Full-Size 3.5" SSD Drives for Apple Computers

As the SSD drive market has matured, more drives are being manufactured in full 3.5" standard form-factor to make upgrading an Apple iMac or Macintosh Pro tower to an SSD easier. Direct, drop-in drive replacement is possible without having to use an adapter case or bracket on a smaller laptop size mechanism.

OCZ Technologies offers full-size 3.5 inch mechanisms in it's Vertex line:

Full-Size Vertex 2 SSD

SATA II Interface

Top performance in a full-size drive form factor iMac and Mac Pro Tower owners will love.

Convert To 3.5in SSD For iMac or Mac Pro Towers

Most manufacturers simply are staying focused on the laptop size SATA 2.5" market - with some even diversifyng on the 1.8" SATA, PATA-ZIF and ExpressCard SSD formats. But for Apple iMac and Pro tower users wanting to upgrade to an SSD, the most affordable and practical option has long been to use a drive adapter bracket, sled, or case to make a 2.5" SSD fit a standard size hard drive bay. You may still wish to purchase a laptop-size SSD drive for several reasons - most notably the new SATA III drives now hitting the market. Although Apple is still using SATA II drive controller chipsets as of 2011, you can 'Future-Proof' your Solid-State drive purchase with a backward compatible but top-performing SATA III interface SSD. If you migrate the drive to your NEXT Mac, you'll unleash even more speed benefits when it's connected to a 6GBps controller.

Mac Pro: EASY DIY - Put Little SSDs In BIG Drive Bays



The ICY DOCK SSD & SATA Hard Drive Converter-Adapter can convert a 2.5" SATA SSD to a more standard 3.5" form factor. This SATA II Laptop Drive Enclosure is simply the best and only product most will need. Simply slide any laptop SSD in. Merely closing the enclousure securely holds the 2.5" drive in place with no screws needed, then simply slide the IcyDock into your Mac Pro bay and you're ready to go.

PCI-e Slot RAID Card SSD's For Mac Pro?

Multi-drive RAID cards have been introduced since the original line from OCZ's Z-Drive PCI-e Slot SSD series. But, OCZ has NOT qualified these drives for OSX, so they're NOT supporting them in Mac Pro towers at this point. Sadly for Macintosh Pro users - OCZ has yet to qualify ANY of thier RAID 0 PCI slot SSD's for Mac OSX. The first models: the Z-DRIVE series could theoretically blow the roof off of SSD performance possible on a Mac, it's successor is the BOOTABLE (..at least on Windows..) REVODRIVE using dual Sandforce Controllers to deliver 540 MB/s Reads 480 MB/s Writes - Literally double that of any single 2.5" SSD currently out there. But without OCZ's blessing on Mac OS, a working PCI-e solid-state drive solution for Mac is still a pipe-dream.

However - Super-Talent's RAIDDrive series offering up to 2TB - Terabytes of storage exceeding 500Mpbs transfer rates. These Pro-grade PCI slot drives from SuperTalent ARE qualified to run on OSX per the spec sheets at SuperTalent SSD website.

G3-G4 iMacs, iBooks Need ATA SSDs

Now in the pretty much obsolete category, older Macs with Parallel ATA -- IDE/PATA drive interfaces make an upgrade to solid-state only a hobbyist or collector kind of pasttime. 2.5" ATA SSD's do exist, and they're often less than $200. But it turns out that even flash-memory performance can be dissapointing on such a slow disk interface bus compared to just putting a really, really fast MODERN 7200 RPM spinning platter drive in one anyways. Tough love says your time and money is best spent on a MODERN Mac and not beating a dying horse. The reality is modern SSD's can far outperform any AT-133 interface several times over. It just can't keep up with flash memory speeds.

SSD For G5 iMacs

These 1.6Ghz to 2Ghz G5 early White iMacs are rather easy to open - and do benefit noticeably from an SSD upgrade. 3 Screws to pop the back cover, a handful more to remove the readily accessible SATA I hard drive takes only minutes. Mount the SSD in an Icy-Dock 3.5" adapter and you'll be pleasantly suprised at both the performance boost - and how much cooler your iMacs internal temps are. Because these early models are SATA I - high end drives aren't essential.

White Intel iMac SSD Upgrade Misery

Apple made it a pain to replace a hard drive in the slightly later revisions of white iSight-enabled 17" and 20" iMacs. Removing the back cover reveals a ton of shielding with adhesive foil needing to be peeled up to even begin acessessing the iMac's guts. But again, a SATA Icy-Dock will give you a drop-in SSD option

Aluminum iMac SSD Pain In the Butt

Drive upgrades get worse with Aluminum iMacs: Here, drive repacement is in the lower-FRONT of the computer. And that means getting past the front bezel, removing the LCD's front glass with special suction-cup tool to avoid stress cracking it. All Aluminum iMacs have SATA II controllers, so mid to high end drives are the right choice.



Want to learn more about OS X compatible solid-state flash drive options for Macintosh? Visit the Main Page of Solid-State Drive Upgrades For Apple Macs