Upgrade iMac 27" late 2009 video card?

My ssd should arrive before the end of the week.

This is an odd question but do these drives come preformatted.

I got the step by step for removing everything, but what about formatting the two new drives I have going into the machine?

Does anyone know where I can find some documentation around the steps needed to get your new drives ready to be installed.

Hey,

I just ordered this caddy and noticed it says it doesnt work with the imac right at the bottom.

To make it work do i just remove the plastic part you were speaking of a few posts back?

Thanks

Also did you need any type of cable converter or anything?

Good question, there are many caddies but usually the notebook standard one from the Macbooks works. The part you need to remove is the front lid of the CD drawer, a palstic part which is purely cosmetic. As the iMac uses a slot to cover the DvD drive the CD drawer front isn't needed

Anyone wanting to ugprade their optical drive to ssd should get this kit, it works great and comes with everything needed to get your late '09 up and running with a new ssd.

Here is the link...

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/DDMMSSD240/?utm_source= amazon&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=productads

Here is a video of the kit being installed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp7_AP0wc7s

Cant wait to get this badboy up and running this week!

Best

Korey

Just to add my view.

I've just replaced my Superdrive with a 128GB Mushkin Chronos in my Late 2009 27" IMac,. and thought you may like to know that this....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-iMac-2009-2nd-HDD-hard-drive-caddy-SATA-12-7mm-S SD-DVD-superdrive-/230829491256?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item35be828438

works perfectly, much cheaper than OWC and was delivered from Australia to U.K within 5 days.

Just follow insanovision's link for how to go about it.

Good Luck

Question for Teut and those who replaced their Radeon.

How hard is it to do?

I managed to do the optical drive to SSD replacement a year ago without problems thanks to that ifixit guide. The only problem I encountered was that I didnt have a torx screwdriver.

So how hard is the graphic card replacement? My current graphic card looks dead (frequent black screen crashes). I think I read somewhere that you have to tear everything apart because the gfx card is on the other side? Now did I just read you can slide it out?

Also is there a step by step guide for noobies to do it? 🙂

Thanks in advance

ArnMi,

it snot as hard as you think. If you buld in your SSD already you were 3 screws away from pullin gout your graphics card. And no, you do NOT need to remove the motherboard.

If you look on this thread I posted m iFixIt guide which explains the steps. There is a screw on the gfx card heat sink and 3 more on the metal frame holding the card in place. Remove the heat sensor cable and it pulls out easily.

Great news!

Now I just need to find a cheap card to replace my crashing one. I'm not really interrested in performance.

I found this to be the cheapest so far from Mac-pro

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Video-Card-ATI-Radeon-HD-4850-512MB-for-iMac-27-La te-2009-661-5315-/370649659321

Anyone got any other spare parts retailers to advice? preferably in Europe to lower shipping costs?

Or maybe even better would anyone reading this thread by chance sell me his old gfx card? 🙂

Thanks again for your answers

Hello all

i wanted to give you my feedback about upgrading HD4850M to the HD6970M 2GB, that i've just do !!

As as have readed before in this thread, some people hesitate to upgrading like this, and here my experience :

My imac is : 27" i7 (860) late 2009 model version 11,1

the card i bought : http://applecomponents.com/items/661-5969_card-video-amd-radeon-hd-6970m-2gb/000 0005113?pn=1&s=661-5969&per_page=30

How to :

1) open the imac, remove the panel take care cables .... as usual
2) unscrew the end of the frame heatskin of graphic card (HD4850m)
3) unscrew the 3 screws on thegraphic card support to motherboard4) removing the probe T°C connector
5) unplug short small movement the graphic card on its slot
6) cut about 2 cm ² plastic where the larges cables are for the new heatskin of graphic card, HD6970mis a little morecumbersome (it's easy to compare both cards)

7) replace the larges cables correctly
8) positioning the graphic card and plug as the same as original step 3) and 2)
9) don't forget to re-connect the probe T°C connector

10) close the imac and go !

Strated in Osx 10.6.8 (with lastet drivers for HD6970m) and it immediatly reconized on my desktop !

Performances are about 2x than the HD 4850m under Bootcamp (windows 7 64bit, Catalyst 12.8 needed)

The best of all is, the T°C is lower than the the old one and nice to be ovecloked via ATI overdrive utility

Let you to try this, you will not be disappointed !!

For french people (what i'm) you can order to applecomponents.com very easy shipping to french without any Taxe ... just specify "Gift" .

That all, thanks to have read me with my very poor english 🙂

Hi all,

I performed my upgrade from a 4850 to 6970. No problems about heat fan and it appears working perfectly with OS but it seems there are some problems with games: happens that I have a good frame rate but if I chance my view of 180• I have a heavy drop of frames. Is it a bottleneck?

Is there any utility or software that can check if everything is working properly?

Thanks all

Hi,

so is it a overheating problem? I haven't checked the temperature and fan speed, but I haven't heard any fan going faster. Overheating is a common problem or there is any problem with the heatsink that is not correctly asssembled with the video card? ?i'll install SMCfan and make some tests.

no, I don't use bootcamp for gaming, but I hadn't update my OS, so today I update it from Snow Leopard to Lion, maybe there is a problem with old drivers in SL.

You're true RaynAlan , we need to rise up Fan ODD speed because of heating ...

Gpu core t°C is lower than HD4850M due to 3 pipes vs 2, but HD6970M dissipates quite more heat .

Braccobaldo, if you will use Bootcamp, try GPU-Z , it's good to check any t°C / speed of your HD6970M.

Don't forget to install Catalyst 12.8 driver.

I've played Crysis 2 during 3 hours => t°C not exeeded 78°c with ODD speed 2800 trs/min, but all the case of Imac was hotter than before (with HS4850M) .

I don't have the problem regarding heat. If I play games the iMacs fans are fine to cool down the new card.

Using bootcamp and CPU/GPU-Z doesn't work as the heat sensor of the mac is different - so don't be surprised if you get wron values.

Maybe you are right for Gpu-Z in Bootcamp,

and I forgot to precise that i changed my main Hard drive (1To) to the SSD Samsung 830 - 256GB => that is why i had to managed Fan of my Imac via SmcFanControl .

Today, the best solution i have to set Fan is :

1) Boot Osx and manage Fans (find best ratio nose / t°C)

2) then reboot to Bootcamp while Imac keeps the settings before (Osx)

3) playing (hard) and happy ....😉

if I had kept my HD, it worked well as you Teut !

As soon as turned on which should be the temperature of the imac@6970 ? or the temperature and the fan with normal using (safari, mail, pages etc)?

I ask this because considering I installed myself the heatsink above the video card maybe is not correctly placed.