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SSD Upgrade in iMac 27" 2020 possible?

ich558

ich558

macrumors member
Original poster
May 1, 2019
56
11
Hi,

of course i know the new 2020 27" iMac hast soldered SSDs. 4 and 8 TB version is not soldered but secured with Apple T2

BUT

every model has pins for the old Apple SSD adapter. Seems like you just have to solder on the adapter and use a nvme adapter for upgrading your own SSD just as in the older models.

appleinsider.com

27-inch iMac teardown shows lack of storage upgrade options | AppleInsider

A teardown of the 2020 27-inch iMac reveals Apple made a few changes to the internals to accommodate its removal of the mechanical hard drive, including the loss of SATA connectors, the SSD being integrated into the logic board, and some small changes to the case.
appleinsider.com appleinsider.com


What do you think?

Interface is available....
 
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If you need more storage, I would just use a fast Thunderbolt external drive like the Samsung X5 or assemble your own, which should be almost as fast as an internal drive. There's no point going through all that trouble to add internal storage to a computer that has to sit on a desk anyway.
 
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Fishrrman said:
Who would buy a new 2020 iMac and then completely void the warranty by doing something like this?

There's no guarantee of success and you could end up with a completely unusable computer.
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A lot as all the years before.

There are already videos on Youtube where people upgrade the CPU.
 
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PLin said:
If you need more storage, I would just use a fast Thunderbolt external drive like the Samsung X5 or assemble your own, which should be almost as fast as an internal drive. There's no point going through all that trouble to add internal storage to a computer that has to sit on a desk anyway.
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Thats not the answer i asked for ;)
 
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There are a lot of videos on YouTube professing to do a lot of things... most people don't go out and buy a brand new car then proceed to replace its engine...

What do I think? I think you bought the wrong computer.
 
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Sounds like you've either bought or are contemplating buying a 2020 iMac with a small SSD and then upgrading it on the cheap. Like @Fishrrman said above, screw it up and you just spent a couple grand on a paperweight. If it was me I'd either buy an iMac with the storage I need or figure out how to work with an external drive.

But if you're dead set on this, I guess good luck! I'd imagine that you'll find more documentation from DIYers in a year or two when the AppleCare of 2020 iMac buyers has expired and people get more into opening them up and experimenting.
 
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Guys i am just asking 🙄 you dont get the point

I will not buy an new i mac. Internet is full of upgrading Macs. And this is just a new one where you have to find out whats possible.
On an 2019er iMac you could save 1000 of Euros by upgrading yourself.
 
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ich558 said:
Thats not the answer i asked for ;)
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I feel ya. You ask a question and you get a bunch of 'why would you want to do that?' lectures. There's always the people too afraid to mod their own computer and they want you to be a wuss and afraid too.

For all they know, I have no problem financially buying two iMacs with the idea of using one to experiment on. So I wish they'd just answer the question or shut the f up.

In answer to your question, from what I can tell it doesn't look promising https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...eardown-shows-lack-of-storage-upgrade-options

This in why I personally bought two 2019 imacs. In both of them I (fairly easily) swapped out the spinning portion of the fusion drive with a 4tb samsung 860 evo ssd.
 
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pmiles said:
There are a lot of videos on YouTube professing to do a lot of things... most people don't go out and buy a brand new car then proceed to replace its engine...

What do I think? I think you bought the wrong computer.
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Just stop. Upgrading the internal storage is not even close to an analogy of replacing the engine in a car.
 
Nicole1980 said:
Just stop. Upgrading the internal storage is not even close to an analogy of replacing the engine in a car.
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What's your problem? My analogy is perfect... new car, replace a major non-user friendly replaceable component. An oil change is like swapping RAM... replacing the engine is akin to a CPU or SSD replacement on a soldered board. Also I said most not everyone. So get off your high horse. No one ever said it wasn't doable... you assumed the worst because you drank the kool-aid.
 
pmiles said:
What's your problem? My analogy is perfect... new car, replace a major non-user friendly replaceable component. An oil change is like swapping RAM... replacing the engine is akin to a CPU or SSD replacement on a soldered board. Also I said most not everyone. So get off your high horse. No one ever said it wasn't doable... you assumed the worst because you drank the kool-aid.
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The thing is, you didnt directly address the question, which to remind you was: 'is it possible and how difficult'?
I suppose from your little analogy he could assume its difficult, but you offered no direct info with regards to his query.
 
