OWC In-Line Digital Thermal Sensor HDD Upgrade Cable and Install Tools for iMac 2012, (OWCDIYIMACHDD12)

I had the very unfortunate event of my 2017 iMac’s fusion drive going failing one random day, and rather than paying over the odds for a repair through Apple, I hunted around on YouTube and forums for DIY tutorials. Now, this is no easy task and be aware that using one of these kits will likely void some kind of warranty, but I went for it and glad I chose this product. I followed the guide that came with it, and it felt genuinely straight forward. I had to purchase my own SATA SSD and mount, but this was honestly not that hard to do by yourself. I read many horror stories about the iMac screen falling out a few days/weeks after but mine is rock solid and I chose to wait a month before writing this review. This is a top quality product and if like me, you’ve had the fusion drive give up on you, or if you just want to speed up your ageing iMac, get this product, a decent SSD drive and you’ll really notice a difference. My 2017 model is incredibly fast now and completely silent.

If the description matches what you are looking for then this is a great option. I would say however that this is not an easy job. Even with all the correct equipment it is easy to make a mistake and end up with a broken computer. I've been working on computers for over 20 years and apple devices nearly as long and I've broken (irreparably) at least 1 iMac trying this. Before buying this think really carefully about whether you should.

Top quality kit as part of hard drive replacement. Very easy to use. Would have no problems in recommending this to anyone and would certainly purchase again for another machine.

The glass cups were of good quality, the cable for the fan cooling was a bit long and bulky, didn't fit very well with the Imc 27" 2014 which seemed a little odd. The Screw driver and bits are cheap and instantly binable but they're there if you don't have a better set. The plastic disk/pizza cutter seems ok but didn't use it. Haven't used the adhesive strips yet but I expect them to be somewhat naff and certainly not the safest way to reaffix your screen. I will be using some dabs of silicone on the corners and the tape as a wedge to make sure the screen is the right distance off the frame. I have the same job to do to another Imac but will only buy the fan cable. I don't think the tape is really necessary. The fans seem to run 'normally' now instead of at full blast so job done. Although I've now got some black vertical lines on the screen. You don't hear about that when changing the HDD to an SSD. It's only when you get the black lines and research it, you see it's a hugely common problem with this upgrade. Cracking the screen is not the only issue you have to worry about damaging the pixels is also a huge potential. Now off to buy a £400 replacement screen, even though I didn't crack it.

Unfortunately the only brand I know that produce this thermal sensor. This means that can be quite expensive. With that said, the product is well made and the kit includes all the necessary parts.

Don’t use the suction cups. Including them with the kit is a huge blunder on part of OWC. Tried to do this job to save myself money and it was much harder than I thought it was, took several hours and broke my screen. I was so livid I was fit to throw my iMac out of the window. The adhesive sticks are not foam based like the original ones so I don’t know how good they are—especially when some people are complaining about screens falling off. Worst DIY project ever. I should have paid the money and trusted this job to professionals. Regret 101. To get a new screen including installation third resellers quoted me €700 ($770) so I passed and will continue to use this 2014 iMac 5K with a 2.5” black vertical band down on the left 1/3 of my display and work around it. Money doesn’t grow on trees around here. Lesson learned: never use suction cups on a computer display, and probably leave display removal jobs to the professionals, especially given Apple’s current glued on design.

This is a good toolset. It does the job well. The tape is good. At least my screen didn't fall down after a month.

It's probably unfair for me not to rate this product higher. I ordered the kit (which is good quality) plus a 1GB SSD and adapter. I followed the iFixit guide having watched a couple of videos. The kit is good and comes with a 'pizza cutter' style opener. Unfortunately I was viewing the iFixit guide and used a couple of credit card sized plastic cards (not in this kit) and pushed them in too far on one part of the screen. After I put the iMac back together I found I had a vertical black band about 3" wide because I had damaged one of the very delicate plastic ribbons. If you open the comments on the iFixit online guide I can see there has been a few people that have done this. I've now wrecked my iMac and replacement screens are prohibitively expensive. Having learned from my mistake, I would use this kit again but I do think it should come with a big health warning as if you push a plastic card in too far you can irreversibly damage your screen. As I say, not the suppliers fault but please don't make the same mistake I did.

