I work on and fix apple stuff. As an IT dude who likes to see someone with an attention to detail, this is the best type of these videos I have seen. IT guys tend to gloss over things we expect others to know. Nothing was glossed here. I don't care for drones, but this is now my goto video showing clients how we do this the right way. Huge thumbs up.
I appreciate you taking the time in leaving such a great comment. When I set out to make this video. I intentionally wanted to make it as detailed as I could because no one else was. It really worked for me and I wanted everyone else to feel that they could do it as well. My computer is still running like a champ. :) Again thank you.
Big thanks to you, Airwolf. :) I followed your instruction and finally replaced(upgraded) SSD Samsung 860 Evo 1TB to my Imac 27´´ late 2012. Super happy with the outcome. it works super great!! (side note) To those of you who are a little bit hesitated to do this process. Don't be, just do it. Coz, you're going love your upgraded version.
Followed exactly the steps and procedures in this video. I used super duper to clone my new SSD. After 4 hours of cloning, I went ahead and proceeded with the replacement. When I pushed that power ON button (fingers crossed) everything came up without a glitch! After installing trim, my late 2013 Mac is considerably faster. Thank you Airwolf!
That’s a WIN in my books. And ya, that cloning can take quite a while 😆. Hope you at least enjoyed a movie or something. Happy to have helped! And thanks for commenting. 😊🙏🏻
I have a late 2012 27" iMac and I have been tempted on purchasing a brand new 2020 model. But after watching your video and realizing how easy it is to upgrade the HD and RAM I am going to hold off on purchasing a new machine for at least a few more years. This video is super helpful so thanks for sharing!
@@EmmureMARIO64 I have a late 2013 21" iMac, at first was thinking on adding RAM, but after watching this video I decided to replace the Hard Drive with an SSD also. I doubled to 16GB RAM and an SSD. It has been a few months now, and I can't believe how fast this machine is. I am not a heavy user (like Video or Gaming), but haven't had an issue with the fan or heat. Of course, there are risks involved in the upgrading process. Thankfully, I didn't have any....so far. THANKS AIRWOLF
Just as an advice... I would NEVER use a sharp metal blade to cut the adhesive around... That's dangerous, and also prone to issues if you accidentally slip around the rounded edge AND the camera. There is a plastic tool like a pizza cutter that exists and does a wonderful job with no risk at all ! And I would also put the iMac in an horizontal position before removing the screen... it happened in other videos that peoples accidentally dropped the screen and broke it... just my 2 cents !
Thanks so much bro, I just got me a iMac and put a ssd on it and runs faster then any computer I’ve ever owned. I did everything you showed and Dude, soooo awesome. So insanely fast.Thanks again
I just had my failing 3TB Fusion drive replaced with a 2TB SSD drive. Total cost with tax was $511. I used an authorized Apple repair company in Burbank CA. They did install a thermal sensor. They did a great job. Can’t complain.
@@AIRWOLF I’m waiting for Apple to come out with another 27 inch iMac that has the new hardware. So in the meantime I just fixed this to get me through the next year or so. Hopefully they release one soon.
This really isn't that difficult if you follow the steps, I installed a SSD and upped the ram in my late 2013 27" iMac and then followed another video to install Mac OS Ventura on it, it is now performing like a new computer. Great video!
Did you go for the thermal sensor or are you running without it? I'm hearing that the late 2013 iMacs don't need it but the early 2013 ones do as they didn't get the SMART update in the boot rom version
So I was thinking about it and I bought a 2019 4K iMac 8gb ram i3 with 1 TB HHD on ebay for 700. Upgraded to 32 go ram and 1 TB SSD for 325 bucks. That same iMac sells new for 2500. Nailed it! This is the first time I have seen my mavic air 2 videos in 4K. Thanks for the great video
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE VIDEO AIRWOLF!! I have a late 2013 21" iMac and it was super slow, I was considering doubling the RAM to 16GB and when I saw your video I decided to do both, upgrade RAM and install an SSD (WD Blue 1TB). What a difference!! Feels like new. Super-fast. Reboot takes 10-15 seconds. Now after 2 months, no issues at all. By the way, I reinstalled my old slow Parallels 12 and now it works like a charm. Once again Thanks!!
Excellent video> I used this to make my 2012 mac super fast. I declined to take the glue off the bottom of the screen and just opened the top and put it back together . Worked like a charm your instructions. Also you do not need to pay for superduper they want you to register but its free and that was a nice surprise.
I just fixed my iMac using an external USB T5 Samsung SSD and cloning my hard drive to the SSD using Carbon Copy. My iMac takes 42 seconds to go from hitting the power button to the login screen. From the login screen to full desktop takes 7 seconds. Opening Final Cut Pro about 2 seconds. I am so glad this fixed my extremely slow 2015 iMac.
1. Carbon Copy Clone will not work for Mac OS Sur Public Beta (for those thinking about cloning) 2. I downloaded the Mac OS and installed in external SSD 3. I used SanDisk Extreme Pro 500GB SSD, It is working great 4. The SanDisk SSD not getting warm 5. My 2017 iMac (2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 with 8GB RAM) is much faster than my 2019 Macbook Air (1.8 Dual-Core i5 with 8GM RAM) 6. Now my iMac startup time reduced to 20 seconds (SSD) from 1.5 minutes (SATA drive) 7. All the apps are opening instantly (previously the app will jump for few times and open slowly)
To save time just unplug the hard drive cable, plug-in the new SSD, place a small bit of double sided tape onto the old hard drive front surface still in place and stick the new SSD on the old hard drive surface. 30 sec tops to do, and yes the spacing is enough not to interfere with the monitor.
Thank you for putting this tutorial together! Gave may late 2013 27-inch a new life. I hit a snag when I booted up the cloned SSD. I got the Apple logo and as it seems to finish loading, my iMac just shut off; this happened multiple times. I ended up putting the old mechanical HD back and re-cloned it; however, this time I used Carbon Copy instead of SuperDuper, and it worked. Oh, and I added 8GB of RAM, equaling to 16GB.
i tried cloning the hdd to ssd through disk utility and for some reason it wouldnt boot up from the ssd. and then my imac wouldnt boot up from the hdd also anymore. so right now im reinstalling catalina onto the hdd so i can try again using super duper or carbon copy. i am so annoyed
Thankyou, thank you, thank you. I've viewed lots of iMac expert vids and none are as clear and understandable as yours. I'm definitely upgrading now I've seen your instructions.