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T
Nicole1980 said:
The thing is, you didnt directly address the question, which to remind you was: 'is it possible and how difficult'?
I suppose from your little analogy he could assume its difficult, but you offered no direct info with regards to his query.
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The OP asked "What do you think?"... pretty open ended question. No one in this thread told him it wasn't possible. No one in this thread told him how to do it. But everyone told the OP what they thought...
 
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pmiles said:
T

The OP asked "What do you think?"... pretty open ended question. No one in this thread told him it wasn't possible. No one in this thread told him how to do it. But everyone told the OP what they thought...
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Right, like if I asked a forum "I think the Steelers will win the super bowl, what do you think?" ... and people replied with comments like "I would never root for the steelers, I hate their owner".
The answer relates to the Steelers, sure, but clearly not what I had been asking about.

I don't think the OP was asking if it was stupid to think about upgrading the drive inside an iMac. He was asking whether it was possible and how hard it might be.
 
What the OP wants is either impossible or simply not feasible.

Either buy an iMac with an internal SSD large enough to suit your needs,
or
Add external USB storage
or
Sell what you have and get another with a larger drive.
 
Fishrrman said:
What the OP wants is either impossible or simply not feasible.

Either buy an iMac with an internal SSD large enough to suit your needs,
or
Add external USB storage
or
Sell what you have and get another with a larger drive.
Click to expand...
I would add one more: buy a 2019 from the apple refurb store and do an upgrade on that machine. Swap out the SATA hard drive with a 2.5 inch SSD. (870 evo for the win!)
 
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Nicole1980 said:
Right, like if I asked a forum "I think the Steelers will win the super bowl, what do you think?" ... and people replied with comments like "I would never root for the steelers, I hate their owner".
The answer relates to the Steelers, sure, but clearly not what I had been asking about.

I don't think the OP was asking if it was stupid to think about upgrading the drive inside an iMac. He was asking whether it was possible and how hard it might be.
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What do you think is an open ended question... any response is valid. If you want a specific response you ask a specific question.

All of this is moot because even the OP stated they weren't even going to buy a 2020 iMac in another post. It was all a hypothetical. So the question wasn't even a question to begin with.
 
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pmiles said:
T

The OP asked "What do you think?"... pretty open ended question. No one in this thread told him it wasn't possible. No one in this thread told him how to do it. But everyone told the OP what they thought...
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i thought the question was clear. sorry.

i mean do you think you can upgrade a nvme SSD by soldering on the socket for it?
 
It would probably be possible if not for one thing. Now, take this with a grain of salt, but as far as I know you'd have to reprogram the T2 chip as well. Why? Because the SSDs used by Apple are dumb flash storage chips without controller logic, which makes them much cheaper than regular SSD storage. The SSD controller logic is in turn part of the T2 chip and its numerous capabilities, and it's this chip that addresses the flash storage, knows how much it has at its disposal, controls the wear level algorithms, etc.

Again, grain of salt, but I believe that simply soldering a socket on won't cut it.
 
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mj_ said:
It would probably be possible if not for one thing. Now, take this with a grain of salt, but as far as I know you'd have to reprogram the T2 chip as well. Why? Because the SSDs used by Apple are dumb flash storage chips without controller logic, which makes them much cheaper than regular SSD storage. The SSD controller logic is in turn part of the T2 chip and its numerous capabilities, and it's this chip that addresses the flash storage, knows how much it has at its disposal, controls the wear level algorithms, etc.

Again, grain of salt, but I believe that simply soldering a socket on won't cut it.
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I know of course the problem with the t2 chip but i think it just looks the Apple SSDs. In the Mac Pro for example you can also upgrade your own SSDs and the T2 Chip just affects the Apple SSD
 
That's a good point, I didn't think of that. It's very well possible that these solder points aren't connected to anything on the other side, and that you would need some additional chip, such as a bus transceiver or other kinds of logic chips.

I guess the only way to find out then is for someone to give it a shot 🤷‍♀️
 
also with the speed of Thunderbolt 3 external ssds are a real option to consider. Im actually planning on buying one for my 2017 Imac to avoid opening the sucker and use the internal as a data drive.
 
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Another angle to consider regarding using 2019 or older with an internal upgrade -
Since Apple stops the support for OS upgrades after a few years, there is a decent chance that before the iMac breaks or becomes too slow, applications will stop supporting its OS (like antivirus, backups, security updates, etc).

If the price is a key consideration, it would suggest going with the newest iMac and adding external storage.
 
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