Putting SSD on late 2006 iMac

[petrolstan]

Guys, help me out please. My Mom's HDD on a late-2006 iMac 24" broke recently and she had her birthday yesterday so I promised her to fix it for her. I know it uses a SATA2 3,5" HDD and SATA connectors are all backwards compatible.

But would it accept an SSD, let's say a Crucial M500 mSATA 240GB (which I would take from my current PC)? I am worried mostly about whether it will recognize it only as a temporary storage device or get some Apple "Non-Mac-Hardware-block".

I would install either MacOS (I think Lion was the latest supported one for that model) again or Linux, I dont care.

I remember when I installed my first SSD on a Windows PC like 6 years ago you had to switch some things in the BIOS so it would be recognized as a permanent storage device that one can install an OS onto. And this one is firstly a MAC and secondly from 2006.

If I need to buy an adapter for the Drive separetely, do you know which one?

 

[Intell]

It would work without a problem, but you must first get a mSATA to 3.5" SATA drive adapter for it.

 

[petrolstan]

Thanks for the reply.

The adapter would be a normal 3,5" one, nothing mac-specific? and it consists only of physical parts, no cable transformers (like on external HDDs using USB) or something?

I was worried because some sites specify "SSDs for macs" like here:
http://www.mactechnews.de/journals/entry/SSD-Uebersicht-fuer-den-iMac-940.html
but I guess they just want advertise their sponsors.

 

[Intell]

You Mac doesn't need any special Mac SSD. They're all the same and it'll use any of them. Just a simple 3.5" adapter is all that's needed.

 

[mpainesyd]

See my tips here:
http://www.mpainesyd.com/filechute/BOOT_OSX_SSD.pdf
I have only tried this with Intel macs but I dont see why earlier ones wont work. I would use a Goflex firewire adaptor.

Also see
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1177020/

 

[Intell]

petrolstan's iMac only has FireWire 400, an external solution would not be a good one for anything but testing. Even then, an SSD would be mostly wasted.

 

[macs4nw]

Guys, help me out please. My Mom's HDD on a late-2006 iMac 24" broke recently and she had her birthday yesterday so I promised her to fix it for her. I know it uses a SATA2 3,5" HDD and SATA connectors are all backwards compatible.

But would it accept an SSD, let's say a Crucial M500 mSATA 240GB (which I would take from my current PC)? I am worried mostly about whether it will recognize it only as a temporary storage device or get some Apple "Non-Mac-Hardware-block".

I would install either MacOS (I think Lion was the latest supported one for that model) again or Linux, I dont care.

I remember when I installed my first SSD on a Windows PC like 6 years ago you had to switch some things in the BIOS so it would be recognized as a permanent storage device that one can install an OS onto. And this one is firstly a MAC and secondly from 2006.

If I need to buy an adapter for the Drive separetely, do you know which one?

Not sure if that would work without snags, but regardless, it seems like a colossal waste on a 2006 (legacy) machine, especially if a brand-new 500GB HDD can be had on eBay for under 50 bucks. Good luck either way.

…..I have only tried this with Intel macs but I dont see why earlier ones wont work…..

The OP's late 2006 iMac is an Intel machine.

 

[mpainesyd]

petrolstan's iMac only has FireWire 400, an external solution would not be a good one for anything but testing. Even then, an SSD would be mostly wasted.

Good point. Maybe petrolstan could try it with a cheap conventional hard drive - the links I provided will work with SSD and hard drives. If he can get hold of a Firewire400 external hard drive and get it to work with the 2006 iMac he might be able to use the enclosure & adapter to replace the hard drive with an SSD drive later (but I agree there would no noticeable improvement in performance).

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Not sure if that would work without snags, but regardless, it seems like a colossal waste on a 2006 (legacy) machine, especially if a brand-new 500GB HDD can be had on eBay for under 50 bucks. Good luck either way.

I am not sure if you are saying that an SSD is not worth it, but if you are, you are definitely wrong. An SSD put new life into my SATA1 MBP.

 

[gnasher729]

Not sure if that would work without snags, but regardless, it seems like a colossal waste on a 2006 (legacy) machine, especially if a brand-new 500GB HDD can be had on eBay for under 50 bucks. Good luck either way.

I paid just under £50 for 120GB SSD and can get 240 for £90. If that's enough, it's not much. Of course you are right, a modern HDD will run rings around one from 2006, especially if you buy one with large cache, say 16 MB.

----------

I am not sure if you are saying that an SSD is not worth it, but if you are, you are definitely wrong. An SSD put new life into my SATA1 MBP.

