2014 5k iMac - upgrade from fusion to all SSD?

[icemantx]

i have a 3 year old iMac 5k and the warranty is about to end so I am considering opening it up to upgrade the drives. I have a 3TB Fusion which is fine, but gets laggy often when scrolling through Photos, iTunes, iMovie.

My question is if removing the Fusion and replacing with all SSD would help with performance and add some new life? If so, what size SSD? I have about 2.5TB in use which is a combination of random documents, home video, photos, and iTunes movies.

Is it worth the upgrade? I am not concerned with taking the iMac apart.

 

[icemantx]

Anyone?

 

[jcuecker]

Hey I have the same iMac. I suspect your performance is slow because the video/picture files you are accessing are on the non SSD portion of the Fusion Drive.

I added a external SSD drive via Thunderbolt 2 and highly recommend going that route. The read/write performance is just as fast as the SSD portion of the internal drive. I installed the Mac OS on the external and keep all of my pictures on that drive as well; everything is supper fast for editing. Its also nice because you keep the internal drive which I use for storing timemachine backups, and rarely used files.

Single best upgrade I've made

 

[icemantx]

Hey I have the same iMac. I suspect your performance is slow because the video/picture files you are accessing are on the non SSD portion of the Fusion Drive.

I added a external SSD drive via Thunderbolt 2 and highly recommend going that route. The read/write performance is just as fast as the SSD portion of the internal drive. I installed the Mac OS on the external and keep all of my pictures on that drive as well; everything is supper fast for editing. Its also nice because you keep the internal drive which I use for storing timemachine backups, and rarely used files.

Single best upgrade I've made

That sounds like a great idea!

What do you store on the internal Fusion Drive? iTunes? iMovie? Was it difficult to migrate photos to the SSD and then use the internal as a slave drive?

 

[jcuecker]

Yeah; mostly just older backups on the internal drive. Also some movies and large files that I don't use all that often. The external has all my music, and photos; stuff I access all the time. If I know im going to be editing some files that are on the internal I just move them to the external SSD first to make sure things are snappy in Photoshop or whatever i'm editing with. To be honest that doesn't happen very often though, the external 512GB is big enough for most of my day to day files.

I remember it being quite easy to migrate everything but its been a while so I cant remember the exact steps unfortunately. I remember there beings some guides online that walk you through it. If I can find one ill send it your way.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Buy a USB3 (NOT thunderbolt) SSD, plug it in, and set it up to become your boot drive.
Cheap, fast, easy to do.
You'll see speeds as fast -- or FASTER THAN -- you would using a thunderbolt drive.
Don't worry about TRIM -- it's a non-issue, a "boogeyman".

A Samsung t5 drive might be a good choice.
You DON'T NEED a really large one.
Even 250 or 500gb will do the job.
Leave the "large libraries" (movies, pics, music) on the internal fusion drive.
Or... "split" the fusion drive.

 

[jcuecker]

OP:

Buy a USB3 (NOT thunderbolt) SSD, plug it in, and set it up to become your boot drive.
Cheap, fast, easy to do.
You'll see speeds as fast -- or FASTER THAN -- you would using a thunderbolt drive.
Don't worry about TRIM -- it's a non-issue, a "boogeyman".

Under what possible situation would USB3 be faster than TB2?

The 2014 iMac has USB 3.0 ports which have a max throughput of 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s). Real life speeds are a lot closer to 4-500 MB/sec. There are plenty of SSD drives faster than this.

TB2 has a max speed that is 4X faster 20 Gbit/s

Now I agree that 500MB/s is plenty fast and if cost is an issue by all means go USB 3.0 but it is false to suggest that it is just as fast or faster than TB2.

 

[Fishrrman]

jc wrote:
"Now I agree that 500MB/s is plenty fast and if cost is an issue by all means go USB 3.0 but it is false to suggest that it is just as fast or faster than TB2."

Nope.
Provide your numbers.
I reckon you don't have any to provide.

With USB3 (with an enclosure or adapter that has UASP support), read speeds will max out around 430mbps. Writes will be from 250mbps-350mbps (or higher), depending on the drive brand, model and size.

I doubt anyone is going to get significantly higher performance with thunderbolt2.
Perhaps even slower....

 

[cforster]

jc wrote:
"Now I agree that 500MB/s is plenty fast and if cost is an issue by all means go USB 3.0 but it is false to suggest that it is just as fast or faster than TB2."

Nope.
Provide your numbers.
I reckon you don't have any to provide.

With USB3 (with an enclosure or adapter that has UASP support), read speeds will max out around 430mbps. Writes will be from 250mbps-350mbps (or higher), depending on the drive brand, model and size.

I doubt anyone is going to get significantly higher performance with thunderbolt2.
Perhaps even slower....

First off, I want to make sure I am clear right from the jump, I am not here to troll.

I came across this thread and my curiosity is peaked with your statement and I was not aware that you can get as good or better performance using USB3 vs Thunderbolt 2. I realize that published numbers on speeds are not always real world use, but considering that TB2 is theoretically faster than USB3, I figured it would offer better performance. I know you also have to weigh the cost, which is significantly more, but if we are talking pure performance comparisons, I find your statement very interesting.

Have you tested this yourself?

https://gizmodo.com/5980157/thunderbolt-vs-usb-30-the-definitive-showdown


That being said, considering the cost, I would personally do an external USB 3 with a good SSD. It should meet his needs and save him a lot of money.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

OP remember you fusion drive is a small ssd and a normal SATA connected HDD , you can just replace the HDD with an ssd and refuse it as a fusion drive for an all ssd fusion solution.

 

[siddhartha]

I just did this surgery on my own riMac 2014. Other than the screen removal, it was really easy to do, and I have noticed a huge performance and convenience boost. Also, if you want to install Windows/BootCamp, it is easier to do with an internal drive. I had loads of issues with it on my fusion drive.

If you decide to, it's not that bad. Just get the kit to open the computer, and all necessary parts, and watch a few videos. I am happy I did it, and can't believe I didn't do it sooner.

Feel free to contact me if you have specific questions

 

[ignatius345]

I just did this surgery on my own riMac 2014. Other than the screen removal, it was really easy to do, and I have noticed a huge performance and convenience boost. Also, if you want to install Windows/BootCamp, it is easier to do with an internal drive. I had loads of issues with it on my fusion drive.

If you decide to, it's not that bad. Just get the kit to open the computer, and all necessary parts, and watch a few videos. I am happy I did it, and can't believe I didn't do it sooner.

Feel free to contact me if you have specific questions

Hi. Did your machine start off with an SSD or a Fusion Drive?

I’ve got a 2014 iMac 5K with a fusion drive and the ssd part is starting to show high wear levels. I’m ok with opening it up and replacing drives, but am a little unclear about whether to

- get an SATA SSD to replace the HDD that’s in there now

- replace the SSD that’s there now with a bigger one and leave the HDD for archiving or whatever

- replace them both with SSDs