20 MACWORLD OCTOBER 2019
MACUSER UPGRADE AN OLDER IMAC’S PCIE SSDcompany armed me with a number of
relevant tips, and sent me a 512GB M
Feather SSD kit (go.macworld.com/m13f) with
macOS High Sierra pre-installed.
While 25 cents per gigabyte isn’t
bad—the Feather drive turned out to be a
good all-around performer—I was
enamored with the idea of using a less
expensive M.2 (go.macworld.com/m2dr)
2280 drive. I already had a bunch and
they’re not all cheapos.
I settled on the Western Digital SN
Black for the experiment, but you could
easily make do with something such as
Crucial’s P1 (go.macworld.com/crp1). Also,
you need a sub-$20 adapter from
Sinetech (go.macworld.com/snm2) to use
an M.2 2280 SSD in an iMac.
The Sinetech adapter is actually made
for MacBooks, and there is a subtle
difference in the distances between
MacBook and iMac mount points. The end
result is that the adapter is just a hair too
long, and the drive just a shade more so. It
can still be installed, but it’s not a perfect
fit. Then again, it’s inside the iMac where
you’ll never see it. Out of sight...
It’s been reported that one of the most
popular and fastest midrange NVMe SSDs,
the Samsung 970 EVO Plus, currently
won’t play nice with Macs. I had intended
to test the 970 EVO Plus as an upgrade,
but while formatting it in an external PCIe
enclosure, it crashed my other Mac. I took
the hint.INSTALLATION OF THE
NVME SSD
As I said before, this will void your iMac’s
warranty. You also run the risk of
permanently damaging your iMac.
What’s nice about the Fledging NVMe is
that it’s a plug-and-play device. If you don’t
opt for a plug-and-play NVMe, you need to
create an installation USB thumbdrive with a
full copy of macOS High Sierra or later.Though a fine
SSD, and super
fast when on
cache, the 970
EVO Plus is
not the drive
you want when
upgrading the
NVMe SSD in an
older iMac.