SSD options for late-2012 iMac

[lali]

Hello
I have a late-2012 iMac with 1TB fusion drive.

What are my options to replace the Fusion drive (s) ?

A) standard SSD drive like Samsung EVO
B) blade-type Apple ssd from a macbook pro or macbook air on Ebay? Is it compatible with my iMac? Do I need special cables?

Thanks!

 

[Fishrrman]

Fastest, easiest, cheapest, safest option:
Buy an external USB3 SSD, plug it in, and set it up to become the boot drive.

No risk of breaking anything inside that way.
You'll see read speeds around 420-430mbps, and writes at least 300mbps (possibly faster).

Use velcro to attach the SSD to the back of the iMac's stand -- it will be out of sight and out of the way.

Leave the internal fusion drive as it is...

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Its 2 drives one PCIe connected ssd 128gb I would just leave that as is, replace the HDD with a sata ssd in whichever size you wish and make it a fusion drive again for one volume. You'll have a fusion consisting of only solid state drives it will fly.

 

[EugW]

Its 2 drives one PCIe connected ssd 128gb I would just leave that as is, replace the HDD with a sata ssd in whichever size you wish and make it a fusion drive again for one volume. You'll have a fusion consisting of only solid state drives it will fly.

Why even bother with fusing them? Just run them separately.

 

[MikeBusch2]

I think 2013 was the first year of the PCI-E blade. The interface was still SATA in 2012, but with a weird custom connector.

Anyway, for my 2012 iMac, I ripped out the 1TB drive, threw in a 1TB Samsung Pro SSD, and went to town. I left the 128GB blade in there for bootcamp.

I had no issues with fan speed, which was a concern in older models when replacing the hard drive.

All I needed was a tape kit (ebay), a guitar pick to cut the adhesive (don't use anything metal!), and 3-1/2" to 2-1/2" drive adapter.

It's been a while since I benchmarked, but I believe I was getting 600MB/s reads and writes on the new drive, basically maxing out the SATA interface. The blade SSD topped out around 200MB/s.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Why even bother with fusing them? Just run them separately.

Because I hate dealing with stuff separate drives its a B*llache. I would fuse them for that reason alone. Hell I'd fusion an external drive with an internal as well.

 

[Fishrrman]

Samuelsan wrote:
"Because I hate dealing with stuff separate drives its a B*llache. I would fuse them for that reason alone. Hell I'd fusion an external drive with an internal as well."

I guess I'm a different kind of Mac guy.
Right now there are SEVEN volumes (not one) appearing on the upper-right corner of my display. That's the LOWEST number that are ever there.
Sometimes there are others, as well.

I know where things are....