Hard drive upgrades restricted in Apple's new Thunderbolt iMacs
Apple's newly upgraded iMac desktop line features a new custom 7-pin serial ATA connector and proprietary temperature control system that will make hard drive upgrades difficult for end users.
The internal changes were noted on Thurdsay by Other World Computing, which found that the main 3.5-inch SATA hard drive bay in the new 2011 Thunderbolt-equipped iMacs has been modified significantly. Instead of a standard 4-pin power configuration, the drives in the new all-in-one desktop use a custom 7-pin configuration.
In addition, hard drive temperature control is reportedly detected through a combination of the new cable and proprietary firmware that Apple has on the hard drive itself.
"From our testing, we've found that removing this drive from the system, or even from the bay itself, causes the machine's hard drive fans to spin at maximum speed," the report said," and replacing the drive with any non-Apple original drive will result in the iMac failing the Apple Hardware Test."
The site tried a number of methods to circumvent the changes Apple has implemented in the new iMac, including swapping the main drive out with the same model drive, as well as a different solid-state drive. All testing so far has found that the Apple-branded hard drive not be removed or replaced.
In addition, though the iMac EFI Update 1.6 released earlier this month allows 6Gb/s speeds on two internal ports, the standard 7,200rpm drive that ships with the new iMacs cannot take advantage of those fast throughput speeds.
The site sells a "Turnkey Upgrade Program" that allows for hard drive upgrades on Mac hardware. While the service will not allow upgrades to the main drive, it can take advantage of an external eSATA port or allow additional, secondary hard drives to be added.
Apple's new quad-core Sandy Bridge iMacs with Thunderbolt ports debuted earlier this month. Users can configure the desktop to include both a standard spinning hard drive as well as a 256GB solid-state second drive, on which Mac OS X and all applications will come preinstalled.
The new iMacs were the first hardware to ship with Intel's new Z68 chipset, which allows for faster solid-state drive caching performance with hybrid drives or a combination of SSD and traditional drives. However, Apple's new iMacs do not take advantage of the new caching feature offered by the Z68 chipset.
The internal changes were noted on Thurdsay by Other World Computing, which found that the main 3.5-inch SATA hard drive bay in the new 2011 Thunderbolt-equipped iMacs has been modified significantly. Instead of a standard 4-pin power configuration, the drives in the new all-in-one desktop use a custom 7-pin configuration.
In addition, hard drive temperature control is reportedly detected through a combination of the new cable and proprietary firmware that Apple has on the hard drive itself.
"From our testing, we've found that removing this drive from the system, or even from the bay itself, causes the machine's hard drive fans to spin at maximum speed," the report said," and replacing the drive with any non-Apple original drive will result in the iMac failing the Apple Hardware Test."
The site tried a number of methods to circumvent the changes Apple has implemented in the new iMac, including swapping the main drive out with the same model drive, as well as a different solid-state drive. All testing so far has found that the Apple-branded hard drive not be removed or replaced.
In addition, though the iMac EFI Update 1.6 released earlier this month allows 6Gb/s speeds on two internal ports, the standard 7,200rpm drive that ships with the new iMacs cannot take advantage of those fast throughput speeds.
The site sells a "Turnkey Upgrade Program" that allows for hard drive upgrades on Mac hardware. While the service will not allow upgrades to the main drive, it can take advantage of an external eSATA port or allow additional, secondary hard drives to be added.
Apple's new quad-core Sandy Bridge iMacs with Thunderbolt ports debuted earlier this month. Users can configure the desktop to include both a standard spinning hard drive as well as a 256GB solid-state second drive, on which Mac OS X and all applications will come preinstalled.
The new iMacs were the first hardware to ship with Intel's new Z68 chipset, which allows for faster solid-state drive caching performance with hybrid drives or a combination of SSD and traditional drives. However, Apple's new iMacs do not take advantage of the new caching feature offered by the Z68 chipset.
Comments
In any event, perhaps with the new Thunderbolt ports you can just order it with an SSD and use a Thunderbolt drive which you put at your feet.
However, suddenly I'm finding myself quite happy with my Dec 2009 27" Quad i7 iMac with standard SATA connectors. I'm curious how Apple will respond to those wishing to upgrade the hard drives on their iMacs. I certainly plan on placing an SSD in my iMac as soon as the 512GB models drop more from there stratospheric prices.
I'm holding neutral on this until I hear more. Perhaps Apple has an inside scoop on the direction of hard drive interfaces and is planning ahead? Hmmm....
