Tommy c said:

I bought a 512SATA SSD to replace the HDD. But then I saw this unused blade SSD port. Im thinking sending the Sata SSD back and getting the other SSD or keeping it and using it as a extra HD internally.

Juicy Box said:

No reason to use the blade SSD over the 2.5", unless you wanted an internal SW RAID set up.

The Apple blade SSDs are SATA, and limited to 768GB, and have no speed advantages over the 2.5 SATA.

I am unsure if you can even find the Apple blade SSDs new anywhere, and used on eBay would probably be the best place.

You can get adapters to put a larger NVMe into the blade SSD port, but still, there would be no speed advantage. One advantage of the NVMe over the Apple SSD is probably price. I haven't checked in a while, but the Apple SSDs, even used, are very expensive.


Personally, I would just stick with the 2.5" unless you already had a blade SSD around somewhere, or if you were interested in an internal RAID set up.

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Tommy c said:

So can this system take 32 gigs of ram? I bought the 16 but maybe off the books they can use 32?

Tommy c said:

Do I have to do all the trim support stuff while I do an internal SSD upgrade?

DeltaMac said:

don't forget the button battery, while it is easy to replace!

CooperBox said:

And as you have the motherboard removed, don't forget to change out the battery.

Tommy c said:

I’m not that computer savvy, I don’t know how to do raid setups.

Juicy Box said:

The 21" Late 2012 iMac has only two RAM slots, each taking up to 8GB stick. The 27" had four RAM slots, allowing 32GB of RAM.

But, 16GB is plenty for most people. Besides, just going from the HDD to a SSD is a night a day difference in performance and experience.

I am not exaggerating when I say that swapping the 8 year old HDD for a new SSD will make it feel like a totally different machine.

If RAM ends up being an issue and 16GB just isn't enough for your workflow, having the much faster SSD will help out a lot.


Yes, it is super easy. Copy and paste a line in Terminal.

Just google how.

Very good advice. I will add some:

Clean while everything is out, blow out the fan with an air compressor or a can of compressed gas electronic cleaner.

Clean the old adhesive with alcohol, and make sure you get it all. A bunch of posts here of people doing the mod that you are doing, then have their screen fall out of their iMacs, breaking as it hit their desk weeks after putting the screen back on.

Give the adhesive strips time to take hold. I recommend holding the glass onto the iMac body with some painter's tape for a few days. It won't hurt anything, easy clean up, and might save your Mac in the long run.

The painter's tape might be a good thing to try, even before adding the adhesive strips, just to make sure everything works okay before glueing it back together.

Use the SATA temp sensor adapter to keep the fans in check after the SSD swap. Otherwise, the fans will run at full speed and stay there when you turn on your Mac. There are free alternatives like SW solutions (Macsfancontrol for example) and HW solutions (shorting the temp sensor wires, adding your own temp sensor, etc.). Personally, I just like to use the adapter, but I understand the $35 adapter might be out of people's budget, especially after buying new SSD, RAM, etc.

You probably won't want to do this one since you have everything taken apart, but I would have upgraded the OS to at least High Sierra on the HDD prior to doing the SSD swap. This would install firmware that might not otherwise install once you do the swap.

Also another thing I would have done prior to the swap, I would have made sure the SSD worked using a USB/SATA adapter or enclosure. Install the OS on the SSD, and migrate any files and apps from the HDD that I wanted to keep. Booted from the SSD, make sure everything is working fine. Only then, do the swap.

It really isn't that hard, but wouldn't recommend it unless you needed that extra speed, or if you plan on selling the machine.

Using a good Apple blade SSD and a 2.5" SSD in a RAID0, your sequential read speed would probably be around 1100MBps. Faster than any single drive set up for your iMac, including a NVMe Thunderbolt 3 drive.

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DeltaMac said:

Just one item that I think is not accurate in the above post... The 2012 21.5-inch iMac does not need the third-party temp sensor adapter. Only the 27-inch would need that. I think it is the 2.5-inch drive - I think that does not have a temp sensor in the drive, and the smaller drive is one difference from the 27-inch, which still has the 3.5-inch drive.

Juicy Box said:

Sorry, I stand corrected.

I have a lot of experience with the Late 2012 iMacs, as I own two of them, but both are 27". I also have a few Mid 2011 iMacs.

I forgot that the 21" Late 2012 iMac switched to a 2.5" drive for the redesign, the Mid 2011 iMacs still had the 3.5" for the HDD bay.

I will edit my post.

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Tommy c said:

I have to do hacks? I’m not really into that.

Tommy c said:

I have Carbon Copy Cloner. When I reconnect the Samsung drive, I will clone it to the new internal SSD.

Tommy c said:

I’ll look into the temp sensor as well.

Juicy Box said:

I think you are talking about Terminal?

Terminal isn't hacking, or at least I wouldn't consider it. It is just doing something to the OS that there is no GUI for.

It is really simple, just copy and paste into terminal. It literally takes 20 seconds.

The problem with using CCC or cloning in general (I love cloning by the way), is that cloning does not install the proper firmware that an OS install would.

This doesn't mean you cannot clone, but I recommend updating the OS on the HDD first, then clone afterwards. That way, you will have the proper firmware.


Don't bother, See post #7.

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