Adding SSD Drive

[thebard2903]

Hi Everyone (Anyone?)

I've been using my Early 2008 iMac for years, but recently it has been slowing to a standstill. I had already upgraded to 4Gb RAM but on the advice of this forum I went up to 6Gb...but still no joy. So I started looking at the hard drive (currently the standard 320 Gb SATA). The Disk Speed Test was terrible and I am constantly getting the little spinning ball accompanied by a constant drive whirring sound...so I am thinking about an upgrade to SSD drive.

I would prefer to reinstall the OS on the SSD and retain the SATA for files, although I am also using large external drives via USB.

Also I'd rather not go the installation route unless I have to - i.e. could I use the Firewire 800 port to house an SSD externally via a dock?

I was looking at the Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III with maybe the NEWER TECH VOYAGER Q FIREWIRE 800 DRIVE DOCK for this.

Or is this a terrible idea?

Many thanks for any posts in advance....

Cheers

 

[yjchua95]

Hi Everyone (Anyone?)

I've been using my Early 2008 iMac for years, but recently it has been slowing to a standstill. I had already upgraded to 4Gb RAM but on the advice of this forum I went up to 6Gb...but still no joy. So I started looking at the hard drive (currently the standard 320 Gb SATA). The Disk Speed Test was terrible and I am constantly getting the little spinning ball accompanied by a constant drive whirring sound...so I am thinking about an upgrade to SSD drive.

I would prefer to reinstall the OS on the SSD and retain the SATA for files, although I am also using large external drives via USB.

Also I'd rather not go the installation route unless I have to - i.e. could I use the Firewire 800 port to house an SSD externally via a dock?

I was looking at the Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III with maybe the NEWER TECH VOYAGER Q FIREWIRE 800 DRIVE DOCK for this.

Or is this a terrible idea?

Many thanks for any posts in advance....

Cheers

It's a bad idea because you're not getting the full speed of the SSD via FireWire.

 

[iPhil]

I'm currently booting via fw800 external SSD .. I have not seen any problems so far by booting thru fw800 ssd drive ....


my SSD is Samsung 840 EVO 500GB that bought thru Amazon for like $240 shipped .. Amazon straight from them wants $250+ but it was 240-ish @ the beginning of August ....


if you are gonna do amazon way then add the drive to the cart and watch it for couple of days -- it might drop again in price ...

 

[toddzrx]

I'm currently booting via fw800 external SSD .. I have not seen any problems so far by booting thru fw800 ssd drive ....


my SSD is Samsung 840 EVO 500GB that bought thru Amazon for like $240 shipped .. Amazon straight from them wants $250+ but it was 240-ish @ the beginning of August ....


if you are gonna do amazon way then add the drive to the cart and watch it for couple of days -- it might drop again in price ...

It'll work just fine, but you're not getting the full speed of the SSD, which is typically the main reason for getting an SSD in the first place.

Doing an SSD install on an iMac isn't all that hard. Go to iFixit, follow the guide, and take your time.

 

[mad3inch1na]

Hi Everyone (Anyone?)

I've been using my Early 2008 iMac for years, but recently it has been slowing to a standstill. I had already upgraded to 4Gb RAM but on the advice of this forum I went up to 6Gb...but still no joy. So I started looking at the hard drive (currently the standard 320 Gb SATA). The Disk Speed Test was terrible and I am constantly getting the little spinning ball accompanied by a constant drive whirring sound...so I am thinking about an upgrade to SSD drive.

I would prefer to reinstall the OS on the SSD and retain the SATA for files, although I am also using large external drives via USB.

Also I'd rather not go the installation route unless I have to - i.e. could I use the Firewire 800 port to house an SSD externally via a dock?

I was looking at the Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III with maybe the NEWER TECH VOYAGER Q FIREWIRE 800 DRIVE DOCK for this.

Or is this a terrible idea?

Many thanks for any posts in advance....

Cheers

You might as well get a nice 7200RPM HDD if you are running it through Firewire 800. It caps out under 100 MB/s, which should be faster than the drive you have right now, but the EVO you are looking at will only be able to use 25% of its potential speed. Most new HDDs get speeds around 100MB/s. I would recommend either doing it internally or just get a 1TB 7200RPM HDD externally.

Matt