Hi guys 😊looove your stuff🤩. I have a iMac 21’5» 2.7ghz 8gb ram late 2013. Can you please send med links or type a list of what i need to buy to upgrade my iMac 🙏🏽🌞☺️ . I want this SSD, and more ram + sensor. Huuuge thanks from Chris Norway
FYI Fusion drive iMacs have just regular spinning drive HDD. On Fusion drive iMacs there's a second NVMe solid state disk installed on the other side of the logic board. This acts as the SSD portion of the "fusion drive". In reality it is two drives, but the system treats them as one through software tricks. Early fusion drives (Late 2014 iMac 5K) had 128 GB NVMe-SSD and later models BACKWARDLY switched to a lesser 32 GB NVMe-SSD (greedy Apple). I shall try this HDD switch to a standard SSD soon on my iMac. Appreciate the video. I bought a good quality SSD today, one of the better SATA III SSD's, the Samsung SSD 870 EVO 4 TB. The Samsung QVO is cheaper (quad layered) but slower and with a lesser warranty. Another option is Crucial, but I read today one person's Crucial drive failed in their iMac. The 870 EVO is more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
Update: the hard drive switch went fine. One minor problem. In the OWC kit (OWCDIYIMACHDD12) they supply two blue 2" suction cups. Never saw anyone on TH-cam using suctions cups, but figured it was part of the kit so must be fine. Now my display is broken. When it's turned off it doesn't look broken, but pulling with those suction cups damaged the display and now I have a big 3" vertical band coming down on the left half of the display that's visible when you power up the computer. An eight year old machine and it was perfect before. Treated it so well over the years. Was so annoyed I was fit to throw the iMac out the window. I'm careful and methodical and take my time doing stuff like this. Do yourself a favour and NEVER, ever, ever use the supplied suction cups. Throw them in a bin/trash as soon as you set your eyes on them. OWC just cost me €1,000. Idiots ruined my Christmas
Guys I'm going through same problems but worse with imac 2017. Not even attempted the internal switch yet, went external ssd combo, worked for months and everything went Peak towards end of my last semester at uni.. near the start of the next now but apple ruined me and possibly my MSc this Christmas. I got to say.. Could be my Gpu or the internal hdd needs replacing if not the nvme also? I'm dreading it's My screen or power but worse time to replace and kind of need a mac Pro over the same jive:/
Great video and you reaffixed the screen correctly in an upright position so as to get a flush fitting on the bottom base. The OWC video (which unfortunately I followed) shows to reaffix the screen with it flat which results in the base not sitting flush as there's no weight on it.
This is an awesome video. It was really well done. I will use this for my own upgrade. I will give you my comments after I am done. THANK YOU for sharing your expertise. Nice job.
I have to comment. Never use a sharp blade to get between the glass and bezel. It could and will scratch the inside edges of the display. A proper screen removing tool is available of Amazon for less that 10 bucks, it’s like a plastic mini pizza cutter. Secondly after unplugging the power you should always discharge the caps on the psu but press the power button for a good 10 to 20 seconds. That psu will give you a shock if you don’t and trust me it hurts like hell. Thirdly the adhesive is fitted to the enclosure only and only remove the back off the very bottom so you can place the screen in at the right place and it will hold straight. Those strips are designed to be pulled by the tabs outward when the screen is fully in place. Tips I have learnt over doing so so many of these screens. 👍
TIP for easy future access: instead of adhesive strips simply put on a couple of small pieces of clear tape (on the outside of the rim) to keep the display in place.
You’re very welcome. I don’t usually upload stuff like this on the channel. But it helped me. So I hope some folks can maybe learn from it as well. 🤷🏻♂️
I have the same question about the thermal sensor ... actually didn't wanna buy that thing lol. Didn't know about the cloning software, first time i see it in these tutorials i've been watching. Good video brother!
You don't need the thermal sensor, you will only waste your money. I updated an iMac late 2012 with an SSD and I have no issues at all with the fan. Use carbon copy cloner, it is the best software to do a clone.
@@lukedotcom can i skip the sensor without even having to use extra software, would it be fine, its for the wife and she hates tinkering with her computer
Thank you for the video. I'm just in a middle of the decision making regarding to upgrade my iMac18,3 (2017). As far as I looked a lot of upgrades videos and tests, I found that in case your iMac has Thunderbolt 3 (which is 40Gbps) it is possible to buy nvme enclosure and according ssd drive, any size you wish and not which your iMac supports. The test speed I seen was 1900MB/s / 2366MB/s, that is twice higher than my current Fusion drive shows. (must be 32GB ssd speed as 1TB hdd is at sata3, what is 550MB/s max). Again, who is not comfortable with whole system storage just handing over cable outside - internal upgrade will be a solution. I doubt to go inside iMac by myself and the cost in repair service is twice more than such enclosure costs. But there is always a choice! The beauty for us is that I may have my ssd with all setup and whole data and my wife may have own ssd and we just swap these and no any more words that I moved or touched something at her desktop any more!!!! :))))))))))
Love diy videos. This stuff is not voodoo magic and if careful is quite easy. 1. There's a simple plastic roller tool I bought that stops you from going too far in and damaging the lcd. 2. I used carboncopycloner to copy os. Does the same as your suggested program. 3. I've had the drive directly taped internally and the sensor anywhere on ssd. Makes no difference as the ssd has no moving parts. Great tutorial tho!
I didn't use cloning software when mine was upgraded. I just formatted and used my time machine backup. Careful with that display. You can crack it if you don't get the tape completely cut
Also, when you are taking the screen off at the bottom, see those 2 tabs that stick out on each side I think you are supposed to pull those towards the middle and that removed most of the bottom adhesive. Cheers
This is a very well done guide, thanks a lot. I noticed in the end, when you put the adhesive tape on the mac, it looks like you put it on both sides. Did you buy two of those for slightly added thickness and easier installation? Thanks!
Thank you for this. May I suggest, however, NOT applying the adhesive tape upon putting the screen back on but simply placing a small piece of clear tape on the top and side to prevent it from falling out. Should be more than enough to keep the screen in place unless you carry it around like a laptop. And, you will have easy access to the internals any time.
Wonderful video, I'm a power windows user considering adding an imac and wanted to know about opening for HD replacement maintenance dust cleaning, etc.
Thanks for uploading this, I am planning to do this with my late 2015 imac in a couple of days and yours is the most helpful video I´ve found. Just one question. Is it possible to do a Time Machine restore on to the new SSD instead of cloning the Mac HD with other software? Will that work as well? I would like to do that before I install the SSD so I can check if it works before I put on the new adhesive as you did on the video. I know it´s possible to do the restore once the installation is done but I prefer your way. Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Glad that ive come across this Video and your page ! You're a Drone guy and computer guy .... I'm not . Lol But I am purchasing my first Drone , the EVO 2 Pro 6k and I do have a 2015 IMac 27 inch 5k Retina . After these upgrades to my IMac , would I still be good to go uploading and processing , editing videos from the EVO 2 Pro 6k or even the 8k EVO ? Thanks for your dedicated time in sharing your knowledge and experiences man , looking forward to your response and any other advice 👊
I appreciate your comment bud. It all comes down to what software you're going to be editing on? If you're on Premiere Pro than i'm afraid you'll have to edit using proxys with that setup. But if you're on FCPX and just editing little aerial clips you should be fine. I edit the 6K Pro Res RAW from the Dji X7 and it seems to handle it pretty good. The computer is definitely working, but it gets it done. If you're going to be getting heavily involved with editing you may just want to wait till the new M1 drops this fall. Happy flying!!!
