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iSayuSay

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 6, 2011
3,789
906
Hi .. I own this late 2012 27" iMac since March, I ordered one with 1TB hard drive, however I'm planning to plant blade SSD as I refused to pay $150 Apple tax for a mere 120GB on Fusion Drive. I could do much better than that.

I'm planning to get 240GB or 480GB one, however I don't know where to start. Which blade SSD should I get? Does it identical to the one in rMBP, or MBA? Or is it custom blade and connector for the iMac?

Does iFixit sell it? Provide me the link if you don't mind.

This blade SSD thing is confusing. Apple could just change one small nick to the connector and it would be incompatible like what happened on MBA.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
 

Nuke61

macrumors 6502
Jan 18, 2013
325
1
Columbia, SC
Hi .. I own this late 2012 27" iMac since March, I ordered one with 1TB hard drive, however I'm planning to plant blade SSD as I refused to pay $150 Apple tax for a mere 120GB on Fusion Drive. I could do much better than that.

Is there a particular reason why you want to get a blade SSD? From what I understand of it, you pretty much have to disassemble your iMac to get to the blade connector. However, if you just remove the internal HDD, any normal SSD will slide right in, and you don't even need to completely remove the screen.

I suggest looking here for a place to start for ideas: http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=401
 

iSayuSay

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 6, 2011
3,789
906
Well I thought I could add the SSD into existing hard drive instead of replacing it.

I just need to know if 240GB of 512GB SSD Apple uses for the rMBP/MBA can also be used for this iMac, or does it another custom designed blade?

From what I understand, if you order an iMac with SSD only, it will be on the blade connector instead of SATA, right?
 

Nuke61

macrumors 6502
Jan 18, 2013
325
1
Columbia, SC
Well I thought I could add the SSD into existing hard drive instead of replacing it.

I just need to know if 240GB of 512GB SSD Apple uses for the rMBP/MBA can also be used for this iMac, or does it another custom designed blade?

From what I understand, if you order an iMac with SSD only, it will be on the blade connector instead of SATA, right?

Look at the following topic, specifically, post #169 by R.OG. He says the Apple SSD he installed in his iMac is the same one that's used in the rMBP. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1507713/
also a great thread to read in general if you want to open your iMac.
 

FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,423
2,493
Well I thought I could add the SSD into existing hard drive instead of replacing it.

I just need to know if 240GB of 512GB SSD Apple uses for the rMBP/MBA can also be used for this iMac, or does it another custom designed blade?

From what I understand, if you order an iMac with SSD only, it will be on the blade connector instead of SATA, right?

Not sure on the 27", but from iFixIt's teardown of the 21.5" (see step 24) the traces are there for the blade, but not the connector itself unless you actually order it with SSD. If you order the HDD-only model, there's no connector to plug a blade into.
 

eccentricglow

macrumors member
Mar 16, 2010
88
35
So, if you just installed a blade SSD with a traditional hard drive - would there be an option to not fuse those drives together? I've been living with separate drives for years, and it makes it easier when reformatting.
 

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
Buy them new on eBay, but any cheap are snapped up pretty quickly so save a custom search. Like with Xeon cpu's for the Mac Pro I have sourced them worldwide if they are very cheap and have good feedback
 
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