iMac upgrade Fusion drive to Flash Drive

[cenoevil]

Hi,

On verge of purchasing a 2013 release 27" I7 IMAC with 3TB fusion drive. I will want to upgrade the drive to a Flash Drive in the future.

Unfortunately cannot afford the top end spec with flash drive presently so want to do it as an upgrade in the future.

I have noted that it is possible to do this as a DIY job - but I would have no confidence doing it myself.

My questions;

Is it possible for this to be done by a Apple reseller - and if so, how much would it cost (assuming I sourced the flash drive myself). Based in UK.

Thanks.

 

[yjchua95]

Hi,

On verge of purchasing a 2013 release 27" I7 IMAC with 3TB fusion drive. I will want to upgrade the drive to a Flash Drive in the future.

Unfortunately cannot afford the top end spec with flash drive presently so want to do it as an upgrade in the future.

I have noted that it is possible to do this as a DIY job - but I would have no confidence doing it myself.

My questions;

Is it possible for this to be done by a Apple reseller - and if so, how much would it cost (assuming I sourced the flash drive myself). Based in UK.

Thanks.

It's possible, but I very much doubt the lads there would do it.

There are also no upgrade kits available for the late-2013 iMac's PCIe SSDs yet.

 

[marzer]

Hi,

On verge of purchasing a 2013 release 27" I7 IMAC with 3TB fusion drive. I will want to upgrade the drive to a Flash Drive in the future.

Unfortunately cannot afford the top end spec with flash drive presently so want to do it as an upgrade in the future.

I have noted that it is possible to do this as a DIY job - but I would have no confidence doing it myself.

My questions;

Is it possible for this to be done by a Apple reseller - and if so, how much would it cost (assuming I sourced the flash drive myself). Based in UK.

Thanks.

If you are going to do it some time later, obviously the cost of doing the upgrade will change from any quote you get today. The price of the drive will go down over time, while the cost of labor may go up. Likewise, you'd be better off getting a quote directly from an service provider, as those costs will also vary from one provider to the next.

Here in the states, at least where I live, the actual Apple store has let me know they do not perform third party upgrades. Whereas an Apple authorized service center has offered to perform third party upgrades at their standard labor rate plus parts.

In my case, I purchased a SSD to install in my 2009 iMac. The authorized dealer quoted me $75 to install it. I went ahead and just performed the upgrade myself.

 

[JustMartin]

Well, I guess it also depends on your usage pattern and storage requirements. Given the way Fusion works, you might not need a pure SSD because everything you need is cached on the solid state part of the Fusion drive anyway. An alternative might be to look at Thunderbolt connected drives - either a spinning one to hold all bar 128gb of the stuff that's on your Fusion drive (effectively turning it into an SSD) or a solid state solution. My feeling is that after a while, you won't feel the need to move beyond Fusion until the whole computer needs replacing.

 

[thedeske]

In the states, the difference between a 3TB fusion and a 500GB Flash (both upgrades from standard 1 TBhd) is 150. Since externals are so cheap, it seems like a better choice to build capacity on the external.

I hear the UK prices are much higher, so perhaps the logic doesn't apply.

I faced the same problem last time, and determined the benefits of no HD internal outweighed the capacity issue. No spinning heat maker inside, less chance of HD failure, Speed to fill ratio, etc. Just a thought.

Agree - Most 3rd party shops will crack one open in a heartbeat for a small price.

Good Luck

 

[rambo47]

If you don't want to do the job yourself you would need to find a shop like TekServe in NYC. If you're not in or near NYC then hopefully you can find a similar shop locally.

 

[p3ntyne]

I'm not sure if this is what you are thinking of doing but it would be much cheaper if, in the future, you kept the 128 GB pcie ssd and replaced the HDD with a 1 Tb Sata 3 ssd and created a fusion between the fast and the 'slow' ssd.