Internal SSD DIY Install Kit for All Apple 27" iMac 2011 Models

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OWC Internal SSD DIY Kit for All Apple 27" iMac 2011 Models

iMac to SSD SATA 6Gb/s data & power cable, 2 suction cups for the outer glass removal, thermal safe adhesive mounting set, OWC Microfiber Pro Cleaning Cloth, and tools

Already have all the tools necessary to perform this upgrade?

You can purchase the cable and mounting set separately here.

Add a 3G or 6G Solid State Drive (sold separately) to your hard drive only equipped iMac to experience faster booting, near instant application launches and data transfer speeds up to 559MB/s!

Before attempting to perform this installation, please watch the following instructional video in its entirety to determine your ability to perform this complex procedure. OWC assumes no responsibility for damage that may occur during the install. Technical support for this DIY product consists only of the installation video.

Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program

While OWC encourages the DIY philosophy, this is a very difficult install that requires advanced skills. If, after watching the how-to video, you are not fully confident of your ability to add an SSD to your 2011 27-inch iMac, you can choose to have OWC "Do It For You" via our Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program.

Includes:

iMac to SSD SATA 6Gb/s data & power cable
2 suction cups for the outer glass removal
Thermal safe adhesive mounting set
OWC Torx T10S Driver
OWC Torx T6S Driver
Newertech Phillips PH02
Nylon Pry Tool
OWC Microfiber Pro Cleaning Cloth

Install Video

Includes

iMac to SSD SATA 6Gb/s data & power cable
2 suction cups for the outer glass removal
Thermal safe adhesive mounting set
OWC Torx T10S Driver
OWC Torx T6S Driver
Newertech Phillips PH02
Nylon Pry Tool
OWC Microfiber Pro Cleaning Cloth

NOTE: This kit contains consumable and/or one time use components and therefore is not covered by any warranty. If you have any concerns about your ability to perform the upgrade, you can return the unopened kit for a refund. The 14-Piece Toolkit (except for nylon pry tool and Microfiber Pro cleaning cloth) included with this kit are covered by a 1 Year NewerTech Product Limited Warranty.

Gallery

This kit is compatible with... Learn how to find your Mac's model ID

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011)

(May, 2011)

Model ID: iMac12,2

2.7GHz i5, 3.1GHz i5, 3.4GHz i7

Detailed specs

Install Videos

Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4.8 / 5 43 out of 44 (98%) reviewers would recommend this product

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Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User

Rating: 5/5 upgrade SSD July 25, 2016 I'm verrey glad with the set and special the video for help.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Los Angeles, CA Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Excellent kit for SSD installation in an iMac July 22, 2016 This is an excellent kit for installing an SSD in the secondary location behind the optical drive. You do need to be an expert with computer repair for installing this kit. The logic board does not need to be removed, but it does need to be detached from the chassis and pulled forward to access the additional SATA port in the 27" iMac. It is located on the backside of the board. The OWC install video is fantastic for doing this self-installation.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Massachusetts Age: 45-54 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Great upgrade (with a few issues) June 28, 2016 First, I will state that I have plenty of technical experience since I have been in the electronic/computer repair industry for 35+ years. I didn't have any qualms about doing this SSD additional drive upgrade using the DIY install kit by myself.

That being said, tool failure and/or missing equipment can certainly slow the process down.

First failure occurred when one of the suction cups failed. No matter what I did, the cup would eventually fall off. As I was transporting the 27" iMac glass to the old iMac box, the cup failed and I wound up carrying the glass with one cup. I am just thankful the second cup didn't fail.

Second issue was missing tools. In the video, it stated that the kit included tweezers to facillitate the removal of the 8 panel screws. There were no tweezers included. You also need a Torx T-6 driver to remove the Airport card. The T-6 was not included. Luckily, I had a kit with every type of small Torx driver you could imagine. But most people would not and they would need to run to the local Radio Shack in order to remove the Torx screw (or use a very small screwdriver which could lead to damage to the computer).

Overall, despite these issues, I am quite satisfied with the product. It was worth the time and trouble! The video is thorough and clear. I highly recommend this and any other product from OWC. This is my third upgrade purchase from OWC and I know it won't be my last!

