I have an iMac (Early 2008) 20-inch 2.66GHz and unfortunately the hard drive died on it after 5 years. I love the darn thing and didn't want to get rid of it yet. In the world of computing, 5 years is a very long time. Nearly any PC would be obsolete by this point. Fortunately this iMac is still perfectly capable of operating demanding applications. The only thing that is really holding it back is its RAM and internal storage read/write speed. I've never bought a SSD before, because of the price, but I finally decided to bite the bullet. BEST UPGRADE EVER. This thing is blazing fast! It's seriously like buying a new computer. Bootup time is now only 15 seconds long. Applications launch instantly and everything is very responsive. I'm editing HD footage in Final Cut Pro X while photoshopping images in CS5 at the same time perfectly fine with little to no hiccups. After some researching, to my surprise, I found that this iMac can actually unofficially support up to 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB. Why would Apple's specifications artificially limit the hardware capabilities? Who knows. I'm just happy to know that I can finally bump up the RAM so the Mac can better handle all these applications. Here is the RAM module I purchased here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032IJBS4/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . I've been using it for a month now and not a single problem has occured. And here's a link to the SSD I purchased: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-120GB-internal-MZ-7TD120BW/dp/B009NHAF06/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372142067&sr=8-1&keywords=ssd . No need to get the PRO model; this SSD will already cap the transfer speeds of the iMac's SATA cable.
Not sure how to install the HDE 12.7mm SATA HDD Caddy to PATA on your iMac? Here is the article from iFixit that I followed: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2133+and+2210+Optical+Drive+Replacement/1010/1 .Follow the steps and you'll be ok. This piece is NEEDED in order to connect your SSD to the PATA cable that was originally connected to the optical drive. What's the build quality of this thing? Eh, it's cheap. But so what. It's a good price and it does it's job. It's perfectly secure once installed inside the iMac. It won't be breaking any time soon.
Now onto performance...
Because you are connecting the SSD to the PATA cable, you will hit a performance decrease. According to blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test, I am getting about 58 MB/s Write and 58MB/s Read. Impressive? On the surface..not so much. That's actually a little slower than a standard HDD connected to a SATA2 cable. After working with many professional applications it's clear that performance is better with the SSD than any HDD I've used in this Mac. But, how could that be? Unfortunately blackmagicdesign disk speed test only tests write/reads on massive files, but that's only part of the operation on daily computing. Applications have to constantly access thousands of random small files for their operations. An SSD is incredibly efficient at this task while a HDD with it's mechanical components will fall behind. And so this is where the SSD greatly outshines the HDD in daily computing operations.
Want unrestricted performance from your SSD? Instead of purchasing the HDE 12.7mm SATA HDD Caddy to PATA and replacing the optical drive the the SSD, replace the HDD with the SSD and connect it to the SATA cable that's there. BOOM. Now you have 250 MB/s of read and write performance! Unfortunately you are now limited to the small amount of space that your SSD can hold. That's why I opted for the combo of having the SSD in the optical bay and having a 1TB HDD in the hard drive bay at the compromise of lower read write speeds.
I had to do some research in order to get my iMac fully upgraded the way it is. It's truly maxed out now. I'm hoping my lengthy review will be the only stop you need if you plan to upgrade the same Mac as mine instead of spending hours researching like I did. Hope this helps fellow Mac users! :D
Sorry, we're having trouble showing recommendations right now. Please try again later.
Continue shopping
Have one to sell?
HDE® 12.7mm SATA HDD Caddy to PATA Adapter Converter
by
HDE
Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
Download Alexa for your Windows 10 PC for free
Experience the convenience of Alexa, now on your PC. Download now
Pages with related products.
See and discover other items: hdd driver





