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External Thunderbolt/USB3 hard vs. internal hard drive speeds.

C

c-t

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 29, 2010
17
0
I have an iMac (27-inch, late 2012). This is my plan:

  1. Replace the 1 TB hard drive with a 256 GB solid state drive.
  2. I will not store any user files on the internal solid state drive.
  3. My user files will be on an external hard drive. I'm thinking thunderbolt or USB3.
My question is simply, will I take a performance hit? Would an external Thunderbolt/USB3 hard drive be slower than my original internal hard drive?
 
Pieterr said:
No. TB/USB3 is not the bottleneck, the speed of the HD itself is.

You could also do it the other way around: boot from external SSD and keep your data on the internal HD. Then you won't have to open your iMac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1862693/
Click to expand...

That's a brilliant idea, thanks for that! Yeah this will save a lot of time. Won't have to take the iMac to the store.

Can you recommend cheap but good external USB3/Thunderbolt SSD drives? There are so many options out there that I don't even know where to begin. I wonder for instance whether "LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series 256GB Solid State Drive (9000352)" for $330 is a good deal.
 
If you just want "plug n play", the Transcend drives mentioned above look to be a good deal.

If you don't mind using a small screwdriver, you can "build your own" external drive. This is easy enough that anyone can do it -- don't be intimidated by the process in any way.

You'll need a 2.5" SSD (I have had good experience with Crucial) -- get whatever size you wish.

Also, get a USB3/SATA enclosure that supports UASP, such as this one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VKTJGW...UTF8&colid=R75PP4I2A0BE&coliid=I3DOKZ31SP7539

Takes about 5 minutes to assemble.

Then initialize it with Disk Utility and get a copy of the OS onto it.

You could even use CarbonCopyCloner to "clone over" a system.

One might ask, "why put together parts when you can buy one already assembled?"
The reason is -- since you put it together, you pick the components and you know what is involved in the assembly. If you ever have a problem with it, you'll already know how to take it apart...
 
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Fishrrman said:
If you just want "plug n play", the Transcend drives mentioned above look to be a good deal.

If you don't mind using a small screwdriver, you can "build your own" external drive. This is easy enough that anyone can do it -- don't be intimidated by the process in any way.

You'll need a 2.5" SSD (I have had good experience with Crucial) -- get whatever size you wish.

Also, get a USB3/SATA enclosure that supports UASP, such as this one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VKTJGW...UTF8&colid=R75PP4I2A0BE&coliid=I3DOKZ31SP7539

Takes about 5 minutes to assemble.

Then initialize it with Disk Utility and get a copy of the OS onto it.

You could even use CarbonCopyCloner to "clone over" a system.

One might ask, "why put together parts when you can buy one already assembled?"
The reason is -- since you put it together, you pick the components and you know what is involved in the assembly. If you ever have a problem with it, you'll already know how to take it apart...
Click to expand...

Thanks, great advice. You actually saved me a little bit of money too!
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Sorry to high jack a little bit but it seems the OP's questions are answered. What would be the fastest external SSD setup that utilizes TB 1?
 
cynics said:
Sorry to high jack a little bit but it seems the OP's questions are answered. What would be the fastest external SSD setup that utilizes TB 1?
Click to expand...

One of the fastest setups would be a Thunderbay 4 mini loaded with 4 SSDs, all part of a striped RAID set :)
 
cynics said:
Sorry to high jack a little bit but it seems the OP's questions are answered. What would be the fastest external SSD setup that utilizes TB 1?
Click to expand...

Stick a Samsung 850 Pro into a TB-SATA3 enclosure (like the OWC On-The-Go-Pro or the LaCie Rugged) and there you go.

Or if you've tons of cash, buy a Promise Pegasus R6 and stick 6 850 Pros into it, setup as RAID 0 and instal OS X on it. I use this setup myself, but as RAID 10 and it's a space for cinematographic work only.
 
c-t said:
Thanks, great advice. You actually saved me a little bit of money too!
Click to expand...

For booting the OS via an externally-connected SSD, I highly recommend sticking with Thunderbolt in order to be able to enable TRIM, not to mention run SSD firmware updates, etc. I use the previous generation of this Delock TB enclosure with a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD and it has served me faithfully for over a full year now.
 
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