Best SSD for Mid 2007 iMac

[mr.steevo]

I'm not entirely sure how Fusion works but it could be splitting the storage of your iPhoto library between the SSD and HDD and then when you want to open iPhoto it could be trying to read two drives at once. If this is the case there may be a software fix in the works from Apple? Also - make sure you enable TRIM! It also doesn't hurt to make sure your SSD's firmware is up to date. I have the same SSD you have and 040H is the latest firmware revision. (you can see this in the system report through "About this Mac")

In general, it seems like the size of your library has something to do with it (190/256GB) I'm sure Fusion is moving some if not all of the library to the HDD.

Hello thread again,

I still haven't installed an SSD in the 2007 iMac because I reallllllly have no time to mess around with fixing the little things that invariably go wrong with upgrades. However, I would like to know from anyone who has done a "fusion drive" how it survived from OS upgrades. Did Yosemite kill it?

I am guessing that El Capitan will be the last upgrade for the 2007 iMac but who knows....?

 

[DaveNinja]

I'm thinking of upgrading my iMac (2007 - 24") with an SSD to try and get a year or so more out of it.

 

[jasoncarmony]

So I just did an SSD swap in my daughter's 2007 iMac. I didn't do the "fusion drive" as I don't really know what that is. I'm sort of new to the Mac world. I just installed a budget 128GB SSD from Amazon and the difference is night and day. It is definitely worth the money and I'd recommend doing it to anyone. The iMac has 4GB of RAM also. I can't believe the way it runs. It seriously blew me away with the change in the performance of the computer. I'm hoping to get four years out of the iMac as my daughter is just beginning her freshmen year in high school. All she needs is internet, netflix, and word processing for homework. Right now, I fully believe that the iMac will make it. If I need to, I'll max out the RAM at 6GB.

 

[DaveNinja]

I finally got around to buying a SSD, T6 torx bit and the adapter that the SSD will sit in to make it fit into the old HD spot. Hopefully this week i'll have a chance to install it.

 

[mr.steevo]

I finally got around to buying a SSD, T6 torx bit and the adapter that the SSD will sit in to make it fit into the old HD spot. Hopefully this week i'll have a chance to install it.

How did it work out for you?

 

[DaveNinja]

How did it work out for you?

I did this upgrade twice on identical 2007 Al iMacs (24 inch screens). First time was with a Crucial 500gb SSD. I couldnt get the imac to see the drive when it was installed internally so i ended up using it as a boot drive via USB enclosure. Amazingly, this made the computer faster. It was just a temp fix and the computer was later replace by a hackintosh.

On my other 2007 iMac, i had an old 160gb intel SSD laying around so i figured i'd try it out and it worked fine once it was installed internally. Its still running and a big improvement.

so i dont know if it was the brand or not. one of the imacs may have had a flake sata cable or something.

 

[mr.steevo]

I was thinking of doing a 500gb SSD on the iMac but now I'm not sure. I wonder why the 500 wouldn't work?

Thanks for the reply.

 

[DaveNinja]

I was thinking of doing a 500gb SSD on the iMac but now I'm not sure. I wonder why the 500 wouldn't work?

Thanks for the reply.

the reasons i saw when searching pointed to the SATA cable having to be replaced. Maybe the 500 gig SSD i had was pickier about the cable than the old 120 gig SSD.

 

[Exzo2]

Mid 2007 iMac with Fusion Drive

I just did this upgrade and wish I would have found this forum sooner. Regardless, I managed to get a Fusion Drive running with a EMC 2133 20" iMac (Mid-2007) with ML. It is not that bad at all price-wise and I feel was worth every penny of the upgrade given the performance results. My configuration involves the following:

1 - SSD (Crucial M4 - 256GB) - This can be found relatively cheap at Amazon.

2 - HDD (WD Scorpio Black 750GB) - Same place as above.

3 - I wanted the SSD as my main disk (disk0). Therefore, this piece is a perfect fit for mounting a 2.5" in the 3.5" HDD bay of the 2007 iMac - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005PZDVF6/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00

4 - Next, the optical drive adapter - this allows your PATA optical drive to be converted into a 2.5" SATA HD/SSD adapter and was found here - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064A9Y5W/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00
It was not the most perfect fit but it works and it beat the 60$ some other website is asking for.

5. Finally these websites served as perfect guides that got me up and running with a brand new Fusion Drive OS in no time:

A: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2133+and+2210+Dual+Hard+Drive/8951/1 - This is for installing the second drive in the optical bay (where I put the 750GB WD SB)

B: http://www.macworld.com/article/1167857/how_to_make_a_bootable_mountain_lion_install_drive.html - This is how I managed to get 10.8.2 bootable onto a USB drive (now that there's no optical drive.)
NOTE: 10.8.2 is required to get Fusion Drive enabled.

C: http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html - This will be the final step before you install the OS - it guides you through creating the Fusion Drive - which worked flawlessly.

TRIM isn't necessary for the M4 SSD (it has its own garbage collection) but it also doesn't hurt to enable it. Unfortunately Apple doesn't outright support it on 3rd party SSD's so every major OS X upgrade will require a new fix. However, for 10.8.2 the TRIM enabler commands can be found here:

https://gist.github.com/clarencesong/3768688

I get the same 25 sec boot time and now waking from sleep is under 1-2 seconds! The great thing about Fusion is you get the SSD speed with the 1TB total storage - the OS handles all the transferring of data between drives in the background.

For around 300$ total this is a good deal considering my almost 6 year old iMac is still relevant and will be for at least another 4 years.

I'm curious to know if you still have your iMac 4 years later and how did it work?

 

[IconicM]

If find the SSD reviews at Anandtech to be helpful. http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds

Not all SSD's are created equal.