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jasnw

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 15, 2013
1,012
1,048
Seattle Area (NOT! Microsoft)
For those of you who have older iMacs and are unimpressed with Apple's latest anorexic offerings I have a suggestion. I've had my 2011 27" iMac upgraded by the folks at OWC to replace the noisy-since-purchase 1TB HD with a 256GB SSD and a 3TB HD. They turned it around in just a bit over a week (I paid for rapid shipping) and it's like I have a whole new machine for about $500. Everything runs faster (no surprise there) and the new HD (a Toshiba) is almost as quiet as the SSD. I'm sure that this sort of behavior by their unruly customer base is probably why the Apple folks would just as soon weld shut every computer they sell.

Now, if I can just get a non-buggy OS to go with this beast (still on Mavericks, least-buggy still supported OS X).
 

can$rules

macrumors member
Jul 29, 2014
55
100
I've been meaning to do that to my iMac, but isn't it possible to achieve a similar result with an external SSD? I see some in the ~100$ range. I don't need tons of storage.
 

jasnw

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 15, 2013
1,012
1,048
Seattle Area (NOT! Microsoft)
It's not the issue of storage, it's the issue of being able to put the OS an internal SSD so you can boot from it. You can also do that from an external SSD, but you slow WAY down going through whatever cable-based interface you use. Take a look at the OWC site, if you don't need a lot of storage they can just put in an SSD and leave your current HD in place. They put your OS on the SSD so you can boot from it. This really should be a DIY project, and I would have gone that route but I wimped out at the idea of having to remove the glass and video layer off the front of the beast and reinstall it. If you're willing to take that on it's even less expensive.
 

chscag

macrumors 601
Feb 17, 2008
4,622
1,946
Fort Worth, Texas
For those of you who have older iMacs and are unimpressed with Apple's latest anorexic offerings I have a suggestion. I've had my 2011 27" iMac upgraded by the folks at OWC to replace the noisy-since-purchase 1TB HD with a 256GB SSD and a 3TB HD. They turned it around in just a bit over a week (I paid for rapid shipping) and it's like I have a whole new machine for about $500. Everything runs faster (no surprise there) and the new HD (a Toshiba) is almost as quiet as the SSD. I'm sure that this sort of behavior by their unruly customer base is probably why the Apple folks would just as soon weld shut every computer they sell.

Now, if I can just get a non-buggy OS to go with this beast (still on Mavericks, least-buggy still supported OS X).

The folks at OWC are top notch and are as good as the Apple geniuses (maybe better). As soon as Apple Care expires on my 2013 27" iMac, I may do the same as you. Or I might just sell it and buy a retina model. What would make me even more happy is to have Apple come out with a 27" Retina Thunderbolt display next year. That and a new MacBook Air would go great together. :p
 
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