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: North Miami Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Worked perfectly June 10, 2016 Purchased for my wife's iMac so I could change out the hard drive and it worked flawlessly. No issues, would recommend.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Auckland, New Zealand Age: 45-54 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Easy as DIY upgrade March 19, 2016 Thanks to Macsales for selling me the best tools upgrade to my iMac I've made so far. With the kit, I installed the latest Samsung 850 Pro SSD and it's made my 2011 iMac perform like a new computer. The difference is night and day.

Along with the helpful installation video to reference back to, the upgrade was seamless and straight forward. If you've got some technical skills and want to save yourself a bucket load of money and end up with a super fast machine, this kit is well worth every cent you pay for it.

Highly, highly recommend purchasing this kit!

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: MA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Makes me feel like a pro February 13, 2016 I used this kit several times to make mods/upgrades to my iMac The videos are extremely well done and helpful, and the tools are just right for the job. Thanks, OWC!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Buenos Aires. Argentina Age: 25-34 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 The product complies publicized November 29, 2015 All right, No problem. Highly recommended. The shipment arrived quickly

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Sweden Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Great product!! October 13, 2015 Easy to install, a real quick fix for extra storage! No need to be highly skilled to perform this upgrade, just common sense and a gentle touch.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: San Antonio, Texas Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 DONT THINK ABOUT, BUY IT NOW!!! September 6, 2015 I don't write many reviews but for this I felt I had to. My iMac was 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, 32Gb RAM and 1TB stock hard drive. It was good for the time but after doing video tasks it became unbearable. Start time from a cold boot was a minute and a half, I reset the pram, did clean installs, hardware tests and nothing made it faster so it had to be my hard drive. I bought this and an SSD Samsung Pro 1TB after the reviews but was weary because I didnt know what would happen opening everything since I dont normally do that. I have to say with my other laptop open following the instructions from the video OMC put together it was a breeze. You just need patience, and maybe someone to help hold the logic board at some places. Now my iMac take about 7 seconds to boot from a cold start and just feels like a new computer. I can't recommend this enough. Just buy it, believe in yourself and bring your computer back to life.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous

Rating: 5/5 Very clear video instruction, no guess, no hassle! August 27, 2015 I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Blainville, QC Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Great buy June 16, 2015 Sure, I could have probably pieced those together for a bit cheaper but this was by far the simplest solution: the kit contained everything I needed and the video tutorial on the website enabled me to perform the operation on my 27" iMac (late 2011) without a hitch. My Mac feels 3-4 years younger now!

Please note that the only 'consumables' in this kit are the double sided adhesive pads and the special SATA cable. Everything else is reusable if you need to help someone perform a similar operation or if you just need a set of Torx screwdrivers.

Small tip: have someone help you by holding the LCD when disconnecting/connecting its 4 cables. The rest is somewhat trivial.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer Top 50 Contributor

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Burlington, VT Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 5-6 months

Rating: 5/5 Great Tools June 4, 2015 It took me a while to get up my courage to buy the SSD, and then to use these to take my computer apart. Now I have an incredible collection of special tools that are native to Macs....

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Just what I needed May 18, 2015 Everything in one kit! With the help of an OWC install video, the installation was quick and easy. I used most all of the items in the kit. The hardest part was finding a large enough work space where I could take my iMac apart.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Toronto, ON Age: 25-34 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 iMac (27inch Mid 2011) added internal SSD April 13, 2015 If it weren't for the video, I probably would not have done it myself. It's a little scary to open up your iMac just because (a) its an expensive computer and you don't want to damage it and (b) its an involved process disassembling all the pieces. Having said all that, this kit gives you everything you need to install an SSD in your iMac. I would highly recommend people watch the video before you start so you know what to expect. I believe it took me about an hour to do everything and I was taking my time. When everything was said and done, I booted up and the iMac recognized the SSD, I just had to format it. I backed up my data, formatted the SSD, installed OS X and accompanying apps on the SSD, and put all the other data on my HD. I can now boot up my computer in under 8-10 seconds which is a far cry from over a minute on my HD. I would definitely recommend this kit if you are thinking about installing an SSD. This has given new life to my computer and it feels brand new. I am very happy!

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Bangkok

Rating: 5/5 Everything Fit Perfectly March 30, 2015 Followed the directions in the Video, and was back up & running in less than an hour.

