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2011 Thunderbolt iMac SSD Discussion Thread (Parts Identified)

EWDurbin said:
Received mine today! They are precisely the right stuff.

My Agility 3 is going in today.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't you know it, I post the corrected numbers for the cables, order mine, and Canada Post goes on strike. :mad:

So I have my Basic 21.5 i5 iMac Agility 3 120Gb SSD (which happened to be on sale at Newegg.ca AND attract a rebate), extra RAM waiting patiently... well, not so patiently.

Glad I could help out the revolution (er, evolution, of the Basic iMac to SSD conversion).
 
EWDurbin said:
I purchased the cables mentioned above from AppleComponents, and was likely the first as I had to request them.

They arrived this morning and everything looked great.

After running out to purchase some sheet aluminum to rig up my own bracket I set into work.

Removed the motherboard, as is detailed in iFixit's teardown.

Added the SSD power and data cables to the bundle running off of the motherboard.

With the motherboard out of the way, I set to trimming, bending and punching the sheet aluminum to make brackets for either side. They turned out alright.

Reinstalled in reverse and ran the SSD cables through the pre-existing cut out on the pressure wall.

Finished assembly as normal, then popped in the Applications DVD and set it on extended test.

No problems found!

System Profiler Post Install:
Image
Click to expand...

No Trim support, I noticed. Is there a workaround for this?
 
AbeFroman77 said:
This from anandtech's review:

Apparently Apple likes to query HDD temperature quite frequently and uses that data in determining fan speed. In order to keep those requests off the SATA bus Apple supplies a custom power cable with surprisingly low gauge wires to not only power the hard drive but also return temperature data to Apple's fan controllers.

The standard SATA power cable is five pins. There's one pin for each voltage rail (3.3V, 5V and 12V) and two pins for ground. Apple's custom cable has seven pins, the remaining two are for temperature data. If you replace the iMac's internal hard drive with a drive that doesn't provide the appropriate temperature data, Apple's fan controller will go bonkers and try to cool what it assumes is an overheating drive.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4340/27inch-apple-imac-review-2011/5
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My bad. It works though for me. I know it was just a SATA power Y cable that was used.
 
Custom install of SSD on 21.5" iMac (2011)

EWDurbin said:
[With the motherboard out of the way, I set to trimming, bending and punching the sheet aluminum to make brackets for either side. They turned out alright.]

EWDurbin--a few questions regarding your custom install of the SSD: How did you attach the SSD to the aluminum brackets? Where did you get the screws to attach the brackets to the iMac? And the dumb question: why can't I simply attach the SSD to the iMac behind the optical drive with adhesive velcro? Nice job on the install--I'm nervous about the motherboard removal--any tips?
Click to expand...
 
Just to share my experience. I have a 21.5" iMac and was mislead by this thread as well as by ChargedPC's guide. Several people said 27" and 21.5" should be the same, but they are not and the guides cannot be used interchangeably.

The 21.5" iMac does not have slim Sata connectors on the motherboard, logic board, w/e you want to call it. Instead, it has two of Apple's proprietary 5 or 6-pin mystery power ports, and one 4-pin power port for a SSD. This is pictured in iFixit's guide if you're curious.

A y-sata power splitter will not worked as planned in the 21.5" because the only place a y-sata splitter could be inserted is at the optical drive's power (the stock HDD has that special power connector). And, I'm pretty confident to say that the iMac won't be powering the optical drive continuously. Try at your own risk. As another note, this isn't a standard port either. This is a special sataslim LP cable described earlier, the same that the 27" has on its logic board.

I had my whole 21.5" taken apart and had to reassemble it without my newly purchased SSD because I didn't have the right stuff. And, in my opinion, the right stuff is the power cable provided at applecomponents; however, applecomponents has been down for what appears to be almost a month now.

Good luck.
 
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no refills said:
Just to share my experience. I have a 21.5" iMac and was mislead by this thread as well as by ChargedPC's guide. Several people said 27" and 21.5" should be the same, but they are not and the guides cannot be used interchangeably.

The 21.5" iMac does not have slim Sata connectors on the motherboard, logic board, w/e you want to call it. Instead, it has two of Apple's proprietary 5 or 6-pin mystery power ports, and one 4-pin power port for a SSD. This is pictured in iFixit's guide if you're curious.

A y-sata power splitter will not worked as planned in the 21.5" because the only place a y-sata splitter could be inserted is at the optical drive's power (the stock HDD has that special power connector). And, I'm pretty confident to say that the iMac won't be powering the optical drive continuously. Try at your own risk. As another note, this isn't a standard port either. This is a special sataslim LP cable described earlier, the same that the 27" has on its logic board.

