It depends on how you use it along with the quality of your security skills and knowledge.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
help with an imac 27'2014 toooooo slow
- Thread starter shaktimage
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It depends on how you use it along with the quality of your security skills and knowledge.
Thanks a lot for all the comments, this is very helpful and me very grateful! It will take some time to get the SSD as i am on my boat on a tiny island of the west indies but i'll find one eventually . Great forum!
ok great! I thought the opposite, i thought the Monterey OS was much better than big sur. So i'll stick with the Big Sur
Last edited:
It may well be just as you’ve said. I can tell you that on my Intel Mac Mini we run Big Sur due to some problems with software that were never worked out in Monterey. My other machines are on Monterey. I just think on a machine that old, don’t risk it.ok great! I thought the opposite, i thought the Monterey OS was much better than big sur. So i'll stick with the Bi
A 2014 iMac with a fusion drive is going to be "slow" because of the internal fusion drive setup.
You have two ways to choose from here:
Choice 1:
Open it up and replace the internal HDD portion of the fusion drive with an SSD.
(2.5" SATA SSD should do)
Choice 1a:
You could replace the SSD portion of the fusion drive with a higher-capacity blade SSD. But this will be more expensive.
Choice 2:
You could buy a USB3 SSD, plug it into a USB3 port, and set it up to become your EXTERNAL boot drive.
Advantage of choice 2:
You don't have to open the case. Many folks have thought they could do this, and then... opened it up, and then... BROKE SOMETHING inside. Now they have real problems.
Disadvantage of choice 2:
The USB3 external boot drive will not be quite as fast as would be an internally-installed SATA SSD.
BUT... the speed will still be around 80% or better of what an internally-installed drive would yield. So... "not that far off".
And again, you don't have to break it open.
My vote goes for choice #2.
You have two ways to choose from here:
Choice 1:
Open it up and replace the internal HDD portion of the fusion drive with an SSD.
(2.5" SATA SSD should do)
Choice 1a:
You could replace the SSD portion of the fusion drive with a higher-capacity blade SSD. But this will be more expensive.
Choice 2:
You could buy a USB3 SSD, plug it into a USB3 port, and set it up to become your EXTERNAL boot drive.
Advantage of choice 2:
You don't have to open the case. Many folks have thought they could do this, and then... opened it up, and then... BROKE SOMETHING inside. Now they have real problems.
Disadvantage of choice 2:
The USB3 external boot drive will not be quite as fast as would be an internally-installed SATA SSD.
BUT... the speed will still be around 80% or better of what an internally-installed drive would yield. So... "not that far off".
And again, you don't have to break it open.
My vote goes for choice #2.
I second the vote for choice #2. I did the same thing with my 2017 iMac and it made a huge difference.
Since an external drive is more portable, I’d recommend turning drive encryption on.
I had a 3.128 TB Fusion Drive in my 2013 iMac, and the Seagate HDD crashed in 2018. Seagate sucks.
I upgraded the entire thing myself to a 1 TB SSD and it was butter smooth after that. It wasn't really that much faster than with Fusion Drive, but it was and still is totally usable. For Photoshop and Lightroom, you should see a benefit with going SSD-only though because you're working with huge files, and the SSD in the newer Fusion Drives is way too small for your photos to be stored on them entirely.
I had also bought 32GB from eMac Sales back in 2013. It would cost $400 back then, it's like $80 now LOL I think you're OK with 24GB. No matter how intense I was with my computer, I never really used the entire 32GB.
In fact I still have this computer besides me and I really have to sell it (bought another iMac 1.5 years ago).
I also do photography with the same machine except with the 4GHz i7, 295X card, and 32GB of Crucial RAM. I'd say if you're comfortable replacing that Fusion drive with a nice internal SSD, I'd definitely do that for the biggest performance gains. That said, editing my 21-megapixel RAW photos in Lightroom is still quite sluggish, so. From personal experience, I don't know if buttery Lightroom performance is totally possible on this machine.
If you're also comfortable, I'd also recommend using Open Core Legacy Patcher to get the machine onto Monterey; I noticed some performance improvements from that, strangely. I'm running Ventura currently which has not always been the most stable.
by the way, how easy/difficult it is to replace the HD on that machine? At crucial they provide tutorial...
Good repair steps here - https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+Retina+5K+Display+Hard+Drive+Replacement/30522
The difficulty depends on your past experience with computer/laptop repairs. Challenge for me is slicing through the tape that holds the display to the iMac case.
Be sure to get the replacement tape kit before you begin.
The difficulty depends on your past experience with computer/laptop repairs. Challenge for me is slicing through the tape that holds the display to the iMac case.
Be sure to get the replacement tape kit before you begin.
I've done work on MacBook Pros, built desktops, etc. I would just have a shop do any work with an iMac but I have a good shop that doesn't charge much in my area.
Thanks a lot! Very good tutorial... Not sure i will do it though... first i'll look for a shop to do it. Quite interestingly ifixit noticed that i am french and so the tutorial came up in french...