27" iMac 5K (late-2014) Fusion>SSD upgrade

[amenityelk]

I have a ~6 y/o 27" iMac (late-2014) that has a 1.12 TB fusion drive, which I'm looking to upgrade to a 1TB SSD. I've been reading the forums to get a sense of what this entails, but I have a few questions:

1) Upgrade kit? I see that both iFixIt and OWC sell upgrade kits. I wonder if anybody can speak to the difference between them? I'm leaning towards iFixIt.

2) SSD model? What would you recommend? I've seen others mention a Samsung EVO to use for the HDD > SSD replacement. OWC's upgrade kit seems to come with their own "Mercury Extreme Pro" SSD—thoughts on this vs. using a Samsung, or the Crucial SSD that iFixIt sells?

3) PCIe blade? From what I understand, the fusion drive is really comprised of a regular spinning SATA drive, and a 128GB PCIe flash drive, linked in the OS. If I replace the HDD with an SSD, I'd then have with 2 mountable drives, correct? Which would you recommend using as the boot drive? My instinct is to use the PCIe as the boot drive, and store most files on the SATA SSD, but not sure. (I don't plan to replace the blade.)

I've never done an internal upgrade like this before, so I'm a bit nervous! If you have any tips, they'd be most welcome. Thanks so much!

 

[Juicy Box]

Upgrading the internal HDD with an internal SATA SSD would give you good speed, TRIM support, clean install, and the easiest for internal SSD installs. It is also the cheapest way to use a SSD on your Mac.


But.......

I've never done an internal upgrade like this before, so I'm a bit nervous!

It isn't exactly the easiest way to go about using a SSD on your iMac.

I think people on the forum tend to exaggerate the difficultly of doing internal work on the slim iMacs, but it really isn't that hard with the proper tools, quality adhesive strips, preparing before hand, having another person for help, watching plenty of how-tos, etc. Oh yeah, give plenty of time for the adhesion of the display back on the Mac. There have been reports of people doing the internal install, only to have their display fall off on to their desk a few days later and sometimes break it in the process.

That said, maybe you should consider using something externally first. While there are faster options, if you use something like a SATA SSD externally using a USB3 enclosure or USB3/SATA Adapter cable, you can get many of the benefits of doing the internal install, but without risk of doing the internal install.

A USB3 SATA SSD would be around 400MBps speeds. It can be done quickly and easily. It would only be a little more money than doing an internal SATA SSD.

Also, if you decide later to install your external SSD internally, you can do this.

The downside of doing a external USB3 SATA SSD is that it isn't quite as fast as an internal SATA SSD, it is a less clean set up with having it externally, and there is no TRIM support for USB on the MacOS.

There are some other external options that are faster and/or have TRIM support, but they are typically cost more.

Regardless if you go internal or external, I personally would recommend doing an external SSD first anyways and clone your boot drive to make sure everything is working fine. You don't want to do the internal install, close everything up, just to have issue, and not sure what is wrong.

 

[amenityelk]

@vertical smile Thanks for this information! I might try getting an adapter cable to do the install before opening the iMac up.

Does anybody have thoughts on relative merits of iFixIt vs OWC install kits? And the best SSD model? I'm leaning towards Samsung EVO 860, but curious if there's anything I'm missing.

 

[Juicy Box]

Does anybody have thoughts on relative merits of iFixIt vs OWC install kits?

I have used both, and the tool kits are similar.

IIRC, the iFixit adhesive strips used to be better than the OWC. They were foam-like, similar to Apple's OEM ones, so if you have to open the iMac again, the iFixit ones were easier to cut.

I have saw elsewhere that the above is no longer the case, the OWC are very similar, if not identical, to the iFixit ones. Maybe someone else can let use know their experience using one or both.

When it comes to the adhesive strips, make sure you purchase form a reputable source, like directly from iFixit or OWC. Amazon has been having issues with counterfeit items, looking like real ones, but not the same quality nor specs.

Maybe this doesn't matter for the adhesive strips, but I have seem a few posts with people stating that even after doing a thorough cleaning of the old strips, the new ones failed leading to the display dropping from the iMac.

Also, give it plenty of time to cure. I would even go as far as putting some painter's tape holding the glass tightly on for a few days.

Also, maybe buy two sets of strips, just in case you mess up on one or have to open your Mac again.

I might try getting an adapter cable to do the install before opening the iMac up.

I would highly recommend doing this.

You want to make sure the SSD you install into your iMac is working without problems, testing, installing the OS, booting, and running the SSD externally, at least at first, might prevent having open the iMac multiple times to troubleshoot SSD problems.

Getting a cheap SATA/USB3 adapter cable or enclosure would be a good way to do this. They can be purchased for less than $10.

And the best SSD model? I'm leaning towards Samsung EVO 860, but curious if there's anything I'm missing.

Maybe people on the forum use the Samsung 860 EVO. I have personally used it multiple times on Macs internally. They are just good drives.

If it was an easy and quick job to open up your Mac, I would just say use any SSD, as I personally never had any problems with any of my SSDs, but since opening the thin iMacs isn't the quickest and easiest job, and requires the purchase of adhesive strips per each opening, getting a higher quality one might be worth it.

You might be able to find a good deal with the holidays coming up.

 

[amenityelk]

@vertical smile Super, thanks for all this—really helpful. I got the Samsung SSD and a SATA/USB cable as well to get things going (with a great Black Friday discount!). Now onto the fun part.