0:00 Intro 2:37 Tools Needed 4:22 Cloning the Hard drive 4:35 Before Speed 07:27 Taking off the 5K screen 10:49 Hard drive removal 11:52 Installing SSD/Thermal Sensor 14:38 Re-installing Screen 17:17 After Speeds
thanks for the great video and explaining the thermal sensor! apple is notorious for excluding thermal management and just letting things thermally throttle. that is very low tech compared with the high tech way they handle a lot of other things, so this thermal management is welcome. thinking some more, i wonder about replacing the thermal paste? maybe for the chip set? search youtube: replacing thermal paste on imac. hum, looks like you missed an opportunity, but i skipped through your video, so maybe you did this too. my apologies if i missed this.
Airwolf, this is an amazing video. It gave us great confidence in my DIY projects. Is the video applicable if I have 21.5 i5 Late 2015 Imac? How much max RAM can I upgrade this 8GB ram and what ram can you recommend. Also Can I use 2TB of Samsung SSD instead of 1TB?
Thanks for commenting and sorry for the late response. Now I’m not 100%. But I think you can only max your RAM to 16G and your hard drive to 2T on that model. As for RAM recommendations I like to use “OWC”, but if you’re on a budget “crucial” honestly works just as fine. Hope that helps. Happy Holidays!
Great video all you need to know is here thanks. A lot of people is complaining about the adhesive included in the links, have anyone used it and had problems with it?
Thats the adhesive I used and I haven't had any issues. I think folks are either not cleaning the surface area thorough enough or forgetting to clean one side of it. You HAVE to remove ALL the old adhesive before installing. If folks are still worried you can always just use a 3M dual sided adhesive.
It does when you blow air from the top ;) As you can see the intake has the motherboard in front of it which will collect a good amount of dust that will not be able to make it to the exhaust :D
@@valentins9287 blowing air in through the exhaust port is more likely to deeply impact the dirt back into the computer whereas sucking it out through the intake ports is moreso likely to bring that dirt out of the computer, in my opinion.
Thanks for the vid. Great help for those damn tape jobs. But....THANKS for letting us all know where that sensor goes. Just next week going to put in the 870EVO 1TB in my 2011 and been wonder where the hell it would go. Nobody has said as much.
Thanks for the video. Very informative! Do u really need a thermal sensor for your ssd? I was planning to connect direct with the existing iMac SATA cable
I mean I also heard that you don't as well. But at the time I figured that it wouldn't hurt to just have it. I'm messaging from the computer I worked on. And its never given me issues. Happy that I was able to have help you. :)
Best instruction I've seen on this. Thanks. QUESTION. I have a 2013 27in iMac that has a 1T HDD and 120 SSD (I don't know what it looks like inside!!) would putting an 1T SSD have an impact internally - eg keeping things cool and any space issue???
Thx for the vid very informative and saved me $359AUD for someone else to do it. Also, I found the the drive is not recognized in Superduper unless you format it first in disk utility. Backing up now and waiting for my new seales before I attempt the installation.
I was expecting a helicopter.. thumbs up for the effort. I won't be attempting.. If only you were my neighbor. Good vid thanks..RIP Jan Micheal Vincent
Hi thanks so much for the video:) I followed your video and managed to upgrade my iMac too! I didn’t clone the drive, instead I opted to install the OS from the recovery mode. Catalina successfully installed. But when I’m setting up the iMac, it always hangs at the - select your wifi screen. Pls help!
Whether it's a better overall solution, idk. But I can confirm that MFC works pretty good on my MBP 2012 (with 500GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in a caddy instead of the DVD drive). It regulates the heat very good. Only when I do a video conference and also editting etc, the laptop is getting warm. But you can easily set the fan speed higher. Next week I'm gonna upgrade an iMac 2012 21,5" with a 500GB SSD and 16GB of RAM in stead of the current 8GB). Takes more time but hey, when the screen is off, most of the hard work is done and when it's open, I can better do it all at once. If I'm gonna use a thermal sensor, idk. I'm gonna do some research on it. If I have any remarks, I will add them here. It might help others.
There is no reason to go through all the trouble to mount the SSD inside the monitor. You can just put it in an enclosure and connect it using USB3 or Thtunderbolt.
The simple and very important reason is, that imacs before 2017 only got TB2 for which you don‘t get any enclosure and they only got USB 3.1 which is maxed out @5-600MB/s therefore with the internal SSD Replacement you can get up to 3000 MB/s due to PCI 3.x. 5 x times faster is a very good reason.
This is the best detailed video I have seen on refreshing older iMacs and keeping them going. I'm having trouble with Light Room CC, some screen glitching with lagging on inputs under the load of the files I'm running from My Sony A7RIII. I think its the graphic card but I wonder if this could be a fix with also maxing out the ram?
You don't need the thermal sensor at all, actually. I did this and it works just fine (Late 2013 27in iMac). The only thing that I can't seem to do is upgrade the PCI SSD drive as no one sells adapters compatible with 2012-2014 iMacs anymore. :(
AIRWOLF Im speaking for people who doesnt know how to open up a rig.lol. Anyway i can tell that you’re a technical guy, and you know what you’re doing. Very informative video.
One advice next time is not need to open the imac just run external the ssd via thunderbolt and boot externally and keep using you storage inside but now that you already done it you could actually buy same ssd and do raid 2ssd so you will double the speed.
Very Well explained and clear. Thank you. 1 question please: at the beginning When you clone a SSD, si the one then stays inside? That is why restarting the computer after the whole Work recognizes everything easily?
@@AIRWOLF THank you for your answer. Thank you for the video. I will do ít next weeks. Seeing your Video, clear and straight…CRUCIAL because I have no experience in these issues….I go for CRUCIAL MX 500 1TB and 16MB OWC and your tip about clone. I have a 21.5 iMac 2017, id: 18.2.ALL the BEST Mar. AIRWOLF. Merry CHristmas
Hi! Thank you for the video. Really nice. Gave me the courage to try it! :-) But I have a doubt: how do you use your 2 ssd drives? Now you have the original 128gb SSD (that came originally in the Fusion drive) and the new 1TB Samsung SSD you installed. Do you use both together as a fusion drive? Or are they separately? Or you just ignore the original 128gb ssd? I want to do this process. But I am not sure about that. Also, I am in Brazil and I couldn't find the thermal sensor here. I will try using an app to make reduce the noise if needed. Any tip on that? Thank you!
