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Rip Those Macs Open
- Thread starter Kirkle
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Please pardon my possibly naïve question.
Considering that the height of Samsung 840 Pro SSDs is only 7 mm and the height of 7200.14 Seagate drive is 26 mm, and that the required power for SSD is a 100 times less than HD, could someone make an icy dock-style adapter that will take three (or even only two) SSDs and a little RAID0 controller and present it to an iMac as a single SATA III unit? That would be half the price plus triple the performance of Apples SSD-only solution.
I couldnt find such an adapter. What am I missing?
Oh, and thank you VERY MUCH for sharing your experience!
You would be able to get 2 or 3 time the capacity of a single SSD with RAID-0 striping or JBOD combination, but in RAID-0 they will all be running through a single SATA-III port which will saturate and limit the speed advantage.
Finally I'm installing Mac OS X on my 27" after putting in a Samsung 840 Pro and an extra 2x8GB Kingston ram.
The disassembly went quite well, nothing mayor to report of. The small display connector was a bit tricky though - remember to lift the small lever (with a tab on it) before removing the cable, the power source is easy enough. Once in, the old tape removes easily from the iMac and the display and I put something else on. It's not perfect right now and I'll will try something else from my local hardware store soon, because the selection of 3M products are very limited in Denmark apparently. Looking forward to the "real" Apple tape - no doubt that this is totally custom, because there are quite a few "bumbs and turns" on the inside of the iMac, which makes it impossible to copy perfectly - they will know that you've been inside....
Had some difficulties booting up, because the iMac believed that my USB thumb drive (with the ML installer on it), was the primary boot drive. I researched the internet, and found out that this is because of the missing Recovery partition on the new SSD, which is normally located on the standard drive. Using the Recovery Tool (CMD + R on startup), you will be able to download ML from Apple and install it on the new SSD drive directly (remember to format / build a partition on the new SSD using Disk Utility in the Recovery state first) - this took a while to find out, but glad that it didn't mean that something had gone bad.
I will do some tests of the standard 1TB Seagate drive and the new Samsung 840 Pro tomorrow
Now: time to sleep!
The disassembly went quite well, nothing mayor to report of. The small display connector was a bit tricky though - remember to lift the small lever (with a tab on it) before removing the cable, the power source is easy enough. Once in, the old tape removes easily from the iMac and the display and I put something else on. It's not perfect right now and I'll will try something else from my local hardware store soon, because the selection of 3M products are very limited in Denmark apparently. Looking forward to the "real" Apple tape - no doubt that this is totally custom, because there are quite a few "bumbs and turns" on the inside of the iMac, which makes it impossible to copy perfectly - they will know that you've been inside....
Had some difficulties booting up, because the iMac believed that my USB thumb drive (with the ML installer on it), was the primary boot drive. I researched the internet, and found out that this is because of the missing Recovery partition on the new SSD, which is normally located on the standard drive. Using the Recovery Tool (CMD + R on startup), you will be able to download ML from Apple and install it on the new SSD drive directly (remember to format / build a partition on the new SSD using Disk Utility in the Recovery state first) - this took a while to find out, but glad that it didn't mean that something had gone bad.
I will do some tests of the standard 1TB Seagate drive and the new Samsung 840 Pro tomorrow
Now: time to sleep!
I just tried my crucial M4 512GB and my imac doesn't want to know.
It worked on my 2009 imac and it even worked as a bootable OS drive on the 2012 via a USB enclosure, but when it's plugged into sata, no go. I can't even start in internet recovery as long as the drive is plugged in. I can hold option to get to the boot menu, but the next screen is the error icon, even if I select an external drive.
Any suggestions?
It worked on my 2009 imac and it even worked as a bootable OS drive on the 2012 via a USB enclosure, but when it's plugged into sata, no go. I can't even start in internet recovery as long as the drive is plugged in. I can hold option to get to the boot menu, but the next screen is the error icon, even if I select an external drive.
Any suggestions?
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So you already had a bootable version of the new Mountain lion that comes with the 2012 imac on the Crucial? I say this because the old version of mountain lion will not boot on the 2012 iMac and it gives you that exact error icon. Perhaps try using terminal from the recovery partition (Hold down (CMD +R ) to format the drive then reinstall ML from there.
