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21.5" iMac hard drive
- Thread starter NitroZip
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Yes. It is really pathetically slow. I had a 2011 iMac for a few weeks that had a 7200 3.5 inch drive and really noticed the difference when going to the 2012 with the 2.5 inch 5400 RPM drive. The 5400rpm was truly about half as fast in some activities. The 2011 was a refurb and the screen went out and I couldn't get that same model anymore for a replacement so decided to go to the 2012. On the plus side the 5400rpm 2.5 drive is almost silent.
I upgraded mine to SSD a few weeks ago and the increase in response time performance is fantastic.
Yes, the 2013 was a very minor spec bump over the 2012. Still a pain to have to take off the screen and reattach - but doable.
Yes, it's a crappy laptop drive, I believe. You can run an SSD from the USB 3 port to get much better performance. This is the reason I bought 2011 iMacs and not the crappy 2012 and beyond one that require new glue to put them back together.