Chosen Solution
Hello from Germany, I bought an iMac 5K QC i5 3.2, EMC 2834, m380 Late 2015, sadly it’sthe version with the 1 TB HDD, uggghhhh! Now my Quesion: Is it possible to add a 256GB PCIe SSD from a Mac Book Pro/Air 2014 to the iMac? Or is the Socket/Port missing on the Logicboard of the Base-Model? Thank you Tim
Sadly Apple does not offer upgrades for this system. So you’ll need to find an independent Apple servicer who can get the SSD spares part from Apple and put it in for you (very expensive solution!) While you could do this your self this is an advanced DIY project and you could damage the display if you don’t follow the IFIXIT guide to the letter. You would still need to locate the custom Apple blade SSD (PCIe x4 NVM express SSD), which will be very difficult. Here’s the IFIXIT guide you’ll need to follow: iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display SSD Replacement Frankly, I think it’s a lot safer and cheaper just to get an external Thunderbolt 2 SSD RAID drive. You’ll get better performance than swapping out the HD for a SSD (if you where thinking on going that way), but not quite as fast as the built-in blade SSD (very close though!) Here’s one unit: OWC ThunderBay 4 mini
Standard Hard Drive: 1 TB* Int. HD Interface: Serial ATA (6 Gb/s)/PCIe* Details: *This model is equipped by default with either a 1 TB (7200 RPM) hard drive (MK462LL/A) or a 1 TB “Fusion” Drive, which combines a 24 GB SSD and a 1 TB hard drive (MK472LL/A). It has a Serial ATA (6 Gb/s) connector for a 2.5" hard drive. It also has a second PCIe connector (PCIe 2.0 x4 NVMexpress interface) that accommodates the SSD if the system is configured with a “Fusion Drive” or SSD or that remains unpopulated if configured with only a hard drive. At the time of purchase, Apple offers a 2 TB “Fusion Drive” (which combines a 128 GB SSD and a 2 TB hard drive) for an extra US$200, a 3 TB “Fusion Drive” (which combines a 128 GB SSD and a 3 TB hard drive) for an extra US$300, a 256 GB SSD for an extra US$100, a 512 GB SSD for an extra US$400, or a 1 TB SSD for an extra US$900. http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/im… Here’s the info on an upgrade: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/im…
I contacted an AASP and was given this answer. “The PCI-E SSD for that iMac is $1600, the labor will be about $209.95 since the slot for it is located on the back of the logic board, so the whole system will have to be rebuilt, and we charge a $69.95 bench fee. So in total $1879.90 plus tax.”
another question: If I want to REPLACE small SSD “blade” with models of SSDs are compatible?
Is there going to be a Firmware update to stop the bottlenecking on the 15,1 27” iMac?
https://www.newegg.com/p/36M-01AF-00B92 https://www.newegg.com/startech-com-25s2… maybe you can use the adapter
Problem I’m having with using an external SSD drive over thunderbolt is that I can’t seem to find a solution for also using bootcamp if I go that route.so far, it seems, and I could be wrong, that if you use an external drive for the macos, you can t use boot camp. my problem goes even deeper because my internal SSD portion of the fusion drive seems to have failed and bootcamp seems to require it. So even though the macos was able to be installed on the HDD only, bootcamp wouldn’t install because of a appleSSD. Sys driver error. So, for now the only solution I can find for a failed internal SSD portion of the fusion drive and to use bootcamp also, is to replace the internal pcie SSD. I’ve seen a YouTube video for doing this and it seems like you have to remove almost every component inside to get to it.
Hi Marty. How to fix a split Fusion Drive This is a support document from Apple USA. There is a problem with your Mac, so it’s worth a try. The backup will be in the external SSD. Another way is to kill a small built-in SSD. Boot from the recovery area and format it with Disk Utility. Leave as it is. Or start up in target disk mode and connect to Windows 10 machine. Hit the Disk Part with the power shell with administrator privileges. List Disk Find the small SSD number of your Mac. Select Disk * * is the target number. Check well and type crean. Although SSD exists physically, it does not exist ethically. The disturbing person disappeared. Good Luck
