Upgrading iMac Late 2014 A1419

[Dan Foley]

I' looking to upgrade my iMac with a Samsung 860 PRO SSD and Samsung 970 PRO SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe. I believe I will need an adapter for the PCIe slot for the Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe to work. Am I also going to have install problems?

Would you recommend a different SSD & PCIe arrangement?

Should I use a heat sink on the Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe?

I want to insta OS on the Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe. I have read many comments to this process and want to have a smooth install.


Thank you in advance.

 

[Juicy Box]

Are you looking for speed?

If you don't mind going external and don't mind the expense, you can get a TB3 NVMe enclosure, Apple's TB2/3 bidirectional adapter, and something to power the enclosure.

Your speed would be faster using NVMe over TB2 than getting an adapter for the internal blade.

 

[Dan Foley]

Thank you for replying. I would like to keep everything inside, but at the same time create a faster Mac. The other thought would to create a "Fusion" drive as originally installed.

 

[Juicy Box]

Can you post your current specs?

I would like to keep everything inside

I understand this. While I am currently booting my main Mac (Late 2012 iMac) with an external TB3 NVMe drive, I might be looking for an internal solution soon.

It wouldn't be worth it for me to replace my blade SSD in my Late 2012 iMac due to it being the same speed as putting a SSD in place of the HDD.

I am thinking about getting an Apple 768GB blade SSD or the OWC 1TB blade SSD and create a striping RAID with another SSD using the HDD connection.

This would be the only way of having a faster internal speed than what I am currently getting with TB3 drive I am currently using.

 

[Dan Foley]

Can you post your current specs?


I understand this. While I am currently booting my main Mac (Late 2012 iMac) with an external TB3 NVMe drive, I might be looking for an internal solution soon.

It wouldn't be worth it for me to replace my blade SSD in my Late 2012 iMac due to it being the same speed as putting a SSD in place of the HDD.

I am thinking about getting an Apple 768GB blade SSD or the OWC 1TB blade SSD and create a striping RAID with another SSD using the HDD connection.

This would be the only way of having a faster internal speed than what I am currently getting with TB3 drive I am currently using.

Mac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4 GB

 

[Tonal]

I' looking to upgrade my iMac with a Samsung 860 PRO SSD and Samsung 970 PRO SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe. I believe I will need an adapter for the PCIe slot for the Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe to work. Am I also going to have install problems?

Would you recommend a different SSD & PCIe arrangement?

Should I use a heat sink on the Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe?

I want to insta OS on the Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe. I have read many comments to this process and want to have a smooth install.


Thank you in advance.

If possible, update the firmware on the SSD. Most heatsinks would make it too tall to fit back into your Mac.

Bigger question - have you opened an iMac / removed a logic board in the past?

 

[Dan Foley]

Already installed the Samsung SSD. Had the wrong PCIe SSD (didn't know an adapter was needed) and closed it up so I could continue to use iMac. So the answer is yes. I have opened iMac and also repair several iPones and iPads.