Thanks Again

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Cologne Age: 25-34 Experience Level: IT Professional

Rating: 4/5 Great Kit March 14, 2015 Even tho I've watched the How To Video like 20 Times, I still needed to watch it while opening my iMac. Well, somethings seemed very easy in the video but were the complete opposite in reality. Simple things like, taking the Glass front off.. I actually couldnt do it alone, because I was afraid to break it LOL so someone had to hold the iMac for me to apply enough strength to take it off. Or unplugging those little cables, with that forceps tool you get - I almost ripped some of my cables apart because it was just sooo hard to get them out of place. later i just used my fingernails. Anyway everything went fine. its only 4 out of 5 stars because one of them screwdrives broke its head while I was using it. also those greenish plastic handles to unplugg cables started to deform because like I said, the cables just wouldnt get out of position.

best regards

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Tomelloso Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Work ok. February 13, 2015 Work ok in my Imac 27" mid 2011, with a sd 500gb crucial, easy to install and work ok.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous

Rating: 5/5 Great kit! Everything I needed. January 20, 2015 This kit was exactly what I needed to upgrade my iMac. It even included the special SATA cable. It had a smaller connector on it that I hadn't seen before. Without this kit I wouldn't have been able to complete the upgrade all at once, and my iMac would have had to sit disassembled until I received the correct part. The video guide was also vital in the upgrade process.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Spain Experience Level: Power User

Rating: 5/5 Excellent product January 19, 2015 The first thing to mention is the delivery, I bought it from Spain, I was worried about delivery time and custom fees, but everything went as expected, it arrived about 10 days after the shipment without any problem or taxes. I really encourage you to buy direct from OWC and don't waste extra money buying from ebay sellers that simply resells the product at 150-180% of OWC price. About the product itself it comes perfectly packed. Every item of the package are made with good quality materials, nothing to do with chinese low quality products, I absolutly recommend this store and for sure I will bought here again. Thanks OWC, you have a new happy and satisfied customer ;)

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: NJ Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Works great! Follow the video. December 16, 2014 Used this kit to install a Crucial M500 1TB drive in my 2011 iMac. All the required tools were present and the installation went smoothly. I recommend watching the video that OWC has for installation procedures.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Ft Lauderdale Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Required tools to install a SSD in iMac 27" December 15, 2014 I used these tools to install a SSD into my iMac. They are absolutely necessary. I also used the video owc publishes to know how to use the tools.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Blacksburg, VA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Best way to speed up your system! November 17, 2014 Thanks to OWC's excellent upgrade kit and detailed instructional video, I was able to upgrade my 2011 iMac with an OWC 480GB 6G SSD. Installation was a bit of work, but I had the iMac back together in about an hour and a half. I followed instructions to combine the 1 TB hard drive with the 480GB SSD into a Fusion Drive. Everything works perfectly and now my "old" iMac is much, much faster. OWC really does rock!!

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous

Rating: 5/5 Better than expected November 10, 2014 This kit was better quality than I expected and allowed me to complete the drive changes easily. It was the first time I had done this and while some of the connectors are very small, everything went back together smoothly.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Sweden Age: 18-24 Experience Level: Hobbiest Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Nice and easy October 24, 2014 The kit made it easy to install a SSD in my iMac.

Greetings from Sweden!

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Az Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 4/5 Kit contained all necessary parts for job October 18, 2014 Kit arrived in timely fashion. Kit was complete and training video from OWC showed detailed MOP for installing the SSD. Ran into one problem that was resolved by me notching out a place to run the cables under the optical drive. Other than that everything went as planned. I would recommend this product.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

1 2

MacSales.com Special Offer Available

OWC Internal SSD DIY Kit for All Apple 27" iMac 2011 Models iMac to SSD SATA 6Gb/s data & power cable, 2 suction cups for the outer glass removal, thermal safe adhesive mounting set, OWC Microfiber Pro Cleaning Cloth, and tools

Includes

Gallery

Customer Ratings

OWC Internal SSD DIY Kit for All Apple 27" iMac 2011 Models

iMac to SSD SATA 6Gb/s data & power cable, 2 suction cups for the outer glass removal, thermal safe adhesive mounting set, OWC Microfiber Pro Cleaning Cloth, and tools