SSD for iMac 2015

[kazaka]

Hi,

I have a iMac 27" 4K retina middle 2015, It has a HDD 1TB 5400rpm. Its was very sloooow after i upgraded from Capitan to Catalina.

I had to do something because was too show and was stoping running 32 bit apps that i need.

So, I removed one SSD 240GB from an old laptop and put in inside an enclosure and hook it to the iMac with the USB 3.0 cable. Installed High Sierra and now its great and super fast as it boot straight from the external SSD drive. I maintain the Catalina intact should i need to use it as original.

The iMac is already out of warranty and I was decided to open the Imac and replace the HDD for the SDD but after seeing other people doing it on Youtube I found it difficult as I would probably forget to connect some cable or something. Thats why I follow the external SDD boot option.

Now the problem is that the 1TB HDD is nearly full and the 240GB external SSD is also almost full.

Do you think if I buy a SSD NVMe 2TB would be good to replace the 240GB SSD?

Some iMacs like mine (I dont know if mine have this), I heard, have a place to hook this kind of SSD M.2 inside but to be honest I dont know if mine haves it or not and I dont even dare to open it... there is an apple center here in town but they charge a lot, i mean a lot, to do this kind of service to me.

Because of the Coronavirus pandemics that it is keeping us inside of our houses my kids need computer to have their school lessons via Video with Team or Zoom so I need to have the 240GB again inside of the laptop so I will be without any SDD to the iMac...

Another question is, I have one other macbook that i bought second hand with a SanDisk SDD X300s M.2 128GB but I find it without great space for files. What would you recommend to upgrade this SSD? Is 128GB normal on a macbook or its is normal to have 1TB or even 2TB SDDs? I heard that if some problem happens to a SSD all data gets lost..

What do you think is the best option for me?

Tx.

 

[ignatius345]

Sounds like booting off an external drive is working well for you. I'd say stick with that if you're nervous about opening it up.

I just opened up my 2014 iMac today and replaced the hard drive with an SATA SSD. It was... not an easy job. The whole display is held together with glue. It's tricky. I managed it, but I could easily see how it could go wrong too.

I found a great thread about iMac SSD upgrades right here:

A list of successful iMac 27" (2012-2019) SSD upgrades

Here you can find and discuss all the collected knowledge regarding upgrading the HDD, blade SSD and CPU of a 27" iMac 2012-2019, as well as a list of performed upgrades. Here is a list of all 27" iMac models subjected in this thread: Late 2012 - 13.2 - MD095LL/A (2.9Ghz i5-3470S, HDD only /...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[kazaka]

What does this mean?

Mid 2015 - 15.1 - MF885LL/A (3.3Ghz i5-4590, HDD only / Fusion HDD+128GB blade / blade only)

When I run system preferences the only HDD I see is the 1TB .. what does the text in red mean? Sorry my knowledge deficit about this...

 

[Fernandez21]

What does this mean?

Mid 2015 - 15.1 - MF885LL/A (3.3Ghz i5-4590, HDD only / Fusion HDD+128GB blade / blade only)

When I run system preferences the only HDD I see is the 1TB .. what does the text in red mean? Sorry my knowledge deficit about this...

HDD is the hard drive and "blade" means the SSD that's on the pcle slot (what you think of when talking about nvme drives). When apple ships a "fusion" drive, what it is is an HDD drive combined with a pcle drive to speed things up.

Unfortunately, if you have a 21.5" iMac with HDD (not fusion), I believe you don't have a pcle slot, so an mvne drive won't work for you, no where to connect it. So you would be limited to a SATAIII 2.5 SSD, top speeds around 500 read and write, which might be comparable to your external ssd connected to thunderbolt 2.

 

[kazaka]

ok sorry i forgot to say my iMac is a 27". Do you think it will have the HDD only, fusion drive * 128GB blade or the Blade only?

All i get from the system preference is that the HDD is 1TB,

 

[HelpMePls]

Go Apple logo in the top left corner.

click “About”
click “Storage”

Is it 1TB Sata or 1.12TB Fusion?

If it’s 1TB Sata that’s great - that means you don’t have a blade SSD on the back of the logic board (a real pain to remove).

Warning: if you’ve never opened up a 27” iMac before watch a bunch of tutorials online and by the proper rubber tool for it - otherwise you’ll crack the screen and have to buy a replacement screen for $800+.