Thermal sensor already exists. Just get a program to monitor it in the tool bar. I do that on my 2011 PowerBook pro & my 2019 27 inch i9 iMac.:-). No harm adding more but seems pointless. IMHO.
you chose the EVO version. how does the EVO compare to QVO? I have the exact same computer, and looking to change my 3TB Fusion Drive with a 4TB QVO SSD Samsung, but I'm not sure if I should go with the EVO or QVO (QVO is slightly cheaper). Any input would be greatly appreciated. Great video by the way - I love it!
Hi, great video, one question.... you put the link for 3M sided tape, but in the video you use another tape even with instructions and numbered... it confused me, what is the tape do you recommend? i have iMac 21.5-inch, Late 2012.
I used the tape that came with the kit. Folks were saying that it's not strong enough. But I used it and it's still holding just fine. I suggest cleaning the surface really well. Anyhow I did link the 3M tape for those who want to opt out of using the kit tape.
Yes just plug a external ssd with the OSX on it. Easy, cheaper and safer. Screens can separate after being glued on. See Linus video of his iMac Pro being dropped. Lewis Rossman does not recommend owners cutting up their iMacs. All you need is a USB 3 enclosure and your SSD of choice. If your installed hard drive is still healthy leave it alone and use it as a storage device. You only need a small SSD to boot from. It can always be replaced with a larger external SSD later if the internal hard drive fails. If you have a NVME PCIE drive you can connect it to the USB-c / Thunderbolt ports. Attach the enclosure to the rear of the iMac with velcro. I have a 27" 2013 i5 and it boots in under 50 seconds off a cheap SSD. An external SSD will resurrect your old iMac and make it a useable machine again.
But wouldnt going thru the thunderbolt connection be slower than internal? So I bought the OWC ssd drive and it failed on 2 macs after a month. Both drives! They are refunding me. They are junk SSDs made in china probably. So I'm going samsung or crucial or some other known brand. But now your post has me thinking to go external.
![[TH] RNT vs SPG - VCT Ascension Pacific - Day 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RUTkf8Detj8/mqdefault.jpg)
I work on and fix apple stuff. As an IT dude who likes to see someone with an attention to detail, this is the best type of these videos I have seen. IT guys tend to gloss over things we expect others to know. Nothing was glossed here. I don't care for drones, but this is now my goto video showing clients how we do this the right way. Huge thumbs up.
I appreciate you taking the time in leaving such a great comment. When I set out to make this video. I intentionally wanted to make it as detailed as I could because no one else was. It really worked for me and I wanted everyone else to feel that they could do it as well. My computer is still running like a champ. :) Again thank you.
Big thanks to you, Airwolf. :) I followed your instruction and finally replaced(upgraded) SSD Samsung 860 Evo 1TB to my Imac 27´´ late 2012. Super happy with the outcome. it works super great!! (side note) To those of you who are a little bit hesitated to do this process. Don't be, just do it. Coz, you're going love your upgraded version.
Awwweeee thanks so much for that. Happy to have helped.
I swapped the regular HDD to a SAMSUNG SSD on my Imac Late 2015 and didn't need a thermal sensor. My computer works beautifully without any issues.
Thats awesome!
Followed exactly the steps and procedures in this video. I used super duper to clone my new SSD. After 4 hours of cloning, I went ahead and proceeded with the replacement. When I pushed that power ON button (fingers crossed) everything came up without a glitch! After installing trim, my late 2013 Mac is considerably faster. Thank you Airwolf!
That’s a WIN in my books. And ya, that cloning can take quite a while 😆. Hope you at least enjoyed a movie or something. Happy to have helped! And thanks for commenting. 😊🙏🏻
How long did you leave the Mac unplugged before you began the process ? To prevent electric shock
Excuse me: what do you mean when you say “after installing trim”?
@@MrEtorkizuna That must have been a typo. I might have meant "after installing this"
@@saticoypm thank you. Before starting This complex procedure i do not want unexpected surprises. Thanks for answering
this is literally the best step by step! thank you!!
You’re very welcome. Happy to have helped 😊
I have a late 2012 27" iMac and I have been tempted on purchasing a brand new 2020 model. But after watching your video and realizing how easy it is to upgrade the HD and RAM I am going to hold off on purchasing a new machine for at least a few more years. This video is super helpful so thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much!! Happy to have saved you some money. :)
AIRWOLF so will replace my old hard drive make my 2012 faster?
@@EmmureMARIO64 I have a late 2013 21" iMac, at first was thinking on adding RAM, but after watching this video I decided to replace the Hard Drive with an SSD also. I doubled to 16GB RAM and an SSD. It has been a few months now, and I can't believe how fast this machine is. I am not a heavy user (like Video or Gaming), but haven't had an issue with the fan or heat. Of course, there are risks involved in the upgrading process. Thankfully, I didn't have any....so far. THANKS AIRWOLF
Just as an advice... I would NEVER use a sharp metal blade to cut the adhesive around... That's dangerous, and also prone to issues if you accidentally slip around the rounded edge AND the camera. There is a plastic tool like a pizza cutter that exists and does a wonderful job with no risk at all ! And I would also put the iMac in an horizontal position before removing the screen... it happened in other videos that peoples accidentally dropped the screen and broke it... just my 2 cents !
Agreed. I just used what I had and I knew the areas to be extra careful. I appreciate your 2 cents though. Thank you 😊
Thanks so much bro, I just got me a iMac and put a ssd on it and runs faster then any computer I’ve ever owned. I did everything you showed and Dude, soooo awesome. So insanely fast.Thanks again
AWESOME!! Happy to hear that.
I just had my failing 3TB Fusion drive replaced with a 2TB SSD drive. Total cost with tax was $511. I used an authorized Apple repair company in Burbank CA. They did install a thermal sensor. They did a great job. Can’t complain.
Was it Melrose Mac?
@@AIRWOLF Yes, sure was.
@@AIRWOLF I’m waiting for Apple to come out with another 27 inch iMac that has the new hardware. So in the meantime I just fixed this to get me through the next year or so. Hopefully they release one soon.
@@TheCarCrazyGuy Those where the folks that wanted to charge $1200. But! That was quite a while ago.
@@TheCarCrazyGuy At this point, it looks like Apple is determined to never come out with a 27" Mx-iMac.
