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An SSD for my iMac

zoran said:
Ok thanx, let me ask:
1. Is there anything as fast as the 850 in the market?
2. Could the Evo850 be overkill for my 2010 corei7 iMac? I say this because of the older specs of theSATA port this imac has since ts an older model!
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1. Sure... lots of drives are faster. Like the 850 Pro for example. But unless you are working with really HUGE files and sitting there checking with a stopwatch, you are not likely to notice the difference.

2. No not at all. SATA is backwards compatible, so it will work fine. Even if you could fine a SATA II SSD still for sale, it would likely cost more than a new SATA III since they are barely made any longer.
 
Yeah but i mean, why get a very fast SSD if its going to be bottle necked at the SATA connection!
 
zoran said:
Yeah but i mean, why get a very fast SSD if its going to be bottle necked at the SATA connection!
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Because a slower old SATA II SSD will likely cost you more than a new SATA III and there is no harm in doing so... so why not just go with it.

There is no advantage to going with an old SATA II drive and they cost more money is my point.
 
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zoran said:
Yeah but i mean, why get a very fast SSD if its going to be bottle necked at the SATA connection!
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An SSD will still greatly improve your iMac's performance even though it uses SATA II. I once had an 850 Pro in my 2010 MacBook (which now resides in my MBP), and the difference compared to having a conventional hard drive was unreal.
 
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Last year I upgraded 4 of the 2010 white MacBooks for family and friends. I put in 8GB of memory and a Samsung 840EVO 500GB SSD. The boot times where cut down to 25% of the time with a HD and lower memory. The time to open an app dropped to 2-3 second instead of 8-10 seconds. So you indeed breath new life, and the latest OS, into older Macs by replacing an old SATA II based HD with a SATA III SSD that will have to run at SATA II speeds.
 
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ApolloBoy said:
That's a pretty bad idea, there's not an awful lot of space inside the iMac and the heat generated inside it could cause the tape to fail. The best solution would be to mount the SSD where your original hard drive was, and then stick the hard drive in an enclosure.
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That's possible but highly unlikely.
Good 3M double sided tape will tick very well. I have some inside my black truck that sits in the North Texas summer heat holding a digital gauge it's been there since 2011. My Intel SSD installed in my '09 has been double side taped since January of 2010, I opened the machine up in April of 2014 and it's still stuck very well. That machine stays turned on 24/7.
 
mmomega what type of 3M double sided tape did you use?
 
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The plan is to make the SSD drive primary (with either Yosemite or El Capitan) so i was thinking before placing it in my iMac to set it up externally in case something goes wrong, that way i won't have to reopen the iMac again etc. etc.
Is there some way i can set it up externally, boot from it to see if all works well and then install it inside? I've got a fw800 and 3 USB2 ports available, can it be done?
 
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zoran said:
The plan is to make the SSD drive primary (with either Yosemite or El Capitan) so i was thinking before placing it in my iMac to set it up externally in case something goes wrong, that way i won't have to reopen the iMac again etc. etc.
Is there some way i can set it up externally, boot from it to see if all works well and then install it inside? I've got a fw800 and 3 USB2 ports available, can it be done?
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Sure.. just buy a cheap USB enclosure and put the SSD in that and attache it. Then erase the SSD and clone the internal to the SSD. Then reboot and hold the option key at startup. That will bring up a boot manager where you can select the SSD to boot from to test it out. It will be very slow since it is over USB2, but it will work for testing purposes.
 
Hang on a sec :) i got no clue what you're talking about though :) Clone what? I have SnowLeopard on my iMac. As far as Yosemite, ive only got the installation file downloaded from the AppStore and that's about it as far as software is concerned.
Regarding the enclosure, back in the old days, instead of enclosures there used to be a circuit board with a few cables that led to a port socket and that was about it, one would connect that to his drive and then on to the sata port and that was it. All very cheap instead of buying an enclosure. Maybe i could use something like that, is there anything similar around?
And how do i install Yosemite from that installation file?
 
zoran said:
Hang on a sec :) i got no clue what you're talking about though :) Clone what? I have SnowLeopard on my iMac. As far as Yosemite, ive only got the installation file downloaded from the AppStore and that's about it as far as software is concerned.
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You want to clone (copy) the internal drive to the external SSD so you can boot to it and use it. So just put the SSD in the USB enclosure and attach it then use Disk Utility to erase the new SSD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. The use the free trial version of Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the internal to the external. Then you can do a test boot like I described. If that works, you can swap the SSD to inside the iMac.

Then afterward to ahead and update to Yosemite if you like.

zoran said:
Regarding the enclosure, back in the old days, instead of enclosures there used to be a circuit board with a few cables that led to a port socket and that was about it, one would connect that to his drive and then on to the sata port and that was it. All very cheap instead of buying an enclosure. Maybe i could use something like that, is there anything similar around?
And how do i install Yosemite from that installation file?
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Yes, you can still get a USB to SATA adaptable or just a USB enclosure.
 
I see but i was thinking of making a clean install, so i would connect the ssd to the usb, make a clean installation of Yose there and then boot with that... you don't approve this way?
 
zoran said:
I see but i was thinking of making a clean install, so i would connect the ssd to the usb, make a clean installation of Yose there and then boot with that... you don't approve this way?
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Sure... that will work. You just have to make your USB key installer from that DMG file.
 
Is it the same thing if i try to install teh ElCapitain dmg file too?
 
Ok guess ill find another mac with newer os to do this for ElCapitain. Suppose i find a mac with Yosemite how do i it? Use the other options from the link you sent me?
Regarding the adapter im talking about (connecting the sata drive to usb) how is it called so il look for it?
 
zoran said:
Ok guess ill find another mac with newer os to do this for ElCapitain. Suppose i find a mac with Yosemite how do i it? Use the other options from the link you sent me?
Regarding the adapter im talking about (connecting the sata drive to usb) how is it called so il look for it?
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Yes... use the first option from the page for El Capitan. Just follow this.

If you just search Amazon for "usb data call" like this you will see some there.
 
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I wonder, suppose i manage and instal it on the ssd and make the boot, will it run normally through the usb2 port or will it stall?
 
Weaselboy said:
Yes... use the first option from the page for El Capitan. Just follow this.
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Im using SnowL, the creation of the bootable disk installer (for either Mavx, Yose or ElCapitan) that you suggested can be done within SnowL Terminal?
 
zoran said:
Im using SnowL, the creation of the bootable disk installer (for either Mavx, Yose or ElCapitan) that you suggested can be done within SnowL Terminal?
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No... that is the problem. You need Lion or better for that Terminal option. You can use the Disk Utility method I believe prior to El Capitan.
 
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Ok, do you have any clue how much space will be needed for each of the two installers (Yose & ElCapt)?
 
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