I had my whole 21.5" taken apart and had to reassemble it without my newly purchased SSD because I didn't have the right stuff. And, in my opinion, the right stuff is the power cable provided at applecomponents; however, applecomponents has been down for what appears to be almost a month now.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Try to combine SATA Y-Splitter with specific SATA power cable


That combination works 100%, already tested :D
 
EWDurbin said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/534.32 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Base model! 2011 21.5" i5
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Did you split the power off the HDD power or the Optical-drive power? I'm concerned with the temp sensor running thru the HDD power line and how that will work with putting a power splitter in that mix...
 
Good news: i've got all SKU for iMac 21/27 2011 SSD parts.

So....

iMac 21:
SSD Data - 922-9861 (about 40$)
SSD Power - 922-9862 (about 40$)
SSD Bracket - 076-1383 (about 45$)
Bracket Screws - 922-9927, 922-6800 (about 60$)

iMac 27:
SSD Data & Power Cable (combined) - 922-9875 (about 45$)
SSD Bracket - 076-1383 (about 45$)
Bracket Screws - 922-9488, 922-6850 (about 60$)
 
no refills said:
The 21.5" iMac does not have slim Sata connectors on the motherboard, logic board, w/e you want to call it. Instead, it has two of Apple's proprietary 5 or 6-pin mystery power ports, and one 4-pin power port for a SSD.
Click to expand...

6ce6eef9.png



alienatf said:
Try to combine SATA Y-Splitter with specific SATA power cable
Click to expand...

Doesn't fit on board, see pic above. Doesn't fit btwn HDD and cable, HDD has weird sata power with temp sensor. I could put it with my optical drive, but I'd rather not.

alienatf said:
macpartsonline got all parts, but their price ~33% bigger
Click to expand...

They don't supply parts for the 2011 iMac. I think me and lots of others are SOL as of July 5th. And to the person who I didn't quote right before this post, it is the y-sata splitter causing the fan speed mayhem. No data sent over y-splitter. Weee!

P.S. Applecomponents emailed me back and told me to keep checking the site "from time to time," but in the near future it's not coming back.
 
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no refills said:
Doesn't fit on board, see pic above. Doesn't fit btwn HDD and cable, HDD has weird sata power with temp sensor. I could put it with my optical drive, but I'd rather not.
Click to expand...
If you want to do that in iMac 21 you have to combine sata Y-Slittr cable with ASTA right angle power cable. Cut of one power connector from splitter cable and glue on their place right angle connector from "donor" cable.

I've already done that, it works.

no refills said:
They don't supply parts for the 2011 iMac. I think me and lots of others are SOL as of July 5th.
Click to expand...

I've got all SPU from Macpartsonline, just email them.
Quote from their email:
Yes I can get you the following parts in 1-2 business days.
Click to expand...
 
:cool: Cool. Just emailed. I just feel like an ass at this point, but are you cutting the SATA cable from the CD drive? Others asked above, but idk if u answered.
 
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alienatf said:
If you want to do that in iMac 21 you have to combine sata Y-Slittr cable with ASTA right angle power cable. Cut of one power connector from splitter cable and glue on their place right angle connector from "donor" cable.

I've already done that, it works.
Click to expand...

alienatf - so you've wired power (and earth?) from the 7-pin Apple hdd power cable :
_DSC6518sm.jpg


to a SATA power splitter cable...

Would be much appreciated if you could please post pictures / diagrams explaining this a little more.
 
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I also presumed the 21.5 would have the same slimSATA connectors on the mobo as the 27... Ordered a selection of slimSATA to SATA cables from here: www.microsatacables.com as couldn't find any kind of slimSATA cables where I am in Thailand. (The day they arrive I find out they're no good for me...) Maybe a source for those with the 27 who don't fancy bodging their own cables together.
 
alienatf said:
[url=http://i24.fastpic.ru/thumb/2011/0708/38/b459b4945227373451ef4c7e6e35b738.jpeg]Image[/URL]
Click to expand...

Thanks alienatf. Sorry - could you explain a little more...

There are 7 wires on the Apple hdd cable and 4 wires on the SATA splitter - which wires went where? Not sure of the wire/pin layout on the Apple hdd cable - which wire/pin is 5v, etc.

Eg. on a SATA cable the wire/pin layout is like this:
Serial-ata-connector.GIF


But on the Apple hdd cable the wire/pin layout is like?

And how did you join the cables?

I hope you understand what I mean...
 
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