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Model A1225 / Mid 2007 and Early 2008 / 2.4, 2.8, or 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

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Can I put a SSHD (Hybrid/Fusion Drive) in the Optical Bay?

Just wondering if it is possible to put a hybrid drive in the optical bay? I've seen replacement with a typical HDD, but unsure if I can put the SSHD in the optical bay. Specifically, I'm going to replace my 2007 24" 2.4 GHz hard drive with a SSD (crucial mx100 256GB). I figured that while I was in there I could slap in this 1TB Seagate SSHD (ST1000DX001) that is just sitting around.

I haven't been able to find much, but one reddit post mentioned that an SSHD would not be happy in the optical bay.

Also, please don't flame the fact that I'm still running a 2007 iMac. It is ample for what we ask it to do.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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No flames here :-} Our site is here to help no matter how old the system or device. While we may tell you it's not economical or too difficult, we won't bust your chops having an old system.

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Thanks Dan. Just visiting a lot of forums to find answers and it seems like the convo always leads to "why are you trying to polish that pig?" sort of responses.

Anyway, we have a failing HD on this machine. I have a good friend who tinkers around a lot with tech stuff and has an over abundance of supplies and income and let me walk with the crucial SSD for $20. Unfortunately, he doesn't know the answer to my question either.

I had told my wife that we were going to need a new computer and get ready to drop 2-3K on one of those beautiful 27" iMacs. My friend took a look and said that the HD was failing and I could try to swap in this SSD for $20 and get a couple more years out of it and not drop the big bucks just yet. Needless to say, my wife prefers this approach...

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The problem you face here is the optical drive in this series is PATA not SATA, the I/O is very slow in comparison on what SATA is able to do today (6.0 Gb/s being the max). I would stick with a standard SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) or II (3.0 Gb/s) drive vs trying to install the SSHD drive.

As to the SSD, replacing your current HD will work or you could just go with the SSHD here as well. The SATA port in this series is SATA II (3.0 GB/s) so make sure the drive you get can run at that SATA I/O speed. You do want to make sure your firmware is upto date. Follow this Apple T/N: EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs before altering your drive setup.

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Thanks for the heads up on the firmware.

The 1 TB SSHD is backward compatible to SATA II. The SSD is too. I guess I will probably install the SSD to replace the HDD and not mess with the optical drive and just continue to use external media storage.

I don't want to have to open that thing up twice if the SSHD won't play nice in the optical drive.

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I guess the Firewire 800 external connection would be faster than the PATA connection at the optical drive anyway.

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The Firewire connect will work. But, don't try to create a Fusion drive here.

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dakbala will be eternally grateful.
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