Chosen Solution
Hey there, I have an iMac10,1 (21.5-inch, Late 2009). It has a Western Digital Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive in it. I want to upgrade it. Can I use any hard drive from WD (like WD Red or WD Black…) or does it have to be WD Blue? Thank you
While I don’t anticipate thermal sensor problem with another Western Digital drive, to be sure look at the insert on the drive for the sensor receptacle to make sure there are the same.
You do have a few choices here but what ever drive you get it needs to support SATA II (3.0 Gb/s). The current WD line does not offer any SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) drives so they won’t work. If you go looking on eBay you should be able to find an older WD SATA II drive but it maybe used. I would recommend jumping to a Seagate FireCuda drive: Seagate FireCuda Spec sheet Here we can see this drive offers auto SATA port speed sense so it will match up with your systems slower SATA II port. The other option is jumping to a SSD like a Samsung 850 EVO spec sheet as it too has speed sense. For either you’ll need this special cable: OWC In-line Digital Thermal Sensor for iMac 2009-2010 Hard Drive Upgrade and for the SSD you’ll need a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter frame: OWC 2.5" to 3.5" Drive Adapter Bracket if you want to use the HD bay.
