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SSD for mid 2011 iMac 27"

D

DennisMadsen

macrumors regular
Original poster
I've been talking to an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician who is able to install an SSD in my mid 2011 iMac 27".

I need a SSD around 256GB. Which SSD would you recommend for my iMac? I've been looking at the Crucial M4.
 
All Taken said:
Any SATA 3 SSD will do, just be sure to use a program for Lion called TRIM Enabler if it's a non Apple SSD.
Click to expand...

Enabling TRIM is usually not necessary since most SSDs have integrated garbage collection. If you should notice degrading speed over time, you can still install TRIM Enabler then.
 
flatfoot said:
Enabling TRIM is usually not necessary since most SSDs have integrated garbage collection. If you should notice degrading speed over time, you can still install TRIM Enabler then.
Click to expand...

Thats a bad bit of advice right there, TRIM is proven to be more effective than relying on the drives own garbage collection.
 
All Taken said:
Thats a bad bit of advice right there, TRIM is proven to be more effective than relying on the drives own garbage collection.
Click to expand...

Actually most users report issues when enabling TRIM in Mac OSX via the hack. So the best advice is to not enable it, unless you're seeing performance degradation and aim to buy an SSD with good garbage collection.
 
Other good choices are OWC Mercury drives and Intel's series. The Mercury Extreme and Intel 520 "Cherryville" are some of the fastest SATA 3 drives out there, and both offer Mac-native firmware updaters for the drives. Great long warranties too.

Crucial/Micron is a great mid-range solution, and has a bootable FreeDOS firmware updater that is mac compatible, and requires an optical drive. Kingston Memory uses the same Mac-compatable FreeDOS firmware updater. The Samsung 830 is also a decent drive, and while company firmware support is lacking, they are one of Apple's OEMs, so any vital updates are likely to come through Apple itself.

Aside from that, as long as you don't need to update the firmware, then the Force GT from Corsair, and Mushkin Chronos Deluxe are both excellent drives for a great price. OCZ tend to be a mixed bag for reliability, so I'd avoid them in an iMac: the last thing you want to do is reopen that thing if something's wrong.

(From what I can tell, the Sandforce based drives like the Mercury or Intel have their own garbage collection which conflicts with TRIM, while the Marvell based Crucial drive doesn't, and would greatly benefit from TRIM enabled.)
 
Last edited:
DennisMadsen said:
Which SSD do you recommend?
Click to expand...

The Crucial M4 if you want a good value, Intel 520 or OWC Mercury 6G Pro if you want top speeds for video capture.

All three have good reputations, good support, and mac compatible firmware updaters; three things you want if you don't want to open your iMac again.
 
I can't imagine that there's a massive amount of difference between them tbh.
The difference has been massive though. I've been to apple stores to try the iMac without an SSD and the speed difference is really obvious.
 
Is there a better way to get the SSD in other than removing the logic board and adding a y splitter?

Is there anything wrong with removing the dvd drive and adding the SSD there? Is that connection slower?
 
Drag'nGT said:
Is there a better way to get the SSD in other than removing the logic board and adding a y splitter?

Is there anything wrong with removing the dvd drive and adding the SSD there? Is that connection slower?
Click to expand...

The DVD drive uses a SATA2 port. Best way to do it is to tilt the logic board and plug in a 22 to 13 pin sata cable and run it behind the DVD drive.
 
Drag'nGT said:
That's good to know. Right now it's cheaper to buy two smaller drives than the one larger. I'm only looking at 240gb or so. Thanks for the help! 😎

The software raid in OSX works well doesn't it?
Click to expand...

Yes, it does.

EDIT: ...as long as you don't want your boot drive to be RAIDed in Lion. That doesn't work properly (yet).
 
spedanden said:
Don't throw incorrect info out there. What I said is correct. There are 2 SATA3 ports and a SATA2 port which the optical drive is using.

Here
...and Here
Click to expand...

My 2011 iMac is running a SATA 3 link on the optical drive. Every 2011 iMac I have seen is running SATA 3 on all ports, I can post screenshots to prove you wrong, stop throwing incorrect info out there!!!! 😛

What I said is correct, clearly some blogs are either reading the incorrect text box or Apple have crippled some machines.
 
All Taken said:
My 2011 iMac is running a SATA 3 link on the optical drive. Every 2011 iMac I have seen is running SATA 3 on all ports, I can post screenshots to prove you wrong, stop throwing incorrect info out there!!!! 😛

What I said is correct, clearly some blogs are either reading the incorrect text box or Apple have crippled some machines.
Click to expand...

I actually would like a screenshot, as what you're saying goes against anything published and would be a nice surprise on my new 27" which arrives soon.
 
6Gb - 6Gb - 3 Gb

Intel 6 Series Chipset:
Hersteller: Intel
Produkt: 6 Series Chipset
Link-Geschwindigkeit: 6 Gigabit
Ausgehandelte Link-Geschwindigkeit: 3 Gigabit
Beschreibung: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported
ST31000528AS:
Kapazität: 1 TB (1.000.204.886.016 Byte)
Modell: ST31000528AS
Version: AP63
Seriennummer: 9VPETC5V
Native Command Queuing: Ja
Queue Depth: 32
Wechselmedien: Nein
Absteckbares Laufwerk: Nein
BSD-Name: disk1
Rotationsfrequenz: 7200
Medienart: Rotierend
Partitionstabellentyp: GPT (GUID-Partitionstabelle)
S.M.A.R.T.-Status: Überprüft

Intel 6 Series Chipset:
Hersteller: Intel
Produkt: 6 Series Chipset
Link-Geschwindigkeit: 6 Gigabit
Ausgehandelte Link-Geschwindigkeit: 6 Gigabit
Beschreibung: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported
INTEL SSDSC2MH250A2:
Kapazität: 250,06 GB (250.059.350.016 Byte)
Modell: INTEL SSDSC2MH250A2
Version: PWG4
Seriennummer: LNEL11710019250DGN
Native Command Queuing: Ja
Queue Depth: 32
Wechselmedien: Nein
Absteckbares Laufwerk: Nein
BSD-Name: disk0
Medienart: Solid State
TRIM-Unterstützung: Ja
Name des Schachts: SSD
Partitionstabellentyp: GPT (GUID-Partitionstabelle)
S.M.A.R.T.-Status: Überprüft

Intel 6 Series Chipset:
Hersteller: Intel
Produkt: 6 Series Chipset
Link-Geschwindigkeit: 3 Gigabit
Ausgehandelte Link-Geschwindigkeit: 1,5 Gigabit
Beschreibung: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5690H:
Modell: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5690H
Version: 4AH5
Native Command Queuing: Nein
Absteckbares Laufwerk: Nein
Ausschalten: Ja
Async Notification: Nein
 
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