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I need to replace a dead 320GB HD in my iMac 24" EMC 2134. I was thinking of replacing it with a Hybrid SSD like the 1 TB SSD Hybrid 3.5" Hard Drive offered by iFixit.
In terms of physical dimensions is this Hybrid SSD the same size as a 3.5" HDD? i.e Will it fit in my iMac?
Many thanks, Steve.
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Yes, the Seagate 3.5" Desktop SSHD drive will fit and work in your system.
If you can find a friend with a Mac with a FireWire port connect it to your Mac back to back after you have installed the HD so you can user your friends system to prep your new drive using Target Mode. It will make the job much faster.
Given its age you'll likely need to clean out the dust buildup when you open the system up. Get a can of can'ed air and a small paint brush so you can scrub the fan blades.
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Thanks Dan. Very helpful.
Wondering - why don't you get a faster drive at 7200 rpm instead of this one, which is 5400 rpm's? I'm curious as I'm looking to make the same switch to an SSD.
As it turns out using high RPM drives have there drawbacks. They tend to run hotter and don't last as long. Yes, they can be faster but most newer 54k drives have denser platters (areal density) so they hold more data within a smaller points on the disk. This offsets some of the need for faster drives. The last factor here is the caching a SSHD has offsets things as well.
As for a straight SSD drive they are expensive when you get to the larger sizes. So if you want to have a lot of onboard storage its costly! True, SSD's can be faster and they can take bangs better than a traditonal HD or SSHD but speed alone shouldn't be the driving force. You need to think about the investment cost and the remaining life of the equipment you are installing the drive in. Lastly, this series of iMac has a only a SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) HD port so going with a SDD is in my mind overkill.
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