iMac 2010 SSD Upgrade

I’m new to this forum. I’m going to be performing an upgrade to my iMac next week. I have a mid-2010 iMac with 3.2GHz i3 CPU and 8GB of RAM (MC509LL/A model). My question is: would this 120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD work with my iMac? Also, am I going to do any pre-step upgrade such as firmware update…etc? Any help is welcome.

Some of the iMAC models have 3.5" drive bays. If you ahve one of those models you would need some mounting brakets as the SSD drives are 2.5". 

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/imac-aluminum-faq/imac-intel-21.5-inch-27-inch-aluminum-how-to-upgrade-hard-drive.html

All “Late 2009” iMac models – the iMac “Core 2 Duo” 3.06 21.5"“Core 2 Duo” 3.06 27", and “Core i5” 2.66 27" – and all “Mid-2010” models – the iMac “Core i3” 3.06 21.5"“Core i3” 3.2 21.5"“Core i3” 3.2 27" and “Core i5” 2.8 27" – have a 3 Gb/s SATA 2.0 connector for a 3.5" hard drive. The 27-Inch “Mid-2010” models – the iMac “Core i3” 3.2 27" and “Core i5” 2.8 27" – also have an extra 3 Gb/s SATA 2.0 connector and power for the optional 2.5" SSD (in addition to 3 Gb/s Serial ATA 2.0 connectors for the hard drive and optical drive).

Hi,

You can definately go for upgrade and can use Sandisk extreme 120GB the only thing that you need keep in your mind that you should be using OS X 10.6.8 atleast because by default TRIM feature is enabled from this version (TRIM command allows an operating system to inform a SSD which blocks of data are no longer considered in use and can be wiped internally)

it boosts the computer performance.

For TRIM you can go through the following link :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM

TRIM is disabled by default by thr MAC OS for third party SSD. YOu will need to use a TRIM enabeler to activat TRIM. Google TRIM enabeler for MAC os 10.7. 

Thanks for the help. I have the iMac “Core i3” 3.2 27" model. I knew about the extra sata port but not about the extra power. For mounting I will use velcro. And for the TRIM I will enable it using terminal commands (I know this can be done). I’m planning on installing Lion on it, would I still need to enable TRIM? In any case, thanks everyone for the recommendations.

Yes, you can use terminal to manually edit the extintion to enable TRIM but there are also tools that have been created that will do it for you. Either way will work.

No, after changing the extention to allow TRIM for third party SSD nothing else needs to be done.