Upgrading iMac with SSD

[Tulipone]

I have an '11 27" iMac and considering adding an SSD drive. Has anyone actually done the upgrade themselves here?

What model SSD did you use? I understand the current drive can stay if you get a suitable cradle. Was that simple? Any issues with fans? Any residual issues? Now that you know, would you do it again?

There are several videos on Youtube, but I'd rather get some first hand knowledge prior to getting the tin opener out.

 

[flicker]

I added an ssd in my mac pro and moved the main hdd to bay 2. I am not sure about keeping both in the imac, but you probably can (I'm sure I read it somewhere). To cut down on lots of manual moving files and too many read/writes to the ssd I sym linked my documents, downloads & itunes folders over to my hdd.

Overall performance increased a massive amount where going back to just the old hdd feels like stepping back 10 years in time and using my first ever computer.

The first issue I had was the drive froze when waking from sleep. This turned out to be a firmware problem which had to be upgraded directly on the drive i.e. no simple firmware download - I had to send the drive back to the manufacturers in america...which is why I had to go back to the old hdd for a bit - thank you carbon copy cloner for saving my life!

The drive is an OWC 128GB pro - apparently the best for macs as you don't have to faff on with anything, just stick it in and off you go.

The other little problem was that the hdd in bay 2 kept spinning down after inactivity and taking 5 seconds to get back up to speed when opening something from documents or downloads. I got a handy app called "keep drive spinning" to ping the drive every 60 seconds keeping it awake.

If you plan to keep your hdd I suggest you look into where the 2 drives will be going and what the power management will be for each.