Not feeling warm and fuzzy on this one.
Alas, with Apple's astounding success over the last decade has come an arrogance that believes that open standards are no longer in Apple's best interest. We saw this trend with the latest MacBook Air and its proprietary SSD. And now this. Apple will live to regret returning to its old bad habits.
Embracing open, commonly supported standards is what got Apple here. Now Apple wants to relive the nineties.
On the bright side I can't wait for it to arrive and I am stoked with everything else these iMacs offer. At least my 8 GB extra ram on order will be easy to install.
Perhaps they are trying to improve the acoustics. The main weakness in the iMac design from my perspective (and it is my favourite computer) is the way it situates the HD level with the user's face. Unless they are very careful what brand of HD they pick (and in the past they haven't been, mixing and matching presumably to get the best price) you can get quite a loud one.
In any event, perhaps with the new Thunderbolt ports you can just order it with an SSD and use a Thunderbolt drive which you put at your feet.
Very true... Thunderbolt will certainly have the speed to use an external drive. Still would have been nice to keep the internal drive standard so that users have the option to keep their iMac clutter free of external devices.
If Apple eventually goes to SSD drives similar to the MBA and they are user-installable like their RAM cards, it will kind of be a yawner for me then. I'll hope for one of those iMacs.
If Apple eventually goes to SSD drives similar to the MBA and they are user-installable like their RAM cards, it will kind of be a yawner for me then. I'll hope for one of those iMacs.
Now that *would* be cool. It never occurred to me, looking at those Air HDs that the iMac could one day have installation similar to the way ram is done, but "of course."
All through the 80's and most of the 90's Apple loved to put proprietary hardware into their computers. Eventually, this design philosophy wound up biting them in the ass because their systems were too closed. With the advent of the first iMac, Apple seemed to embrace open standards, like USB. Gone were proprietary standards like ADB and localtalk.
Alas, with Apple's astounding success over the last decade has come an arrogance that believes that open standards are no longer in Apple's best interest. We saw this trend with the latest MacBook Air and its proprietary SSD. And now this. Apple will live to regret returning to its old bad habits.
We don't know that this is a whimsical return to proprietary hardware on Apple's part just yet. There might be a legitimate reason they chose to change the drive connector. Why don't we wait and see what they say, if anything?
On the bright side I can't wait for it to arrive and I am stoked with everything else these iMacs offer. At least my 8 GB extra ram on order will be easy to install.
Well I hope you got the new 27" iMac RAM then - they reversed 2 of the address pins on it to make sure you don't buy bad 3rd party memory. Just... kidding?
Unreal that they're doing that. Or maybe not unreal. My 21" white iMac was totally beautiful inside, easy to open & swap out parts. As soon as Intel hit, that changed big time. At least my Mac Pro is still openable (it must be a real word since it didn't underline in red.
We don't know that this is a whimsical return to proprietary hardware on Apple's part just yet. There might be a legitimate reason they chose to change the drive connector. Why don't we wait and see what they say, if anything?
Agreed. I'm willing to bet they have a reason. To move away from an industry standard "just because" would add unnecessary costs to the special hard drives themselves. I'm willing to sit back and see what the future holds before I jump to conclusions...
iFixit didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary during their tear down......
The SATA data connectors are very standard and so is the SATA power cable feeding the hard drive. The only difference is that they used 7 wires instead of 5, probably some extra grounds.
I installed a Vertex3 SSD and used a plain 4 wire Y-splitter sata power cable which effectively discards the 3.3V from the apple's wiring and only feeds 5V and 12V to the original drive. Guess what, fan speed is as quiet as it can get and the Apple Hardware Test passes successfully.
I went further and moved the internal HDD from SATA0 to SATA1 port to better accommodate the SATA connector for the SSD and this didn't create any adverse effects.
Another member of the forum swapped the 1TB WD Black with a 2TB WD Black and again, no adverse effect, Hardware Test completed successfully.
With the SSD in place now, the only thing I can hear is my breath reflected by the glass screen
Surely the guys over at OWC are aware of this, but I can't help but wonder if they tried this. I was afraid I would have to send my iMac back to Apple, but thankfully they included the additional cable for OEM's.
I'm hoping this is just an oversight by OWC.
There are several SATA-defined power connectors, though none I found with 7 pins. The four-pin power connector they mentioned is old (though still common).
I love how every mac site is running with this OWC story when none of them has tried to confirm it.
iFixit didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary during their tear down......
Amen!
Hopefully this just an oversight.