Destroying an iMac

Replacing the Fusion Drive with both a SSD and an harddisk

July 30, 2020 - Willem L. Middelkoop

This month I did an attempt to upgrade my 27-inch iMac 5K. I wanted to replace the fusion drive with a SSD and a large hardisk. In addition I decided this was a good time to upgrade the RAM memory as well, maxing it out at 64GB. I was on a mission to create the ultimate iMac, but things didn't go to plan!

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LUCKY ME! Found a perfectly matching replacement logic board - in new old stock condition!

The new drive is ready to be installed - what could possibly go wrong?

Disconnecting the iSight's (Applespeak for webcam) USB cable

Decoupling the fusion drive: separating the conventional harddisk from the PCIe SSD

Migrating the RAM modules to the new logic board

YES, it works! The new logic board accepted keyboard input and allowed me to proceed with macOS installation

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Articles (148)

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2024-03-05 No, I Won't Build That!
2024-02-16 Vision Pro
2024-01-16 Health and fitness data
2023-12-15 Backup Rotation Scheme
2023-11-10 Apple Watch as Phone
2023-11-01 And... there is light!
2023-10-14 Giving AI Training
2023-10-13 Hello, stranger
2023-08-23 The Same, Differently
2023-05-31 Impact of training
2023-05-08 Tablet as Tool
2023-05-03 Using AI to generate code
2023-05-01 Working Offline First
2023-04-20 Tips for Long-Distance Cycling
2023-04-05 Cutting Cloud Costs
2023-02-08 Back to the University
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2022-11-01 Moving to the countryside
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2022-09-15 The Ultimate Freedom Bike
2022-09-11 Computer says no
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2022-04-18 Snake '97 High Scores
2022-01-14 Wearing WHOOP 4.0
2021-12-09 For the love of mini
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2021-10-25 Using Google Free Android
2021-09-30 Inspiration from a child
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2019-11-26 Supernova E3 Pro 2 dynamo powered headlight
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2019-09-10 Fighting backscatter spam at server level
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2019-08-18 Creating a minimal road bike
2019-07-16 Limitations of sleep tracking using a wearable
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2018-04-18 Outside the comfort zone: amateur acting
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2018-03-07 Tablet as main computer
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2018-02-21 Updating Snake '97
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2018-01-08 Lessons from a takeaway plastic bag
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2017-11-15 Collecting health data with Biostrap
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2017-09-14 Saving a MacBook Air with exploded battery
2017-09-02 Climbing Mount Etna
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2017-06-30 Fietselfstedentocht 2017
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