Funny you should say that, as I initially tried the install from the 2009 imac (via USB) and discovered it wouldn't work.
But, yes I cloned an image of ML that was pre-installed on my 2012 imac.
I can't boot in recovery. The imac won't boot from any other source either as long as the drive is connected internally.
But, yes I cloned an image of ML that was pre-installed on my 2012 imac.
I can't boot in recovery. The imac won't boot from any other source either as long as the drive is connected internally.
Sounds like a compatibility issue with the Crucial then, have you got a Samsung SSD laying around lol?
Can't give you any advice about the Crucial disk, but I LOVE the pegs holding your screen to the body.
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And the wait continues for some OEM-like tape!
Can't give you any advice about the Crucial disk, but I LOVE the pegs holding your screen to the body.
I love that too. Nice idea to hold the screen in place before committing to VHS foam tape.
I haven't been able to post for a while as I have a newborn baby taking up time.
But I'm still wondering if I can get it to work if I can somehow get ML to format it. I have tried booting into Internet recovery with no drive installed and then hot-swapped it in once loaded. Bit naughty, but no harm was done. Still didn't work though.
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I wondered how the pegs would go down, so I'm glad you two approve. The sight of a brand-new-and-now-not-working imac with pegs holding it together might horrify others.
But I'm still wondering if I can get it to work if I can somehow get ML to format it. I have tried booting into Internet recovery with no drive installed and then hot-swapped it in once loaded. Bit naughty, but no harm was done. Still didn't work though.
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I wondered how the pegs would go down, so I'm glad you two approve.
The sight of a brand-new-and-now-not-working imac with pegs holding it together might horrify others.
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On another note. The seagate 1TB HDD in this imac is excellent. I can barely hear it and its really fast (peaks about 195MB/s). I wasn't keen on the fusion drive due to the expected noise of constant HDD management, but with this drive, I kinda wish I went for it now. It would have saved me a lot of hassle for starters.
Really, you think that it is quiet? It's just as noisy in idle as my old WD in the 2009 iMac I think, no doubt that it is possible to hear the spinning plates at all times. Yes, it's quiet at read compared to the old iMacs, bot totally audiable in a quiet room. Big difference when I switched to the SSD yesterday...
But yes, I got around 190/200MB/s on my drive too - quite fast...
If it's okay I may take you up on that after Christmas if you still have some.
I think I'll have to forget the crucial and buy something else and I'll have to wait until after Christmas.
Yeah, on every imac I've had, the drive's grinding noise has been quite clear and I've usually been able to hear a faint-to-medium whirring when not in use. This one, I can honestly barely even hear it at all, even when in operation. Do you have the seagate?
I'm really keen on this new imac. Even when you take away the main features (thinness, gpu, fusion drive option, etc) everything else has been refined. The cooling system, the screen glass and calibration, the sound dampening hdd enclosure. They might not be huge leaps, but they're very carefully thought out and very effective refinements on an already excellent design. Very nice computer this.
I think I'll have to forget the crucial and buy something else and I'll have to wait until after Christmas.
Yeah, on every imac I've had, the drive's grinding noise has been quite clear and I've usually been able to hear a faint-to-medium whirring when not in use. This one, I can honestly barely even hear it at all, even when in operation. Do you have the seagate?
I'm really keen on this new imac. Even when you take away the main features (thinness, gpu, fusion drive option, etc) everything else has been refined. The cooling system, the screen glass and calibration, the sound dampening hdd enclosure. They might not be huge leaps, but they're very carefully thought out and very effective refinements on an already excellent design. Very nice computer this.
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I have read this thread more thoroughly, and see that R.OG stated that there is only ONE SATA connector on the logic board. That renders any discussion about full-blown 2-SSD RAID0 pointless.
However, I still maintain that two of the 840 Pro 256GB SSDs, compared to one 840 Pro 512 GB SSD may provide the following benefits:
1. Price about $60 less.
2. Speed about double in real-life applications and 50% gain in the maximum (clipped by SATA) sequential read tests.
So the question still is is there such RAID controller exposing only a regular SATA connector to the outside world?
The VHB that is on the iMac from the factory as well the replacement kits that I've seen are not 3M.