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Hi, I need to be 100% sure that if the information it’s correct. I want to place a PCIe SSD blade to my Imac but I would like to know if any of the below options works for my IMac, if you agree with the following information please let me know:

  1. Apple SM0512F or SM0256F SSD PCIe blades are the same Samsung blades models MZ JPU512T/OA6 (512GB) and MZ JPU256T/OA6 (256GB) respectively.
  2. Those blades are used and compatible with the following models: MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2014)MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)Mac Pro (Late 2013)Mac mini (Late 2014) Am I right? If yes, these blades would work for IMac 21,5" and 27" Late 2013 and 2014. I just need to be sure before I buy some used pulled from a Mac lap-top

Sadly, you’re between a rock and a hard place here. As the model you bought came with a HD Vs a SSD to start with. You may want to think about getting a replacement system which has the SSD and then transplanting your HD in to it Vs trying to open the system to add in the SSD. Then get another HD to put in your system and sell it to recoup some of what you spent. While its possible to add the SSD, its a lot of work and and you have discovered not easy to identify the correct SSD to buy to put in. I should point out the SSD’s also have firmware on them which also limits which system it will work in. So getting the correct looking SSD (even by vendor P/N) may still not work! We have the newer Mac Pro systems and we also tried to locate alternative SSD’s for them, of the four we bought we only got one to work. Review these two IFIXIT guides: iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2638 Hard Drive ReplacementiMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2638 SSD Replacement Note the number of steps needed to replace the HD 29 and 58 for the SSD. Are you up to this much work? Do you have the needed skills and tools? OK, as to using an external SSD to marry with your internal HD: I would hold off that direction. Instead I would get an external dual drive unit and then use one of the bays in it to hold the SSD and marrying it with the mate HD so the external drive is setup as a fusion drive. While this will be more expensive it will offer more stability and speed than spitting across the internal HD and external SSD.

this is the old one MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Early 2013 SSD Replacement and this i that you need: MacBook Pro 13" and 15" Retina (Late 2013-Mid 2014) SSD So that have to be compatible If you have a 21,5" iMac and want upgrade your RAM: you need at 1,35V RAM 1,5V would`t work.

This is my 21.5” late 2013 iMac’s logicboard. Which PCIe SSD blade I can buy (included used mac disks)

Thanks

Can someone help me? I’ve gotten a new iMac late 2013 21.5" i5 2.7 with 1tb hdd. I want to add a ssd on the pcie slot but can’t find anything that’s says “yes this is the part number you need”. I’m fine with the install, going to do the ram at the same time and only open it once. I just can’t find any definitive answer as to which ssd module will be compatible. Not wanting a fusion set up. Want apps and os on ssd and photo library on hdd.

I just installed SSD blade from OWC to iMac 27" late 2013 . Only thing you need is screw to secure OWC drive in slot , stickers for re-glue LCD and few hours of time. Best regards , Milos / maczone.cz

From my resent research, you can also put a PCIE SSD drive in the late imac 2013 and run them together. I’ve seen other 2013 imac’s done this way

i just found a PCIe SSD that works with the 21.5" 2.9GHz i5(the model that has the PCIe slot). i am getting about 650mb write and 710mb read; it is awesome. i was already getting great speed with the samsung SSD i have in the main SATA3 port but the PCIe is much faster. i am working now on identifying which SSD models are compatibles.

I have a late-2013 27" iMac with 1TB HD. It also has PCIe slot for SSD, in which I installed a 256GB Samsung SSUBX/SM951/JPV256 655-1858 that I bought on eBay. I merged the two into a Fusion drive and they work fine together.

As far as I have read (could be wrong though) the PCIe slot is only present if the iMac was ordered with a Fusion Drive. Can anyone confirm this? It is then easy to setup your own Fusion Drive combining any PCIe blade with a normal drive. You can not make a Fusion Drive from 2 SSDs though. No support for that. Also I am not sure if TRIM support is possible with 3rd party drives. If the PCIe slot in the 2013 iMac is the same as for Late-2013 MacBook Pros then you can use any cheaper PCIe NVMe blade SSD. I got an adapter from Sintech ($9) so I can use any PCIe M-Slot blade SSD. The NVMe support was introduced with MacOS High Sierra. I am using a 1TB Samsung SM961 in a 2015 MacBook Pro 15" that achieves blazing speed 1400/1900 MB/s. And I got it on Ebay for $530. Has anyone tested this on the iMac?

NVMe is a new interface think how PATA was displaced by SATA. Here we are displacing AHCI/SATA with NVMe/PCIe it’s a very different interface. So you can’t use a PCIe SSD in a SATA based system. Depending on the MacBook Pro or iMac Series it will have either an AHCI or PCIe interface. Here’s a better way to understand the complexities:

The other issue with PCIe is the number of lanes. Most of the PCIe/NVMe are 2 Lane (x2) and most of the Mac systems support 4 Lane (x4). The other factor here is the Apple to M.2 adapters being sold. Many are not very good! We tested 4 different ones and most dropped data blocks (CRC error) so over time you’ll likely wear out the SSD sooner and could end up with data loss. And the speed won’t be as good as the real Apple drive our even one of the SSD’s designed to work in an Apple system (OWC & Transcend). I don’t recommend using the adapter, I do recommend using OWC & Transcend’s SSD’s! As far as using something other than the real Apple drive I don’t know of anyone trying. Even OWC and Transcend limit their support to the SATA drives in the iMac’s as it’s such a big job to get to the blade SSD.

This page is a GREAT resource for figuring out Apple PCIe/SSD blades: https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprie… I was able to get a 1TB PCIe SSD from a MacBook Pro (2013) and put it in my 27” iMac (2013) - everything works great. Although have an assortment of various Apple screws around for holding the blade in place, it is spring loaded and wants to to pop-up! Lastly, if you put in both a PCIe blade ANDa SATA SSD (using the OWC in-line SATA thermal sensor) and format it as a CoreStorage Fusion Drive in High Sierra when you go to upgrade to Mojave it will balk and say you have an “Unsupported CoreStorage Configuration”. The trick is to FORMAT the Fusion Drive as APFS with Disk Utility when booted with a bootable Mojave USB. Yes this wipes out the data, make a backup! The Mojave installer though will now happily install on your PCIe Blade+SSD Fusion Drive