Chosen Solution
If I bought a new current gen i7 iMac 27” with SSD from Apple rather than Fusion Drive does this mean the conventional HDD space is open for my personal installation of a 3rd party 2.5” SATA drive (Samsung or similar)? I’m assuming the 1TB SSD option Apple is a blade SSD that mounted directly into the logic board is that correct?
If you go to the online store iMac 27” and select the 1 TB SSD option your system will be configured with the Blade SSD iMac 27"3.4 GHz i5 (5K, Mid-2017) The 3.5” HDD mount will be present but the SATA/Power cable will not be present and you’ll need the mounting hardware for your drive iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Hard Drive Replacement. So yes you can then add in the HDD.
