Other World Computing — purveyor of Apple-friendly software and accessories — has introduced a kit that aims to take much of the guesswork out of adding a solid-state drive to a 27-inch 2011 iMac. A mere $45 gets everything you need to stuff an SSD (sold separately) into your Apple all-in-one: A pair of bright red suction cups (just like the pros use!) to pull off the front glass panel, tweezers and several screwdrivers to extract the varied array of screws, a SATA 6Gb/s cable to serve up power and data to the SSD, and some mounting tape to stick the drive inside the machine.
OWC has posted an instructional video showing off the process (which should take about an hour). The procedure isn't exactly for the faint of heart — a trained professional deftly dismantles the all-in-one, and tucks the new SSD into a gap under the optical drive.
The kit and instructions are designed specifically for 27-inch 2011 iMacs, but older iMacs will be getting their own kits soon. If you've ever peeked inside an iMac (or checked out an iFixit teardown), you'd note that the innards don't vary tremendously from year to year. That said, if you're not especially handy with a screwdriver it's probably best to leave surgical procedures on expensive all-in-ones to the pros.