This really isn't that difficult if you follow the steps, I installed a SSD and upped the ram in my late 2013 27" iMac and then followed another video to install Mac OS Ventura on it, it is now performing like a new computer. Great video!
Thanks bud! If you don’t rush it, it’s quite simple.
Did you go for the thermal sensor or are you running without it? I'm hearing that the late 2013 iMacs don't need it but the early 2013 ones do as they didn't get the SMART update in the boot rom version
So I was thinking about it and I bought a 2019 4K iMac 8gb ram i3 with 1 TB HHD on ebay for 700. Upgraded to 32 go ram and 1 TB SSD for 325 bucks. That same iMac sells new for 2500. Nailed it! This is the first time I have seen my mavic air 2 videos in 4K. Thanks for the great video
Such a huge difference. I’m sure it can even handle 4K Pro Res as well.
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE VIDEO AIRWOLF!!
I have a late 2013 21" iMac and it was super slow, I was considering doubling the RAM to 16GB and when I saw your video I decided to do both, upgrade RAM and install an SSD (WD Blue 1TB). What a difference!! Feels like new. Super-fast. Reboot takes 10-15 seconds. Now after 2 months, no issues at all. By the way, I reinstalled my old slow Parallels 12 and now it works like a charm. Once again Thanks!!
You're very welcome!
Excellent video> I used this to make my 2012 mac super fast. I declined to take the glue off the bottom of the screen and just opened the top and put it back together . Worked like a charm your instructions. Also you do not need to pay for superduper they want you to register but its free and that was a nice surprise.
Thanks for the tutorial, iv just done mine and it went flawlessly
F YEAH!! Now thats what I like to hear. Happy to have helped. 👍
I just fixed my iMac using an external USB T5 Samsung SSD and cloning my hard drive to the SSD using Carbon Copy. My iMac takes 42 seconds to go from hitting the power button to the login screen. From the login screen to full desktop takes 7 seconds. Opening Final Cut Pro about 2 seconds. I am so glad this fixed my extremely slow 2015 iMac.
YEAH! 👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼. Mines still going strong! Happy to have helped.
Did you use USB 2.0 for that though? I thought that drastically slows down an SSD. If it doesn't, I am totally down to try that one out.
The Dudelino No I use USB 3.0
Great video! Yours is better and more detailed than several youtube channels that are dedicated to this kind of thing.
Thanks so much! I appreciate that. It was super helpful for me so I thought why not just share it with everyone. 🤷🏻♂️
1. Carbon Copy Clone will not work for Mac OS Sur Public Beta (for those thinking about cloning)
2. I downloaded the Mac OS and installed in external SSD
3. I used SanDisk Extreme Pro 500GB SSD, It is working great
4. The SanDisk SSD not getting warm
5. My 2017 iMac (2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 with 8GB RAM) is much faster than my 2019 Macbook Air (1.8 Dual-Core i5 with 8GM RAM)
6. Now my iMac startup time reduced to 20 seconds (SSD) from 1.5 minutes (SATA drive)
7. All the apps are opening instantly (previously the app will jump for few times and open slowly)
To save time just unplug the hard drive cable, plug-in the new SSD, place a small bit of double sided tape onto the old hard drive front surface still in place and stick the new SSD on the old hard drive surface. 30 sec tops to do, and yes the spacing is enough not to interfere with the monitor.
Thank you for putting this tutorial together! Gave may late 2013 27-inch a new life. I hit a snag when I booted up the cloned SSD. I got the Apple logo and as it seems to finish loading, my iMac just shut off; this happened multiple times. I ended up putting the old mechanical HD back and re-cloned it; however, this time I used Carbon Copy instead of SuperDuper, and it worked. Oh, and I added 8GB of RAM, equaling to 16GB.
This all sounds great Mike. Happy to at least helped a little. 😊
was carbon copy free?
i tried cloning the hdd to ssd through disk utility and for some reason it wouldnt boot up from the ssd. and then my imac wouldnt boot up from the hdd also anymore. so right now im reinstalling catalina onto the hdd so i can try again using super duper or carbon copy. i am so annoyed
THIS IS SO HELPFUL!!! THANK YOU!!!
Thankyou, thank you, thank you. I've viewed lots of iMac expert vids and none are as clear and understandable as yours. I'm definitely upgrading now I've seen your instructions.
You’re welcomed! No expert here! Just a regular guy trying to save some money. Really really happy to have helped. Enjoy
A huge thank you! I watched your video a few times, bought the stuff from Amazon through your links, and installed the SSD yesterday. Well done!
This awesome! Super happy to hear this. And thank you for your support. Mines still going strong 💪🏼
Hi guys 😊looove your stuff🤩. I have a iMac 21’5» 2.7ghz 8gb ram late 2013. Can you please send med links or type a list of what i need to buy to upgrade my iMac 🙏🏽🌞☺️ . I want this SSD, and more ram + sensor. Huuuge thanks from Chris Norway
This is the best video ever. From start to finish on a nitch subject! I need more content from you! Niceee
Thank You! And yes! I'm workin on it.
FYI Fusion drive iMacs have just regular spinning drive HDD. On Fusion drive iMacs there's a second NVMe solid state disk installed on the other side of the logic board. This acts as the SSD portion of the "fusion drive". In reality it is two drives, but the system treats them as one through software tricks. Early fusion drives (Late 2014 iMac 5K) had 128 GB NVMe-SSD and later models BACKWARDLY switched to a lesser 32 GB NVMe-SSD (greedy Apple).
I shall try this HDD switch to a standard SSD soon on my iMac. Appreciate the video. I bought a good quality SSD today, one of the better SATA III SSD's, the Samsung SSD 870 EVO 4 TB. The Samsung QVO is cheaper (quad layered) but slower and with a lesser warranty. Another option is Crucial, but I read today one person's Crucial drive failed in their iMac. The 870 EVO is more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
Update: the hard drive switch went fine. One minor problem. In the OWC kit (OWCDIYIMACHDD12) they supply two blue 2" suction cups. Never saw anyone on TH-cam using suctions cups, but figured it was part of the kit so must be fine. Now my display is broken. When it's turned off it doesn't look broken, but pulling with those suction cups damaged the display and now I have a big 3" vertical band coming down on the left half of the display that's visible when you power up the computer. An eight year old machine and it was perfect before. Treated it so well over the years. Was so annoyed I was fit to throw the iMac out the window. I'm careful and methodical and take my time doing stuff like this. Do yourself a favour and NEVER, ever, ever use the supplied suction cups. Throw them in a bin/trash as soon as you set your eyes on them. OWC just cost me €1,000. Idiots ruined my Christmas
Guys I'm going through same problems but worse with imac 2017. Not even attempted the internal switch yet, went external ssd combo, worked for months and everything went Peak towards end of my last semester at uni.. near the start of the next now but apple ruined me and possibly my MSc this Christmas. I got to say.. Could be my Gpu or the internal hdd needs replacing if not the nvme also? I'm dreading it's My screen or power but worse time to replace and kind of need a mac Pro over the same jive:/
Great video and you reaffixed the screen correctly in an upright position so as to get a flush fitting on the bottom base. The OWC video (which unfortunately I followed) shows to reaffix the screen with it flat which results in the base not sitting flush as there's no weight on it.
