What optical drive would i get to replace in 2008 24" iMac?

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danielw6610 Author

Level 1

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What optical drive would i get to replace in 2008 24" iMac?

I received a 2008 24" iMac as a gift. The optical drive is bad and I need to replace the 1TB hard drive.

My question is this: I have found many different optical drives out there for the iMac. Which one do I get for my iMac?

The info off the tag on the stand is following:

Serial No. QP*****0KM

EMC No: 2211. Model No. A1225

IC: 4324A-BRCM1022

iMac24/3.06/2x2G/NVIDIA/1TB/M/K

We would like to get this computer running as soon as possible. Any help would be Awesome!

Thank you in advance.

iMac

Posted on Jan 29, 2014 7:45 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jan 29, 2014 7:58 AM in response to danielw6610

Since vertically installed drives are much more prone to failure, why not simply get an external burner? You can use it with other devices as well then; if you find one with Firewire, it'd be much faster than USB 2.

Please do not post serial numbers here - I'll hae the hosts edit it out.

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Answer 2

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Jan 29, 2014 8:23 AM in response to danielw6610

I second babowa's advice. This is a medium to hard DIY replacement, there's a lot of teardown involved in getting to the optical drive and lots of potential for messing things up. The price of the component itself is significantly more than an external USB optical drive and if you have a technician do the replacement $65 US is a low replacement cost and $100 isn't out of the question (plus the drive itself). A tray loading drive is much less expensive, less finicky, and tends to last longer.

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Answer 3

danielw6610 Author

Level 1

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Jan 29, 2014 9:22 PM in response to danielw6610

Thank you for the advice and sorry about the serial. Didn't think when I wrote my post.

If I really wanted to replace the internal drive, would this one work?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MIMACSD8XDKA/

I have been working with and building PC's for about 20 years and have just started working on this iMac. I know the extent of getting into the case and I have to open it up to replace the hard drive anyway because it is also junk.

Thanks for the help.

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Answer 4

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jan 29, 2014 10:19 PM in response to danielw6610

Well, I must admit that's out of the area of my expertise as I would not feel comfortable taking apart an iMac; it appears to be the right one - just to be sure, why don't you use their chat option or send them an email making sure it'll fit your iMac. Here are some installation videos:

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_mid_2007/

They do not show anything for a 2008 optical drive, only early 2009 models, so you might want to check with them.

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