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I am looking at buying a second hand Late 2014 iMac that was purchased with the 512GB SSD option. Currently I am using an earlier model with a Fusion Drive. What I would like to know is if I crack open the Mac can I add a HDD to create a fusion drive with the existing SSD. Do all the brackets and connectors exist or do they strip all that out the a customer orders a single SSD. I know how to create the logical volume and all the jazz. I just need to know whether I can stick a drive in without buying a whole heap of parts. Thanks in advance J
While you could do it, it would be a waste of the space & performance the SSD offers! A straight up two drive config is superior to a Fusion Drive when you have that large a blade SSD. Basically, you use the SSD as your boot drive (OS) as well as hold your apps, the rest of the drive is left empty for the OS to use for V-RAM, caching, paging and depending on your app it will use it for scratch space. Your HDD is then only used to hold your content. As far as which HDD to get I would recommend getting a 3.5” hybrid drive (SSHD) like a Seagate FireCuda SSHD Besides the mounting screws for the drive its self the frame is present. You will need the SADA cable iMac Intel 27" 5K (Late 2014-Mid 2015) Hard Drive Cable
