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iMac 21.5" 2009 upgrade to SSD

F

FoxMcCloud

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 22, 2009
589
289
Redcar, England
Hi

I want to get some more life out of my iMac before buying a new one maybe next year so I want to swap out the HDD for an SSD.

I have my eye on the 256GB Samsung 830

I know it will be a bit of chew on but shouldn't be terribly difficult.

However I am wondering as the current drive is 3.5" and the SSD is 2.5" will I need an adapter?

Also read that the 2009 models switched out the temperature probe for a direct connector to HDD using its own temperature data. Without this, the fans will go flat out.

So, do SSDs have the pins needed for this new cable? Will I need to get around the fan issue if not, by software?

Any advice would be great. Thank you and hope you nice people can help.
 
I have, hence why I am asking! There appear to be no threads or anything on google about what to do when it comes to replacing the HDD with an SSD for 2009 models. I understand I can swap the HDD for a bigger same brand HDD but thats not what I am doing.
 
FoxMcCloud said:
I have, hence why I am asking! There appear to be no threads or anything on google about what to do when it comes to replacing the HDD with an SSD for 2009 models. I understand I can swap the HDD for a bigger same brand HDD but thats not what I am doing.
Click to expand...
put the ssd to aluminium bracket that come with the drive and just put it on the original HDD bracket as i did to put one of my ssd's
 
FoxMcCloud said:
And you had no issues with fans or anything?
Click to expand...

http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/

It is free and allows you to set the fan to a set speed.

Or, you can buy a temperature sensor out of an older iMac and attach it to the logic board where the current one attaches (check eBay). It may not give a correct reading but the fans don't go high. This is the solution I currently use in my iMac 27" 2009 i7 and it reports the SSD is running at 3degC. I dropped a Colossus 1TB SSD in there and it is a 3.5 device so no brackets required.

I have also heard of people shorting out the 2 sensor pins but that sounds a little too sketchy even for me :)
 
Dadioh said:
http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/

It is free and allows you to set the fan to a set speed.

Or, you can buy a temperature sensor out of an older iMac and attach it to the logic board where the current one attaches (check eBay). It may not give a correct reading but the fans don't go high. This is the solution I currently use in my iMac 27" 2009 i7 and it reports the SSD is running at 3degC. I dropped a Colossus 1TB SSD in there and it is a 3.5 device so no brackets required.

I have also heard of people shorting out the 2 sensor pins but that sounds a little too sketchy even for me :)
Click to expand...

ITB?!?! I'm guessing that would have set you back the price of a computer itself!:eek:
 
FoxMcCloud said:
And you had no issues with fans or anything?
Click to expand...
Just close the HDD fan circuit

----------
Dadioh said:
http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/

It is free and allows you to set the fan to a set speed.

Or, you can buy a temperature sensor out of an older iMac and attach it to the logic board where the current one attaches (check eBay). It may not give a correct reading but the fans don't go high. This is the solution I currently use in my iMac 27" 2009 i7 and it reports the SSD is running at 3degC. I dropped a Colossus 1TB SSD in there and it is a 3.5 device so no brackets required.

I have also heard of people shorting out the 2 sensor pins but that sounds a little too sketchy even for me :)
Click to expand...

With the first solution you dont pass the apple hardware test and with the second you have to pay 30 dollars your last solution which i recommend i think is the best.
 
Dadioh said:
http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/

It is free and allows you to set the fan to a set speed.

Or, you can buy a temperature sensor out of an older iMac and attach it to the logic board where the current one attaches (check eBay). It may not give a correct reading but the fans don't go high. This is the solution I currently use in my iMac 27" 2009 i7 and it reports the SSD is running at 3degC. I dropped a Colossus 1TB SSD in there and it is a 3.5 device so no brackets required.

I have also heard of people shorting out the 2 sensor pins but that sounds a little too sketchy even for me :)
Click to expand...

Just as a further info to make the decision that is right for you.

