Imac 27" 2011 + Vortex 3

Info & chat about quiet prebuilt, small form factor and barebones systems, people's experiences with vendors thereof, etc.

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karkee
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Imac 27" 2011 + Vortex 3

Post by karkee » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:08 pm

For those who are intrested if its possible to mount an SSD into the imac 27" , the answer is yes!

I could mount the SSD pretty easy with the OCZ bracket, just needed some modification to make it sit tight to the mac.

There are no problems with the fan speed of the HD fan with the OCZ Vortex 3 128GB, the only problem I have so far is that the mac is showing a 120° temp for the SSD but the fans don't ramp up much more only like 100RPM then goes down again (hovering between 1000RPM/1100RPM) ... still trying to solve the temp showing problem, might have to use some other temp related programs as im currently using Istat pro.

Older SSD's like the older 256GB crucial did make the fan ramp up to 6000RPM pretty much directly on power on, have to check out if its because these SSD's don't have Smart.

I will post some pictures later on for those intrested...

greetz

NeilBlanchard
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Re: Imac 27" 2011 + Vortex 3

Post by NeilBlanchard » Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:51 am

Thanks -- there is an option to get an SSD from the factory, so I would imagine that you can mount one yourself.

CA_Steve
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Re: Imac 27" 2011 + Vortex 3

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:04 am

I think the hard part is lack of TRIM support for an SSD not on their vendor list.

karkee
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Re: Imac 27" 2011 + Vortex 3

Post by karkee » Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:04 pm

Well I tested some older SSD's, all of them might the fan ramp up till 6000RPM almost on power ON.

As for the TRIM, on OSX leopard I had alot of problems with system crashes or stuttering after the TRIM fix it was all ok.

I now also installed OSX Lion and I must say its the best OS I have ever used!

Still haven't found why the temp's on the HDD aint right even though the HDD fan goes up and down like it should, i think apple indeed has a special firmware on there factory hard drives and now the SMART of the SSD I put in takes over but can't show the right result in OSX.

Like I said the new intel SSD's also make the fan go nuts :D

Greetz

mentawl
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Re: Imac 27" 2011 + Vortex 3

Post by mentawl » Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:54 pm

AFAIK, the problem isn't from the point of view of the SMART report from the drive, but rather that the Apple drives are actually custom-built with an extra 2-pin temperature connector that controls the fan. I've heard it mentioned that you can use an external thermal sensor of some sort to solve the problem, but as I don't own a Mac, it's not something I've investigated in detail :).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/14 ... ment_woes/

karkee
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Location: belgium

Re: Imac 27" 2011 + Vortex 3

Post by karkee » Thu Jul 07, 2011 10:11 pm

Well so far for me it isnt needed to use a another sensor, so far all the new SMART drives ive tested do not make the fan ramp up to 6000RPM ... even the new WD blacks 2TB and seagate worked fine

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