2007 24" iMac eSATA ports

It's really straight-forward, actually.

Here is a parts list:

The eSATA port to SATA cables you can buy almost anywhere.

The Mini PCIe to SATA card I purchased from M-Factors, $35

http://www.mfactors.com/pm362-sata-to-mini-pcie-adapter

It shipped really fast, I was impressed. It also seemed to work fine (and still is) without installing drivers. It was recognized and booted off an external drive without hitting the option key. Pretty cool.

The reason you MUST purchase this card, as opposed to any other is the proximity to the LCD screen. There is absolutely no room between the card and the LCD. Other manufacturers' cards required people to solder eSATA connections. I can't risk my iMac or external drives failing, so I needed a more refined solution.

Try as hard as I could, I couldn't find 90 degree SATA to eSATA cables anywhere. Just crazy!

So I purchased the BYTECC 90 degree Male-Female adapters from Newegg.

Pulled out the Airport Card, plugged them new parts all-together, et voila!

I decided to drill holes in the bottom perferated grill on the Aluminum housing. Not the most beautiful of solutions, but it works!

The tricky part is putting the aluminum bezel back on. It doesn't quite fit because the L SATA joints push a litte on the "chin" of the bezel.

Also, the SSD is a little further away from the SATA cable inside, so it has to be rigged a little to get it to reach, OR replace the cable with a longer one.

Lastly, drilling the holes in the bezel for the eSATA ports is tricky to do it cleanly.

After all that, it's not that intimidating, really, if you've replaced a hard drive before.

You DO lose the airport card slot. No more wifi, unfortunately. But you still have blue tooth.