upgrades for my new imac (ssd, ram and external disc drive)

I just picked up my first mac, a 2013 27" iMac (base model) and I love this thing. I can actually edit photos without it freezing like my old PC.

However, I was thinking about doing some upgrades as I can get the pinwheel of death at times. Now, I'm a bit confused as to which brands to purchase as it seems some are not supported by Apple and causes the computer not to work properly?

I see some people were having issues with crucial and others not-so-much. Is it impossible to find an OEM apple SSD? I would like to make this into a fusion drive if that's possible. I would pick up a 250gb SSD at the most.

Also, is there a better disc drive than Apple's superdrive for this computer? It seems a bit price to buy for an external dvd burner.

OWC : http://www.macsales.co​m/

A new PC would work as well as a new Mac, just FYI.

Theoretically, you are correct that a Windows PC will work just as well as the Mac. However, the price of the mac and the specs it has are better than the comparable PCs I could have purchased. Plus I didn't want to deal with windows 8.

I've seen a YouTube video on changing the hard-drive on an iMac 27...

Rather you than me, I'd be sure to mess it up somehow. Didn't realise that the screen was held on by magnets either. I keep meaning to carry out the more trivial task of adding some extra RAM to my late 2012 version, but haven't yet. Will probably just add 16GB to the existing 8GB.

After almost 30-years of using PCs, changing to a Mac has been great.

Yeah I plan on adding 16 to my existing 8 just like you. What brand did you use?

And I can't believe how easy (for the most part) the switch had been. Definitely worth it thus far. There are a few things I need to figure out. But, it took me two days to really know the ins and outs of the Mac.

I have a late 2012 imac 27". I just added 16gb memory to the 8gb I already had. I got it from Crucial and seems to be working fine. Memory is incredibly simple to add. I already have a 1tb fusion drive so trying to set one up is something I know nothing about.

I just use a generic external dvd burner drive and it works great. No need for the Apple superdrive. For the best speed, get a USB 3 one. Mine is USB 2. I also have a USB 3 hub to add some ports and a USB 3 card reader. I figure I have such fast cards for my camera, I might as well read them as fast as possible on the mac.

Max out the RAM. I don't think an internal HD upgrade will be of much use.

hang your cross wrote in post #17477373
I see some people were having issues with crucial and others not-so-much. Is it impossible to find an OEM apple SSD? I would like to make this into a fusion drive if that's possible. I would pick up a 250gb SSD at the most.

I know someone with a 2013 iMac who tried to make it a fusion drive, and it didn't work.
OS-X simply said no, this model iMac never came with a fusion drive, so adding an SSD isn't going to work.

He was left with running the SSD and HDD as seperate drives, which still works of course.

In theory any SSD will work, the hard part is getting inside the iMac without breaking anything to do the instal.

You could purchase a Lacie external Thunderbolt drive ( 250GB ) as a boot drive via BUS. A little pricey but all the reviews I've read are very good. I did a Crucial RAM upgrade approx. 6mo. ago without incident and has served me well.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …thunderbolt_ext​ernal.html