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Model A1311 / Late 2009 / 3.06 or 3.33 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

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Which SSD should I use to replace my HDD?

I've been reading up on adding an SSD in place of my optical drive to my late 2009 21.5" iMac, but there are a few things that remain unclear. I know there are issues with the HDD fan and only being able to use like-branded drives (my current HDD is WD), but is that only in the case of swapping the original drive, or does that also hold true when swapping out the optical drive for an SSD? I also read that the 27" iMac has an additional sata II and power connection that mine doesn't have. Will this cause any issues?

If I don't have to stick with a Western Digital SSD, is something like this a good choice? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...

I'd be willing to spend more if I would see substantial performance gains, but I didn't know if the fact that the iMac is sata II rather than sata III would be holding back performance more than the SSD itself. I know I will also need to purchase this kit: iMac & Mac mini Dual Drive Enclosure

iMac & Mac mini Dual Drive Enclosure Image

Product

iMac & Mac mini Dual Drive Enclosure

$19.99

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The kit you mention is for MINI's not iMacs (read the compatibility note). You want this one, which Supports: SATA / SATA 3G / SATA 6G Interface 2.5" Drive or SSD (Solid State Drive) of up to 9.5mm (Super Slim) height.

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Good call. Not sure how I missed that. So any SSD shallower than 9.5mm should work? All of those issues are related to swapping the original hard drive?

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Right you can't use a thick drive, the sensor for the optical drive is, I believe, stuck to it, and can be reattached to the new drive.

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You can use any SSD Crucial M4 or Samsung that haven't the SandForce SF-2281 controller. The iMac10,1 has a NVidia MCP79 AHCI (Sata II) and when you install a SSD based on SandForce SF-2281 controller, the OS set the SSD speed transfer to 1.5Gb/s

Don't use Kingston, Corsair, SanDisk or Intel SSDs in system based on NVidia MCP79 AHCI.

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OP, My laptop only has a SATA II port and I have a Crucial M4 256Gb sitting in it and let me tell you, it absolutely flies through everything. So much faster than the HDD that was in it. Here's my read speeds on my laptop as a reference, even on SATA II it's still under 20 seconds for a boot up.

http://imgur.com/EzBb7

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OWC are the best SSD for mac

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Not sure what to advise for replacing optical drive with SSD. DanielD urges use of a Crucial SSD, but Crucial's own CrucialMacScannerUS compatibility tool does not indicate that any of its SSDs are compatible. Additionally, OWC's optical bay upgrade packages for the 2009 iMac (10,1) are 3G Mercury SSDs with SandForce firmware.

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