#Imac fusion drive vs ssd speed test upgrade#

There are upward-facing screws behind the fan that are easy to forget. You must press these to enable removal and the large cable requires a fair amount of force. The webcam and primary display cables have flip-up locks, don’t just yank on them.īoth large cables connecting the power supply with the motherboard have latches. There’s a captive screw behind the motherboard that you access through a hole in said board. It’s simple, but a few pain points:Ī post for the power supply is also a screw securing the motherboard. You’ll find the NVMe SSD on the back of the latter, secured by one screw. Pad below the iMac and prop it so it’s tilted back.Īfter that, the whole deal consists of delicately unplugging a few cables, undoing quite a few Torx screws (you’ll obviously need torx drivers), then removing the speakers, power supply (don’t touch the bare solder joints on the back), and logic board. iFixit sells a great roller (see above) for spudging the display off that eases the job considerably. Use a large workspace, and remove move anything hard or pointed that you could conceivably bang into and break the glass. One thing I will say is to be careful removing the display and handle it with care. FccZoneĪ spudging wheel such as this is worth its weight in gold when it comes to removing the display from an iMac. The procedure is hardly difficult, but it requires patience, a modicum of finesse, and some tools. Frankly, I can’t do better than the easy-to-follow and granular guide on, which is what I used the first time. I won’t bore you with the complete tear-down instructions for a 2015 iMac. The company armed me with a number of relevant tips, and sent me a 512GB M13 Feather SSD kit with macOS High Sierra pre-installed. Finally, I stumbled on a company with an office in Birmingham, Alabama called Fledging, whose Feather drives run around 25 cents per gigabyte and are available in up to 2TB of capacity. That’s better, but they were from unfamiliar companies I was unable to chat with. Perusing further, I found Apple-compatible SSDs for around 30 cents per gigabyte. OWC’s compatible drives on Newegg were 40 cents per gigabyte, and Apple’s on Amazon were an incredible $1 a gigabyte! This is 2019: standard M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs start at 15 cents per gigabyte! A huge issue is that Apple uses proprietary connectors. Finding a NVMe SSD for the upgradeĪs I intimated, there was never any question that the NVMe SSD could be upgraded, just whether it could be done for a reasonable price.

#Imac fusion drive vs ssd speed test upgrade#

With the disclaimers out of the way, here’s how you can upgrade an iMac’s NVMe SSD with something cheaper, faster, and more capacious.

If you’re careful, you shouldn’t, but stuff happens. You also run the risk of permanently damaging your iMac. Another disclaimer: if your iMac is still under warranty, this will void it.