iMac 3 Tb Ssd Upgrade OWC Aura Pro X2 + Mercury Electra 6G | Shades Of Tech ⬡

In this episode we're going to upgrade my 27" Apple iMac to a crazy 3 Tb ssd Apple doesn't even sell! And here's how

✓ EP 4 - iMac 32 Gb Ram Upgrade ►►
✓ EP 5 - iMac Upgrade Conclusion ►►

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[PrestonsThoughts]

Always a good video when it's from you!

[brotherfromanother]

Hello, it's 2021 I began watching you videos last year, abd was going to upgrade then, but due to time, money, covid - you know the rest!
Anyway, in 2021 do you still recommend the same choosers to upgrade the 2013 27" imac, or is there even better available for it at this time? Also, do you have any links or a list of things I need to buy please? Thanks 😊

[ChrisMedinaMusic]

I'm sure I can find this answer on OWC site but I'll try here first. Do you happen to know the difference between Mercury Electra 6G vs the Mercury Extreme Pro 6G?

[checkitout]

Hi! I have an iMac 2017 i5 with 1TB Fusion Drive. For me the internal SSD has enough capacity, I really don’t need extra storage space. However, I am considering upgrading the internal hard drive to the Electra 6G. Do you also recommend to upgrade the SSD blade to the Aura Pro X2 even if the storage space of the Apple one is enough? I would do that only to increase the speed of the machine, and honestly it it does not increase the speed compared to the Apple SSD, I would prefer not to disassemble the entire machine. I would just swap the hard disk with the Electra 6G and call it the day. Any thoughts or recommendations?

[jeanpaul]

awesome video dude. bro whats your boot time after the upgrade? mine its 55 seconds. do you have a solution to this problem? thanks !

[salserotimbero]

About to upgrade the internal drive to SSD (Imac late 2013 model) & saw your video... very informative & greatly appreciated.. but have a question - if I just upgrade to the internal SSD 2TB (not the additional blade driver as in your vvideo)... will it be as fast as having the Blade 1TB added?? or is it the Blade drive setup addition that gives you even greater speed?? thats the only confusion I have.. looking forward to your answer, specially if there are other possibilities since your Video was posted - planning to max the Ram as well. Processor is 3.5GHz Intel Core i7
Thank u in advance

[johnid]

This is a great set of confidence booster videos for us late 2013 iMac 27inch devotees. I've had my iMac with Fusion Drive from new. Question. I assume that the Fusion SSD blade is where the operating system lives and I am nervous about tampering with it. So can I leave the existing SSD blade alone and just change out the HHD for a large 2.5 inch SATA SSD like the 4Tb OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G? I'm hoping this leaves my boot drive/ operating system and Applications folder intact or at least rebootable for a clean OS instal?

[martinkuliza]

Is the NVMe Form Factor 2260 or 2280 ?

[VanLuciMoret]

Pardon my ignorance can I do this upgrade with a Fusion Drive iMac18, 3 (iMac 27-Inch "Core i5" 3.4 (5K, Mid-2017) MNE92LL/A ) A1419?

[carsutube]

Question about the Aura Pro X2. It has a faster speed than the Mercury Electra 6G. Can one just install just the Aura Pro X2 and not install an Mercury Electra 6G only? The Electra 6G has speeds up to just over 500mbs, while the Pro X2 has speeds up to over 2400mbs. Is it possible to only use just a PCIe hard drive in these iMacs or do you have to have both? I currently have a Fusion 3TB HHD and of course the 128GB PCle SSD. 

I am trying to decide the following options.  
1. Use just a 2TB 2.5 inch SSD alone to replace the 3TB HHD. However that 128GB PCIe SSD would now be of no use. I was told that I would not be able to access that 128 SSD that came with the system once I broke the 3TB HHD from it. It would be nice to access that small PCIe ssd just to use the space for files.
2. Use Just a 2TB PCIe Aura Pro X2 only to get the maximum speeds from that.
3. Replace both drives that the iMac came with, with both 1, and 2 above. However Not sure if the iMac will merge both the 2TB 2.5 SSD (Electra 6G), and the Aura Pro X2 together the same way that Apple somehow did with the original hard drives inside it now.
4. Lastly I am thinking of doing a clone of my iMac internal drives onto an external Samsung T5 SSD, and then just boot my iMac from that. I have seen many do this and have very good success and much better speeds than that internal mechanical hard drive. The speeds that people show they get on the external Samsung T5 SSD has been around 400+ mbs compared to the 100mbs or less from he internal HHD. This is much easier to do since I would not have to tear apart the iMac at all.

I thank you in advance for your opinion on this matter.

[icrodriguez]

Hi buddy! Thanks a lot for this video, it really helps a lot. I’m about to do the same process plus the cpu upgrade. Could you tell me about the temperature sensor that you added? Can I use any software to do exactly the same? Where can I find it? Thanks in advance

[bobbysimmons]

Hey nice video. I just purchased same set up for a powerful 2014 that was maxed out other than the fusion drive. Anyway, I’m doing a clean Install of Mojave. I need to keep Mojave only because I need to do a screen calibration with a tool that isn’t supported by Catalina (32 but).

My question is this:

I should be able to just run installer off the usb drive, format and install the With no issue - right? I’m going to use terminal to create the fusion drive and then install the OS. Kinda confusing. I too did my own iMac and never did before and it’s very easy.

[dannyslea]

I want to upgrade the pcie drive and swap out the HDD on my 2019 Imac. Curious on what I need to do after the new do after the new drives are installed. Like what settings do I need to change. Can I have everything run off the pcie drive and just have the SSD store media files? Right now, the fusion drive appears as one drive.

[hikinged]

Don’t do it. iMac has a shitty screen cable inside that is easy to break and hard to reattach. I ended up with a black non functional screen after upgrading hdd and ssd. Don’t bother.