iMacs are difficult to open and swap hard disks in. They always have been (except the first generations of G5 iMacs, with an easy-open back panel/stand), and they continue to be. There is a high risk of breaking glass, LCD panels, display cables, and logic boards.
On top of these obstacles, the iMac 2011 and later rely on proprietary firmware on the system drive to manage internal temperature. Swapping the drive with an aftermarket drive will result in loud fan noise, as the iMac runs its hard disk fan at maximum to avoid failure because of missing temperature readings from the hard disk. Software can fix this, but it’s just one issue added to the pile of reasons not to swap the original drive.
One of the most common desires of iMac owners we meet is replacing their internal system disk with a solid state drive. Firstly, by Apple’s policy, we cannot void any in-warranty system. Secondly, the costs to have a shop install a solid state drive and the limit of flexibility once it’s installed and costs associated with changing the setup again are extremely prohibitive.
For this reason, let’s take a look at our Thunderbolt ports. That port with a little Thunderbolt icon is a direct line to your computer’s PCI bus which is something laptops and iMacs have not had, and one of the biggest reasons people who needed expandability stuck with towers. However, after 2011 all Macs have come with Thunderbolt ports and this gives us a 10 Gbps connection to work with (for perspective, the fastest SSD you buy for an internal drive is going to cap at 6 Gbps).
For this reason, I believe the best option for 2011 (or newer) iMac owners, and owners of the 2014 Mac mini, is to utilize a Thunderbolt SSD as their system drive if they want to upgrade. Not only is this easily replaceable, but it can be portable, placed in a secure location, or moved to a different computer as the system drive with virtually no effort required. The cost of any Thunderbolt SSD drive is far below the costs to acquire one of Apple’s “blade” SSDs, and a wholly more useful solution.
Here are two drives we sell that I would recommend. Please note that both of these product are on special this week for our loyal Tech Tails readers.
LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt SSD Drive – 256GB
LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt SSD Drive – 500GB