Thanks for this video. I’m upgrading a 2015 4K iMac and I have everything except for the thermal sensor. Ordered it and it’s arriving on Monday.
This is an awesome video. It was really well done. I will use this for my own upgrade. I will give you my comments after I am done. THANK YOU for sharing your expertise. Nice job.
Thanks so much
I have to comment. Never use a sharp blade to get between the glass and bezel. It could and will scratch the inside edges of the display. A proper screen removing tool is available of Amazon for less that 10 bucks, it’s like a plastic mini pizza cutter. Secondly after unplugging the power you should always discharge the caps on the psu but press the power button for a good 10 to 20 seconds. That psu will give you a shock if you don’t and trust me it hurts like hell. Thirdly the adhesive is fitted to the enclosure only and only remove the back off the very bottom so you can place the screen in at the right place and it will hold straight. Those strips are designed to be pulled by the tabs outward when the screen is fully in place. Tips I have learnt over doing so so many of these screens. 👍
thank for the comment
Nice step by step man, really inspires confidence!
Yes! You can do it. 💯
TIP for easy future access: instead of adhesive strips simply put on a couple of small pieces of clear tape (on the outside of the rim) to keep the display in place.
Very helpful ... easy to follow demo on the upgrade. Thanks Airwolf
Yes!! Happy to have helped!
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you thank you.
Awesome! You’re welcome.😊
thx for your demo. gonna' finally get my iMac upgraded...
You’re very welcome. I don’t usually upload stuff like this on the channel. But it helped me. So I hope some folks can maybe learn from it as well. 🤷🏻♂️
Installing an SSD next week in my 2013 imac. Thank you Airwolf!
Awesome! 👏🏼👏🏼 Happy to have helped
@@AIRWOLF How long did you leave the mac unplugged before you began the process to deplete an electric charge?
@@CortneyWarren2050 Leave it unplugged for at least 24 hours to be safe.
Great Vid mate I'm going for it in a couple days. Looking forward to the results. Made really easy with this demo. Cheers
AWESOME!! You're welcome!
Great educational video. Able to do my IMac upgrade and it’s working fine..
Happy To hear!!
I have the same question about the thermal sensor ... actually didn't wanna buy that thing lol. Didn't know about the cloning software, first time i see it in these tutorials i've been watching. Good video brother!
Thanks!
You don't need the thermal sensor, you will only waste your money.
I updated an iMac late 2012 with an SSD and I have no issues at all with the fan.
Use carbon copy cloner, it is the best software to do a clone.
@@lukedotcom can i skip the sensor without even having to use extra software, would it be fine, its for the wife and she hates tinkering with her computer
The only video of its kind! Recommend.
Thanks so much! Happy to have helped.
The best out there wow.... I’m gonna do mine regardless but I’m scared haha 😂
Nah you got this! 💪🏼. And thank you.
it looks so easy mate!! i think im going to do this if i will buy the new imac
It is! You got it handle bud.
Dude you could make alot of money doing that work for people .
If I can do it, you certainly can to. 😊
@@AIRWOLF I would disagree.
thank you for this video, and details tools on the description.. thank you so much man!!! love you!!
boo harry hahaha. You’re welcome 😉
Such a great informative and detailed video. Planning on doing this to my iMac tomorrow. Thank you!
Super happy to hear that. Glad it helped! Thank you :)
@@AIRWOLF just finished it up! Works like a charm!!
Perfect 👌🏼
Thanks for the very detailed video. Followed the procedure and worked out great.
Love hearing that. Happy to have helped. :)
Thank you for the video. I'm just in a middle of the decision making regarding to upgrade my iMac18,3 (2017).
As far as I looked a lot of upgrades videos and tests, I found that in case your iMac has Thunderbolt 3 (which is 40Gbps) it is possible to buy nvme enclosure and according ssd drive, any size you wish and not which your iMac supports. The test speed I seen was 1900MB/s / 2366MB/s, that is twice higher than my current Fusion drive shows. (must be 32GB ssd speed as 1TB hdd is at sata3, what is 550MB/s max).
Again, who is not comfortable with whole system storage just handing over cable outside - internal upgrade will be a solution.
I doubt to go inside iMac by myself and the cost in repair service is twice more than such enclosure costs. But there is always a choice!
The beauty for us is that I may have my ssd with all setup and whole data and my wife may have own ssd and we just swap these and no any more words that I moved or touched something at her desktop any more!!!! :))))))))))
Great video!! Thank you for advice to use Super Duper, it made the process very easy.
Love hearing this. You’re welcome bud.
VERY HELPFUL. GREAT VIDEO! Thank you kindly.
Love diy videos. This stuff is not voodoo magic and if careful is quite easy.
1. There's a simple plastic roller tool I bought that stops you from going too far in and damaging the lcd.
2. I used carboncopycloner to copy os. Does the same as your suggested program.
3. I've had the drive directly taped internally and the sensor anywhere on ssd. Makes no difference as the ssd has no moving parts.
Great tutorial tho!
Best instructional video on doing this so far! What was the overall time it took to do this?
Thank you!! Well if I didn't film it...Maybe an hour and a half.
Wow! one of the best Vids I'v'e watched on youtube.. Very educational and helpful, thanks for your time..
You’re welcome 😉
I didn't use cloning software when mine was upgraded. I just formatted and used my time machine backup. Careful with that display. You can crack it if you don't get the tape completely cut
That works too. And yes the screen is fragile.
Hey Wolfgang!
KENNY!!! :)
yes!
😊
it would be nice if Apple includes a back door to upgrade the PCi. It has a door for RAM, why not for PCIE and SSD?
Also, when you are taking the screen off at the bottom, see those 2 tabs that stick out on each side I think you are supposed to pull those towards the middle and that removed most of the bottom adhesive. Cheers
Great catch. Thanks 😊
@@AIRWOLF Cheers boss.
This is a very well done guide, thanks a lot.
I noticed in the end, when you put the adhesive tape on the mac, it looks like you put it on both sides. Did you buy two of those for slightly added thickness and easier installation? Thanks!
There was only one kit purchased. And there is a section that you do apply to the back of the monitor but not the whole thing. :)
You can clone the SSD with Disk Utilities which is in the utilities folder in Applications.