I purchased this almost a year and a half ago because I was scared to do the install. I finally did it about a month ago, and I am happy with the results. I have a late 2013 27" iMac with i5 processor that ran like a dog because of a poor performing 1TB Seagate 5400 RPM HDD (I get it Apple, thin comes at a cost - heat). I used the OWC kit to replace that with a Seagate 2TB 3.5-Inch SATA 6GB/s Desktop SSHD (ST2000DX001) (Old Model) . While not as fast as a true SSD, it's a more cost effective solution (they are currently a hair over $100 on Amazon) and there is a noticeable increase in overall performance. My kit had everything that was shown in the online video, which can be seen on OWCs YouTube channel. They have a new version they just published on 02/03/2017. I followed OWCs instructions to the letter, and had the video playing on my PC while I was doing the teardown. As far as the replacement tape is concerned, I wish they had provided a lot more in the kit, as I had just enough after I made a couple of mistakes. The method I finally devised was to fold the backing along the tape strip and then use that as guide to line up against the edge of the iMac's case. I have confirmed the tape is the same brand and type as used by the Geniuses in the Apple Store when they disassemble your iMac. My only other recommendation is to be very careful with the screen. The glass is so large it can bow when reassembling the unit. Once I got the glass back on, it now looks like it was never taken apart. I then did a clean install of macOS Sierra and hooked my old drive up to an Anker USB 3.0 to SATA 3ft Converter Adapter Cable for 2.5 inch/3.5 inch Hard Drive Disk HDD and SSD, Power Adapter included and used the Migration Assistant to get my files and settings onto the new drive. A month in, everything is snappier and the computer actually comes back from a restart in under a minute. Some ephemera - When I was considering an SSD, I went on OWC's site and got on with live chat. I asked if I needed to use the heat sensor with an SSD, which doesn't get as hot as a comparable HDD. Chat said I have to use it, so I did a little more digging and I've confirmed that the circuitry locked up in the black connector is not only a temp sensor but also contains the EPROMS that tell the iMac the drive you're using is an Apple certified unit. Newer drives now contain the firmware to get around this issue, but my wife purchased the SHHD for me for Christmas 2014. I would have had to use the sensor anyway as the new drive is mechanical, but if you've purchased an SSD prior to 2015 that you wish to swap in, use the temp sensor. Also, this version of the 27" iMac (iMac14,2) doesn't have the eMMC slot on the logic board, so I couldn't get, say, a 64GB eMMC drive to do the Fusion Drive upgrade. On the plus side, Seagate now sells an SHHD that has the same SSD size, but uses a different schema for reading/writing data called shingled magnetic recording, or SMR. This allows for thinner platters and faster reads/writes over time. Yes, for you non-Seagate fans out there, Western Digital does make something they call a dual drive, which is a standard HDD and an SSD in the same sandwich, however, on Macs it is hard to install. They're also as expensive as a standard SSD for the same capacity. The Seagate solution just works and makes the Mac faster over time. In other words, your fifth boot will be faster than your first boot.

Ich habe meinen iMac mit einer ssd Festplatte aufrüsten wollen und deshalb zu diesem set gegriffen, es beinhaltet eigentlich alles was man zum Umbau benötigt, von der Festplatte abgesehen. Das verklebte Display lies sich mit dem Rändelrad Gut lösen, so das die Saugnäpfe nicht nötig waren. Mehr als die zwei Torx Schraubendreher braucht es nicht. Das mitgelieferte Kabel passt perfekt. Das Display wird mit den im Lieferumfang enthaltenen Klebestreifen wieder fixiert, Beschreibung dafür ist perfekt. Ich kann den Artikel empfehlen.

Really good quality kit for everyone who want replace HDD with SSD. There is SATA cable with thermal sensor included. Everything works perfect!

Kit was good, gave me everything I needed. It was a pretty easy upgrade using a drive cloner and then re-installing MacOS with internet recovery got me back up and running. Everyone complaining about the weak adhesive is wrong, or they made this stuff SUPER STICKY! I aligned everything though it was good and dropped the panel, it moved a mm off and for the life of me I couldn't get it unstuck. Rather than deal with buying new adhesive I stuck everything down. it's not horrible but I really think the adhesive is good. PROVIDED you correctly cleaned off the old adhesive. I still give this 5 stars because I made a mistake doesn't make it a bad product. Its GREAT. Performance wise my 7 year old MAC can live another 4-5 years easily performance wise.

Pude actualizar ponerle un SSD a mi iMac de 27 pulgadas sin problema, es un proceso sencillo de hacer si es que te gusta la tecnología y en general hacer las cosas por ti mismo. La pantalla quedó perfectamente sellada, solo hay que poner atención y seguir las instrucciones al pie de la letra. ES MUY IMPORTANTE QUITAR EL ADHESIVO ANTERIOR SINO LA PANTALLA SE CAERA. De igual manera el sensor de temperatura funcionó perfectamente. Si pasará algo malo los actualizaré aquí mismo. Por el momento llevo dos días usando el iMac y todo perfecto.