24" iMac - Swap Optical for SSD? Is it worth it?

[icemantx]

I have an early 2009 iMac 24" 2.93GHz 8GB RAM with a 2 TB Upgraded HD. I bought this iMac in March of 2009 and would like to extend the life a bit longer while not feeling like I have a machine that has trouble keeping up.

My main uses are iPhoto, eMail, iTunes, Safari, iMovie and occasionally Handbrake, iWork and Aperture.

Being that I only maybe once a month use the Optical drive to download a Digital copy or backup a DVD, I have found myself wondering if I should swap the Optical Drive for a SSD - say 120GB or 240GB kit from OWC.

Do you all think the performance gains are significant when using the PATA to SATA adapter if I install OS X on the SSD (old Optical Bay) and keep my 2TB for files such as the iPhoto Library and iTunes library?

Since the price to get the kit to upgrade and the drive is between $200-300 and the iMac sells for $700-800 on eBay, it makes me wonder if it is worth it or just put the money towards a new iMac sometime in 2013 or 2014 and just keep trucking with what I have?

The main areas I see slow down are iMovie and iPhoto and I am not sure if that is processor related or the speed of the drive. iPhoto is especially slow to load with 40,000 photos in my main library.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[icemantx]

Anyone???

 

[peeaanuut]

while I have not done it on that model you will get a lot of the advantages of an SSD. faster access time, no spin up time, etc. So yes, you will se an improvement with start-up, app launching and day to day tasks. I saw you have 8GB of ram, is that the max ram for that model? If not, go max to help out as well.

 

[icemantx]

I saw you have 8GB of ram, is that the max ram for that model?

Yup - Max RAM on the early 2009 iMac is 8GB and I was looking to get a little more life out of the iMac since it seems somewhat sluggish on iPhoto in particular lately.

Hopefully SSD would help.

Thanks for the reply,

Jeff

 

[peeaanuut]

the iPhoto library can become bloated but for sure the SSD will help with that. I just put an SSD into my 2.4 blackbook and it for sure helped it out quite a bit.