Thank you for this. May I suggest, however, NOT applying the adhesive tape upon putting the screen back on but simply placing a small piece of clear tape on the top and side to prevent it from falling out. Should be more than enough to keep the screen in place unless you carry it around like a laptop. And, you will have easy access to the internals any time.
Wonderful video, I'm a power windows user considering adding an imac and wanted to know about opening for HD replacement maintenance dust cleaning, etc.
They can get a little dusty inside.
Thanks for uploading this, I am planning to do this with my late 2015 imac in a couple of days and yours is the most helpful video I´ve found. Just one question. Is it possible to do a Time Machine restore on to the new SSD instead of cloning the Mac HD with other software? Will that work as well? I would like to do that before I install the SSD so I can check if it works before I put on the new adhesive as you did on the video. I know it´s possible to do the restore once the installation is done but I prefer your way. Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Sorry for the delayed response. But yes! You can use Time Machine to restore everything. Happy building and thanks for stopping by. :)
Glad that ive come across this Video and your page ! You're a Drone guy and computer guy .... I'm not . Lol But I am purchasing my first Drone , the EVO 2 Pro 6k and I do have a 2015 IMac 27 inch 5k Retina . After these upgrades to my IMac , would I still be good to go uploading and processing , editing videos from the EVO 2 Pro 6k or even the 8k EVO ? Thanks for your dedicated time in sharing your knowledge and experiences man , looking forward to your response and any other advice 👊
I appreciate your comment bud. It all comes down to what software you're going to be editing on? If you're on Premiere Pro than i'm afraid you'll have to edit using proxys with that setup. But if you're on FCPX and just editing little aerial clips you should be fine. I edit the 6K Pro Res RAW from the Dji X7 and it seems to handle it pretty good. The computer is definitely working, but it gets it done. If you're going to be getting heavily involved with editing you may just want to wait till the new M1 drops this fall. Happy flying!!!
0:00 Intro
2:37 Tools Needed
4:22 Cloning the Hard drive
4:35 Before Speed
07:27 Taking off the 5K screen
10:49 Hard drive removal
11:52 Installing SSD/Thermal Sensor
14:38 Re-installing Screen
17:17 After Speeds
If you use this format in the description, the chapters will show up in the video player. You always have to start with 0:00 Intro.
thanks for the great video and explaining the thermal sensor! apple is notorious for excluding thermal management and just letting things thermally throttle. that is very low tech compared with the high tech way they handle a lot of other things, so this thermal management is welcome. thinking some more, i wonder about replacing the thermal paste? maybe for the chip set? search youtube: replacing thermal paste on imac. hum, looks like you missed an opportunity, but i skipped through your video, so maybe you did this too. my apologies if i missed this.
Airwolf, this is an amazing video. It gave us great confidence in my DIY projects. Is the video applicable if I have 21.5 i5 Late 2015 Imac? How much max RAM can I upgrade this 8GB ram and what ram can you recommend. Also Can I use 2TB of Samsung SSD instead of 1TB?
Thanks for commenting and sorry for the late response. Now I’m not 100%. But I think you can only max your RAM to 16G and your hard drive to 2T on that model. As for RAM recommendations I like to use “OWC”, but if you’re on a budget “crucial” honestly works just as fine. Hope that helps. Happy Holidays!
Thank you so much. Straight to the point is better. Thanks
I've seen a few people crack the screens using pizza cutters and guitar picks etc. Better to use a razor blade. Thinner and much sharper.
Great video all you need to know is here thanks. A lot of people is complaining about the adhesive included in the links, have anyone used it and had problems with it?
Thats the adhesive I used and I haven't had any issues. I think folks are either not cleaning the surface area thorough enough or forgetting to clean one side of it. You HAVE to remove ALL the old adhesive before installing.
If folks are still worried you can always just use a 3M dual sided adhesive.
Here another adhesive that'll work if you're still skeptic. It's just more work to apply it.
amzn.to/2WmpHxN
AIRWOLF I think that was the problem not preping properly.
@@robertogomez8100 I 100% agree.
this is a very good tutorial. keep up.
Thanks so much Edward 🙏🏻 I’ll do my best
Great tutorial, thank you so much!
Love hearing that.. Your'e welcome!
the dust does not blow out the bottom. the bottom is the intake. the exhaust is on the rear approx in the centre.
It does when you blow air from the top ;) As you can see the intake has the motherboard in front of it which will collect a good amount of dust that will not be able to make it to the exhaust :D
@@valentins9287 blowing air in through the exhaust port is more likely to deeply impact the dirt back into the computer whereas sucking it out through the intake ports is moreso likely to bring that dirt out of the computer, in my opinion.
Great video. Helped me out!
Awesome!! Happy to have helped.
Thanks for the vid. Great help for those damn tape jobs. But....THANKS for letting us all know where that sensor goes. Just next week going to put in the 870EVO 1TB in my 2011 and been wonder where the hell it would go. Nobody has said as much.
Happy to have helped!
Thanks for the video. Very informative! Do u really need a thermal sensor for your ssd? I was planning to connect direct with the existing iMac SATA cable
I mean I also heard that you don't as well. But at the time I figured that it wouldn't hurt to just have it. I'm messaging from the computer I worked on. And its never given me issues. Happy that I was able to have help you. :)
Best instruction I've seen on this. Thanks. QUESTION. I have a 2013 27in iMac that has a 1T HDD and 120 SSD (I don't know what it looks like inside!!) would putting an 1T SSD have an impact internally - eg keeping things cool and any space issue???
Yes 100%. And it’s the same process to remove it. 🤙🏼
For my taste, drop the music.... your video is great.....
2013 (and newer?) models can have NVME installed. Much faster.
thanks for the video dude!
You betcha bud. 👊🏻
Thx for the vid very informative and saved me $359AUD for someone else to do it. Also, I found the the drive is not recognized in Superduper unless you format it first in disk utility. Backing up now and waiting for my new seales before I attempt the installation.
Happy to have helped bud!
I was expecting a helicopter.. thumbs up for the effort. I won't be attempting.. If only you were my neighbor. Good vid thanks..RIP Jan Micheal Vincent
Haha And if I was your neighbor I gladly help. Be safe.
And yes. RIP JMV
I suggest updating your link to the SSD to the new version. The old version prices are inflated
Hi thanks so much for the video:) I followed your video and managed to upgrade my iMac too! I didn’t clone the drive, instead I opted to install the OS from the recovery mode. Catalina successfully installed. But when I’m setting up the iMac, it always hangs at the - select your wifi screen. Pls help!
You can use macs fan control instead of a thermal sensor. It's a better overall solution imho
It could very well be.
