NVMe/M2 & SSD upgrade compatibility guide ....

[reynierpm]

I have been searching all over the places for a list of compatibility regarding NVMe/M2 and/or SSD for upgrade an iMac Late 2013 27" HDD but I am unable to find anything. Yes, I know about OWC and it's a list of compatible devices (some of them expensive compared to the competition) but if you perform a search on Amazon or any other reseller website you'll find a lot of this item from many vendors. Upgrade the HDD can be a tedious task and I do not want to buy something that is not compatible just to find out after disassemble/assemble all that it does not work.

Can I have some ideas about what should I be buying?

I am thinking of a small blade: maybe 512G for the OS and 1TB SSD to be used as storage. I am a software developer who uses a VM with Parallels to work on a daily basis meaning I do not need a super-fast solution like if I was a video/music editor or so.

 

[mikzn]

There is some good info on this page - Guide to Apple’s Proprietary SSDs

Also a good idea to upgrade to at least High Sierra or even better Mojave to make sure the boot ROM firmware is updated for the new SSD’s

 

[Juicy Box]

I do not want to buy something that is not compatible just to find out after disassemble/assemble all that it does not work.

I haven't tried them myself, but people are reporting the following adapter works fine on the Late 2013 iMac:

Adapter:

Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade 2013-2015 Year Macs(Not Fit Early 2013 MacBook Pro)

NOTICE:because too many customers can use it,I suggest you to try it again if your MAC can't detect nVME SSD. Pls notice to insert card fully into SSD slot and you must prepare bootable USB disk(see third point) with High Sierra to format M.2 SSD first, it can't support recover from internet. mai...

www.amazon.com

You have plenty of options for SSD, here is one:
2TB NVMe SSD:

Crucial P1 2TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe Internal SSD, up to 2000MB/s - CT2000P1SSD8

Whether you are trying to get in the game faster or store all your precious memories, the Crucial P1 SSD delivers. Capacities start at 500GB and scale to 2TB. Accelerate performance with the latest NVMe PCIe technology. The P1 is designed to be the only storage upgrade you need — storage, speed, ...

www.amazon.com

But..... If speed is your goal, why not try some external solutions?

Can I have some ideas about what should I be buying?

The Late 2013 iMacs will be limited to PCIe 2.0x2 speeds with NVMe.

You can get faster speeds with using an external TB3 NVMe SSD, such as the Samsung X5. This would give you speeds up to about 900MBps.

There is extra equipment (TB3 dock, bidirectional adapter, TB2 cable) involved to get TB3 drives on your Mac, and the extra cost as well, but you won't have to open up your iMac and risk incompatibility issues.


You could get an external TB2 NVMe drive instead, giving you about 750MBps speeds, but no extra equipment involved.

The TB2 NVMe drive would cost a little more than doing an internal NVMe solution, but much easier and quicker to do, plus give you as fast of speeds.