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Hello, decided to put in your iMac 27 “(iMac17,1 EMC 2834) late 2015 NVMe ssd Studying the question read https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprie… I liked the option Aura Pro X2, and here at the forum it was offered, but the manufacturer’s website indicates that it is this late 2015 model that is not supported (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DA…)

Perhaps who knows about why 2013, 2014, 2015 (May), 2017 supported, but 2015 late NOT COMPATIBLE ? as far as I understand it Gen. 5B SSDs continue to use the 12+16 Pin ? I found and read a lot of articles / stories about how they put an SSD on this iMac through “Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card” (https://www.macworld.com/article/3386117…) Well, in general, it is clear that it works well PCIe 3.0 x4, but Aura Pro X2 will not work at all or is there a problem such as bootcump not working or hibernation, sleep?

Yes, Owc aura x2 works on iMac late 2015 (a149) 17.1 I try it and works fine. I am answering because I also searched the internet and did not find a concrete answer best regards jv

Hello. Here’s an infomation for those who are still unsure if they should upgrade. I have an iMac Late 2015 (17,1) 27” 5K A1419 EMC2834 with 1TB Fusion Drive, which means 1TB HDD via SATA and 24GB via PCIe. I have never done such a procedure before. But I can say in advance, it was worth it. I ordered two upgrade kits from OWC to refresh both drives.

  • Aura Pro X2: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DA…
  • OWC 6G SSD 480GB: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/K27I… While waiting for the package, I backed up my data and splitted the Fusion Drive. For the upgrade, I studied various YouTube videos and the one from OWC. It took about an hour to disassemble all the components. I used a brush and an air compressor to clean the individual parts once the iMac was open. The Aura Pro X2 Flash SSD fit right out of the box. Including the installation of the new SATA SSD, it took about 45 min to assemble without the display. I guess the thermal sensor is no longer necessary since 2015, but it was included, so to be safe, I installed it. I installed MacOS Big Sur, played the backup and tested the whole system first. Everything worked flawlessly. Even Hibernation Mode, and the fan ran quietly. Sticking the display took about 30min, and you have to be extra careful. Four hands would probably be better, but it also works with two. Conclusion: I don’t know why OWC calls the upgrade kit incompatible for the iMac Late 2015. Everything works smoothly. Was it worth it? Yes, definitely. The speed compared to the Fusion Drive is immense. Tests with Black Magic showed a write speed of 2250 MB/s and a read speed of 2920 MB/s. So I can only encourage anyone who is unsure.

SATA SSD

PCIe SSD

Good Question! Best to talk with OWC on there reason. I would just put in a real Apple unit. As far as M.2 SSD’s its one thing to put them into a MacBook Pro as you can get to it without difficulty. Its another having to rip your iMac system fully apart to replace it. FYI: I’ve got a drawer full of dead M.2 SSD’s with their adapters! I won’t put one in an iMac.

Thanks for all the very helpful information. I am thinking about taking the plunge and opening my late 2015 27” 5K retina iMac (17,1) to swap out both HDD for a 2 GB SATA SSD, and the currently dead blade SSD for a new (OWC) 1 TB SSD. Seems risky to spend about $500 for all the components and parts to upgrade a 5 1/2 year old machine given that it may not work (or I might screw it up). But the 5K retina screen on this machine is still top notch and would love to get a few more years out of it. Your success stories @jorge and @thanhtrdang are encouraging!

I have a 17,1 iMac as well (3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 1TB Fusion Drive - 1TB HDD with 24GB NVMExpress) I am getting the 1TB OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD and the 2TB OWC Mercury Electra 6G SATA Question: How did you partitioned, cloned/backed-up the older HDD and NVME drives? Thanks for the great info!