iMac and eSATA Mod for $5

[Nate Haustein]

This afternoon I spent about an hour dismantling my 2010 27" iMac to install an eSATA connector to the back of the motherboard. Long story short, it worked, and for just $5 I nearly tripled the read/write speed of all my hard drives. While Firewire800 maxed out at around 70Mbps, I'm getting 230Mbps consistent speeds on my OWC 4-bay enclosure, 190Mbps on my G-RAID Mini, and 95Mbps on a single drive.

The 18" SATA to eSATA cable cost about $5, and attaches to the back of the motherboard in the free SATA port. I then ran the cable down behind the screen and out next the RAM slots. The cable extrudes about 6 inches out from the bottom of the Mac and terminates in a female eSATA port. All four sticks of RAM still fit just fine, and I didn't need to cut or modify anything in the computer, so it's 100% reversible. Right now, I don't have the RAM door on the computer, but I may take a Dremel tool and cut a small slot in it for the cable.

All in all, very worth it, and all you need is a Torx T10 screwdriver, the SATA cable, some courage and the video found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Li_bPDAow

I'm quite excited!

[thabo]

Good job, I wanted to do this on my mac mini.

Holy s*%te, didn't realize you have to remove the screen to get at the drive on the iMac! I ended up getting a thunderbolt to SATA converter for $200 from lacie. THe speed sucks and I only get 110Mbps. Just did a test with USB3 on my Macbook air and I get !80Mbps so this $200 is really a waste of money.

[GavinAbe]

Don't seem to have that problem with PC's........ , Well done nice workaround and great solution