iMac 2017 5k boot drive

[pspman71]

I have a iMac 2017 27" 5k with a 1tb fusion drive and the fusion drive is slow and almost full(97% full)I am looking for a Thunderbolt Enclosure with fan I was using a Samsung T7 but that didn't go well I read that Thunderbolt is better if you want to boot off a ssd for macOS becouse it does trim and its a pic-e based connecter correct?and from what I understand is thats needed to prolong the ssd for a boot drive right? so im looking a WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 7,300 MB/s - WDS200T2X0E of should I get a https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7CKZGN6/ref=twister_B0DCKDP37V?_encoding=UTF8&th=1 and should I pair that with a thunderbolt enclosure with fan or without fan? if you want more specs I have attached a zip file and inside is a spx file

I really dont know much so if you could help I would appreciate it thanks

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd suggest you forego thunderbolt, and get something like the Crucial X9 instead.
This will connect to a USBc port, and give you read speeds around 910+/-MBps.

Not quite as fast as thunderbolt, but still reasonably speedy and the differences would probably be barely perceivable once up-and-running.

The price is right, too.

 

[pspman71]

the reason I said I wanna do thunderbolt is some thunderbolt Enclosures have fans and if I wanna run macOS off of it I want it to run without overheating I wanna make sure it has good heat dissipation and if I go with the usb c route again usb c does not do trim correct?so the ssd speeds will decrees and make its life go down right?

 

[Bigwaff]

if I go with the usb c route again usb c does not do trim correct?so the ssd speeds will decrees and make its life go down right?

SSD have manufacturer firmware features which perform same function as trim. You should not worry about trim support. If TB your goal, you want TB3 enclosure. Majority of TB4/USB4 enclosures backward compatible to USB3 only. I have this drive. It is perfect for your use case. But it is not cheap. (Ignore picture)

OWC 4.0TB Envoy Pro FX: Rugged and Ultra-Fast External SSD

Built like a tank. The OWC 4.0TB Envoy Pro FX is waterproof, drop-proof, and lightning-fast (2800MB/s), making it the perfect SSD for creatives on the go.

eshop.macsales.com

 

[pspman71]

379.99 for 2tb?thats a little more then what I was going for is there something cheeper or is 379.99 the norm for a thunderbolt and if I get the 2.0TB OWC Envoy Pro FX will that dissipate heat well?

 

[Fishrrman]

I use the Crucial X9 (I mentioned above) to serve as an external boot drive running Sequoia on my 2018 Mac Mini.

It barely gets warm to the touch... almost nothing "noticeable" at all. No fan at all.

A far cry from the nvme blade drive I have in a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure -- that can get HOT with data transfers...

 

[OWC_TAL]

OWC Envoy Pro FX will that dissipate heat well

FX dissipates heat great. It is an all metal enclosure with some significant thermal mass and surface area to disperse that heat.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

the reason I said I wanna do thunderbolt is some thunderbolt Enclosures have fans and if I wanna run macOS off of it I want it to run without overheating I wanna make sure it has good heat dissipation and if I go with the usb c route again usb c does not do trim correct?so the ssd speeds will decrees and make its life go down right?

A USB fan costs about 5$.....

 

[West End Lane]

Will try here before I start a new thread. I am in the same boat.

I was going to purchase a Samsung T7 to use as a boot drive. Would I be better off with a TB3 enclosure and SSD?

I have a 2017 imac I7 running Monterrey. I use it mainly to run Logic X and have 2 external T7's holding VST's etc.

Thank you

 

[PaulD-UK]

@West End Lane Yes, you would get better performance with a good quality TB3 enclosure and SSD.
Older iMacs are fine booting from USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSDs, but TB3 Macs have faster CPUs and will benefit from the higher bandwidth of TB3.