2011 27" imac ssd upgrade

[Sawool1]

I just bought a used imac and want to upgrade the hdd to an ssd.
I do not want to open it up.
I purchased a SATA to usb 3.0 cable and was able to boot my computer with the external ssd.
I noticed the speed did not increase as much as I want to and that is due to the fact that the imac only has a usb 2.0 port.
What would the cheapest way to connect an ssd to the thunderbolt port?

 

[Richdmoore]

There have been lots of these threads lately. I used a delock thunderbolt caddy with a ssd drive on my 2011 iMac. ($85 + tbolt 1/2 cable + sata ssd cost.)

The only US retailer for delock is Syncrotech.

http://www.synchrotech.com/products...sd-drive-external-enclosure-delock-42510.html

 

[mikehalloran]

What would the cheapest way to connect an ssd to the thunderbolt port?

Open it up and install the SSD is the cheapest way—even if you pay for an hour of someone's time (it will take him/her half that). Added benefit: you get rid of a 7 year old HDD that runs extremely hot and cooks the components from the inside. Oh, it will run much faster than any external except eSATA (which requires a $169 modification but, on a 27" 2011, it can be done)

Many recent threads on this. No reason to type it all over again.

 

[ahdc]

I just bought a used imac and want to upgrade the hdd to an ssd.

I've posted an exact same thread a week ago, had picked up an used iMac 2011 27". The disk speeds are much better now, I get 500 MB/s Read and Write both.

What I did was contacted an Apple technician who happily did the upgrade for me. I picked up a Crucial MX500 SSD and installed in the main drive bay. I skipped installing the thermal sensors as you can easily bypass that using the Mac Fans Control app.

Also, since it's an old machine now, I ended up asking the technician to change the thermal paste as well.

 

[mikehalloran]

I skipped installing the thermal sensors as you can easily bypass that using the Mac Fans Control app.

I detest that app. I don't like having to monitor and control the fans manually and hate the full speed noise while booting till the extension kicks in. OWC was backordered on the sensor when I did mine and I lived with that condition for a month. Never again.

The $39.95 spent to control the fans automatically is well worth it, IMO.