OWC 1TB SSD Upgrade Bundle for 2011 iMacs, Mercury Electra 1.0TB 6G SSD, AdaptaDrive 2.5″ to 3.5″ Drive Converter Bracket, in-line Digital Thermal Sensor Cable, Installation Tools, OWCKITIM11HE1TB

2011 iMac runs as fast as my 2017 MacBook Pro
If you’re on the fence about buying this SSD, let this review be the sign for you to get it. There wasn’t anything wrong with the original hard drive in my iMac, its spinning was just loud enough to wake me up at night when the computer would randomly do its thing. My computer also took almost 2 minutes to boot and would still be sluggish and laggy after booting, especially with programs like Microsoft Word or Adobe Lightroom. I figured it was time to throw in an SSD and fix all those problems. I wish I had done this years ago, now my computer boots in about 15 seconds and has 0 lag when opening apps or getting started.The process is relatively simple, just watch the YouTube videos on how to replace your old drive. Here are a few helpful tips I wish I had known before installing this:1. Make sure you have a USB to SATA transfer cable so you can clone your old hard drive to your new one; you won’t be able to use the drive until it’s formatted to your Mac. I luckily saw that it would be needed, but it wasn’t something that a non-computer savvy person like me would have immediately thought of. The kit contains everything you need to replace your drive except this cable.2. AFTER cloning or formatting your new SSD (keep it attached with the USB/SATA cable) but BEFORE taking out your old hard drive, go to Startup Disk in System Preferences and make sure you select the new SSD as the preferred disk to boot off of. I discovered that not doing this will cause a white screen with a flashing folder with a “?” indicating that your Mac is trying to find the old hard drive to boot off of (which if you take out and replace with the SSD without switching the preference, it won’t find). I ended up taking my computer apart again, putting the old drive back in, booting it up, switching the boot disk preference to the new SSD, then took the old drive out and put the SSD back in again. Save a lot of frustration by doing this the first time.3. It’ll take a fat amount of time to clone your drive. My system had about 230GB of data to clone and ended up taking about 6 hours. Plan ahead so you don’t disrupt your work schedule.So far I absolutely love the new SSD. My Mac has been kicking strong for 10 years, I bet with this I can get at least 5 or more years out of it.

Better Than New
So, my older iMac finally died (it did die once before but miraculously came back to life). Hard drive failed so I though I would have to buy a new computer (thankfully, I do maintain a backup). Found this and figured for the price, it was worth a try. Arrived quickly and as long as you tune into the correct video on the seller’s website, relatively straightforward to install. Not easy, but not super hard. If you have any mechanical ability, you shouldn’t have any problems. While I was installing things, I also upped the RAM to 32GB (maximum for this machine). Once I got everything installed and back together, I turned the iMac on and…nothing!!! So I called product support and was asked if I formatted it (no, I thought it came pre-formatted). Support walked me through everything (didn’t take long), and the machine booted right up after that. I restored from my backup and now the iMac is as good as ever, and even boots up MUCH faster (seconds!). I guess the SSD drive (1TB) and additional RAM make a difference. Would not hesitate to purchase this or from this seller again should the need arise.

Common defective SSD’s
This whole kit is too good to be true. The price is such a money saver for everything you need except when the main product doesn’t even work, being the SSD itself. Talk about a time waster with literally an entire weekend and I do mean a full 48 hours of trying to get this to work and so much troubleshooting. This was such a frustration I wanted to toss the entire Mac along with the trash product I received in the street and just leave it there to get ran over an over again. Yeah, don’t deal with the hassle. I will do you a favor and that’s this, if your SSD doesn’t get read the first or maybe 2nd time during a recovery, literally save yourself the extra time on top of already having to wait a week to receive this kit and just send it back and never look back. Do yourself a favor and just buy a Samsung SSD, they work flawlessly in 5 of my MacBook Pro’s including a 2010 model and the other 4 are 2012’s. Use double sided tape or a strong Velcro with adhesive to attach your SSD instead of the bracket. There is software to install for the heat problem and fan blowing at max speed, so you don’t need the extra $40 cable. Get some dollar store suction cups too, they’ll work just fine. Other than that, ignore those 5 star ratings because you’re not immune to getting the defective items and having hours upon hours of precious time thrown away. There are a few other reviews saying the same thing happened to them but many more 5 stars so I thought what are the actual chances, we’ll here we are. Don’t make my mistake. Don’t even chance it, not worth anyone’s time at all. Let them learn from their mistakes by selling such low quality products.

Great deal – did just what it was supposed to do. A1+++

This kit is great, it gives you everything you need to do the SSD upgrade.