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My iMac has become very slow, so I have decided to open my iMac and add a M.2 SSD. I need to know if the empty PCIe slot on the motherboard is a working one or just a dummy. I also need to know the M.2 SSDs compatible with my iMac.
Thanks.
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15
SSD, indeed, is the most performance upgrade I have ever done on all my computers.
iMacs have few standards on Apple's propriety blade SSDs (mSATA. PCI-e etc). Considering the age of your iMac (don't get me wrong, I am still using my first 27" iMac 2013) -- SATA SSD will be less complicated process for the upgrade. USB 3.0 SSD (without opening the iMac) is also widely adopted method mentioned here.
I really do not see any performance difference between PCI-e and SATA on my 2015 iMac.
In addition, EtreCheck might also help to sort out other possible issues.
SSD, indeed, is the most performance upgrade I have ever done on all my computers.
iMacs have few standards on Apple's propriety blade SSDs (mSATA. PCI-e etc). Considering the age of your iMac (don't get me wrong, I am still using my first 27" iMac 2013) -- SATA SSD will be less complicated process for the upgrade. USB 3.0 SSD (without opening the iMac) is also widely adopted method mentioned here.
I really do not see any performance difference between PCI-e and SATA on my 2015 iMac.
In addition, EtreCheck might also help to sort out other possible issues.
With a 2013 iMac, why not save yourself a whole lot of hurt and just
use an external SSD as a boot drive? It may not be as fast as the
card approach but it will be much, much faster than the internal HDD.
I did this from day one when I bought my 2013 iMac without any problems.
Just plug in the drive, format, clone the internal using Super Duper or
Carbon Copy Cloner and your done! No tools necessary! The only
time involved is cloning the drive, which you would do anyway.
Alternatively, accessing that card slot requires a complete disassembly of your
iMac. Just replace the HDD with a standard SATA SSD. The amount of work
(and risk) is much less as fewer items need to be removed.
The slot if present is no dummy, but I've seen conflicting reports on if the slot is even included on iMacs that shipped with an HDD only.
padams35, I have seen the same concern; they have the SSD slot but it is only active if the computer shipped with an SSD or Fusion drive. I found this reference to it on OWC's site:
Try iFixit, and owc(macsales.com)
as for compatability,.. maybe. You’re going to have to
enable TRIM on your SSD as it’s off by default for non-apple
ssd’s. Xlr8yourmac might be helpful. I can’t be as I don’t have
an iMac and I know nothing about opening one up and putting in an SSD, but others do,so I’ll turn it over to them
john b
The SSD slot uses a propitiatory Apple pin-layout.
OWC (macsales) makes compatible SSDs. Alternatively you could try one of the Apple<->M.2 SSD adapters floating around Amazon with positive reviews.
The slot if present is no dummy, but I've seen conflicting reports on if the slot is even included on iMacs that shipped with an HDD only.
Add SSD to my 21.5in iMac Late 2013.