Whether it's a better overall solution, idk. But I can confirm that MFC works pretty good on my MBP 2012 (with 500GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in a caddy instead of the DVD drive). It regulates the heat very good. Only when I do a video conference and also editting etc, the laptop is getting warm. But you can easily set the fan speed higher.
Next week I'm gonna upgrade an iMac 2012 21,5" with a 500GB SSD and 16GB of RAM in stead of the current 8GB). Takes more time but hey, when the screen is off, most of the hard work is done and when it's open, I can better do it all at once. If I'm gonna use a thermal sensor, idk. I'm gonna do some research on it.
If I have any remarks, I will add them here. It might help others.
There is no reason to go through all the trouble to mount the SSD inside the monitor.
You can just put it in an enclosure and connect it using USB3 or Thtunderbolt.
The simple and very important reason is, that imacs before 2017 only got TB2 for which you don‘t get any enclosure and they only got USB 3.1 which is maxed out @5-600MB/s therefore with the internal SSD Replacement you can get up to 3000 MB/s due to PCI 3.x. 5 x times faster is a very good reason.
This is the best detailed video I have seen on refreshing older iMacs and keeping them going. I'm having trouble with Light Room CC, some screen glitching with lagging on inputs under the load of the files I'm running from My Sony A7RIII. I think its the graphic card but I wonder if this could be a fix with also maxing out the ram?
I think it’s should most definitely help
And thank you 🙏🏻
A great vide honestly thank you.
You’re welcome!
I might just buy a 2011 iMac, seems easier to upgrade and less risks involved 😬
It’s really not that bad. I recommend it.
Nicely done buddy , what model is your IMac, what processor and ram?
Thanks so much! I have a late 2015 with the i5 and 32g RAM
Did a HD swap out for old 2011 one. Didn't bother with the sensor. A scam. Mint Linux words fine on it. Software solutions are fine.
You don't need the thermal sensor at all, actually. I did this and it works just fine (Late 2013 27in iMac). The only thing that I can't seem to do is upgrade the PCI SSD drive as no one sells adapters compatible with 2012-2014 iMacs anymore. :(
Excellent video.
Thanks so much
You can actually boot mac os from an external ssd. It is just too risky to open up your mac.
Loloy meets Hyojina I was willing to take the risk.
AIRWOLF Im speaking for people who doesnt know how to open up a rig.lol. Anyway i can tell that you’re a technical guy, and you know what you’re doing. Very informative video.
Thanks bud! 🙏🏻🙏🏻
It wouldn't be a job for me either!
One advice next time is not need to open the imac just run external the ssd via thunderbolt and boot externally and keep using you storage inside but now that you already done it you could actually buy same ssd and do raid 2ssd so you will double the speed.
Thanks bud.
@Abel Esteve I don’t understand. Can you explain me? Thank you!
@@SergioSolisI what actually you want to do?
run os from external storage?
@@abelesteve9881 I want it to go faster because my mac is a turtle and it is 20019.
I think I understand you a little.
@@abelesteve9881 yes if is possible run of external SSD it would be great
Good video man! Don't these machines have a pci-e SSD slot (m.2 / NVMe) which is faster again?
Thanks bud! I believe you're correct. But at the time I didn't have the knowledge.
Very Well explained and clear. Thank you. 1 question please: at the beginning When you clone a SSD, si the one then stays inside? That is why restarting the computer after the whole Work recognizes everything easily?
If I understand correctly. Yes! I first clones the NEW hard drive while leaving the older one inside.
@@AIRWOLF THank you for your answer. Thank you for the video. I will do ít next weeks. Seeing your Video, clear and straight…CRUCIAL because I have no experience in these issues….I go for CRUCIAL MX 500 1TB and 16MB OWC and your tip about clone. I have a 21.5 iMac 2017, id: 18.2.ALL the BEST Mar. AIRWOLF. Merry CHristmas
Hi!
Thank you for the video. Really nice. Gave me the courage to try it! :-)
But I have a doubt: how do you use your 2 ssd drives? Now you have the original 128gb SSD (that came originally in the Fusion drive) and the new 1TB Samsung SSD you installed. Do you use both together as a fusion drive? Or are they separately? Or you just ignore the original 128gb ssd?
I want to do this process. But I am not sure about that.
Also, I am in Brazil and I couldn't find the thermal sensor here. I will try using an app to make reduce the noise if needed. Any tip on that?
Thank you!
Thermal sensor already exists. Just get a program to monitor it in the tool bar. I do that on my 2011 PowerBook pro & my 2019 27 inch i9 iMac.:-). No harm adding more but seems pointless. IMHO.
Thanks for the video, one problem though, The adhesive strips I got, they don't come with instructions to what numbers go where
They should be shaped accordingly
you chose the EVO version. how does the EVO compare to QVO? I have the exact same computer, and looking to change my 3TB Fusion Drive with a 4TB QVO SSD Samsung, but I'm not sure if I should go with the EVO or QVO (QVO is slightly cheaper). Any input would be greatly appreciated. Great video by the way - I love it!
I personally just knew a few folks who used the EVO and were satisfied with it.
Hi, great video, one question.... you put the link for 3M sided tape, but in the video you use another tape even with instructions and numbered... it confused me, what is the tape do you recommend? i have iMac 21.5-inch, Late 2012.
I used the tape that came with the kit. Folks were saying that it's not strong enough. But I used it and it's still holding just fine. I suggest cleaning the surface really well. Anyhow I did link the 3M tape for those who want to opt out of using the kit tape.
Yes just plug a external ssd with the OSX on it. Easy, cheaper and safer. Screens can separate after being glued on. See Linus video of his iMac Pro being dropped. Lewis Rossman does not recommend owners cutting up their iMacs. All you need is a USB 3 enclosure and your SSD of choice. If your installed hard drive is still healthy leave it alone and use it as a storage device. You only need a small SSD to boot from. It can always be replaced with a larger external SSD later if the internal hard drive fails. If you have a NVME PCIE drive you can connect it to the USB-c / Thunderbolt ports. Attach the enclosure to the rear of the iMac with velcro. I have a 27" 2013 i5 and it boots in under 50 seconds off a cheap SSD. An external SSD will resurrect your old iMac and make it a useable machine again.
But wouldnt going thru the thunderbolt connection be slower than internal? So I bought the OWC ssd drive and it failed on 2 macs after a month. Both drives! They are refunding me. They are junk SSDs made in china probably. So I'm going samsung or crucial or some other known brand. But now your post has me thinking to go external.
also how do you get it to always boot from from the SSD instead of the internal sata?
K Dalton did you get an answer to this yet?
@@kdal6744 you have to go to your startup disk in settings and choose it
@@raneanubis I just installed an internal samsung SSD and the mac has been working great thanks