One or Two SSD on 27‑inch iMac with Retina 5K display (mid 2017)?

Question

Level 2

159 points

One or Two SSD on 27‑inch iMac with Retina 5K display (mid 2017)?

I understand that such iMac has two different ports for two different disks inside (eg., one SSD or une Fusion drive from Apple). Questions:

1. Is it possible to install this disk inside to boot such iMac?

Samsung 960 PRO Series - 2TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6P2T0BW)

Sequential R/W (read/write) speeds up to 3,500/2,100 MB/s and random R/W speeds up to 440/360K IOPS, respectively.

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/960pro.html

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-960-PRO-Internal-MZ-V6P512BW/dp/B01LY3Y9PH

2. Is is possible to have two SSD at the same time inside such iMac?

For instance, the one SSD from Apple (or the one above, if possible) and other like this (now 2TB, soon 4TB)?

Samsung 850 PRO - 2TB - 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7KE2T0BW)

Sequential Read/Write Performance: Up to 550MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively. Random Read/Write IOPS Performance: Up to 100K and 90K, respectively.

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/850pro.html

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-PRO-2-5-Inch-MZ-7KE2T0BW/dp/B010QD6RX4

Thanks!

Posted on Jul 23, 2017 4:42 AM

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Answer 1

babowa

Level 9

78,568 points

Jul 23, 2017 11:33 AM in response to ApMaX

As a general answer: if you buy a new iMac, you will void the warranty if you have someone (or you) open the iMac and install a different hard drive, SSD, or anything else. The only user accessible parts are the RAM.

As for fusion drives: my personal opinion is that I do not ever want another fusion drive. I had one for a week before the iMac was returned. It was near impossible to partition (only one allowed), and worse to try to get it back to its original state. I finally managed, but only because I had made a bootable clone fresh out of the box. Besides, the SSD portion is generally small, so you can only have your applications there for a fast loading - the work (read/write/render graphics, etc) is still being done on the large drive.

And, why bother having a fusion drive with 2 SSDs? If you want SSD, simply go with one large SSD - easier to work with/control.

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Answer 2

ApMaX Author

Level 2

159 points

Jul 23, 2017 11:46 AM in response to babowa

I do not mind to void the warranty. Is point 1 above possible? Is point 2 above possible?

None of them is a Fusion drive. I meant to have the Apple SSD and an extra SSD as well (see links in my first post above).

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Answer 3

babowa

Level 9

78,568 points

Jul 23, 2017 1:13 PM in response to ApMaX

Sorry, I misunderstood. I do not know the answer to your question; unless someone has tried that here, I'd either ask Apple or post a query in a place like ifixit.

As for the warranty: I'd be careful with not minding to void the warranty. Any repair is going to be costly as all the hardware is soldered/glued together, so I'd want to have a valid warranty.

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Answer 4

Jul 23, 2017 7:32 AM in response to ApMaX

Interesting question. I am trying to decide between the fusion drive and the SSD choices on a new iMac 5K.

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