Option 1. SSDFanCtrl will work in OS X but not in Bootcamp so if you boot into Wndows the fans will be at high speed. May be a factor for you if you work in Windows a lot. I did a lot of searching and there are no elegant solutions for fan control for the iMac under Windows. There is one CLI based solution but I found it quite awkward. If you only work in OS X then this is easy and fast to do. Not sure if it matters if it passes AHT. I would think you just ignore that particular output from AHT?

Option 2. Older thermal sensor works fine for me. Still allows the fan speed to be dynamic but may not matter since the SSD would not seem to be as temperature sensitive as a mechanical disk drive.

Option 3. I don't know if the output from the hard disk is an analog signal from a thermocouple or thermal diode. Or it could be an I2C serial signal which is digital. It sounds like this works according to others so it could also be an option. What actual temperature shows up if you short the pins? Probably irrelevent as long as fans just run low speed. I also don't know if shorting the signal places any stress on the receiving circuit on the logic board. Probably not. Advantage is that it is free and easily reversible depending on what method you use to short the pins.
 
How do you short out these pins? Just connect them together?

I do indeed use Windows, to play my games. I would want the fans to work as normal I.e ramp up if getting hot in OSX. They stay at low in Windows as there is no sort of auto settings so sometimes I use the fan control program to stick em a bit higher than normal before booting into windows. Helps it not crash from the GPU wanting to melt. Could just use fan control tool I suppose...

If I wanted to replace the sensor with an older one, would this be suitable?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-APPLE-...ther_Computing_Networking&hash=item4cfb7551bb

Thanks for all your help guys. And Jesus, a 1TB SSD, must've cost a fortune!
 
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FoxMcCloud said:
How do you short out these pins? Just connect them together?

I do indeed use Windows, to play my games. I would want the fans to work as normal I.e ramp up if getting hot in OSX. They stay at low in Windows as there is no sort of auto settings so sometimes I use the fan control program to stick em a bit higher than normal before booting into windows. Helps it not crash from the GPU wanting to melt. Could just use fan control tool I suppose...

If I wanted to replace the sensor with an older one, would this be suitable?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-APPLE-...ther_Computing_Networking&hash=item4cfb7551bb

Thanks for all your help guys. And Jesus, a 1TB SSD, must've cost a fortune!
Click to expand...

I think this is more what you are looking for....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-922-8...ultDomain_0&hash=item416570c12e#ht_1810wt_997

Or part number 922-9229 is supposed to work (an optical drive temp sensor) as long as the logic board connection is the same.

I found this thread that may have more info if you want to certain before ordering something.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/808178/
 
Thanks for all your help, I think I'll go down the route of getting the temperature probe from an older mac.

Question, does this issue only affect the fan related to the HDD or all fans?
As if it is just the HDD fan...I could just short it out I guess, knowing that the other fans are fine and will work as normal...
 
FoxMcCloud said:
Thanks for all your help, I think I'll go down the route of getting the temperature probe from an older mac.

Question, does this issue only affect the fan related to the HDD or all fans?
As if it is just the HDD fan...I could just short it out I guess, knowing that the other fans are fine and will work as normal...
Click to expand...

It only affects HDD fan. The CPU and DVD fans work as designed. I prefer to run the fans a bit faster than apple. I use iMac Fan Control which is free. You can set min fan speed for each of the three fans as well as adjust the ramp rate. Very nice graphical interface. I set my fans to 1500 min and adjust the ramp to start at 50c and end ramp at 70c. CPU and GPU run about 10c cooler this way and I can't notice the fans at 1500. The trade off is faster fans = slightly more noise but lower temps = better reliability for the electronics. Apple chooses on the side of silence. I choose higher reliability.

http://www.derman.com/iMac-Fan-Control

On a side note... I just picked up an iMac 27" i5 2009 model with defective seagate hard drive. I swapped in a WD black 1TB which requires the same fan solution since the connector is different between seagate and WD. This time around I took a wire and inserted it into the ends of the seagate cable to short it and it works fine. The system reports the disk temp as 0c but iStat reads the correct HDD temp through smart sensors. So if you want to go the free route it seems that shorting the sensor works just fine.

Good Luck :)
 
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