Depends on the speed of your old hard drive. 2014 HD is an awful lot faster than a 2006 HD.

 

[macs4nw]

I am not sure if you are saying that an SSD is not worth it, but if you are, you are definitely wrong. An SSD put new life into my SATA1 MBP.

An SSD replacing an HDD can definitely greatly improve almost any computer; what I was saying is that it seems putting a 240Gig SSD into an eight year old machine for his mom seems like a waste as the likelihood of anything else going wrong with that computer is pretty good, to the point that it may not make financial sense to fix it, and a drive like that might have been put to better (longer) use in a newer machine. No offense to his mother, who for all I know, might be a computer-savy speed demon.

But either way, kudos to him for giving his mom the best!

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

An SSD replacing an HDD can definitely greatly improve almost any computer; what I was saying is that it seems putting a 240Gig SSD into an eight year old machine for his mom seems like a waste as the likelihood of anything else going wrong with that computer is pretty good, to the point that it may not make financial sense to fix it, and a drive like that might have been put to better (longer) use in a newer machine. No offense to his mother, who for all I know, might be a computer-savy speed demon.

But either way, kudos to him for giving his mom the best!

Well, if it has stood the test of time (8 years at least), I would be inclined to say it will continue to work just fine. And a used SSD is dirt cheap anyway, and worth it IMO.

 

[Fishrrman]

To the OP:

Since your mom's iMac is now approaching 8 years old, it's not really worth installing an SSD -internally-.
Reasons:
- Too much work involved in opening it up, and...
- ...how much longer will an iMac that old last?

In my opinion, a better way to proceed:
1. Get the SSD of your choice
2. Get an external enclosure that has both USB3 and firewire800 (at the very least, get firewire 800)
3. Put the SSD into the enclosure, prepare it, and set it up for her to use that way.

Of course, the iMac will boot slower over the firewire800 connection, but once up and running, the speed differences (internal v. external) will be un-noticeable.

And -- at some point if your Mom gets a new (or at least somewhat newer) Mac, it's a very simple matter to unplug the external drive and move it over to the new one. Even if the enclosure you buy doesn't have USB3, you could take the drive out of the enclosure, and put it into one that does (or put it into a USB3/SATA docking station).

 

[Intell]

To the OP:

Since your mom's iMac is now approaching 8 years old, it's not really worth installing an SSD -internally-.
Reasons:
- Too much work involved in opening it up, and...
- ...how much longer will an iMac that old last?

In my opinion, a better way to proceed:
1. Get the SSD of your choice
2. Get an external enclosure that has both USB3 and firewire800 (at the very least, get firewire 800)
3. Put the SSD into the enclosure, prepare it, and set it up for her to use that way.

Of course, the iMac will boot slower over the firewire800 connection, but once up and running, the speed differences (internal v. external) will be un-noticeable.

And -- at some point if your Mom gets a new (or at least somewhat newer) Mac, it's a very simple matter to unplug the external drive and move it over to the new one. Even if the enclosure you buy doesn't have USB3, you could take the drive out of the enclosure, and put it into one that does (or put it into a USB3/SATA docking station).

petrolstan's white iMac does not have FireWire 800 or USB 3. It would be a complete waste to run a SSD over FireWire 400 or USB 2. Even a mid-range internal HDD would be a better option. The drop in speed over FireWire 400 is very noticeable.

 

[Fishrrman]

posted directly above:
[[ petrolstan's white iMac does not have FireWire 800 or USB 3 ]]

I have a "white" Intel iMac from late 2006 or early 2007 (may have been "revision b" of the first Intel iMacs), and it DEFINITELY has BOTH firewire 400 and firewire 800 ports on the back.

It's possible that the revision A white Intel iMacs only had firewire 400, I can't answer that.

But again, my white Intel iMac has both 400 & 800 ports...

 

[Intell]

posted directly above:
[[ petrolstan's white iMac does not have FireWire 800 or USB 3 ]]

I have a "white" Intel iMac from late 2006 or early 2007 (may have been "revision b" of the first Intel iMacs), and it DEFINITELY has BOTH firewire 400 and firewire 800 ports on the back.

It's possible that the revision A white Intel iMacs only had firewire 400, I can't answer that.

But again, my white Intel iMac has both 400 & 800 ports...

Most white iMacs don't have it. Only the less common 24" had a FireWire 800 port. It didn't become standard on all iMacs until the launch of the mid-2007 aluminum iMac. While the OP's iMac has it, being a 24", it would still be a waste of an SSD and suffer from high latency.