There was no great forum for this so i just wanted to share my experience.
Research & Back Story:
I bought a 27" iMac in January 2011, and of corse 6 weeks after my warranty expired i went to create a DMG image in disc utility and it was kind enough to let me know my hard drive was failing. My first thought was to call apple, $300 to replace the stock drive (1TB Seagate), So that option was quickly crossed off the board, i could do it my self for around $120 with drive and tool kit online, after reading multiple forms i didn't feel confident enough to do it my self, i did a lot of home work i decided to take the leap and go for solid state.
Parts:
I ended up getting a great deal on the Samsung 830 128GB (thought it would be enough for programs and then some) and an ICY Dock Adapter (Perfectly converts 2.5" to 3.5") and as for the heat sensor there are 4 options.
1. do nothing let fans run at constant 100%
2. jump the wire and let the computer think its always okay
3. do a software modification to limit fan, and finally option
4. buy apple part number 922-9229.
I decided to go with option 4 and picked up the cable for $20 and attach to the device externally, even though SSD's don't heat up like HDD.
Installation
That takes me to installation, my brother is a best buy employee and had confidence in a few of the geek squad employees who he felt comfortable doing the job, i walked in watched it took 15-20 Minutes, it cost $30 of pure peace of mind.
After Thoughts:
So now my speeds in this are insane! its a whole new beast, to start the it's the Quad Core i7 2.93 Ghz, 12GB of DDR3 1333 MHz Ram and Start up time is ~20 Seconds, there is NO shut down time, i couldn't pull the cord out of the wall faster to shut it of, there is no program load time. I ran a benchmark on the SSD keep in mind the mid 2010 model is Sata II and i got 239.5 MB/s Write and 255.1 MB/s Read. Did i mention COMPLETE silence!? It is an excellent boost in performance that i would recommend even if not needing an HDD replacement.
I haven't played any games yet but will see how that goes as soon as i get the chance, and as for the old HDD its in a hot swappable dock connected via firewire 800 and has held up for about a week with no problem.
Research & Back Story:
I bought a 27" iMac in January 2011, and of corse 6 weeks after my warranty expired i went to create a DMG image in disc utility and it was kind enough to let me know my hard drive was failing. My first thought was to call apple, $300 to replace the stock drive (1TB Seagate), So that option was quickly crossed off the board, i could do it my self for around $120 with drive and tool kit online, after reading multiple forms i didn't feel confident enough to do it my self, i did a lot of home work i decided to take the leap and go for solid state.
Parts:
I ended up getting a great deal on the Samsung 830 128GB (thought it would be enough for programs and then some) and an ICY Dock Adapter (Perfectly converts 2.5" to 3.5") and as for the heat sensor there are 4 options.
1. do nothing let fans run at constant 100%
2. jump the wire and let the computer think its always okay
3. do a software modification to limit fan, and finally option
4. buy apple part number 922-9229.
I decided to go with option 4 and picked up the cable for $20 and attach to the device externally, even though SSD's don't heat up like HDD.
Installation
That takes me to installation, my brother is a best buy employee and had confidence in a few of the geek squad employees who he felt comfortable doing the job, i walked in watched it took 15-20 Minutes, it cost $30 of pure peace of mind.
After Thoughts:
So now my speeds in this are insane! its a whole new beast, to start the it's the Quad Core i7 2.93 Ghz, 12GB of DDR3 1333 MHz Ram and Start up time is ~20 Seconds, there is NO shut down time, i couldn't pull the cord out of the wall faster to shut it of, there is no program load time. I ran a benchmark on the SSD keep in mind the mid 2010 model is Sata II and i got 239.5 MB/s Write and 255.1 MB/s Read. Did i mention COMPLETE silence!? It is an excellent boost in performance that i would recommend even if not needing an HDD replacement.
I haven't played any games yet but will see how that goes as soon as i get the chance, and as for the old HDD its in a hot swappable dock connected via firewire 800 and has held up for about a week with no problem.