A few days ago my hard drive failed, OH NO. Instead of worrying about paying for an entirely new computer (I was due for an upgrade anyways) I figured I would simply upgrade my existing computer! I decided to look into Solid State Drives. I ended up with a OCZ Agility 2 90GB SSD to put inside my iMac to use as my startup and applications drive.
I thought the install was going to be a pain in the back, but it was actually pretty painless! I used a suction cup to pop the glass off the monitor, which came off MUCH easier than I expected.
From there I just had to use a Torx T8 bit (IIRC) to remove the screws attaching the bezel. There are a lot of them and they are all different sizes, so I made special care to arrange them in a manner to remember which screw went where.
Next up I unscrewed the mounts attaching the LCD screen. These are a uniform size. I could not believe how much dust had collected in my computers innards!
So that’s that, the inside of an iMac! Very impressive engineering went into jamming all of the components behind the LCD screen. The old hard drive was mounted with only 2 Torx T10 bits (IIRC). Super easy to remove.
BAM! Hard drive removed! After I popped the new SSD into place I got too excited and forgot to take more photos until I had the whole thing put back together.
Up and running!
Cool fix! Are you experiencing better speeds for boot up and application launches? Call me Curious George.
Yes, the speed boost is very noticeable. From turned OFF I can have it up and running Aperture 3 in 25 -35 seconds I estimate.
All apps open with only one “bounce” of the icon most of the time!
Thanks for the report Matt. I am planning to do the same thing since my internal drive failed a year ago and I’ve been running it from an external FW800 since then. Was this a 3.5″ SSD or did you use an adapter? How much space is left after you install the system?
Matt, good question from John – did you have to use any 2.5″>>3.5″ adapter for your new drive?
Sorry for the delayed response!
No adapter needed, the drive was 3.5″ already!
“OCZ Agility 2 SATA II 3.5″ SSD” if you are wondering.
Hi Matt and thanks for the guide,
i stumbled upon your site while i was searching an ssd to put into my iMac!
What i would like to know is why you decided to go for a 3.5″ SSD rather than a 2.5″ that most of the hacks/reviews used. Obviously you don’t need an adapter, right? But what about the speed and the performance of OCZ Agility 2?
If you were about to do the same thing today, which one SSD would you buy? Could you propose one SSD for 24inch iMacs? Most of the reviewers are font of corsair SSDs. Do you think that i also should think one of those?
One last question: Do you save your documents, photos, music on an external HD? What’s your current setup? For the new models though, Apple now specifically states: “if you configure your iMac with both the solid-state drive and a Serial ATA hard drive, it will come preformatted with Mac OS X and all your applications on the solid-state drive. Then you can use the hard drive for videos, photos, and other files.”
Thanks a lot! I am sure your answers will help many!
Yannis-
I went with the 3.5″ because that is the size of the original HDD that came in it. I have been pleased with the Agility 2, but it is my first SSD so I have nothing to compare it against save the original HDD, which obviously pales in comparison!
My current setup:
-OS + applications are on the SSD inside the iMac.
-Music, movies, various documents, various backups are on a USB Extrenal HDD.
-Aperture library, and all photography stuff is on a FW800 External HDD
-Time Machine is on it’s own USB HDD backing up the FW800 drive and parts of the music/movies drive
Matt,
Congrats on the new SSD in you iMac. And also thank you for posting your work. I’ve been reading up on doing the same and about to crack open my 24″ iMac to put in an 90 GB OCZ Vertex 2 (3.5″).
I’ve read about the temperature sensor. What did you do with that with the SSD? Did you find anything funny happening if it isn’t being used on the SSD?
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