SSD upgrade for 2011 IMAC

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Level 1

145 points

SSD upgrade for 2011 IMAC

Hi all, I have an old mid iMac 21.5" that still has its original fusion drive. But it's very sluggish now just loading up - once loaded, it's fine. I want to replace it with a pure SSD. In terms of specs, I believe so long as the SSD is a 6gb SATA drive it should fit fine and ditto on ram - just need two 8gb sticks to max it out at 16gb (ddr3) based on the info here: sp623 and -7-ghz-intel-i5-21-5-inch-mid-2011.

Can anyone who has done this had any issue or point out if I am missing something?

Thanks.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 26, 2020 8:12 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

woodmeister50

Level 7

20,497 points

Jul 27, 2020 4:41 AM in response to solomani

FWIW, the uses that you are putting your 2011 to will simply not

benefit greatly from an SSD. Sure, it will boot faster, but beyond

that the benefits will likely be minimal.

I agree with others. Put that $500 into an account and keep adding to it

and when the 2011 finally dies, use what you have amassed to get a

new computer.

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Answer 2

Jul 27, 2020 1:31 PM in response to solomani

Not sure what the issue is with those Fusion Drives that causes performance problems as they age. One idea is to just get an external SSD drive in a fast enclosure. Back everything up to the external, and use that as your primary boot system, then you may see some performance boost, but can still use that external drive with another computer later on.

If you can budget maxing out the RAM, that will make a difference if you are currently using lots of memory beyond your existing physical RAM and using "swap" space on the hard drive to compensate. Look at the Memory panel of /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app to see if you are currently using any swap. If not, then don't bother adding any more RAM.

in this example, I probably would have been fine with 8GB, but when I have been using several applications at once and working with some larger files, I have dipped into the Swap Used when my usage exceeds the actual 16GB RAM, but that does not happen that often for me.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,946 points

Jul 26, 2020 8:28 PM in response to solomani

It is a 10 year old computer,well past its prime. My recommendation is to NOT spend money on it, put that money towards its replacement. I am in the same boat with a2011, mine is working okay but it is slated to be replaced shortly.

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Answer 4

solomani Author

Level 1

145 points

Jul 26, 2020 8:38 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Hi RK, I actually have 3 IMACs (2011, 2012 and 2014) and a 2019 MacBook Pro (my main PC). All the iMacs are used by someone in my family. The old 2011 one is used for schooling or other not-so-demanding work like word, browsing etc. It's still a good machine with its i7 processor. And to upgrade will cost me about 500$ - cant get an iMac for that price :)

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Answer 5

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,946 points

Jul 26, 2020 9:40 PM in response to solomani

No but $500 will put a good dent into a niceMac Mini that will be much faster and allow you to stay current, it will also have a 1 year warranty and is eligible for AppleCare. Put $500 into the 2011, you have a $100 machine that you just wasted $500 on.

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Answer 6

solomani Author

Level 1

145 points

Jul 27, 2020 5:39 PM in response to Glen Doggett

Great info. Thanks. So it is the fusion drive? I had the same issue with my other two iMacs until I replaced the drives in both of them with pure SSD and now they are fine.

for example it takes about 15 minutes to switch users and another 10 or so minutes for it to become responsive. I can hear the drive rattling away the entire time.

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Answer 7

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,946 points

Jul 27, 2020 6:49 PM in response to solomani

2011 iMacs NEVER came with a Fusion drive, Fusion drives in iMacs were introduced in the 2012 iMacs. If you have a 2011 27" (assuming it is original and has not been modified) came with either a HD, a SSD or you could them with both a HD and SSD.

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Answer 8

Jul 28, 2020 12:53 AM in response to solomani

It may be that the one of the HDs in the Fusion drive is failing. Once you have a reliable backup of the entire Fusion on some external drive, you might try splitting the Fusion (which will erase everything on both drives) and doing some tests with each individual drive to see how they are working individually. Either one of them might be having trouble if they are this old. Perhaps you can figure out which one of the two is bad and continue using the other good one.

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