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Late 2009 iMac HDD Swap

M

Mattycee2K14

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 22, 2014
2
0
I have a Late 2009 iMac that I also use as my PC's 2nd monitor.

I use it and would like to update the hard drive to an SSD but then I was wondering if I can swap the mechanical drive for the Optical drive?

I know people can change the optical drive to an SSD but I have read that the Sata speed is 1.5Gbps for the optical drive so would prefer the slower mechanical drive to be on the slower sata speed.

On that note how can I tell if the sata speed of the optical drive will be 3Gbps or 1.5Gbps without reconnecting it all back up if I just swap the optical drive for an SSD if I cannot swap the optical drive for the mechanical hard drive.

Hope someone can answer my question as I have not had any luck googling it.
 
the sata speed will depend on the compatibilty between the ssd controller and the nvidia mcp79. i have a crucial m4 installed on optical bay and it works flawless on my late 2009
 
I have a late 2009 iMac, 10.1 and I replaced the optical drive with a Samsung 840 EVO and it linked up at 3 Gagabit. If you look in About this Mac, Hardware, SATA you should find the NVida Card with the Link Speed of 3 GB and a Negotiated Link Speed of 1.5 for the Optical Drive. After I installed the SSD it changed to a Negotiated Link Speed of 3 GB. The difference is amazing.

I also replaced the original hard drive with one that is 1TB, SATA rated of 6 GB (the old one was 3 GB) with a 64M cache. As measured by BlackMagic the new drive's speed is 2 1/2 time the speed of the old one.

I used the instructions at iFixit and many posts on this forum.

Mike
 
2 late 09s

Good upgrade. I've got it 2 different ways on two identical late 09 iMacs.

1 - replace hdd with ssd. Used m500.

2- replace optical with ssd and diy fusion. M4.

Similar speeds. Worthwhile upgrade. 2-3 x your hdd.
 
Thank you for all the replies. I will do the update in the next few weeks as it does seem worthwhile.

I have a 2TB mechanical drive which I will leave for data storage and use the SSD for video editing and the OS.

I appreciate the help.
 
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