2 Hard drives in Imac 27'' 2011?

Hi everyone,

I have bought my first Mac, and i am completely in love with it, all my life i have used Windows, but this is like a whole new world that has been opened to me!

Now i have one question, or actually i have two questions.

My Mac came with the standard 1 TB drive, i can't say that I'm dissatisfied with it but i feel like going for the faster SSD drive.
I saw on Apple.com Store, when you configure your own iMac you can choose an option where you get a 256 gb SSD as a system drive and 1 or 2 TB second drive.

I have searched with Google and watched some videos on Youtube. and there is one thing that i don't get, when i see a how to install a SSD video in your Mac on Youtube, there is only room for one hard drive, in every video people take out their original drive and replace it with an SSD.
So my question is, how do Apple fit two hard drives in the iMac?

And the second question is, which SSD should i go for? Unfortunately i don't know a lot about SSD's, i have read that these are good, what do you guys think? I want a SSD thats stable, that doesn't crash and thats fast, and by fast i don't mean just to copy files, i presume that thats the write/read ability, i want it to open things fast and that responds fast. Hope you know what i mean!

Whats the difference between these two Corsair SSD's?

Corsair 120GB Force 3 Series SATA III 2.5" (SSD) NEW Version

Corsair 120GB Force GT Series SATA III 2.5" (SSD)



Kingston 120GB HyperX SSD SATA3 2.5" (SH100S3/120G)

OCZ 120GB Solid 3 Series SATA III 2.5" (SSD)

What is Max Iops? How many SSD's have that?

OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 Max IOPS Edition SATA III 2.5" (SSD)

Samsung 128GB 830-Series Laptop Edition SATA III 2.5" (SSD)


I also have read on different forums that Intel and Samsung SSD's are by far the most stable? Which one should i choose, whats the best for my Mac?

I hope you can help a newbie with this!



// Cheers from Sweden!

edit:

See chscag's post below

Okej, i did not think that Apple would remove the optical drive.

I was planning on buying my SSD here in Sweden so that i don't have to pay tax and custom when it arrives.

What i can se they offer a lot of OWC drives, to be honest i have never heard of that brand, are they any good?

What do you guys think of OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 Max IOPS Edition SATA III 2.5" (SSD) ?
Or should i go with a Intel or Samsung SSD that are from what i have read and heard pretty stable and don't crash so much?

There is actually room for two hard drives in an iMac. A bracket is installed by Apple and the second drive placed there. The optical drive is removed in the MBP series not the iMac.

And in case you're thinking it's a do it yourself job, it's not. The hard drives that are in the new iMacs are proprietary as they use special firmware and cables.

chscag said:

There is actually room for two hard drives in an iMac. A bracket is installed by Apple and the second drive placed there. The optical drive is removed in the MBP series not the iMac.

And in case you're thinking it's a do it yourself job, it's not. The hard drives that are in the new iMacs are proprietary as they use special firmware and cables.

Click to expand...

What kind of Bracket do they use? I was thinking of buying a SSD and let the Apple Store install them for me, they will do that for 70 dollars.