html and as far I can see 32Kb block size (default value in IOS) is not so bad.

I also noticed that my fans were spinning faster then they use to spin with the 7200rpm harddrive. So I bought http://www.hddfancontrol.com/ and the fans are not spinning anymore, but will start when 50 degrees celcius is reach, and still have to test for the next days if this will occurs. But I do not know why the HDD sensor is not able to sens the temp anymore?

I hope you have some answers for me...

[amd is the best]

Originally Posted by th0rr

I tested speed of my disks before the update of program DiskSpeedTest. I remember that they wrote in the updated version that they made some tweaks to tests and should now show results more accurately.

If I repeat the test I got similar results as you guys. Only half speed when writing data. Should we try any other disk speed software? Any suggestions?

Edit: I started googling after taking another Disk Speed Test and found interesting comments about the update of a program on the Mac App Store application page:



and this one:



Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/black...25264550?mt=12

So is completely possible what they're saying.

Thank you very much for the write up and explanation of why the new version of BlackMagic Disk speed test seems off. I was worried that there was something wrong with my OCZ Vertex 3 (not in raid) when it's reading much lower on this tool. Xbench and AJA System test both read normal speeds for my drive though.

Subscribing

[DrJack6]

I forgot to look how old this forum is but anyway... Bro you went through a lot to install that. I did it too. But without removing the logic board... Just hook ssd1 up to the top sata 3 port. Remove the optical drive. Use mini sata to sata adapter cable to re-hook the optical drives connector to the hard drive. Re-route the hard drive cable to the 2nd ssd. That method took 15 minutes and no logic board removal or cable customization. Just for future reference.

[Yougotcarved]

Wow those R/W speeds are amazing! Congratulations I'm well impressed.

Question for you guys: I love those speeds, but I currently have a Fusion drive. Would it make a big difference to have my boot drive as RAID 0 SSDs or would it be better just to get an external with those high speeds since its mainly file transfer that would benefit from those speeds as opposed to opening apps.

[DrJack6]

Remember this is 2011 not 2012. I think you have a 2012

[itsamacthing]

Thats an awesome MOD

[DrJack6]

View the attached image. Thats real Imac Speed. And a hot girlfriend just to rub it in lol

[Mike in Kansas]

Originally Posted by DrJack6

View the attached image. Thats real Imac Speed. And a hot girlfriend just to rub it in lol

I think somebody is over-compensating for something....