Are these the right SSD PCIe blades for iMac Late 2013?

I already upgraded the RAM to 16GB but I am not sure if puting a PCIe SSD blade is worth to make only and exclusively to make a Fusion drive or can I use original HHD and the new SSD PCIe separately. Thanks for your answer!

I know it because I have opened the iMac and counted the pins, But it is much cheaper to build a large ssd a. The PCIE SSD for Apple is simply too expensive. and you can of course use the disks individually and how create a fusion drive and separate them, you can see at google

Yes Paul, I agree with you and I thank your advice, I also have seen they are extremely expensive, great that IFix have them, also I could buy an Apple used one pulled from a compatible MacBook but I'll wait until prices drop and look for an Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 connection external SSD. Thanks for your comment!

BTW Paul, My computers has only ne SATA III 6GB connector so I think it is not possible to make an internal fusion drive with adding an internal SSD plus the original 1TB HDD.

Armando you are correct your system has one SATA port (HD) and one PCIe port (SSD). There is one option here if you want to swap out your current HD drive to either a dual drive Western Digital Black2 or a hybrid drive: Seagate Laptop SSHD.

Apple has jumped a round a bit here on the 21'5" models, some systems don't have the SSD blade drive connector. In your case the Late 2013 does have the connector.

But, currently there is no third party options that have been tested unlike the older models as your system offers a 4 lane PCIe interface unlike the older systems. I would keep an eye on this web page: OWC - iMac 21.5" Late 2013 — Current. As to the upgrading this is not an easy upgrade! As you can damage the display if you are not careful and you'll need to take the entire logic bd out. You may want to think long and hard here before you do this. I strongly recommend going with an external Thunderbolt drive as being a better upgrade. Here is what I would go with: OWC ThunderBay 4 mini.

Review my answer above and the comments of the others. The cost of a real Apple SSD is quite expensive so that too needs to be figured in here.

Hi Milos , it seems OWC finally are selling the PC express blades for our iMacs, whenI was interested they were planing to produce them but I couldn't get any one, it was only their project. Finally I installed a 1 Tb Crucial SSD MX 200 and work beatifully but thanks for telling me that the proper blades are available at OWC maybe I will but one.

aeuja64 - Only if your system has the SSD blade slot. Some of the 21.5" don't have the parts mounted on the logic board!

Is the Gen 4 (MZ-JPV ...) version of the SSD blades are suitable?

I also have a late-2013 27" iMac. I have not opened it, and would like to know if I can place a NVME SSD in it! So you're saying you did it; so is the NVME socket definitely there? I heard it depends whether you had Fusion or not... I just have the 1TB HD, apparently just like yours..?

Can it be any NVME SSD or must it be a special Apple kind?

My iMac 27 Late 2013 has empty PCIe slot and should support NVME. Here is complete info about Apple proprietary.

https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprie...

Issues of cheap upgrade are:

1) Need of 12+16 adaptor - quite cheap (eBay)

2) iMac 27 Late 2013 has only PCIe 2.0 support (Generation 3). So a lot of newer SSDs with PCIe 3.0. will not be compatible, even original blade SSD from MacBooks 2015 (Generation 4).

So finding of SSD with NVME and compatible with PCIe 2.0 is quite challenging. And I'm still searching.

All 'Thin Series' 27" iMac's have a blade SSD interface. Different year'ed models have different blade SSD's so you do need to be careful which model you have and what is the correct blade SSD for it. The 21.5" 'Thin Series' are the ones that maybe missing the blade SSD interface! A SATA HD only system might not have the needed parts populated on the logic board. A Fusion Drive'd system will as well as a blade SSD only model, depending the year'ed model the current 21.5" models have it in all of the configurations.

No you can't use two SSD's configured as a Fusion Drive. You could RAID them but the issue you face is the I/O has to be the same which clearly won't be here.

Most 2.5" SATA SSD's support TRIM services. The kicker is the real cheap no onboard RAM SSD's won't.

