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psymac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 17, 2002
549
155
Thinking about upgrading my 2017 iMac 27" 3.8ghz 2TB FD to either an external SSD (Samsung X5) or take the plunge and install a 970 EVO NVME blade with adapter in bus 1 (PCIe). Price is not a real factor, $300 for the Samsung and $170 for the EVO (SSD + iMac install kit + Sintech adapter), but not really wanting to break open the iMac and perhaps lowering resale value.

Any disadvantage though of using the external SSD as my boot drive and for all other tasks? Not sure if I might run into sleep mode problems, usb external hub issues, or something else.

Any issues for those that have done an external SSD as boot drive?
 
An external doesn’t get rid of the HDD. The X5 is about 2/3 the speed of replacing the internal — nothing wrong with that.

Lowering the resale value by improving an iMac? Yea, right... The 2T blade is a $1,400 upsell from Apple while you can get the same thing for less than half the price and replace the fusion drive. Hmmmm.... A 2TB X5 is $1,200. Just saying.
 
An external doesn’t get rid of the HDD. The X5 is about 2/3 the speed of replacing the internal — nothing wrong with that.

Lowering the resale value by improving an iMac? Yea, right... The 2T blade is a $1,400 upsell from Apple while you can get the same thing for less than half the price and replace the fusion drive. Hmmmm.... A 2TB X5 is $1,200. Just saying.
Sure, the higher storage price is crazy high, and certainly my fault for not getting the 512GB SSD when I bought this. I thought I could decouple the 2TB FD and use only the 128GB bus 1 Nvme blade and get near 512GB R/W speed, but alas the 128GB must be a two lane PCIe, not the four lane as in the 512GB (apparently a 970 EVO variant). I'd go for the 500GB version, either internal 970 EVO or external X5 (which is also a thermally throttled 970 EVO), about $170 and $300 respectively.

The recent sale price of $300 for the X5 from $400 does make it attractive, but at 2/3 speed of internal makes the decision a little harder, sometime hard to walk away from more speed as well as any disadvantages of an external boot drive.
 
Waitaminute...

Although I firmly believe in removing a fusion drive and going to SSD the second the warranty is up, 2/3 the speed of the quad buss is very fast.

Would the 970 EVO with adapter also work in a late 2015 27" iMac?
 
I answered this in another one of your threads: Yes!

The 2015 also has a PCIe 3x4 (quad) buss but Apple installed a PCIe 2 chip making it half the speed it was designed for. The 970 fixes this. Think of a 2017 with TB2 ports and you get the idea.

The 2013–14 iMacs and 6.1 Mac Pro have a PCIe 2 buss. While the 970 EVO will work, you don't get the speed boost that is enjoyed by 2015 iMac owners who do this mod.
 
I answered this in another one of your threads: Yes!

The 2015 also has a PCIe 3x4 (quad) buss but Apple installed a PCIe 2 chip making it half the speed it was designed for. The 970 fixes this. Think of a 2017 with TB2 ports and you get the idea.

The 2013–14 iMacs and 6.1 Mac Pro have a PCIe 2 buss. While the 970 EVO will work, you don't get the speed boost that is enjoyed by 2015 iMac owners who do this mod.

OK great, I’m going to go for this and replace all of my fusion drives in my three iMacs with the 970 Evo. Thanks for all your help and knowledge, much appreciated.
 
so if im reading this correctly. your telling me if I run an external enclosure running a nmve m.2 through thunderbolt 3 as a boot disk wont disable the factory fusion drive? I dont need the FD if I have a 2 TB NMVe SSD. Then I planned to daisy chain the other ones to have additional external storage
 
so if im reading this correctly. your telling me if I run an external enclosure running a nmve m.2 through thunderbolt 3 as a boot disk wont disable the factory fusion drive?
To disable it, you'll have to open it up and disconnect.

Booting from the external doesn't mean you'll be making calls to the internal. The fusion drive will be idling or shut town depending on your settings. If it has a problem, it can still affect your Mac.

I dont need the FD if I have a 2 TB NMVe SSD. Then I planned to daisy chain the other ones to have additional external storage

The first one I did, I booted from the external to make sure everything would work as planned. Then I opened up my Mac and installed the SSD inside. Among other benefits, removing the spinner lowered the temperature of my office even though my settings were to put it to sleep when possible.
 
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