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27" iMac i7 2.93Ghz, 120Gb SSD, 2Tb, 16Gb, 1Gb 5750....*NEW WOW VID 2!!!*

thanks for the video.
is the patriot SSD the recommended ssd drive for the imac? was it an easy install or did you struggle? i have seen videos on how to change drives and it looks complicated and scary.

the ram - where did you get it from?
thanks

oh, last q - the 2tb drive you have - is it installed internally? if so, where?
 
Its not a recommended SSD for the iMac as far as I know. All SSD's will work but the Patriot one uses the Sandforce controller which helps to keep the drive working efficiently as OSX doesnt have trim. The vertex 2e is the same.

Installing the ssd was fine but I have prior PC building knowledge so its a personal choice on your part.

Got the ram from ebay and works great. No crashes so far.

The 2tb drive is in the same place as the 1tb one was. The ssd is underneath it. Thats why I wanted the 2010 imac so I could fit both drives in for a neat job.
 
thanks for that. i have built machines too from scratch (altho the number is only below 10) but with this being a mac, i have no great knowledge of mac hardware hence i asked as the documentations look complicated.

did you have to use a suction to lift the glass screen?

just how is the screen secured anyway? it's not just by magnets is it? ifixit didn't really mention how it's secured to the imac.

you're in the UK? i'm in Leeds
 
Hi SpitUK, great machine there! I myself am still using the 09 iMac i7 2.8/4850 GPU which runs WoW fine for what I need. I am however interested in the comment you mentioned about being able to put both a HDD and SSD in the iMac without using something like an "opitbay" which takes out your DVD drive.

Are the new iMac's differnet to the point this is not possible on the 09' versions?

I'm looking to upgrade to a small SSD for my boot drive, but may sell the 09 for a 2010 if this is not possible on the older model. Thanks!
 
I think there is space in the 09 model. the problem is that there is no 3rd SATA port. You can only have the optical drive and HDD. With the 2010 model there is a 3rd SATA port so you can have all three.
 
SpitUK said:
The SSD does not produce any heat. My 2010 imac with the 2 drives runs cooler than my 2009 imac with the 1Tb.
Click to expand...

Toshiba is also about to start selling MBA style SSD's which could be a real boon for DIY iMac upgrades. Not owning an iMac myself I can't say for sure but I would look into getting a SATA splitter and sandwiching one of those Toshiba drives in somewhere. How often do you really use your opti drive anyway? Maybe enough not to want to take it out but probably not enough to make sharing the connection with another drive a problem.
 
SpitUK said:
I think there is space in the 09 model. the problem is that there is no 3rd SATA port. You can only have the optical drive and HDD. With the 2010 model there is a 3rd SATA port so you can have all three.
Click to expand...

Gotcha! Thank you for the info, was unaware.
 
Can you make a render with Cinebench 11.5? Please release the score here? Thank you.
 
No probs, here you go....

20101109-cknhr2g4a4qh92g3naqdjq3g9p.jpg
 
Thank you so much. Your machine is really fast.

My iMac 2C/2T @ 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8335 4GB RAM ATI 4850 OpenGL Engine

Cinebench 11.5 Score;
OpenGL= 28.80
CPU= 1.73

3.5 x faster than my machine..

Really great. Almost 2008 2x2.8 GHz Mac Pro score. Really nice. Thank you again.
 
Awesome!!!

This is a great machine you got there mate! I am looking for a configuration other than a Mac Pro that could run Windows and Mac Os seamlessly. I am an engineer and use design software a lot. I don't know if you are familiar but would you say that programs such as Autodesk Revit would run on parallels without any problems? I would ask for autocad too but now it has become a native application. Also I was considering the OWC ssd. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
I do not have any of those applications to test unfortunately. All I can say is that I have been astounded by the performance of windows 7 via parallels. I have it installed to use some software for my business. I can honestly say that the software runs much faster on my iMac than on my partners actual PC 3Ghz dual core 4gb windows 7 machine.

The SSD has made a difference with parallels. I have windows 7 set to go to sleep and when I load parallels it just wakes windows up. I have just timed it and it takes 6.4 seconds to wake windows up and become usable!

Office 2010 is lightning fast as well.

I know my imac has been modified for performance but in my eyes its worth it with all the work I do on it.

I will post a quick youtube vid of windows 7 on parallels for you.
 
nickcliborne said:
Strange I have the same iMac but no SSD and WoW has become nothing more than a laggy piece of crap.

Awesome machine!
Click to expand...
This made me worried.. I would love an SSD, but after some thinking I really don't feel comfortable opening up the iMac myself. I would probably complete it without problems (as the technician I am), but if anything bad would happen I'm.. ****ed, so to speak.

On the other hand, what does your "laggy piece of crap" really mean? I mean, I run WoW pretty fine on medium settings with the 24" iMac I got now. Scores from Cinebench where 1.17 for the CPU, and 11.87 for the graphics. SpitUK got a lot better scores than that with his iMac, so I don't really know how to grasp what you mean.

SpitUK! Would it be too much to ask if you could run WoW from your HDD instead of the SSD, so that we can see if there really is that much of a difference between the two? If you record it or just explain here how it went is up to you, either option is just fine (if you want to do it, that is) :)
 
I can tell you without doing it that there was a huge difference. I went from a standard 2009 27" 8Gb i7 1Tb to this current machine. I played WOW alot on my old imac and I had to wait 30 seconds for dalaran to become playable on a high pop server. Dalaran would would appear after 15 seconds but would spend another 15-25 seconds loading in scenery!

If you watch my WOW video above then you can see how fast dalaran loads and becomes instantly responsive.

The SSD has made a massive difference to this machine all round.
 
SpitUK said:
I can tell you without doing it that there was a huge difference. I went from a standard 2009 27" 8Gb i7 1Tb to this current machine. I played WOW alot on my old imac and I had to wait 30 seconds for dalaran to become playable on a high pop server. Dalaran would would appear after 15 seconds but would spend another 15-25 seconds loading in scenery!

If you watch my WOW video above then you can see how fast dalaran loads and becomes instantly responsive.

The SSD has made a massive difference to this machine all round.
Click to expand...
Yeah thats pretty much what I expected, thanks. Seems like I should man up and do it anyway then!

Continuing on, 10.6.5 was just released. Would be really glad if you could try out everything on max again now aswell (since it seems you can crank up the water now). No need to video it! Just a small report would be legendary ;)
 
Thanks for the heads up. Installing now.

I will do a new video tomorrow.

If anyone wants to see anything in particular on the vid then I will try my best to accommodate.

I really wanted to start this thread not to show off but to give a genuine insight into the performace of an iMac at this level as I could find very little info prior to my upgrade. I only thought about the upgrade when I saw the prices of the base Mac Pro's and thought hmmmm I can get close to this performance in a compact and silent package for less money and here it is :)
 
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