Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

UPGRADE iMac mid 2015 with Samsung EVO Plus SSD ?

K

kazaka

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 19, 2020
31
1
Hello, I want to upgrade my iMac 27" mid 2015 with a Samsung Evo Plus 1TB SSD but from what i read over the net is that people say that its not compatible with Mac system with reports of kernel issues, hibernation problems, so it seems that theres are a lot of problems arising from the upgrades.

However, I read also, that Samsung to deal with this problem released in 2019 a firmware that corrected this problems and these SSDs should rum perfect in the Macs as upgrades. I read that some people upgraded their iMacs with the Evo Plus SSDs without problems after the firmware release.

Anyone tried this SDD upgrade with the Evo Plus SSD before or after the release of the Evo Plus firmware?
 
Last edited:
I have done upgrade on Mid 2015 27inch iMac few days ago, used:
- Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter (Small)
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 500GB (Checked on Windows pc SSD has latest FW out of the box)

All runs perfectly fine at x2 lane 700mb/s both ways. No sleep/wake problems.
Tho in diagnostics just with NVME drive iMac returns "Probably drive issue" error.
When i put any other drive(HDD or SSD) in SATA slot it passes the diagnostic with no issues.

I think i'll put cheap 250GB SSD in SATA slot just for case, always nice to have extra one.

I read before that if you had Fusion driven iMac chances are slim to get no sleep/wake issue.
Unfortunately i have no history of my particular iMac (got it used in broken condition).
 
Last edited:
kazaka said:
Hello, I want to upgrade my iMac 27" mid 2015 with a Samsung Evo Plus 1TB SSD but from what i read over the net is that people say that its not compatible with Mac system with reports of kernel issues, hibernation problems, so it seems that theres are a lot of problems arising from the upgrades.

However, I read also, that Samsung to deal with this problem released in 2019 a firmware that corrected this problems and these SSDs should rum perfect in the Macs as upgrades. I read that some people upgraded their iMacs with the Evo Plus SSDs without problems after the firmware release.

Anyone tried this SDD upgrade with the Evo Plus SSD before or after the release of the Evo Plus firmware?
Click to expand...

Screw that HD, use this https://fledging.net/feather-m13-ssd-turbo/

Made for Mac OS and cheaper and plugs right in
 
Hi Agilato,

I have made the upgrade also in my mid 2015 and I get the same speeds as yours.

I am trying to find a way to increase the iMac speed but the only solution is .. swapping the hole logic board with one from Late 2015 but i dont know it they are compatible... apparently that have the same design and the screw positions are the same to fit in the mid 2015 chassis. So if I do the swap I would be taking out the mid 2015 with its cpu, gpu and heatsink and replacing it with the late 2015 logic board with its cpu, gpu and heat sink. The I would put the SSD in there as well.

The speeds are 2500-3000mb/s !!!

I am going to try to replace it next week with a friends logic board then i will post the results.
 
kazaka said:
Hi Agilato,

I have made the upgrade also in my mid 2015 and I get the same speeds as yours.

I am trying to find a way to increase the iMac speed but the only solution is .. swapping the hole logic board with one from Late 2015 but i dont know it they are compatible... apparently that have the same design and the screw positions are the same to fit in the mid 2015 chassis. So if I do the swap I would be taking out the mid 2015 with its cpu, gpu and heatsink and replacing it with the late 2015 logic board with its cpu, gpu and heat sink. The I would put the SSD in there as well.

The speeds are 2500-3000mb/s !!!

I am going to try to replace it next week with a friends logic board then i will post the results.
Click to expand...

I have seen your post, one standoff at the bottom-middle section is missing but i don't think it will be the problem.
I think Apple lazy enough to not change chassis up to 2017 model, i had open my other 2017 iMac and it looks pretty much the same. Really interesting to see how update will go.

My experience show over all in regular use, even with regular 4k 8bit footage editing there is no noticeable benefit to have speeds over 700mb/s it's just a number, tho i should admit 7700k on DDR4 way faster than 4770k with DDR3.
 
Glad you told me that one standoff at the bottom-middle section is missing... but yes I dont thinlk that will be a big problem.. I will be doing a video about the upgrade..

My iMac lags playing game Fortenite and GPU reaches 97-100 Degrees celsius while playing it... I have 16GB RAM.
 
Not a problem of an SSD, 700mb/s for gaming already overhead.
Gaming on 5k iMac is bad idea due to thermal design and constant CPU throttling.
2gb of VRAM too small for 5k gaming you need 8gb at least.
For proper vSync on 5k you need very high FPS or frames will fall a part called "screen tearing".

It designed for bursts of performance rather than nonstop heavy load.
My 2017 iMac with 7700k has 80(c) in basics tasks with 1200rpm, disabling TurboBoost made it more quiet.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back