Review the image I posted below for the rest.

My late-2013 iMac 27" did NOT originally come with a Fusion Drive. It just had a standard HDD. It also had the PCIe slot, however. As noted, I added an OEM (Samsung) blade SSD in the PCIe slot and then merged it with a 1 TB SSD to make a 1.25 TB Fusion Drive. TRIM is enabled.

@Brian - The 27" is different than the 21.5" model being talked about here.

In your case the SSD blade drive connector is present. But, currently there is no third party options that have been tested unlike the older models as your system offers a 4 lane PCIe interface unlike the older systems. I would keep an eye on this web page: OWC - iMac 27" Late 2013 — Current. As to the upgrading this is not an easy upgrade! As you can damage the display if you are not careful and you'll need to take the entire logic bd out. You may want to think long and hard here before you do this. I strongly recommend going with an external Thunderbolt drive as being a better upgrade. Here is what I would go with: OWC ThunderBay 4 mini.

The cost of a real Apple SSD is quite expensive so that too needs to be figured in here.

Thanks Dan, I appreciate the thorough answers you've given before. Unfortunately the Thunderbolt enclosure+SSD is way too expensive for what I'm looking for. In my case the hassle of opening the machine up would be worth it to be able to put in a 500GB SSD(~$150) to boot from and use as intermediate storage during editing retaining the internal drive, I don't need huge fast external data storage, all of that is fine as USB3.0 (still way cheaper than Thunderbolt) and just as functional for most of my usage.

Speed/Size/Cost: Pick Two :)

I'm going to just replace the HD with the SSD, and move the drive external to USB3 enclosure :/

I will say this, the SSD upgrade is the single best thing anyone could do to improve the performance. If you haven't done it yet to an aging machine you owe it to yourself - it will make even the oldest machine feel relatively snappy! :D

The problem you face here is the systems storage space will be less with a SSD only solution if you are forced to look at the cost factor. A 1 TB SATA SSD is still on the expensive side (~$320 US) that is if you are looking at an Apples to Apples comparison swapping out your HD from a size perspective. Going with a 500 GB drive (~$160 US) while doable will lessen your storage as you are giving up your 1 TB HD!

Again, there is no 3rd party PCIe blade drive offerings so you will need to go with a real Apple SSD which will cost you! 512 GB (~$650 US) 1 TB (~$1000 US).

So the external Thunderbolt drive (ThunderBay) I think looks better here as a 1 TB SSD will set you back $820 US or if you want something cheaper a 500 GB SSD setup is only $620 US.

Here's one other option which is cheaper than the ThunderBay RAID case: Elite Pro Dual enclosure. Here you can add in your own 2.5" SSD's. The case alone only costs $240 US. Just keep in mind this is a 2 drive case Vs the 4 drive case so your future expansion will be limited. Still a great buy! I have one for my home system holding my old HD disks.

So if you go with a 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO $160 plus the case $240 for a total of $400 I think you'll still end up with a better deal!

Don't just look at the costs of the drive alone here also think about the risks in opening up the system and the hidden costs if you mess up.

I think we just have different perspectives on what value is here. Our goal is maximum performance(#2) at minimal cost(#1), size of the upgrade is negotiable.

An enclosure itself that costs 240$ is just way out of line with what we want to afford.

So looking at it this way a 500GB SSD running at full SATA installed internally will be the best value given comfort with the upgrade process (having done similar upgrade on another iMac and various othe repairs, and the fact that my time is not as much a factor here.)

Then moving the 1TB to an external USB3 docking station means I don't lose any total storage but also helps keep the total upgrade cost to ~200

Also, since ideally I would try to boot from the SSD, minimizing the risk of data/work loss from an inadvertent disconnection would also is worth putting the drive internally.

With all of the caveats for such a statement: I wish apple would get back to a modicum of their beginnings and allow things to be upgraded more easily.

Hope this helps others too!