Putting an SSD is the easy part. It’s not cracking the screen when opening the 27” iMac up that’s the problem.

FYI. I’ve learnt the hard way and broken 2 iMac screens before mastering the art of 27” iMac SSD upgrades, I’ve done about 15 iMac SSD upgrades to date by now.

 

[kazaka]

Go Apple logo in the top left corner.

click “About”
click “Storage”

Is it 1TB Sata or 1.12TB Fusion?

If it’s 1TB Sata that’s great - that means you don’t have a blade SSD on the back of the logic board (a real pain to remove).

Warning: if you’ve never opened up a 27” iMac before watch a bunch of tutorials online and by the proper rubber tool for it - otherwise you’ll crack the screen and have to buy a replacement screen for $800+.

Putting an SSD is the easy part. It’s not cracking the screen when opening the 27” iMac up that’s the problem.

FYI. I’ve learnt the hard way and broken 2 iMac screens before mastering the art of 27” iMac SSD upgrades, I’ve done about 15 iMac SSD upgrades to date by now.

HI All I get is "1TB Disk SATA".

I am using right now an external SDD SATA 240GB, but need to change it to an M.2 NVme external drive. Will not open the iMac as I know something will go wrong..

 

[kazaka]

So do you know the best bet for me please?

 

[HelpMePls]

I am using right now an external SDD SATA 240GB, but need to change it to an M.2 NVme external drive. Will not open the iMac as I know something will go wrong..

Yep I’d just say keep using the external SSD if it’s going well. No real point opening up the iMac if the external is working well for you

 

[Fishrrman]

"So, I removed one SSD 240GB from an old laptop and put in inside an enclosure and hook it to the iMac with the USB 3.0 cable. Installed High Sierra and now its great and super fast as it boot straight from the external SSD drive. I maintain the Catalina intact should i need to use it as original."

A SATA SSD that is installed INSIDE the iMac isn't going to run all that much faster than if it's OUTSIDE and connected via USB3. You get perhaps 80-85% of the speed when it's external (as opposed to 100% if its internal).

I don't think it's worth the trouble opening it up to do this.
If you break something, well... no iMac.

Just get a BIGGER SSD, put it into the enclosure, and keep going that way.

If you have "too much stuff" on the internal drive, time to start cleaning it up and move surplus items to an EXTERNAL drive.

 

[kazaka]

OK I now got a SAMSUNG EVO PLUS 1TB SSD to use as internel SSD or external. I heard that there are some issues with this SDD in MAC and that applaying a firmware will solve the problems...

 

[Roxy.music]

Hi,

I have a iMac 27" 4K retina middle 2015, It has a HDD 1TB 5400rpm. Its was very sloooow after i upgraded from Capitan to Catalina.

I had to do something because was too show and was stoping running 32 bit apps that i need.

So, I removed one SSD 240GB from an old laptop and put in inside an enclosure and hook it to the iMac with the USB 3.0 cable. Installed High Sierra and now its great and super fast as it boot straight from the external SSD drive. I maintain the Catalina intact should i need to use it as original.

The iMac is already out of warranty and I was decided to open the Imac and replace the HDD for the SDD but after seeing other people doing it on Youtube I found it difficult as I would probably forget to connect some cable or something. Thats why I follow the external SDD boot option.

Now the problem is that the 1TB HDD is nearly full and the 240GB external SSD is also almost full.

Do you think if I buy a SSD NVMe 2TB would be good to replace the 240GB SSD?

Some iMacs like mine (I dont know if mine have this), I heard, have a place to hook this kind of SSD M.2 inside but to be honest I dont know if mine haves it or not and I dont even dare to open it... there is an apple center here in town but they charge a lot, i mean a lot, to do this kind of service to me.

Because of the Coronavirus pandemics that it is keeping us inside of our houses my kids need computer to have their school lessons via Video with Team or Zoom so I need to have the 240GB again inside of the laptop so I will be without any SDD to the iMac...

Another question is, I have one other macbook that i bought second hand with a SanDisk SDD X300s M.2 128GB but I find it without great space for files. What would you recommend to upgrade this SSD? Is 128GB normal on a macbook or its is normal to have 1TB or even 2TB SDDs? I heard that if some problem happens to a SSD all data gets lost..

What do you think is the best option for me?

Tx.

It would cost an arm and leg to get it done. Taken 2 hours to do it?

I was thinking of getting it done on a 2015 iMac but it would not be worth it.